“WE’RE WORRIED and sorry for the state of local media as it may eventually end up with the dogs.”
Strong statements there from businessman Rene Romero as published in Sun-Star Pampanga Tuesday, March 15, the day after the Punto! Staff filed their counter-affidavit to his P20-million libel complaint.
Continued Romero: “Some are simply degrading the integrity of local media. They use their profession for their own interests. If this is not corrected, it will destroy the media sector… That is why even this libel case has become a crusade for me and others who are interested in helping our local journalists and promote good, professional journalism.”
Really strong statements there, albeit all-engulfing generalizations Romero conveniently, if not cravenly – afraid of a libel suit? – hid in.
So we dare Romero: Name names – 1) who are “degrading the integrity of local media”; 2) who, aside from you, are “interested in helping our local journalists and promote good, professional journalism.”
If you can’t put up, you need to shut up, Romero.
Quick to the draw as ever whenever media are at issue, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines-Pampanga in a statement dared Romero too: “By what standard does Mr. Romero measure the legitimate working press? Those that tend to be sympathetic to his advocacy of destroying hundreds of trees are alright while those that write for the preservation of the environment are not.”
Yes, those that sing hallelujah to every whim and fancy of Romero and his business chums are exemplars of “good, professional journalism” while those that expose exploitative, unconscionable businessmen are “degrading the integrity of the local media.” Pathetic.
Asked NUJP-Pampanga: “We ask, by whose authority does Mr. Romero act to whip the local media to toe the line? As if threatening the media that had caught his ire with a multi-million libel suit was not enough, Mr. Romero now wants to embark on a supposed “crusade” that will purge its rank.”
Crusade. The word has lost both its lustre and nobility with Romero.
In 2007, Romero was at the forefront – indeed serving as field marshal by his own account – of the so-called moral crusade embellished upon the gubernatorial campaign of Among Ed Panlilio.
The crusade against the “twin evils” scourging Pampanga – pilfered quarry collections and jueteng – that Romero and the “Third Force” caricatured, nay, made flesh in then-Gov. Mark Lapid and former Board Member Lilia “Baby” Pineda.
“Paburen tala reng mapanako balas ampong magwe-jueteng mangubyernu king Kapampangan? (Should we allow the plunderers and the gambling lords to rule Pampanga?). So reverberated in the Panlilio campaign then.
So where is Romero now? Making himself a permanent fixture in some ad hoc committees or so-called working groups created by the very person his 2007 crusade called “evil.” No crusading, all cruising for Romero here. But that is getting ahead, if not out, of the story.
Anyways, Panlilio was proclaimed winner, and who would be rightfully sharing centerstage with him at his inauguration but Romero, this even as the local media were barred from entering the Capitol.
A year after, Romero was once more at the forefront of a crusade: the Recall Movement against Panlilio. What happened?
Publicly, over the media, Panlilio said Romero turned against him after he – the governor – rejected the latter’s request for some favors. The governor insinuating, some legal questions obtaining in Romero’s alleged request for favors.
I am not sure now if it was Romero that Panlilio was referring to when he told media that he was ready to refund the contributions some supporters gave to his campaign rather than award them favors from government. That which could constitute graft and corruption, the very antithesis to his moral crusade, Panlilio said then.
Anyways, that’s so much water as polluted as that under Baluyut Bridge in the City of San Fernando now, to localize the cliché.
“More harm than good in the fight for press freedom.” So the NUJP-Pampanga said of Romero’s being “worried and sorry” that the local media “may eventually end up with the dogs.”
Here I disagree with the media group that I served as founding chair in 1989.
The local media have, insofar as my practice takes me, long gone to the dogs – the watchdogs, that is. Precisely taking on their role in society, that which elevated media to that exalted height as the Fourth Estate.
Any mediaman worth his by-line takes that to heart. As he/she does too Joseph Pulitzer’s articulation of that role thus:
“A free press should always fight for progress and reform,
never tolerate injustice or corruption,
always fight demagogues of all parties,
never belong to any party,
always oppose privileged classes and public plunderers,
never lack sympathy for the poor,
always remain devoted to the public welfare.”
Indeed, what arrogance has Romero to invoke a crusade to clean the local media?
If there is one sector that Romero must crusade to clean, it is none other than his own backyard – the business sector. Clean it, clear it, cleanse it of the evils of contractualization; of the exploitation of workers with below-standard wages, non-remittance of their social security and Philhealth contributions; of unsanitary working conditions; of the companies’ underpayment, if not altogether evasion, of taxes; of violations of environmental laws.
To paraphrase Romero’s statement on media now: We are worried and sorry for the state of the local business as it may eventually end up with the dogs. The rabid kind, that is.
But unlike Romero, we shall not even think of crusading to intervene. We rather that the business sector shall cleanse itself.
Strong statements there from businessman Rene Romero as published in Sun-Star Pampanga Tuesday, March 15, the day after the Punto! Staff filed their counter-affidavit to his P20-million libel complaint.
Continued Romero: “Some are simply degrading the integrity of local media. They use their profession for their own interests. If this is not corrected, it will destroy the media sector… That is why even this libel case has become a crusade for me and others who are interested in helping our local journalists and promote good, professional journalism.”
Really strong statements there, albeit all-engulfing generalizations Romero conveniently, if not cravenly – afraid of a libel suit? – hid in.
So we dare Romero: Name names – 1) who are “degrading the integrity of local media”; 2) who, aside from you, are “interested in helping our local journalists and promote good, professional journalism.”
If you can’t put up, you need to shut up, Romero.
Quick to the draw as ever whenever media are at issue, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines-Pampanga in a statement dared Romero too: “By what standard does Mr. Romero measure the legitimate working press? Those that tend to be sympathetic to his advocacy of destroying hundreds of trees are alright while those that write for the preservation of the environment are not.”
Yes, those that sing hallelujah to every whim and fancy of Romero and his business chums are exemplars of “good, professional journalism” while those that expose exploitative, unconscionable businessmen are “degrading the integrity of the local media.” Pathetic.
Asked NUJP-Pampanga: “We ask, by whose authority does Mr. Romero act to whip the local media to toe the line? As if threatening the media that had caught his ire with a multi-million libel suit was not enough, Mr. Romero now wants to embark on a supposed “crusade” that will purge its rank.”
Crusade. The word has lost both its lustre and nobility with Romero.
In 2007, Romero was at the forefront – indeed serving as field marshal by his own account – of the so-called moral crusade embellished upon the gubernatorial campaign of Among Ed Panlilio.
The crusade against the “twin evils” scourging Pampanga – pilfered quarry collections and jueteng – that Romero and the “Third Force” caricatured, nay, made flesh in then-Gov. Mark Lapid and former Board Member Lilia “Baby” Pineda.
“Paburen tala reng mapanako balas ampong magwe-jueteng mangubyernu king Kapampangan? (Should we allow the plunderers and the gambling lords to rule Pampanga?). So reverberated in the Panlilio campaign then.
So where is Romero now? Making himself a permanent fixture in some ad hoc committees or so-called working groups created by the very person his 2007 crusade called “evil.” No crusading, all cruising for Romero here. But that is getting ahead, if not out, of the story.
Anyways, Panlilio was proclaimed winner, and who would be rightfully sharing centerstage with him at his inauguration but Romero, this even as the local media were barred from entering the Capitol.
A year after, Romero was once more at the forefront of a crusade: the Recall Movement against Panlilio. What happened?
Publicly, over the media, Panlilio said Romero turned against him after he – the governor – rejected the latter’s request for some favors. The governor insinuating, some legal questions obtaining in Romero’s alleged request for favors.
I am not sure now if it was Romero that Panlilio was referring to when he told media that he was ready to refund the contributions some supporters gave to his campaign rather than award them favors from government. That which could constitute graft and corruption, the very antithesis to his moral crusade, Panlilio said then.
Anyways, that’s so much water as polluted as that under Baluyut Bridge in the City of San Fernando now, to localize the cliché.
“More harm than good in the fight for press freedom.” So the NUJP-Pampanga said of Romero’s being “worried and sorry” that the local media “may eventually end up with the dogs.”
Here I disagree with the media group that I served as founding chair in 1989.
The local media have, insofar as my practice takes me, long gone to the dogs – the watchdogs, that is. Precisely taking on their role in society, that which elevated media to that exalted height as the Fourth Estate.
Any mediaman worth his by-line takes that to heart. As he/she does too Joseph Pulitzer’s articulation of that role thus:
“A free press should always fight for progress and reform,
never tolerate injustice or corruption,
always fight demagogues of all parties,
never belong to any party,
always oppose privileged classes and public plunderers,
never lack sympathy for the poor,
always remain devoted to the public welfare.”
Indeed, what arrogance has Romero to invoke a crusade to clean the local media?
If there is one sector that Romero must crusade to clean, it is none other than his own backyard – the business sector. Clean it, clear it, cleanse it of the evils of contractualization; of the exploitation of workers with below-standard wages, non-remittance of their social security and Philhealth contributions; of unsanitary working conditions; of the companies’ underpayment, if not altogether evasion, of taxes; of violations of environmental laws.
To paraphrase Romero’s statement on media now: We are worried and sorry for the state of the local business as it may eventually end up with the dogs. The rabid kind, that is.
But unlike Romero, we shall not even think of crusading to intervene. We rather that the business sector shall cleanse itself.
