So Clark Development Corp. President- CEO Arthur Tugade supposedly texted Angeles City Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan referencing to this paper’s banner story last Friday, April 17, “CDC boss resigns, unexpectedly” bylined Ding Cervantes.
On Monday, SunStar-Pampanga headlined “”Tugade resignation hearsay – CDC execs” with a total reversal of Tugade’s text to Pamintuan, to wit: “this is responsible reporting.” If so, what’s the problem then? Just dismiss that as typo error though.
So was it really “irresponsible reporting” that Punto engaged in with its Friday banner?
Tugade’s resignation was most certainly no figment of Ding’s imagination, he being neither weaver nor tattler of tales. The information was relayed to Ding – exclusively – by “some CDC stockholders and board members, who all asked not to be named for lack of authority to speak on the issue” but who were present in the Wednesday meeting where Tugade said he’d resign.
Like the dyed-in-the-wool journo that he is, Ding dutifully called Tugade for his side. He did not respond. Even after a series of calls. Until now. Where he used to be easily accessible, Tugade has become totally incommunicado. At least to Ding, and Ashley Manabat too.
Ding wrote: “One source said that during the stockholders meeting, [Tugade] expressed disappointment over feedback from the Government Commission on Government- Owned and Controlled Corporations (GOCC) that his colleagues within CDC gave him ‘mediocre’ ratings in an online survey a few weeks ago.”
This found affirmation with the account in Dik Pascual’s Postcript column in Philippine Star on April 19, to wit:
“…The CDC officers and directors had rated themselves and their peers using a GOCC form. When the ratings were tallied, Tugade landed 6th among the 11 members of the board.
“Reacting, Tugade said aloud: “Bakit ganito? Kung ganoon… aaalis na lang ako.” Apparently hurt, he also remarked about some board members being virtually nonperforming assets (“kukuyakuyakuy lang”).”
There, “aalis na lang ako” (I will just leave).
Serious enough for those present – particularly Ding’s not only usually reliable but also responsible and reputable sources – to take Tugade at his word.
After all, as it’s clichéd, “a man’s word is his honor.” And Tugade is an honourable man.
The day after Punto’s resignation scoop came out, I chanced upon one of those present during the board/stockholders meeting and asked if Tugade indeed resigned.
“We are asking him to reconsider” was the quick reply, followed by a quicker excuse to go. So, if there was no resignation, what was there to reconsider?
And then, there’s validity, if not veracity, of the resignation story sneaking out of the ratings reported by both Ding and Dik, to repeat: Tugade getting a “mediocre” grade wrote the former, Tugade landing 6th among 11 members of the board, according to the latter.
After all that he’s done for Clark, 6th place is all he’d get?
As indeed said one source in Ding’s story: “I don’t think he deserved such rating because he did quite well for the CDC by restoring the firm’s financial health.” Among other achievements, if we are to believe all that PR about and around Tugade.
A recurring refrain in all the talks I heard from Tugade is the culture of integrity and industry, the climate of professionalism and excellence he – alone – has impacted upon the Clark Freeport, as much to the CDC rank-and-file as to the locators.
His very text to Pamintuan is again replete with this, to wit:
“In my quest to restore decency in government and fight corruption in whatever forms, the press release is intended to demolish me in my advocacy. But I shall continue to fight for what is decent, fair and just. (That was no mere press release but a bylined banner story, Honorable Sir.)
“I will not fail you and country in this advocacy. Please continue helping and supporting in my desire for good governance and efforts to put decency, fairness, and justice to service and other fronts…”
My. Me. My. I. I. My. Pure ego. Make that EGO.
Which definitely will burst, pricked by the mediocrity of a 6th place finish among 11 much, much inferior – “kukuyakuyakoy lang” — peers.
Indeed, having – from his very first flag ceremony – established himself as the alpha male of the Clark Freeport, it is inconceivable for Tugade to see himself ranked anywhere other than Numero Uno. Or A-1. Or A++++++ to the nth degree. In other cultures, the primus inter pares. Better yet, the capo di tutti capi.
So what is such man, deprived of what he believes as his rightful place, to do? “Aalis na lang ako.”
Hubris, the Greeks of old called it.
Still, I shall indulge Tugade.
He calls out in his text to Pamintuan: “Let us not allow the noisy hypocrites and the lawless elements control what we desire to be a clean and decent and fair playing field.”
Count me in that crusade, Honorable Sir. Let’s start with those who blustered, bamboozled and bullied their way to appropriate for themselves – alone — the patent on professionalism and excellence, the monopoly of morality, the exclusivity of decency and integrity – aye, assuming unto themselves that culture of pharisaic hypocrisy that virtually reigns in and verily rules over the freeport. Hubris, indeed, it is. And Greek tragedy tells us how the gods deal with those afflicted by it.
About Ding
IRRESPONSIBLE reporting makes the reporter irresponsible.
To append this to Ding Cervantes is most irresponsible, coming out wholly from ignorance, if not from malice. Or bitterness.
This is not the first time though that such accusation was levelled at Ding.
At the time of the devastation of Porac and Angeles City by the Mt. Pinatubo eruptions, Ding wrote about a study by the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology that San Fernando lay dangerously along the path of rampaging lahar.
Afraid of scaring investors away from the then still-lahar-untouched capital, the business elite and the local government unit twisted the hand of Phivolcs to issue a statement that San Fernando, contrary to Ding’s story, was safe from lahar.
And Ding was pilloried for irresponsible reporting. Only for San Fernando, in a year’s time, to be hit by lahar. No need to guess who were irresponsible there.
Even earlier, Ding reported that Pampanga businessmen resolved to stop paying revolutionary taxes. Scared out of their wits from possible reprisals, the bizmen denied the story, calling it irresponsible reporting. Within a week, police authorities released to media some sort of a manifesto signed by business groups pledging not to pay taxes to the insurgents.
Really, to accuse Ding of irresponsible reporting, of doing a demolition job is to cast aspersion on his very integrity. Not only as the esteemed journalist that he has always been, but moreso on the righteousness of his character, immersed in devotion to the Marian apostolate for the salvation of mankind.
Ding also holds the singular distinction of having turned down a CDC directorship offered him by no less than President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo herself, for the simple reason that he wanted to stay as a journalist.
This, at the time when a position in the CDC Board was salivated upon as “prime cut.”
Yeah, in any war I will surely dig my foxhole beside Ding’s.
