I’ll be adding some new features to make your visit more worthwhile. I’m starting with a new section “Events and notices” on the right column.…
Making life worth living.
Category: Media
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/video/nation/metro-manila/05/15/11/journalists-pay-tribute-simbulan
By Yvonne T. Chua
VERA Files
Chit Estella and I were well on our way to obtaining tenure as professors of journalism at the University of the Philippines in Diliman when classes open this June. We had survived the university’s dreaded “up or out” policy after graduating this month with a master’s degree in public management from the UP Open University.
At long last, we could put aside the gnawing fear we had shared for years – of whether longtime, aging professional journalists like us could and should still make a life out of the academe.
Both of us could also focus more on Vera Files, the small media nonprofit group we co-founded with four journalist-friends three years ago to keep us abreast not only of the journalism profession but, more important, of one another.
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Hindi tayo tatagal dito sa mundo na mas matagal sa nakatakda sa atin ng Panginoon. Hindi rin pwedeng mas maaga. Kung ano ang nakatakda, yan ang mangyayari. Yan ang aking paniniwala.
Siguro nagkataon lang ngunit ang petsa ng pagkamatay ng aking kaibigan na si Chit Estella, trustee rin ng VERA Files, ay Biyernes a-trese (Friday the 13th).Siguro nagkataon lang dahil marami namang Friday, the 13th na walang masamang nangyayari.
Ito ang usapan naming ni Ruben Alabastro ng Philippine Daily Inquirer na hindi rin sinadya, na nasa page 13 lumabas ang balita tungkol kay Chit.
Mahilig si Chit sa horoscope. Sabi ng kanyang asawang si Roland Simbulan, tuwing umaga pumunta sila sa website ng horoscope. Nang umaga ng May0 13, kilig si Chit sa kanyang horoscope na nagsabing: “Something will happen that will not only be evolutionary but revolutionary that will change your life.”
VERA Files announces with deep sorrow the demise of VERA Files co-founder and trustee Lourdes Estella- Simbulan. She was 54. A full-time faculty member of…
Jose has been sick for quite some time but he was always with us, even in rallies, calling for justice for journalists who were killed in the Nov 2009 Ampatuan massacre.
Joe, as everybody calls him, passed away early morning of April 18 of complications from lung at the UERM Hospital. He was 72 years old.
His remains lay at the Arlington Chapel on Araneta Avenue. Necrological service will be on Thursday, 6 p.m. to be led by the Philippine Press Institute, where Joe served as executive director until his death.
In a tribute to Joe, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines said “His death leaves a gnawing void in the community of press freedom.”
Revillame sounded doubtful if the six-month old early evening show that for a while threatened to upset the public’s news viewing habits would continue.
Said to be the highest paid TV personality, reportedly earning the mind-boggling amount of P3 million a day, even his future in showbusiness is now in peril.
In an angry and bitter 25-minute live monologue, Revillame said,” Starting Monday po, hanggang next week, hanggang Holy Week, pag-iisipan ko po muna nang mabuti kung ako po ay magbabalik pa sa industriyang ito. Bigyan nyo na lang po muna ako ng pagkakataon at sa sarili ko pag-iisipan ko po ito.”
But if for some reasons they would have to delay the ruling, MTRCB Chair Grace Poe-Llamanzares said, “There are talks of a preventive suspension. That’s one option.”
Another MTRCB official, who asked not to be named because he was not the authorized spokesperson, said, “There’s no question about the suspension. What is being discussed is for how long.”
Reacting to the latest Social Weather Station survey results that showed his satisfaction rating dipping 13 points, the biggest so far in his 10-month presidency, President Aquino blamed media for not reporting about the good things his administration has accomplished and that from now, his media office would be more aggressive in its propaganda blitz.
Aquino’s deputy spokesperson Abigail Valte said, “P-Noy said that sometimes we are too shy because baka sabihin nagbubuhat kami ng sariling bangko. So bear with us kung kakapal ang mukha namin.”
Malacanang’s misreading of the message of the survey results reminds me of the story of the “Moron and the Beetle”. The moron was conducting an experiment what would happen to the bettle if his legs were cut. With all the six legs of the beetle intact, he ordered “Move” while tapping the table. The beetle moved quickly.
A relative of one of the executed drug mule in China, snapped at a journalist at the airport,”Are you happy with what you are doing?”
Noli de Castro and other broadcasters and journalists who feasted on this story of the drug mules should answer that.
In my prayers for the families of Sally Ordinario-Villanueva, Ramon Credo and Elizabeth Batain for strength as they try to cope with the loss of their loved ones, I also ask that God touches the conscience of TV networks personalities who sensationalized the deaths of the three to boost their ratings.
The networks obviously wanted to replicate a Flor Contemplacion situation, a media event in 1995 that violated all rules of journalism, ignoring the facts of the case and reported based on emotions.
Two weeks ago, VERA Files came out with a story on an abortion-inducing drug, Cytotec, being sold online.
It was a well-written piece about a topic that is relevant in the wake of reports that every year, half a million Filipino women induce abortion, which is a crime in the Philippines.The article also brought out the downside of Internet, a revolutionary technology that has made almost everything accessible by just the click of the mouse.
Yvonne told me that there’s an interesting story behind the Cytotec article: the life story of the writer. She said: “Ed started out at the bottom of my IJ class and had major, major writing problems. But when the term ended, he got a grade of 1.0 for his final project: the Cytotec story.”
Yvonne sent me an article about Ed which appeared in the Adamson University website.
Ed, the second of the eight children of a tricycle driver in Kalamansig, Sultan Kudarat, was the first to attend school because the eldest had polio.