Polibiz
By Nelson C. Robles

Some so-called reporters are ' pasaway'

I suggest to Panay Electric Company (PECO) to make it a matter of policy to issue press advisory to all its consumers and business establishments before any massive blackout will take place in Iloilo City.In the past days, the unannounced blackout has given tremendous inconvenience to many major establishments in Iloilo City, especially hotels, schools, among other major institutions.

Pretty soon, investors will abandon the city in droves because they will think the city government has no control over the power firm that is mandated by its franchise to serve the consumers with utmost transparency. PECO must pay the press advisory for media releases so it can be aired in the radio and TV and published in the newspapers conveniently. With all the money PECO amasses day and night from the fees paid by the consumers, there is no reason why it cannot foot the bill for the spending of a vital document that would enlighten and warn the consumers and prevent them from cursing the Cacho clan each time the consumers are caught between the devil and the deep blue sea owing to the sudden blackout.

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For the past weeks, not only the pasaway public officials were in the news: some of those who figured in various controversial news items were also media practitioners in Iloilo. Either they were the subject of news as victims of harassment or were the villains in the story. There was the infamous story of the three stooges from a radio station who have been infected by superstar complex, the perennial mouthpiece of politicians who has made it a habit to tandem with a disgraced lawyer and file multiple harassment cases against any public official in exchange for some bucks, the newshen allegedly maltreated by an irrigation executive, a broadcaster who filed a case against a board member for falsification of public records, a self-proclaimed radio blocktimer who duped and sold a “boss” for a few centavos, and recently a veteran broadcaster in Bacolod City caught red-handed of extortion by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), and so on and so forth.

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Now, what does this mean? There is now a breakdown of discipline and ethical standards among some media practitioners in this part of the country. Or there is a need now to check the qualifications of some errand boys masquerading as reporters; or what old timers in the profession would call as “gin sugu lang mag bakal mantika, pagbalik nia reporter na sia.”

It is now the call of publishers and network owners to have their own system of check and balance among their employees. Some of these so-called “mediamen” do not even know how to operate a tape recorder or how to write a one-paragraph sentence—and they have the gall to strut around and boast they are “members of media”. Que horror, que barbaridad. Because they managed to wear “PRESS” identification cards and attend press conferences, they think they can abuse the privileges being enjoyed by legitimate journalists from legitimate media outfits. This is where the problem starts. Some people, public officials in particular, find it hard anymore to distinguish the genuine from bogus reporters because they both tot tape recorders and interview the same news sources and subjects.

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Abusive holders of PRESS identification cards would go extra mile and use their being “reporters” to extort from corrupt people in government and police officials and bring the whole organization down to shame and scandal. This is the reason why I have been advocating for a Press Council to be constituted by the Iloilo Press Club to oversee the abuses being done by both the legitimate and fake reporters who give the media organization a bad reputation in the community.