Category: Malaya

How many more media deaths to move the government?

Published by Ellen on June 12, 2014

Nilo Baculio Sr. with Atty Romel Bagares of CenterLaw and NUJP's Sonny Fernandez. — Nilo Baculio Sr. with Atty Romel Bagares of CenterLaw and NUJP’s Sonny Fernandez.

The death of Mindoro broadcast journalist Nilo Baculio Sr. should bear not only on the conscience of the Court of Appeals judge who dismissed his petition for protection as “unsubstantiated” but also on this government especially President Aquino by being cavalier about media killings in the country.

Last Monday, June 9, 2014, the 67-year old Baculio, who hosted the program “Isumbong Mo kay Ka Nilo” over radio station dwIM in Calapan City, was gunned down by two unidentified men riding in a motorcycle.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, who monitors the state of media in the country including media killings said: “Baculio was the 165th journalist murdered in the country, the 33rd under the watch of President Benigno Aquino III and the fourth this year.”

Lawyer Harry Roque, who represented Baculio in procuring from the Supreme Court the first ever Writ of Amparo in favor of a journalist in 2008 but was refused by the CA ,said “There is blood in the hands of the CA Justices who refused Nilo Baculio protection.”

Feel good French movies

Published by Ellen on June 10, 2014

Featured in this year’s French Film Festival, a much-awaited annual event by movie enthusiasts, are “feel good” movies, according to French Ambassador Gilles Garachon.

“Lots of love stories, romantic comedies,” he said adding that “We need that.”

So true. With all the horror stories we are getting from newspapers and television, we need a good laugh.

Last Monday, we watched a romantic comedy “20 ans d’écart” (“It Boy”) about an uptight editor of a fashion magazine and her transformation when she met a refreshing 20-year old student.

We hope to catch up with “Quai d’Orsay,” a fun film on French diplomacy.

The festival screening, at the Greenbelt 3 cinemas in Makati City,started last Monday and will last up to June 15. Tickets are for P100 only.

Feel bad TV reality show

Published by Ellen on June 10, 2014

Chairman Eugenio “Toto” Villareal of The Movie and Television Review and Classification Board is not happy with what ABS-CBN in their Pinoy Big Brother reality show did to the two female housemates.

He will meet with “PBB:All In” executives today about its June 4 and 5 episodes wherein Big Brother or “Kuya “ challenged housemate Jamey Jalandoni to pose for a nude painting as part of her weekly tasks.

Jayme Jalandoni. (From ABS-CBN PBB website)

Media reports said Jalandoni, known to be a religious person, was initially reluctant to perform the challenge, saying “Kuya, ayoko maghubad (Kuya, I don’t want to take off my clothes).”

Big Brother sternly told her: “Marami ang nakasalalay rito; ang inyong weekly task, ang tulong na maibibigay sa pintor at sa kaniyang adbokasiya… Bibigyan kita ng oras para makapag-isip (There is a lot riding on your decision; your weekly task, the help you can extend the painter and his advocacy… I will give you time to think).”

The latest from Aquino on China

Published by Ellen on June 5, 2014

President Aquino flanked by Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario and Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin.

For reporters, President Aquino is always worth the time and effort to interview because he always says something newsworthy. Either a controversial remark (when he compared China’s aggressive activities in the South China Sea as similar to Hitler’s 1939 invasion of Czechoslovakia after they were handed Sudetenland by Great Britain) or a new information.

Reporters usually do not get that kind of candidness from more mature and prudent statesmen especially in foreign relations issues.

In other countries, they have department or ministry spokesmen, who do the talking on running issues. But President Aquino is, well, PNoy.

Making sure calamity-resilient classrooms will be built as designed

Published by Ellen on June 3, 2014

Every time there’s a place in the country hit by a typhoon, a landslide, or an earthquake, a common post-calamity sight is school children having classes under a tree exposed to elements.

That situation would be minimized, if not completely eliminated, if the Department of Education’s new school building design would be built according to specifications.

VERA Files trustee and writer Yvonne Chua reported that DepEd will be building this year 30,000 calamity-resilient classrooms costing 60 per cent more than the ordinary classroom. Example: a complete one-story one-classroom building with basic features that is not calamity-resilient would cost P685, 000. The new, stronger design costs P1.1 million.

Chua said “To make each building more resilient to earthquakes, the DepEd is banking on a bigger footing or base and thicker beams and columns. It now requires a tie beam even for a single-story school. The horizontal beam connects several columns to make the structure stable.”

What PH should take note of in Obama’s foreign policy speech

Published by Ellen on June 1, 2014

“Just because we have the best hammer does not mean that every problem is a nail.”

“And I would betray my duty to you and to the country we love if I ever sent you into harm’s way simply because I saw a problem somewhere in the world that needed to be fixed, or because I was worried about critics who think military intervention is the only way for America to avoid looking weak. “

Those statements in President Barack Obama’s Foreign Policy speech at the commencement ceremony of the United States Military Academy last week should tell current Philippine leaders to rethink of their U.S-dependent foreign policy because America will not risk the lives of their soldiers to fight for a war that will put their national interest in jeopardy.

Tension rising as China sinks Vietnamese boat

Published by Ellen on May 27, 2014

Water cannon fight between China and Vietnam over Chinese oil rig in Paracels.

While we continue to be engrossed with Napolist (she has submitted an expanded list naming 120 lawmakers as alleged beneficiaries of her largesse including her contributions to their election campaign), things are heating up in the South China Sea between China and Vietnam that could destabilize Southeast Asia.

News reports yesterday said a Chinese boat sank a Vietnamese fishing vessel 17 nautical miles from the oil rig of China National Offshore Oil Corporation near the China- occupied Paracel islands. The rig is 240 km (150 miles) off Vietnam’s coast and 330 km (206 miles) from the southern coast of China’s Hainan island.

Opposition to EDCA goes to SC today

Published by Ellen on May 25, 2014

Click here for the full text of the EDCA petition

Another petition filed by BAYAN and sectoral congressmen against EDCA:
Final Bayan PETITION EDCA SC

Today, various individuals and groups, appalled by the mockery of the Constitution and complete disregard of the historic Senate vote ending the U.S. bases era on Sept. 16, 1991 by the Aquino government, are filing with the Supreme Court today a petition to declare the recently-signed PH-US Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement as unconstitutional.

Former senators Rene Saguisag and Wigberto Tañada

Leading the petitioners are former Senators Rene Saguisag and Wigberto Tanada, two of the 12 who voted to kick the US Bases out in 1991. Steve Salonga, will be signing the petition for his father, former Senate President Jovito Salonga. (The other nine senators who voted to oust the U.S. bases were Agapito “Butz” Aquino, Joseph Estrada, Teofisto Guingona Jr, Sotero Laurel II, Ernesto Maceda Jr, Orlando Mercado, Aquilino Pimentel Jr, Victor Ziga, and Juan Ponce Enrile.)

‘Separate speculation from fact’- Luchi Cruz-Valdez

Published by Ellen on May 21, 2014

That was a strong statement that Luchi Cruz-Valdes, head of TV5’s news and public affairs department, unleashed against those who dragged her name in the Janet Napoles pork barrel scandal especially the Philippine Daily Inquirer who published the unverified information.

Luchi’s name was mentioned in Inquirer’s May 18 issue as one of the mediamen in the list of those who “received” cash gifts from Napoles through a certain Mon Arroyo,former television director.

The documents, Inquirer said, were contained in the hard disk given to them by the mother of Benhur Luy, one of the whistleblowers in the Napoles PDAF (Priority Development Assistance Fund) scam, and Levi Baligod, former lawyer of Luy way back on April 27, 2013 when the two visited the Inquirer office.

Didal

Published by Ellen on May 18, 2014

Among working journalists, we have a term “didal.” That is used when a PR (press relations officer) pockets the money intended for a reporter.

So the PR’s principal- a government official, a businessman or anybody who is the subject of a news report – thinks that he has paid off the reporter, who doesn’t know that his name was used for a media payoff budget.

If a reporter finds out that his name was in the list and he didn’t get anything, we tease him, “Na didal ka.”

(Accepting money from a source for a story is unethical and is denounced in the practice of journalism. A reporter writes a story because he has discovered something that would be of interest and beneficial to the people and not because someone paid him to do it.

(The reality, however, is that there are PRs whose job should only be to facilitate access to his principal, who payoff media to promote his principal. This is a bad practice.)

We are told that these days the new term for “didal” is “bukol.”

We suspect that’s what happened to ABS-CBN’s Korina Sanchez and GMA 7’s Mike Enriquez.

An Inquirer report said according to the documents submitted by PDAF (Priority Development Assistance Fund) scam whistleblower Benhur Luy, pork barrel queen Janet Napoles paid off a number of media personalities.