Poor pay, scant logistics, safety risks vex reporters

MANILA, Philippines - When media groups started going about the grim task of compiling a list of journalists killed in the November 23, 2009 massacre in Maguindanao, there was a brief moment when the numbers wouldn’t add up.

While it was clear that many of the victims worked for local newspapers and radio stations, some of the victims held positions that did not seem to be connected to journalism.

Aside from the reporters, photographers and drivers who could be expected to cover the filing of the certificate of candidacy of Ismael “Toto” Mangudadatu, then a vice-mayor of Buluan town, there were other victims who were newspaper circulation managers, and account and sales personnel.

Later, it turned out that these were journalists as well—journalists who were also doubling as sales personnel selling air time and ad space during their coverage duties.

Many Manila journalists balk at the idea of reporters pestering a source for a good story, then coming back to pester the same source to buy ad space in their newspapers. But for many community newspapers and radio stations that are barely able to keep their heads above the water, this is a sad but necessary reality—journalists are being made responsible for pulling in the revenues as they are for bringing in the stories.

The Philippines may have the distinction of having one of the freest presses in Asia, but the freedom still comes at a steep price. Corruption, low pay and extrajudicial killings remain the top issues that Filipino journalists have to deal with aside from the daily deadline that they have to meet.

Over the last seven months, the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) conducted 12 training seminars for print and broadcast journalists and bloggers. In these forums, we engaged local and national journalists all over the country in discussions over issues that remain sticky in their day-to-day coverage and require judgment calls on their part.

Alarming, sad picture
What emerges is a picture that is alarming as it is sad, as reporters who work for national news agencies live and deal with problems that are far removed from the struggle for physical and financial survival of their cousins in the community press.

A mid-level reporter in Mindanao said he survives by working as a stringer for a local and a national television network. Both pay little, and only for stories aired that are few and far between. So the reporter works double time by acting as a producer and an anchor in another private radio station. To top it all off, our intrepid and industrious reporter also works as a marketing and advertising person.

It’s a situation that exposes journalists to risks that range from physical to moral ones. Commiserating with the multi-tasking reporter, a provincial paper editor also based in Mindanao admitted candidly: “I learned that all along I was wrong in some ethical practices.”

Explained a reporter for a Manila-based newspaper: “Countryside journalists continue to be vulnerable to bribery due to factors of their outfit’s survival.”

Magnified problem
A junior reporter for a provincial paper, though, said it was sad to know that violations of ethical journalism standards by a few have been magnified. “There are doings by a few and these are reflective of the image of the whole,” said the reporter. “Sana mawala na ’yan sa sistema ng media [I hope this disappears from the media system].”

A senior correspondent for a giant television network meanwhile acknowledged that many media companies do not have the capacity to pay their staff well to keep them away from corrupt practices. But she believed that “ethics is a personal judgment call.”

In all the PCIJ training seminars where ethical practices were taken up, the most common reason that the journalists cited to explain breaches of ethics was the supposed lack of financial support from their employers.

The journalists admit that receiving money gifts, and other favors from people they cover for news, especially during elections, compromise their writing.

The Philippine government has been ranked among the most corrupt in the world. Corruption has become so pervasive that scandals have been coming out one after another in the news.

But these stories about corruption become less credible when persons delivering the news are themselves involved in other forms of corrupt activities. It certainly affects the credibility and integrity of the media in exercising its watchdog function.

Income extenders
Media companies — print, broadcast, or online — have varying salary rates. Many print journalists for community newspapers are paid only for the stories that are run, not for stories that they submit. Some journalists thus take home as little as P3,000 a month. The more senior ones make P10,000 to P15,000, depending on the number of newspapers they write for.

Because of the inadequate salary, some journalists are forced to look for “income extenders.” Some do it “legitimately” by officially taking on multiple roles in the company. The Koronadal-based Periodico Ini, for example, lost five people in the Maguindanao Massacre: Rey Merisco, John Caniban, Arturo Betia, Noel Decena, and Rani Razon.

Periodico Ini publisher Freddie Solinap said that with their deaths, his small newspaper effectively lost all its reporters – and most of its administrative staff. Betia had doubled as the paper’s marketing director; Decina as circulation manager; and Razon as sales manager.

Others do public relations work for politicians or government offices. Sometimes, the part-time work even gives journalists bigger pay than their main job.

But there are those who do not have to work extra to earn more. According to a radio reporter in the Visayas, these journalists merely wait for their monthly “allowance” from the local government.

“Many broadcasters and journalists here are guilty of being unethical,” said the reporter, “and I am sad to say that most of those unethical broadcasters are not here to learn and refresh and review their GMRC [good manners and right conduct].”

Others seek money
Yet if some community journalists engage in small-time corruption to make ends meet, other journalists complain of colleagues and superiors who engage in corruption in a scale that makes their poorer cousins in the provinces look like Mother Teresa.

There are rumors of famous television and radio anchors in Manila who attack in order to collect, or of editors and producers who roll in the lap of luxury because of their role as gatekeepers of the news.
Theirs is certainly not a case of kapit sa patalim [biting the bullet].

But the condition, at least in the provinces, does not seem to be beyond solution. Zoilo Dejaresco, whose family owns a radio station and publishes a chain of newspapers in the Visayas, acknowledged that salaries of reporters in community newspapers are inadequate to support the basic needs of a small family.

“Our view is to put premium pay on senior writers we barely can afford to lose by multi-tasking them between, say, print with radio and administrative work,” he said. “So, instead of hiring one more warm body, the writer will be earning more take-home pay.”

Safety is another issue worrying journalists, especially those in the provinces.

While the two major television networks ABS-CBN and GMA have finally begun equipping their reporters and camera teams with bulletproof vests and ballistic helmets for coverage that could be dangerous, most media agencies, even those in Manila, are content to send their reporters out with nothing more than a press card and a prayer.

The situation is all the more deplorable in the provinces, where correspondents live with the rebels, bandits or soldiers that they also cover.

Insurance cover
Even before the Maguindanao massacre, the Philippines was already one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists. The murder of 32 media workers in Ampatuan town pushed the death toll for Filipino journalists to 137— about a third killed in the line of duty or for their exposes on local crime and corruption—since the freedom of the press was restored in 1986.

Providing insurance coverage for journalists, Dejaresco said, could be possible but only to those in special coverage that places them at extraordinary risks and the coverage would have time limits.

He said he would agree to allowing a field reporter to carry a gun but only “in extremely meritorious cases where life and limb are clearly established to be in clear and present danger.”

But Dejaresco draws the line at providing firearms to reporters. This, he said, is a no-no since a reporter could be more dangerous and unnecessarily provocative when carrying a gun. “They have to be psychologically fit, in our estimation,” he stressed.

In the end, journalists have to realize that while the profession is inherently fraught with danger, there are day-to-day decisions that they make that could make the difference in just how much risks they would be forced to face.

To be sure, allowing oneself to be manipulated or branded as partisan in favor of one or another politician whether or not for political or financial considerations, is just another way to get oneself in trouble.

Said an editor of a Davao-based newspaper: “Our role as journalists [in election reporting] does not end with just reporting on the results of elections or election-related violence.”

Acting independently, he added, is a first, big step that all journalists must take. “We have our roles to portray, one of which is not to let politicians use us for their own benefit,” he pointed out. “We should address the real, accurate stories.”

Even more important, according to a journalist from the Visayas, is for journalists to “have enough courage
and perseverance to do what is right, even if it hurts.”

“The pen must continue to be mightier than the sword,” said another journalist from Central Luzon. (Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism - Tita Valderama)

Freedom of Information: Good Theory, Bad Practice

Journalists are among those usually denied access to public information despite the Constitutional guarantee. Information is either confidential or no longer available, leaving them and more so the people clueless on how their country is being run. (Photo by Claire Delfin)

MANILA, Philippines (Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project / August 13, 2009) - In the Philippines, free access to information is guaranteed by the Constitution – but not yet codified by law: The result is the right to information is very much protected in principle – but not in fact. Despite judicial affirmation of such a right, the lack of a clear and defining law has helped to ensure denial of access to official information remains widespread across the country.

The trend has moreover widened under the administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo according to Attorney Nepomuceno Malaluan, co-convenor of the Access to Information Network (ATIN).

“While the long-standing problems cut across all previous regimes, this current administration has displayed an alarming swing towards institutional secrecy,” Malaluan says.

For instance, party-list group Akbayan was met with flat denials to access the text of the proposed agreement during the recent negotiation of the controversial Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement, a bilateral trade and investment treaty between Japan and the Philippines.

The same also happened to the Transparency and Accountability Network (TAN), which was refused access to the report of retired Supreme Court Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. on electoral reforms. The report was seen as significant for TAN, which advocates for electoral reforms.

Malacañang Palace likewise sought to restrict access to the report of the Independent Commission to Address Media and Activist Killings, but eventually gave in after persistent calls from cause-oriented groups.

Denials of access to various government loan agreements and government contracts has been a consistent practice despite a specific provision in the Bill of Rights that requires information on foreign loans obtained or guaranteed by the government to be made available to the public.

Journalists, too

Journalists are not exempted from routine refusals to block access to information despite the country being perceived as enjoying a relatively free press.

“Every journalist who’s had to look for information from public agencies has a horror story to tell -- or at least a frustrating and infuriating tale which usually includes being given the run around and being told outright that certain public records are ‘confidential,’ or that the particular agency just does not release the information being sought,” writes journalism professor Luis Teodoro in his article on access to information - The Key is in the Exemptions.

In most cases, he says, journalists have to settle with non-traditional and informal approaches in getting the required information.

Ed Lingao of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) agrees and adds: “Parang utang na loob mo pang mabigyan ng impormasyon (It’s like you owe them a debt of gratitude if you’re given the information).”

In the last 10 years, PCIJ has documented 14 major instances when they were met with “flimsy excuses” from 12 national agencies in their effort to secure public information relating to its investigative reporting.

In its article entitled “Multiple requests for access to info meet with flat denials,” PCIJ says these requested data and documents included civil work contracts, contractors of government projects, loan agreements, and the assets and liabilities and net worth (SALNs) of justices of the Supreme Court, generals of the Armed Forces and the political appointees of Malacañang and other executive agencies.

Requests for information were made in writing three to five times, and were followed up by as much as 18 to 21 phone calls to the agencies concerned. PCIJ also had to deal with 6 to 9 various officials in the same agencies, and had to wait for 56 days to six months to get any response on its requests.

The situation for those journalists in the provinces is worse. Typically they are referred by local agencies to the national office to obtain public documents.

Things got worse for journalists on February 24, 2006 when President Arroyo issued Presidential Proclamation 1017 which placed the country under a state of emergency amid an alleged plot by “military adventurists.” The order sought to limit the functions of the press to report issues that the government deemed to be precarious to national security.

It went on with a statement from then chairman of the National Telecommunications Commission, Ronald Solis that the government could shut down any television or a radio station during a state of emergency.

President Arroyo lifted the proclamation a week later after reported pressure from economic advisers who maintained the country’s business reputation was suffering.

Red Batario, executive director of the Center for Community Journalism and Development, says information kept secret is a legacy of Marcos martial rule that has lingered on.

Harder for ordinary folks

Ordinary members of the public meanwhile have an even harder time securing their rights to public information than journalists.

“The poor are still chained to the shackles of ignorance. Aside from organized citizens groups and people’s organizations, a large majority of poor Filipinos are unable to claim their rights simply because they don’t know how, and what these are, to begin with,” writes Batario in his article “Our Right to Know.”

Batario adds that information, when democratized and made widely available, allows citizens to actively participate on issues that have serious repercussions for governance.

“The ouster of Joseph Estrada midway through his presidency illustrates the potent power of the information when citizens, shocked by the proceedings of the impeachment trial covered extensively by the press, took the streets to call for his resignation.”

But Batario also lauds certain practices in some places in the Philippines. The Ulat sa Banwaan (Report to the People) of Albay province and Batad in Iloilo are few examples of how active citizen participation has opened up information flows and helped to ensure greater transparency in local government processes.

Information Law

But as these models come in extremely short supply, a Freedom of Information Act becomes necessary, says ATIN.

It adds it is only through an informed press and citizenry that Filipinos can effectively and reasonably participate at all levels of social, political and economic decision-making.

The proposed law was passed in the House of Representatives last year, but it has languished in the Senate.

Among others, House Bill 3732 provides clear, uniform, and speedy procedure for public access to information. It also provides mechanics for the compulsory duty of government agencies to disclose information on government transactions.

The bill enumerates a narrow list of clearly defined and reasonable exceptions. While the general rule is that all information in the hands of government must be accessible to the public, it adds that there are times when it is in the public interest to keep some information confidential – for example ongoing criminal operations.

But the bill also allows an opportunity and right for citizens to override an exception whenever there is greater public interest in the disclosure of information.

It provides clear criminal liabilities for violation of the right to information, and at the same time, adequate and accessible remedies when cases of this nature arise.

And more importantly, the bill spells out numerous mechanisms for the active promotion of openness in government, which is seen as a vital safeguard against rampant corruption that has weighed down the country’s economic performance.

“Secrecy in government has given public officials a wide room for maneuver and greater cover for corruption,” says ATIN’s Malaluan. It is widely reported and accepted that more than 20 per cent of the country’s annual budget is lost to corruption and mismanagement, thanks to an annual budget process that is so lacking in transparency and oversight.

Nevertheless, ATIN remains optimistic that the bill can still be passed before the 14th Congress ends next year. The Senate may be lacklustre and sluggish but it does not, so far, harbour any strong opposition against the bill.

And that is a good sign for advocates to push the bill’s passage much forward. After all, there is no better time -- than now -- to claim that most basic of rights, the right to information.(By Claire Delfin. The author is a television news reporter of GMA Network, Inc. and is a regular contributor of special reports on women, children, education, health, human rights, and the environment to the network’s news website GMANews.TV.)


Link: http://www.rightsreporting.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6998&Itemid=130

Gloria’s mysterious millions: Stacks of stocks, sparse data

The lawyers and spokesperson of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo have spoken, in many words saying that the 114-percent surge in her declared net worth from 2000 to 2008 could be explained.

At a press conference Monday, her lawyer Romulo Macalintal said the ongoing PCIJ report – whose part 1 was released earlier that day -- was “speculative and judgmental." He added that PCIJ must come up with proof to support its “most unfair and uncalled for" findings on Arroyo’s wealth.

Lawyer Ruy Rondain, who also serves as counsel to First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo, seconded: “My feeling is that if the PCIJ has any evidence, it would be better if they bring it out because the report is just full of insinuations."

Indeed, there are more details that the PCIJ has uncovered, and which Arroyo’s lawyers themselves may well want to look at. Contained in various documents obtained from the Office of the Ombudsman, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Register of Deeds of local government units, and other relevant public agencies, these details raise more questions that even Makalintal and Rondain may not be able to answer.

For instance, in the Statement of Assets and Liabilities and Net Worth (SALNs) she filed in 2008, President Arroyo had declared ownership of only six real estate properties, with total book or acquisition value of a measly P5.7 million.

These include a “gift purchased" residential lot in Antipolo, Rizal; a house and lot in Baguio City; raw land in Coron, Palawan; a fishpond in Malolos, Bulacan; an agricultural lot in Nasugbu, Batangas; and a commercial lot in Tayabas, Quezon.

Until recently, the First Couple had owned a three-hectare agricultural lot in San Rafael, Bulacan that, according to then Senator Arroyo’s 1995 SALN, they acquired for P1.2 million. They sold it for P42 million on Dec. 23, 2008.

It was to be the only real estate property that the Arroyos liquidated to account for a significant cash inflow. Cash might have come in from the sale of three other real properties they owned -- a residential lot in Las Pinas, an island in Cagayan, and a condominium in Makati City – but these were sold in 1994 and 1999, or before Arroyo became president.

No La Vista, no Forbes

Curiously, over the last 17 years or from 1992 when she first served as senator, Arroyo had not once declared two prime real estate properties that her own Cabinet officials believe she owns or has interests in: her house on No. 14 Badjao Street in posh La Vista Subdivision in Quezon City, and her parents’ house on No. 92 Cambridge Circle, North Forbes Park in Makati City.

By August 8, 2008, official records show that ownership of 10 house-and-lot properties of the Arroyo clan in La Vista had been transferred in the name of La Vista Holdings and Investments, Inc., from another company whose registration the SEC had revoked in August 2003.

La Vista Investments and Holdings is the only company that Arroyo listed in her 2008 SALN in which she and her husband have “business interest and/or financial connections." The First Gentleman, President Arroyo said, is a shareholder of La Vista Investments.

Raul Gonzalez, chief legal counsel today and for five years justice secretary of Arroyo, recalls attending meetings at the North Forbes house until two years ago.

Karina Constantino David, Civil Service Commission chairperson until 2007, says she knows that the house on Badjao Street is clustered among several houses that all belong to the Arroyos and their children and immediate relatives.

In their separate SALNs, Arroyo’s sons Juan Miguel and Diosdado, both members of the House of Representatives, as well as the First Gentleman’s brother, Ignacio Jr., and sister, Maria Lourdes, now a party-list representative, have all declared owning houses worth multimillions of pesos in the Arroyo enclave on Badjao and Kalinga streets in La Vista.

An elephant’s mind

That Arroyo seems to have forgotten about these houses and other assets surprises Gonzalez, who swears that the Philippines’ 14th president has the memory of an elephant.

Arroyo, he says, remembers the minutest details, facts, figures, faces, numbers, and names from even years back. He says it is unthinkable for Arroyo to forget what she and her husband own.

“What is obvious, how can you forget what is obvious? How can I forget my wife has a chicken farm? How can I forget my wife is engaged in looking for properties which are foreclosed and sold in public auction and she tries to buy them those things she can afford," Gonzalez says.

“She is very meticulous, she is very retentive," he says of the president. “My God, she has the memory of an elephant, and things you discussed six months ago she can tell you."

Macalintal and Rondain meanwhile say that Arroyo’s wealth could be explained not just by her real estate properties, but also by her shareholdings in companies that she and her husband own.

In truth, in her 2008 SALN, Arroyo had declared that stocks already made up 70 percent, or P110 million, of her declared net worth of P144.5 million. Her SALNs, however, do not say in which companies she has acquired capital shares, and whether these are listed in the stock market.

The PCIJ obtained all documents available at the SEC on the business entities in which the president and the First Gentleman, their sons, and other relatives in public office have interest in a diligent effort to find out whether these could account for the surge in Arroyo’s stocks portfolio.

Stocks, also called capital shares or equity, represent claims of ownership in a corporation – whether or not publicly listed in the stock market.

Few profitable firms

The president, according to SEC records updated as of October 2008, still has business and financial connections in at least five entities: Optima Research & Consultancy Agency, Inc., incorporator as of Sept 15, 1980; L.T.A. Realty Corp., incorporator, as of Sept. 28, 1992; EVA Development Corp., incorporator/board member, as of May 18, 1993; Circulo Pampangueno of Guam, Inc., board member, as of Sept. 29, 1997; and Centrist Democrat International Asia-Pacific, Inc., stockholder, incorporator, board member, as of July 24, 2005.

The First Gentleman, by the SEC’s records, still has business interests and financial connections in at least nine entities: Trans Realty Co., Inc., incorporator, as of Oct. 8, 1980; Raco-Trading Philippines, Inc., incorporator, as of Oct. 9, 1980; L.T.A. Realty Corp., incorporator, as of June 28, 1982; Aviatica Travel & Management Corp., incorporator, as of July 22, 1987; Eva Development Corp., incorporator, board member, as of May 18, 1993; Philippine Blooming Trade and Development Corp., incorporator, as of Sept. 5, 1995; and Pacific Mint International Corp., incorporator, board member, as of May 15, 1997.

The First Gentleman is also connected with three foundations: Ateneo Law Class ’72 Foundation, Inc., board member, as of March 14, 1996; Kaibigan ni Gloria Macapagal Arroyo Foundation, board member, as of May 17, 1999; and First Gentleman Foundation, Inc., incorporator, as of May 28, 2002.

All these firms are not listed in the SALNs that Arroyo filed from 2001 to 2008. But since most are not particularly big or profitable, they could not have served as sources of the First Couple’s additional cash or equity shares.(Malou Mangahas, PCIJ)

(Last of three parts)

Link: http://www.pcij.org/stories/2009/arroyo-wealth4.html