PDI donates e-newsrooms to UP-CMC
PDI donates e-newsrooms to UP - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for FilipinosMANILA, Philippines—Two classrooms of the University of the Philippines’ College of Mass Communication (CMC) in Diliman, Quezon City, have undergone a P2-million, multimedia makeover courtesy of the Philippine Daily Inquirer...read more..
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UP-CMC Statement on the Anti-wiretapping vs. Cheche Lazaro
The suit against Cecilia “Cheche” Lazaro alleging that she wire-tapped her own phone conversation with the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) Vice President for Public Relations and Communications Ella E. Valencerina is both outrageous and unfair.
GSIS officials ought to realize that in their attempt to discredit broadcast journalist Cheche Lazaro, they are only succeeding in discrediting themselves and their agency. As employees of a state university and consequently, stakeholders in GSIS, we affirm that Ms. Lazaro and the Probe Team were serving our interest by investigating the pension fund’s alleged premium-based policy.
Government workers, especially public school teachers, have been criticizing the GSIS’s premium-based policy, which they blame for the problems with pension, loan and retirement benefits.
We also wish to point out that as the GSIS official in-charge of public relations, it is actually Ms. Valencerina who is reneging on her duty to clarify issues with the press and the public. The question the public and the courts should be asking is not the issue of wiretapping, rather it should ask if Ms. Valencerina had a right to refuse a legitimate press interview in the first place.
This lawsuit against Ms. Lazaro only serves as another proof that GSIS has little desire to be transparent about its policies that affect the ordinary stakeholders. Moreover, it directly violates the public’s right to information and is seemingly another attempt by the present government to silence media through harassment and intimidation.
We wish to express our support for Ms. Lazaro and the Probe Team for their tenacious dedication to the truth and their 22 years of responsible and ethical reporting. (photo from Patricia Evangelista) #
Labels: media, nation
Update on media killings
CMFR/PHILIPPINES—Two local courts recently decided two separate cases of work-related killing of broadcasters in Region XI (Davao Region). Eight out of the 78 work-related killing of journalists/media practitioners since 1986 happened in Region XI.
On 22 April 2009, Judge George Omelio of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 14 in Davao City acquitted a block-timer of the charge of murdering his fellow block-time radio broadcaster Fernando “Batman” Lintuan for lack of additional evidence to support the testimony of the prosecution’s lone witness. Davao City is approximately 978 kms from Manila.
Meanwhile, Judge Albert Axalan of Branch 20 of the Digos City RTC convicted on 24 March 2009 Joy “Tungol” Anticamara, who gunned down block-time radio broadcaster Armando “Rachman” Pace, for homicide instead of murder. Digos City, the capital of Davao del Sur province, is about 995 kms Southeast of Manila. Although it was promulgated 29 April 2009, the decision was signed 24 March 2009.
Since 2001, there have only been three convictions out of the 78 cases of journalists killed— the killers of Marlene Esperat, Edgar Damalerio, and now, Pace. Forty journalists or 51.28 percent of the 78 were killed after Gloria Macapagal Arroyo assumed the presidency in 2001.
Acting on the accused’s demurrer to evidence, the Davao RTC Branch 14 acquitted Leonilo Larosa in the Lintuan case (Criminal Case no. 63,537-2008) after the prosecution failed to present new evidence against him. A demurrer is an application to dismiss the case, which the court or tribunal may grant or deny. The party demurring admits the facts of the preceding pleading to be true, but questions the sufficiency of facts for the case to proceed.
Larosa through his counsel filed a demurrer to evidence last 12 March 2008.
In his decision, Judge Omelio said the testimony of the 19-year-old witness in the Lintuan case was “irreconcilable, contradictory, and incompatible with his statements on other occasions.” The inconsistencies “therefore made him ridiculous and unbelievable,” Omelio added.
Lintuan was shot dead on 24 December 2007 by a gunman riding tandem with an accomplice on a motorcycle. Lintuan was in his car with two colleagues and had just left the dxGO radio station premises.
Lintuan was critical of the local government and was known to be a hard-hitting commentator in Davao. He also criticized the involvement of Larosa in and his promotion of “Last Two”, an illegal numbers game where the winning combination is taken from the last two numbers of the winning combination of the Sweepstakes.
Lintuan had been a radio broadcaster since the 1980s and was also a columnist for Sun.Star Super Balita, a local newspaper in Davao. He was the first president of the Davao Sportswriters Association and was also a member of the Philippine Sports Commission.
In the other media murder case (Criminal Case no. 281-2006), the court sentenced gunman Anticamara to a maximum of 17 years in prison and to pay damages amounting to P151,500.00 for the killing of Pace.
Judge Axalan of the Digos City RTC in his decision said he was convinced that Anticamara killed Pace after the 16-year-old witness positively identified him as the gunman. But the court reduced the offense to homicide because “the evidence on record does not show that the motorcycle was purposely used to facilitate the commission of the crime” but “was used only in facilitating the escape.”
Freedom Fund for Filipino Journalists (FFFJ) legal adviser Prima Jesusa Quinsayas explained that “the act of escaping from the crime scene on a motorcycle is different from using a motorcycle to facilitate the crime.” The FFFJ is a coalition organized to address the killing of journalists. Its members are the Kapisanan ng Brodkaster sa Pilipinas (Association of Broadcasters of the Philippines), the Philippine Press Institute, the Center for Community Journalism and Development, the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, the US-based newspaper Philippine News, and the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility, which serves as its secretariat.
“Say a tricycle driver killed someone with a gun. After shooting him, he gets on his tricycle and escapes. That is simply using his tricycle to escape the scene of the crime. If the tricycle driver used his tricycle to get near someone on the pretext of getting the latter as a passenger so as not to arouse suspicion, then shoots him and leaves on the motorcycle, the motorcycle was used to facilitate a crime,” Quinsayas said.
Court records show that the witness saw Anticamara, who has been her neighbor for around 12 years, with a gun after she heard three gunshots and saw Pace dead on the cemented street. Anticamara had always maintained he was innocent.
Despite the decision, Quinsayas said a murder complaint can still be filed against the masterminds should the police or any other law enforcement agency identify them and gather sufficient evidence to establish probable cause, which is necessary for the filing of an information against the masterminds in the Pace case.
“…(J)ustice is never fully served if the mastermind is not identified, arrested, tried and convicted,” Quinsayas said. No mastermind has been convicted since 2001.
Pace was killed on 18 July 2006 minutes after he signed off from his dxDS-Radyo Ukay program Ukadyang, slang in Davao for “ukaya” which means “stir it up”. Pace was shot thrice with a .45-caliber gun by two men riding on a black motorcycle along Rizal Avenue, Digos City. He died on the way to the hospital.
Three months before he was killed, Pace had received death threats through his mobile phone but chose to ignore them and to continue with his work.
Pace was known for his fiery commentaries and for mocking his subjects on the air. He also commented on his subjects’ personal problems, which his colleagues said led to the filing of about a hundred libel suits against him. His reporting style earned him the moniker “Rachman”, a term derived from the word “rak-rak” which means “firing indiscriminately at people”. #
Labels: media, nation
Angels and Demons
I thought this was a well-written and actually funny review of "Angels & Demons", another stupid movie based on Dan Brown's fictional history posing as fact-based. Check out
John Wright's blog.
Labels: faith, just for fun
Congrats Batch '09
Congratulations to UP-CMC Journalism batch 2009!! I wish you all the best in your future careers and hope you continue to make your professors proud of you!!
Labels: journ dept.
Ted Failon Case, Media Coverage
According to
Geographical Media, an online site that measures the top news stories, ABS-
CBN newscaster Ted
Failon is the 116
th "most talked about person in the world"..a little higher than Susan Boyle of the BBC talent show fame, who ranked 124
th.
With Filipinos all over the world, the popularity of this news item should not really be a surprise. But, one wonders if our own media had not played out the story of his wife's tragic death to the extreme. Some local media
ethicists opine that the story of
Failon should have been treated just like any other criminal case and that media should have shown restraint in its coverage.
While, I would agree that the coverage of the Failon case has been a bit "overdone." I do not think that the ethical dilemma lies in this fact. Its reality TV, without having to spend for it. If Trina happened to be the wife of a Juan de la Cruz, the story may not even hit the news or if it did, it would have been at the bottom of the Metro page for just a day and that's it.
Unfortunately for Failon, his celebrity status validates the "special interest" that media has for the case and it would actually be more of a "special treatment" if media did give him the privacy he so craves, after depriving so many "ordinary" people of the same.
The ethical dillema lies in the fact of the coverage itself. It is unbiased? Or is it tilted to Failon's favor. Is media, especially ABS-CBN, going out of their way to prove his innocence? ...to make him look like a victim rather than a suspect? ..to make the police look like the bad guy?
The Failon coverage should not turn into a tug-o-war, where you get the "he is innocent" angle from his own network and the "he is guilty" angle from the rival stations. Like any other story, media should go out of its way to report the truth and nothing but the truth...no matter where it eventually tilts...is our media capable of this??? Does the audience actually expect ABS-CBN "not" to come to Failon's defense??
Perhaps, more than a test for media...the Failon case should be a test for audiences...can they be more discerning????
Labels: media, nation
Published Theses
Congratulations to my thesis advisees Claire Jiao and Elsie Cansino, both Journ majors, for the publication of their investigative-explanatory report on "What we did not learn from the CAP crash." The thesis was published in a two-part series by BusinessMirror. Click here to read
part 1 and click here for
part 2.
Congratulations also to JM Ragaza and John Alliage Morales, also Journ seniors, for their published thesis entitled, "Botika ng Barangay"not in the poorest places despite GMA's claim." Their thesis adviser, Yvonne Chua said that they were published in various newspapers through VERA files. Click here for
part 1 and
part 2 in Manila Times.
Labels: journ dept., media, UP
chosen children
Cavite, Philippines—Apart from the donation raised for our alma mater, St. Scho-Manila, our high school batch raised some funds for outreach projects. One of these projects was a donation for Chosen Children, an orphanage for special kids in the heart of Silang.
Last Sunday, upon the invitation of Rea, our HS batch president, I joined my batchmates for a visit to the orphanage for the turnover of the donation. Rea picked me up then we met the others at Shell, along SS Highway. We were five vehicles altogether: 1. us: Rea, me, with Edel, Sunita and Rea’s two daughters; 2. the movers and shakers of the batch: Bev (and family), Iela, Judith, Josine and Corinne; 3. Hanee and her 4 boys (i.e. husband & 3 sons); 4. Arlene, daughter Louise and Marylou; 5. Vic, hubby and children. Of course, we had a mini-reunion at the gas station that the guards were looking at us because of the commotion
We were met at the orphanage by Mr. Colombo, who is Bev’s boss and a board mem
ber of the institution. Rebecca, one of the social workers, showed us around the place and we could not help but be impressed at the cleanliness and the well-maintained grounds of the village. Our first stop was one of the cottages were they had classrooms that catered to the educational needs of the orphans and even of the kids in the depressed areas around the place. Then, we also got to see the rehabilitation facilities for the disabled kids. But, I think what was very moving was seeing the cottage of the babies, especially Niño, a boy who had no arms and no legs because he managed to survive his own mother's attempt to abort him (see inset, Niño with Bev and Arlene).
While all the babies here had been left abandoned, not all of them were disabled—physically and/or mentally. There was this really cute 1-year old in a walker who was following us around and Iela, very a
deptly carried a 5-month old baby boy (I would never dare carry anyone below 10 months).
After the cottage visits, we were brought to the gym, which had been temporarily converted into a theatre. The older children impressed us with their Filipino dances, from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.
One particular autistic boy, Michael, caught our attention because he performed so well and so intensely…in colloquial Filipino, “feel-na-feel nya ang part niya.” And of course, with their version of the Sinulog, complete with a live Sto. Niño, played by one of the 2-yr. old boys. Afterwards, we could not 
resist having our photo taken with the performers (see photo above).
After the performance, the kids had a feast of a McDonald’s meal courtesy of Josine, who managed to get a donation of food gift certificates from the fast food chain.
After the visit, we went over to Iela’s farm, where she prepared a late lunch for us, which was much better than anything you could get from the famous eating places in Silang or Tagaytay (that says a lot, ‘cuz Gourmet is just a kilometer away from her place). Thanks batchmates for a wonderful time!!!!! #
Labels: st. scho
grade sheet
Dear 2nd sem students,
I have posted my grade sheets
here. Pls. check recorded grades against the papers returned to you. If there are discrepancies, pls. show me your graded paper so that corrections can be made. Pls. note that, as per university rule on attendance...if you have more than six (6) absences, your final grade is 5.0 regardless of your actual class standing.
Labels: journ dept., UP
Anti-Christian: a "Socially Acceptable Prejudice"
VIENNA, Austria, MARCH 9, 2009 (Zenit.org).- One does not have to live in Africa or Asia to be the victim of anti-Christian discrimination; according to an intergovernmental security group, there are plenty of victims in Europe and America.This was the conclusion from a meeting sponsored by the U.N. ad hoc Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, an international group that has 56 member states spread across Europe, the Caucasus, Central Asia and North America.
The meeting last Wednesday brought together experts and representatives of states in the intergovernmental organization, reported a press release from the group at the event's conclusion.
Janez Lenarcic, former Slovenian ambassador to the OSCE and now the director of the office for democratic institutions and human rights, which organized the event, reported, "What came out clearly from this meeting is that intolerance and discrimination against Christians is manifested in various forms across the OSCE area."
He continued, "While denial of rights may be an important issue where Christians form a minority, exclusion and marginalization may also be experienced by Christians where they comprise a majority in society."
Mario Mauro, vice president of the European Parliament and representative of the Chairmanship on Combating Racism, Xenophobia and Discrimination, stated in a press release following the event, "I believe that this meeting has succeeded in raising visibility and highlighting the relevance of the phenomenon of intolerance and discrimination against Christians."
Restricted
The meeting centered on various aspects of intolerance and discrimination against and among Christians, including "violent attacks against persons, property and places of worship, as well as restrictions to the right to freedom of religion or belief," the press release reported.
It also addressed the "inaccurate portrayals of Christian identity and values in the media and political discourse, leading to misunderstandings and prejudice."
The meeting called for interreligious dialogue, recognizing that the challenges faced by Christians are shared by members of other faiths. It also requested "improved collection of data on hate crimes against Christians, the adoption of freedom of religion laws in line with international commitments and assistance to states and civil society in raising awareness of relevant standards."
One expert participant, Gudrun Kugler, noted, "The reasons given for intolerance and discrimination against Christians in Europe were, amongst others, radical secularization, extreme forms of political correctness as well as aspects of anti-discrimination laws."
Kugler, assistant to the general secretary of the Christian nongovernmental organization network "Europe for Christ!," asserted, "The prejudice against Christians seems to be the last socially acceptable prejudice in Europe."
The network, which sponsors the "Christianophobia" Web site, released a statement approving the "quality and depth" of the OSCE meeting. Kugler added: "On our Web site [...] we publish cases in which prejudices have spilled over into acts of intolerance. That the OSCE looks at the phenomenon is a first step towards tolerance for all people, also practicing Christians."
She concluded: "It is important to encourage the media to spread a message of understanding and respect towards Christians instead of prejudices. Further, Christians must not suffer exclusion from public life and the right of conscientious objection should be ensured for Christians in all countries."#
Labels: faith, media
The suit against Cecilia “Cheche” Lazaro alleging that she wire-tapped her own phone conversation with the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) Vice President for Public Relations and Communications Ella E. Valencerina is both outrageous and unfair.
Congratulations to UP-CMC Journalism batch 2009!! I wish you all the best in your future careers and hope you continue to make your professors proud of you!!
According to Geographical Media, an online site that measures the top news stories, ABS-CBN newscaster Ted Failon is the 116th "most talked about person in the world"..a little higher than Susan Boyle of the BBC talent show fame, who ranked 124th.
Congratulations to my thesis advisees Claire Jiao and Elsie Cansino, both Journ majors, for the publication of their investigative-explanatory report on "What we did not learn from the CAP crash." The thesis was published in a two-part series by BusinessMirror. Click here to read part 1 and click here for part 2.
ber of the institution. Rebecca, one of the social workers, showed us around the place and we could not help but be impressed at the cleanliness and the well-maintained grounds of the village. Our first stop was one of the cottages were they had classrooms that catered to the educational needs of the orphans and even of the kids in the depressed areas around the place. Then, we also got to see the rehabilitation facilities for the disabled kids. But, I think what was very moving was seeing the cottage of the babies, especially Niño, a boy who had no arms and no legs because he managed to survive his own mother's attempt to abort him (see inset, Niño with Bev and Arlene). 
deptly carried a 5-month old baby boy (I would never dare carry anyone below 10 months).
resist having our photo taken with the performers (see photo above). 
