Wednesday, August 15, 2007 Delilan: For delicadeza sake By Erwin Ambo Delilan The Buzz
LAST Monday, a lot of media people in Bacolod murmured about the six-page SOCA (State of the City Address) advertisement in one of the local dailies here in Bacolod.
Of course, the said local daily is majority- owned by the family of Mayor Evelio Leonardia. The six-page ad costs about P43,000 to P48,000. There’s no question on the manner of putting the SOCA of Mayor Leonardia into commercial printing. The only question is: why only at the Leonardia-owned local daily?
Do the men and women behind the ad placement of SOCA know the repercussion of their decision?
Or, did they think of delicadeza considering that what they will pay for that particular ad placement is people’s money?
Sun.Star-Bacolod is not protesting the placement of SOCA ad. Of course, it’s City Hall’s prerogative where to place it.
But did the people behind know that they will be paying the ad out of people’s money? If this is so, it is very, very and very obvious that City Hall is only favoring a local daily, of course, majority owned by the mayor’s kin.
Is it not biased and unfair? Of course, it would not be if the people who placed the SOCA ad only have the delicadeza. Sun.Star-Bacolod and the rest of the local dailies other than the mayor’s family-owned news paper are not protesting against the SOCA ad.
However, we are just reminding people at City Hall, “You’re sending photo and press releases about Mayor Leonardia’s daily actions including his “this and that to almost all local dailies in Bacolod including Sun.Star-Bacolod.”
But why, in terms of ads, must you be selective? What’s the motive?
Hope that people at City Hall would realize that not all Bacoleños are reading the Leonardia-owned local daily.
There are also people patronizing other local dailies whom they believe serve as real “check-and-balance” on City Hall where truth and only the truth are being published. I am not blaming the mayor for this “mess”.
I am blaming the people behind the placement of the ad who think that only the Leonardia-owned paper is existing in Bacolod.
And, hope they will also realize that people’s money or the city’s money is not only for the Leonardia-owned paper but for the rest that exist in Bacolod that also pay taxes.
Likewise, they should also realize that the Mayor’s SOCA is for everybody and not just for select readers of the Leonardia-owned paper.
And, if the mayor has really no bias against any paper who sometimes serves as his critic, he, therefore, should call the attention of his people that next time around because SOCA is for the general public and not only for the select ones. Or else, it could be said that City Hall made the obvious more obvious.
