[] If given though, work space cum waiting room will be appreciated by reporters covering the City Government.
[] It’s not “special treatment” to a group and “discrimination” against others but Councilor Sisenio Andales argues, “What’s so special about the media?”
[] Private news media, unlike other citizens who flock City Hall, also work for the public. They’re “surrogates” of the people. As information collector and watchdog, they’re the “fourth estate.”
[] At Cebu Capitol, they had a media room during then governor Junjun Davide’s term, allegedly had none under guv Gwen Garcia, are now reviving it under Guv Pam.
WHAT JUST HAPPENED: Last September 10, 2025, two members of the Cebu City Council clashed during session over a proposed “media lounge” in City Hall.
Councilor Pastor Alcover Jr., in a resolution, asked the city mayor to provide work space for news reporters covering the City Government.
Councilor Sisenio Andales opposed it, arguing that it would give “special treatment” to the news media and discriminate against other groups that transact business or otherwise have errands at City Hall.
They clashed: a councilor belonging to Kusug and a councilor from BOPK.
‘D’ AND ‘ST’ WORDS. Jun Alcover’s resolution passed but the issue remains until Mayor Nestor Archival will decide on it.
Andales’s major reason for voting against: The media lounge will give “special treatment” to news reporters and discriminate against other groups.
It does not. There’s a “substantial distinction” -- the law’s measure on discrimination -- between journalists reporting from City Hall and all the other groups that come a-visiting the LGU’s seat of operations.
And the big difference is the job, occupation, or calling of news media. Which is distinct from the line of work of the myriads that flock City Hall: bill collectors, lobbyists, jobseekers, contractors, permit/license-applicants, grassroots leaders of politicians, and the like.
“WHAT’S SO SPECIAL WITH MEDIA?” Councilor Bebs Andales apparently lumps the work of news reporters and camera crew with the pursuits of all the other groups that one sees in or near the LGU’s offices.
Andales asked, “What is so special with the media?”
Not special at all, sir. Only that it’s work is vastly different from the work of other City Hall visitors. And journalism is only part of the difference.
The crucial distinction is that media’s work is basically service to the public. That work is constitutionally recognized as the core of a democratic state. which has made the press the “fourth estate” and the people’s “surrogate.”
NO LEGAL RIGHT, NONE. And Cebu media has not been known and has not chosen or bothered to assert any right from any local government unit. By formal demand, much more in a court action.
Shortly after then Brigadier Gen. Debold Sinas took over on October 15, 2019 as National Capital Region chief, he evicted news reporters covering NCR from what had been, for three decades, the media room in the Quezon City police station. I wrote then that media had no legal right to the room and no one challenged the authority of Sinas, who was PNP regional chief before his Manila assignment.
RELATED: Seares: Sinas-Media dispute: police not legally bound to provide work space for reporters
If the practice of an LGU or a police station providing a media lounge or room has gone on, it is due to courtesy of a host or sense of efficiency of the mayor or governor, or its council or board, or the police chief.
CAPITOL HAD A MEDIA ROOM, IS HAVING ONE. “We’re working on a media lounge now,” Ainjeliz de la Torre Orong, public information officer of the Provincial Government said, “we hope to open it within the month.”
AJ told me Tuesday, September 16, Capitol used to have a media room when she was PIO during the term of then governor Hilario “Junjun” Davide III (2013-2019). Meantime, AJ said, reporters stay in the conference room of the PIO building.
Orong said she believes there was none during Guv Pam Baricuatro’s predecessor, referring to Gwen Garcia (2019-2025), either partly or totally of Gwen’s two terms.
IT’S NOT KNOWN IF CEBU MEDIA ASKED FOR IT. Was there a formal request from a news organization in Cebu, collectively or individually? Was it asked for by the news reporters covering City Hall?
None was cited in news reports about the Alcover-Andales clash or in social media chatter. Whatever, we haven’t known or heard about any such request, or favor from an LGU or its officials. Last time anyone checked out, it was about something else. Years ago, Cebu Press Freedom Week convenors decided to accept lunch hosting by any government unit during the celebration.
MEDIA LOUNGE NOT EXTRAORDINARY OR UNUSUAL. Councilor Alcover calls it a “standard” facility.
Maybe not but it has become hallmark of efficiency if an office or unit covered regularly by a big number of journalists has a media room for them.
The Bureau of Customs in Manila has a media lounge. The White House in Washington DC has and we assume Malacañang also has. In Cebu, the Capitol had a media room and is having one again. (See below.)
Visiting journalists may need work space to write stories from, especially these days when deadlines come in a never-ending cycle and the reporter must file his story every chance he gets.
News reporters have calls to make and check out other sources. They need a place to do quick research in, alert the news desk, or rush out from when news breaks right in the building: stuff they can do less distressingly in a media lounge.
Or call it “media room” or work space, as “media lounge” is often euphemism. Resting or relaxing in it is just bonus.
MISPLACED ARGUMENT. A long succession of news reporters has been covering City Hall through the years, even decades -- with no media lounge/room/work space. The City Government can choose to have news media continue to work that way in City Hall.
Yet no public official there ought to use use “discrimination” and “special treatment” as argument against improving the work condition of journalists.