“Pawang kasinungalingan iyan at nagpakita ng kawalan ng prupesyunalismo. (Those are all lies that only show lack of professionalism.) I appeal to the ‘Manila Standard’ to get your facts straight and not rely on the imagination of your sources or spin doctors.”
-- Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II who, the MS Today news report said, asked President Aquino to sack Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. and (suspended) PNP chief Director General Alan Purisima
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“I will warn you, enough of wrong writing. I will repeat, enough of wrong writing. Otherwise, I will be bent on choosing whom I should bring here (at the press-con)...(Asking the city legal officer) Is there a case I can file against a newspaper... including the writer? Is there? Can I?”
-- Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama, in alleging inaccuracy in reporting by two newspapers on the bidding committee for the city hospital building
rTWO complaints against newspapers and reporters. Two outbursts by two public officials.
In Manila, Interior & Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas last Feb. 5 denied “vehemently” the “Manila Standard Today” (MST) report saying he demanded that President Aquino sack suspended PNP chief Alan Purisima and Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr.
Here, Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama expressed his anger at newspaper reports that two members of the previous Bids & Awards Committee (BAC) -- Councilor Mary Ann de los Santos and Engr. Jose Mari Poblete -- were replaced.
Roxas and Rama varied in the degree of heat in their response. Roxas was brief, didn’t threaten to sue, and didn’t malign the newspaper or reporter.
Rama went ballistic at reporters and newspapers, even warning he could ban erring
journalists from his press-cons and sue them.
Concocted?
Roxas’s indictment was limited to MST’s alleged failure “to get the facts right and use of imagination and spin doctors”: stinging enough but not as bombastic as Rama’s.
It may be because the MST story was not entirely whipped out of thin air. Other newspapers also reported Purisima’s supposed resignation, but with more caution, as they were playing catch-up, unlike MST which broke the story first.
In its story (posted online Feb. 5, 12:01 a.m.), MST was categorical: “Roxas wanted Purisima, Ochoa fired.” No qualifier even in body text, except that it did not name its “Palace source.” In contrast, the “Inquirer” story of Feb. 6, headlined “Purisima forced to resign?” quoted Malacañang officials who wouldn’t confirm the resignation. And it didn’t identify Roxas.
Did MST concoct the story? We, the readers, aren’t sure but subsequent developments -- e.g. resignation or dismissal of Purisima and confirmation by official sources of the events that led to it -- may tell us if MST was right. Or, if not and no named source would back up the report on the alleged Roxas demand, the paper would fall on its face as the paper, its critics say, sometimes does.
On a limb
MST went on a limb, risking its reputation or just playing its expected role as an opposition paper that sees mostly the bad things that happen to PNoy and his administration.
The paper’s story, which Roxas said was a product of journalists’ imagination, even had quotes, including this from the presidentiable Cabinet member and PNoy ally: “If you don’t fire Roxas, babagsak ka. That would trigger your downfall, Mr. President.
I recommend the firing of Purisima and Ochoa. This is the least that we can do for the families who are hurting and the start to show show the government is sincere and is doing something to ensure that justice is done.” And this quote from the president: “Hindi ko puwedeng gawin yan. I will not fire them. I can’t do it and I will not do it.”
The MST story also had details like how Roxas broke into the president’s meeting with Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima, date and time (1 p.m., Feb. 3), and who was present when the heated exchange occurred (the finance head, but expectedly some fly-on-the-wall who leaked the conversation wasn’t mentioned).
If the incident happened and the story would turn out to be substantially correct, Roxas would get public demerit for lying. But he had to do it to protect his presidential dream and the image of PNoy and his government (which would affect the 2016 race). If not spun from some p.r. man’s wand, the story tended to show a beleaguered administration and a president continuing to coddle his friends in the face of crisis. Something that was routinely denied.
New, special BAC
rWhile what angered Roxas was specific, what got the mayor’s goat wasn’t obvious. One may guess that Rama was sore over the reporting of the composition of the new BAC.
But didn’t the names come from the mayor’s office itself? The information couldn’t have been just imagined by them or their editors.
After re-reading, one deduces that what made the mayor lash out, instead of breaking into a song, was media’s focus on the replacement of de los Santos and Poblete and the failure to distinguish the regular BAC from the special BAC for the city hospital project.
What to highlight and where: that’s the paper’s prerogative as long as context is not twisted or lost. As to the special BAC, whose fault was it that no distinction was made about the regular BAC and the special BAC? Did City Hall make the difference clear?
Delayed correction
rWhat’s odd is that the mayor’s outburst was made only on Feb. 5 when the “incorrect” story was published on Feb. 2 yet. No word from City Hall for a number of days. If the error was devastatingly serious, correction should’ve been made promptly.
Maybe media was just “collateral” victim of his fury, set off mainly by the City Council decision to suspend hospital re-bidding.
Or maybe, the mayor had previous grievances against media piling up and waiting to explode. The reporters didn’t ask and the mayor didn’t tell how and why.
Accountable
In both Roxas and Rama reactions, what the public has seen is right of reply being exercised and granted by media, not just by the “offending” news outlet but by other publications in various platforms.
It can’t be said that the “other side” or contrary view didn’t see light or get
airing. On the contrary, nowadays the correction is often given more publicity than the corrected material.
And journalists and their news organization are made to account even without formal complaint.
As to suing for libel, forget it, Mayor. It won’t pass prosecutors, even those who get regular allowances from City Hall.
(publicandstandards@sunstar.com.ph or paseares@gmail.com)