NEARLY A year would seem plenty time for senatorial candidates and their political parties to study the campaign-finance rules and regulations for the May 2013 elections so that they could comply correctly. After all, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) issued Resolution No. 9476 that set out all these rules as early as June 22, 2012.

Yet as far as the submission of the Statement of Election Contributions and Expenditures (SOCE) goes, the election body’s Campaign Finance Unit (CFU) has found various deficiencies on the reports filed by almost all 33 senatorial candidates and nearly all their political parties. In fact, the CFU has recommended fines on almost all these candidates and most of the 12 political parties that nominated them because of this.

Worse, as of this writing, a senatorial candidate and four political parties — including one with a winning nominee — have yet to file the SOCE nearly a week after the official June 13, 2013 deadline.

Republic Act No. 7166 or the Synchronized Elections Law provides that each candidate and political party that participated in the polls must file with the Commission the full, true, and itemized SOCE within 30 days after election day. The law also says that they should not be allowed to assume office until they submit this document.

Obviously, the SOCE is more than a just a piece of paper. Commissioner Christian Robert S. Lim says it is a test of honesty and integrity — whether or not candidates are able to be truthful, and if they are able to comply with the law.

“When you’re running for public office, it’s a question of accountability,” says Lim, who heads Comelec’s Campaign Finance Steering Committee. “Where do you get the money for your campaign? How do you spend it? When you assume your position, people will look at the decisions you’ll make while you’re in office.”

Complied fully: 3

Yet according to the CFU report that was submitted to the Comelec En Banc on June 18, only Samson S. Alacantara of the Social Justice Society, Ramon Magsaysay Jr. of the Liberal Party, and Ricardo Penson (Independent) have fully complied with the SOCE requirements.

The SOCEs of two winning candidates (Aquilino Martin ‘Koko’ L. Pimentel and Cynthia A. Villar), four losing candidates (Juan ‘Jack’ C. Ponce Enrile Jr., Baldomero C. Falcone, Edward S. Hagedorn, Eduardo ‘Brother Eddie’ C. Villanueva) and one political party (Liberal Party), meanwhile, were deemed as “not filed” because their statements were not personally signed and/or did not follow the prescribed form as required by the rules.

And while Comelec found no issue on the SOCEs submitted by senator-elect Alan Peter S. Cayetano and Teodoro ‘Teddy’ A. Casino, the statements of their respective parties, Nacionalista Party and Makabayan, have yet to pass Comelec standards.

Trackback: After the May 2010 national elections, PCIJ also audited the election spending reports of the candidates for president and vice president, and their political parties.

Check it out: “Parties of Binay, Enrile, Jinggoy, Imelda defy law”

Forms and contents

Of the 12 parties, only Akbayan, Partido Demokratiko-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban), and Social Justice Society (SJS) have submitted complete and on-time documents. PDP-Laban and SJS, however, need not submit copies of donor and expense receipts because the two parties did not receive any donation or incur any expense. Akbayan, for its part, declared its donation to its senatorial candidate Ana Theresa ‘Risa’ Hontiveros-Baraquel as its only expense.

Section 3, Rule 8 of Resolution No. 9476 prescribes the form and contents that must be included in the SOCE, which is composed of five documents: the one-page Statement of Election Contributions and Expenditures (Annex F of Resolution No. 9476), Schedule of Contributions Received (Annex G), Schedule of Expenditures (Annex H), Summary Report of Expenditures (Annex H-1), and Schedule of Unpaid Obligations (Annex I).

Section 109 of the Omnibus Election Code also provides that these annexes must be supported and accompanied by certified true copies of official receipts, invoices, and other similar documents.

An incomplete statement, or one that does not contain all the required information and attachments, or does not conform to the prescribed form, according to the rules, shall be considered as “not filed” and “shall subject the candidates or party treasurers to the penalties prescribed by law.”

The submission deadline was officially set at 5:00 pm of June 13, 2013 (last Wednesday) but due to inclement weather, the deadline was extended to 10:00 pm of the same day for senatorial candidates and party-list organizations, and 7:00 pm also of the same day for local candidates in the National Capital Region and regional and local political parties based in Metro Manila.

Bad bookkeeping

Commissioner Lim says Comelec had even rushed the issuance of Resolution No. 9476 to give candidates and parties time to study the rules carefully. “If candidates and parties followed election laws properly, they are supposed to maintain books of account during the campaign period so it will not really be difficult for them to make the SOCE,” he says.

“You don’t actually need 30 days,” he adds, “because if your bookkeeping is in order, you won’t have any problems about submitting right away, would you?”

Still, for all the failings of candidates and the parties in complying with the SOCE requirements, Lim considers this election year’s campaign-finance document submission — at least for senatorial bets — an improvement compared to previous polls.

Of the 33 senatorial bets, only the SOCE of Marwil Llasos of Ang Kapatiran Party has yet to reach Comelec. Lim says he heard in the news the Llasos sent his SOCE via registered mail. Assuming Llasos filed his statement, Lim says that all 33 candidates would have then made submissions. In the 2010 elections, he says, some national candidates filed one year after the deadline while some did not file the SOCE at all.

Lim also says that for him, the results so far are encouraging.

Indeed, of the 12 winning candidates, only senator-elect Francis Joseph ‘Chiz’ G. Escudero submitted his SOCE late or one day beyond the deadline.

In the meantime, senator-elect Joseph Victor ‘JV’ G. Ejercito says he submitted his SOCE via registered mail on June 13 due to heavy traffic. Comelec, however, received his report only on June 14 and by personal service. The Comelec CFU will wait for the SOCE copy that was supposedly sent by mail to verify Ejercito’s claim.

The CFU also found the SOCEs filed by Binay, Honasan, and Poe-Llamanzares deficient because they similarly failed to attach copies of their expenditure receipts.

Of the 21 losing candidates, Hontiveros of Akbayan and Rizalito Y. David of Ang Kapatiran Party submitted two days late (June 15), while Marwil N. Llasos also of Ang Kapatiran has yet to submit his SOCE as of press time.

Four political parties — Ang Kapatiran Party, Democratic Party of the Philippines, Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino, and Makabayan — have not submitted their SOCEs as well.

Lim says SOCEs submitted after the June 13 deadline may still be considered as filed. But he says that late filers will be assessed with P1,000-per-day fine, provided that the submission is not later than June 29, or the day before newly elected officials will assume their post.

Deficiencies in the documents filed by the senatorial candidates and the political parties ranged from wrong signatures to missing receipts.

More deficiencies

Team PNoy candidates Paolo Benigno ‘Bam’ A. Aquino IV, Mary Grace Poe-Llamanzares, Pimentel, and Villar, for instance, did not personally sign their SOCEs. Instead, a certain Lorraine Castañeda, Pauline Rabonza and Teodoro Llamanzares, Nestor Famatigan Jr., and Jane C. Ynte signed the documents on behalf of Aquino, Poe-Llamanzares, Pimentel, and Villar, respectively.

The CFU says this was inconsistent with Section 14 of R.A. No 7166 that requires all statements as well as schedules of contributions, expenditures, and unpaid obligations to be personally signed and certified by the candidate or party treasurer. The CFU says, though, that as of June 17, Aquino and Poe-Llamanzares had resubmitted their SOCEs with their own signatures.

The SOCEs of some senators-elect, however, were found in violation of Section 3, Rule 8 of Resolution No. 9476 that requires entries in the Schedules of Contributions, Expenditures, and Unpaid Obligations (Annexes G, H, and I) to be supported by copies of receipts, invoices, or other relevant documents.

The same section also requires the taxpayer identification number or TIN of the contributor to be provided.

No receipts

Senators-elect Juan Edgardo ‘Sonny’ M. Angara, Ejercito, Escudero, Gregorio ‘Gringo’ B. Honasan II, Lorna Regina ‘Loren’ B. Legarda, Poe-Llamanzares, Pimentel, Antonio F. Trillanes IV, and Villar did not include copies of receipts that they issued to their donors in their respective SOCEs.

Angara, Trillanes, and Villar also failed to include their donors’ TIN.

Nine losing candidates failed to include donor receipts in their SOCEs as well: Greco B. Belgica, Margarita ‘Tingting’ R. Cojuangco, Richard ‘Dick’ J. Gordon, Hagedorn, Ernesto ‘Ernie’ M. Maceda, Maria Milagros ‘Mitos’ H. Magsaysay, Ramon E. Montaño, Villanueva, and Juan Miguel ‘Migs’ F. Zubiri.

As for the 12 political parties, Bangon Pilipinas Party (nominted Villanueva), the Liberal Party (nominated Aquino, Ma. Ana Consuelo ‘Jamby’ Madrigal, and Jun Magsaysay), the Nacionalista Party (nominated Villar, Cayetano, and Trillanes), the Nationalist People’s Coalition (nominated Legarda and Enrile), and the United Nationalist Alliance (nominated Ma. Lourdes Nancy S. Binay, Ejercito, and Honasan) did not submit copies of receipts that were issued to their contributors.

This was also the case with the SOCEs filed by the United Nationalist Alliance and losing candidates Enrile, Gordon, Hagedorn, Maceda, Madrigal, Mitos Magsaysay, Montaño, Christian M. Señeres, and Villanueva.

The CFU also found the SOCEs filed by Binay, Honasan, Legarda, and Poe-Llamanzares deficient because they failed to attach copies of their expenditure receipts.

As with late filers, the Comelec CFU has recommended a P1,000-fine per day for candidates and parties with deficient SOCEs until they have fully complied with the requirements. They have until June 29, 2013 to do so, after which the CFU will no longer accept and consider SOCEs as “filed”.

Candidates, parties, and party-list groups that submitted “complete and compliant campaign finance disclosure reports and statements” will be issued a Certificate of Compliance. Without this certificate, a candidate will not be allowed able to take oath of office. Political parties must also secure this certificate, or else its nominated candidates will also not be allowed to assume office. — PCIJ, June 2013

TODAY, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) lifts the veil of secrecy on offshore accounts with its public launch of an interactive database of 2.5 million leaked files covering the secret trust accounts and companies of politicians, businessmen, con men, and other parties, in tax havens across the world.

The ICIJ Offshore Leaks Database allows users to search through more than 100,000 secret companies, trusts and funds created in offshore locales such as the British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Cook Islands, and Singapore.

In a statement, ICIJ director Gerard Ryle said: “Secrecy creates an environment where fraud, tax evasion, money laundering, and other forms of corruption thrive. The Offshore Leaks Database helps remove this secrecy.”

“Opening up the records serves the public interest by bringing accountability to an industry that has long operated in the shadows,” Ryle said.

ICIJ is a project of The Center for Public Integrity that is based out of Washington, DC.

The launch of the public database coincides with the meeting next week in Northern Ireland of the G8 industrialized countries that will be chaired by British Prime Minister David Cameron. “Tax evasion, after all, is a central theme in the meetings,” ICIJ noted.

The data are part of a cache of 2.5 million leaked files ICIJ analyzed with 112 journalists in 58 countries.

The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) wrote the Philippine reports as the country partner of ICIJ.

Since April 2013, stories based on the data — the largest stockpile of inside information about the offshore system ever obtained by a media organization — have been published by more than 40 media organizations worldwide, including The Guardian in the U.K., Le Monde in France, Suddeutsche Zeitung and Norddeutscher Rundfunk in Germany, The Washington Post, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

The Offshore Leaks web app was developed by La Nacion newspaper in Costa Rica for ICIJ. It will go live at 10 pm EST Friday June 14 (4:00 CET on Saturday June 15).

Appropriate notice is posted for all users before they can access the ICIJ Offshore Leaks Database: “There are legitimate uses for offshore companies and trusts. We do not intend to suggest or imply that any persons, companies or other entities included in the ICIJ Offshore Leaks Database have broken the law or otherwise acted improperly. If you find an error in the database please get in touch with us.”

WHAT NEXT FOR THE PHILIPPINES?

In light of the public launch of ICIJ’s database, PCIJ asked the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) how it plans to evaluate the data, according to relevant tax and other laws in the Philippines.

BIR Commissioner Kim Jacinto-Henares said she welcomes the public release of the database, saying it can aid the agency’s efforts to gather more leads and information that could result in tax investigations and cases.

“We will look into it and match (the information on Philippine residents in the database) with income tax returns,” she told PCIJ.

“First, what we will do simultaneously is get confirmation and data from the various governments that have control of the banks so they can provide us the information. Secondly, at the same time, we will check with the income tax returns whether the taxes they have paid support those kinds of assets,” Henares said.

While opening or owning an offshore account per se is not a violation of Philippine laws — because such outward investments have been allowed following the deregulation of foreign exchange markets in the 1990 — Filipinos earning money abroad, except overseas Filipino workers, are generally required to report such income when they file their tax returns in the Philippines, she added.

Taxes paid to governments of countries where such income is earned are generally credited against taxes payable in the Philippines, according to Henares.

Read the PCIJ report:
“BIR ready to investigate Pinoys with offshore accounts”

Check out the ICIJ’s press dispatches:
* ICIJ Press Release
* How La Nacion Costa Rica developed ICIJ’s App
* ICIJ Offshore Leaks Database: The Names Behind Secret Companies, Trusts
* Q & A: The ICIJ Database

ARE THEY well worth the taxpayers’ money that government allots them as subsidy? And do they deliver quality, not just quantity?

Which state colleges and universities had the largest number of enrollees and graduates in 2011?

A. University of the Philippines
B. Cagayan State University
C. Bulacan State University
D. Polytechnic University of the Philippines

Take a Quick Quiz in PCIJ’s MoneyPolitics Online!

No cheating, please.

 

SUNSTAR CEBU and the Baguio Midland Courier bagged many of the awards in the seven categories of the Philippine Press Institute’s 2012 Civic Journalism Community Press Awards.

Sunstar Cebu walked away with four of the seven awards in the daily category, while the Baguio Midland Courier came away with three awards in the weekly category. The awards were the highlight of the PPI’s 17th National Press Forum at the New World Hotel in Makati City.

The awards were divided into seven categories, with separate awards for dailies and weeklies. The awards are meant to highlight the best of community journalism in the Philippines, a nation of 7,000 islands, 8 major dialects, and hundreds of variations of the spoken and written word.

2012 Civic Journalism Community Press Awards

Best Climate Change and Biodiversity Reporting:

• Baguio Midland Courier (weekly)
• Sunstar Cebu (daily)

Best Culture and Arts Reporting:

• Baguio Midland Courier (weekly)
• Sunstar Cebu (daily)

Best in Photojournalism:

• Mabuhay (weekly)
• Sunstar Cebu (daily)

Best in Science and Environmental Reporting:

• Mabuhay (weekly)
• Edge Davao (daily)

Best in Business and Economic Reporting:

• Baguio Midland Courier (weekly)
• Sunstar Davao (daily)

Best Editorial Page:

• Bohol Chronicle (weekly)
• Sunstar Cebu (daily)

Best Edited Community Newspaper:

• Mindanao Cross (weekly)
• Sunstar Davao (daily)

The Baguio Midland Courier was cited by the awards committee in the Best Climate Change and Biodiversity Reporting for its innovative and homegrown reports on the environment. “The newspaper does not rely on international news to fill its Environment section. It invests in its own journalistic pieces that are original and truly community-oriented. It also features the efforts of various stakeholders such as women, youth, the church, and many other voices, to help mitigate the impacts of climate change. Moreover, it features best practices on biodiversity and climate change from which readers can learn,” the award citation said.

In the daily category, Sunstar Cebu was cited for the same award for allocating space “for stories focusing on climate change, global warming, ways to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, and other related topics.”

“While Sun.Star Cebu has to improve in terms of making its climate change-related stories more in-depth and community-oriented, it has certainly laid the foundation for effectively reporting on this vital issue,” the judges ruled.

The Baguio Midland Courier was also cited for Best in Culture and Arts Reporting for its reports on cultural practices and indigenous activities in the Cordillera region, including the preservation of the Banaue Rice Terraces. Sunstar Cebu bagged the same award for a daily for its coverage of the Sinulog Festival.

In the Photojournalism awards. Mabuhay of Luzon won in the weekly category for “maximizing color and black-and-white photography in its pages, keeping in mind the intelligent use of technology and the highest standards of ethics.”

For the daily category in Photojournalism, Sunstar Cebu won the awards for “a comprehensive photo coverage of events, using creative angles and choosing the right moment to shoot the subjects’ raw emotions.”

For the Best in Science Reporting, Mabuhay was commended for its “original stories on a wide range of environment and science topics each week” and for exerting efforts to make its readers understand hard-to-comprehend topics. The award in the daily category went to Edge Davao, which the awards committee said was outstanding for regularly publishing science and technology articles that appeal to the ordinary readers.

For Business and Economic Reporting, the Baguio Midland Courier got its third award for “its regional-centric and developmental thrust in its reporting, particularly in the area of business and economics.”

“Its emphasis on agriculture-based commerce identifies well with its readers and gives them a community-centric editorial feel,” the citation reads.

Sunstar Davao bagged the daily award for Business Reporting for presenting “a complete business package, not only information that would benefit local and regional readers but also those who may have just grabbed a copy from the airport or hotel.”

For Best Editorial, the award for the weekly category went to The Bohol Chronicle, for “its timely issues of national importance with a Boholano point of view.” Sunstar Cebu bagged its fourth award in this category for carrying “a diverse set of opinions covering issues of both local and national importance.”

Finally, The Mindanao Cross was cited in the weekly category for Best Edited Community Newspaper for its “well-written stories, copy-fit headlines and purpose-driven layout.” In the daily category, Sunstar Davao was cited for its good use of photographs, technically-sound headlines, and over-all dramatic layout.

Tony Ajero of Edga Davao, speaking in behalf of all the winners, thanked all the judges for recognizing the best work of community journalists and expressed the hope that the next PPI summit would be held in Davao City. The proposal was met with applause by the community press.

The PPI national membership also elected the new PPI board of trustees. The new officers are:

PPI Chairman and President
Jesus Dureza/ publisher, The Mindanao Times

PPI Vice Chairman
Ruevivar Reyes/ publisher, Southern Leyte Times

Corporate Secretary
May Anne Cacdac/ editor, Sunstar Baguio

Treasurer
Al Pedroche/ editor, Pilipino Star Ngayon

 

The following is a live blog of the 17th National Press Forum of the Philippine Press Forum at the New World Hotel entitled Watching the Watchdog: Re-examining Ourselves.

DAY 2

June 14, 20013

The second day of the annual PPI conference begins with a discussion on how Philippine newspapers are surviving in the digital age. At a time when US newspapers have been closing down with alarming regularity and media workers in the western world are being laid off, it would be good to look at the Philippine experience, and see if there are points of similarity or divergence.

Cebu Daily News publisher Eileen Mangubat, who introduced the first session, spoke of the problem faced by today’s newspapers – rising costs for paper, electricity, and wages, while advertising revenues and circulation remain flat or have started sliding down.

Mangubat said nowhere is this felt more than in the provinces, where radio and television, which reach more people, are getting the lion’s share of the revenues.

“Here lies the paradox: people are consuming more information today than ever before, and are impatient for news,” Mangubat said. “They may not be reading daily or weekly newspapers, but they are finding out more at faster speeds through the internet.”

But rather than seeing this as a death knell for newspapers, Mangubat said media agencies should see this as an opportunity to improve skills and adopt new technologies.

“The demand for news and information and good design and visuals are the biggest opportunity for the news media to do what it does best – story telling with a purpose,” Mangubat said. “In the end, the mission of journalism remains the same: to inform the people and tell the truth.”

Mangubat however stressed the need for media organizations to forge a “deliberate strategy” to make use of these challenges and opportunities. This, because good journalism will always cost money, and it would be up to good journalists and media agencies to find the right formula for doing good journalism – and staying afloat.

 

The first speaker was Mel Velarde, chief executive officer of Information Capital Technology Ventures, Inc, on diversifying news content and online competitiveness.

Velarde began by emphasizing the importance of trust and diversification in the online world.

“Trust is the monetization engine online,” Velarde said. This, because the online world is, more and more, dependent on the value of trust.

As for diversification, Velarde said media agencies who choose to diversify their content and distribution should keep in mind the four ways by which consumers consume content:

• Focused consumption;
• Time shifting;
• Dual mode;
• Infosnackss, or information sachets.

Velarde also stressed the need for caution in taking in new technologies; some agencies adopt too many platforms for all protocols, thereby losing money in the process.

What is needed, Velarde said, is what he calls “responsive web design,” wherein content is automatically repurposed for all media online platforms, or what he calls a “buy-one-take-four” design.

 

Rappler editor-at-large Marites Vitug, speaking on the transition from print to online, spoke of the challenges of moving from mainstream to the web.

Vitug related the experience of publishing Newsbreak, an investigative news magazine that at first was published in print, before being forced to move online because of rising publication costs. However, even online, Vitug said Newsbreak had difficulty staying out of the red, since most of the online advertisements still kept going to the bigger established and mainstream news websites.

In order to address these financial issues, Newsbreak entered into a partnership with a giant mainstream media organization in order to stay afloat. While the arrangement proved to be relatively comfortable in terms of finances, many in Newsbreak had difficulty adjusting to both the television and online 24-hour news beast.

In the end, Vitug said that while news on the web still seems to be largely event driven, in that hits go up with big events like disasters, calamities, and elections, online journalists should not be driven by this alone.

“We have to be careful not to be solely influenced by the numbers in our choices of news,” she said. “We should still have the lesser read stuff like science and politics.”

“News is not like American Idol. Our duty is to bear witness,” she said.

“The challenge to the print medium is this: Today, the papers have a tougher job to do, they need to go a step further beyond the breaking news to the in-depth,” Vitug said. This, because the internet “already tells us the news minute by minute, hour by hour.”

“Newspapers should do the service by explaining what this all means to the public,” she said.

Also invited to the panel in order to give the community press some tips on how to engage advertisers and make their newspapers more attractive as an advertising platform, the PPI also invited representatives from Proctor and Gamble and Mead Johnson.

Clint Navales, head of Communications for Proctor and Gamble and corporate secretary of the Philippine Association of National Advertisers (PANA), said the consumers were “hungry for intimacy,” something that community newspapers could tap into.

Navales pointed out that community newspapers would presumably be more in touch with the culture, social networks, and habits of their own communities. If the community papers could tap into this knowledge, then they would be more attractive to advertisers than the mainstream national media.

“The consumers want the brands to talk to them as individuals,” Navales said.

“The community papers can create a look and feel that is premium and costumized to the unique culture of a community,” he said. “Iba dapat ang Panay News sa Davao, iba ang Visayan Daily Star sa Baguio Midland Courier.”

Wally Panganiban, corporate affairs head of Mead Johnson Nutrition, stressed the need for journalists and media agencies to “develop new readers.”

“Do not rely on how they access the media on their own, because chances are they will miss out,” Panganiban said.

In addition, Panganiban said media agencies should also make an effort to “grow talents in the newsroom,” and not just harvest good journalists from outside.

“We have to inspire future professional journalists, we have to find a way to excite people to take up journalism as a career, as a profession,” he said.

Panganiban also stressed the need for what he called media development. For example, Panganiban pointed out that while the PPI has the annual conference every year to talk about issues in the industry, the major newspapers almost never cover these events.

“So these issues do not get communicated outside, they do not go out into the mainstream discussion, and that is sad,” he said.

In the open forum, some PPI members pointed out that while an online presence may be necessary for Manila media, advertisers should not shut out provincial media agencies which do not have an online presence.

Adrian Amatong, a publisher from Mindanao, pointed out that many of their readers don’t have online access to begin with; in fact, Amatong said, many of their readers are not even internet literate. Amatong said it would not be fair for advertisers to expect provincial papers to show technological innovations online when they do not need it on the ground to begin with.

Carla Gomez of the Visayan Daily Star for her part threw back the challenge to advertisers. “You guys need to explore our markets in the provinces,” she said. “We have more hits than the actual sales of newspapers, and we are much cheaper.”

Gomez said advertisers should stop being so engrossed with the national news media, and start looking at the potentials in the countryside.

Gomez says her media agency services a large community of people abroad, as well as a niche market. “There is a large Negros community who do not read the national newspapers,” she said.

“We are the future for advertising as well,” Gomez said, drawing applause from PPI members.

Panganiban of Mead Johnson asked the controversial question that got everybody’s attention.

After several community newspapers made a pitch to the advertising community to place ads in the community press, Panganiban said: “The question is, does everybody need to survive?”

To this, several PPI members were heard saying “Yes, of course!”

However, Panganiban pointed out that the question needed to be asked because not all newspapers hew closely to the standards that even the PPI holds dear. Panganiban also indicated that for good newspapers to survive in the digital age, newspapers that don’t deserve to survive also have to fold up.

“Are all newspapers complying with the standards for paying their reporters?” Panganiban asked. “Are all these papers holding to the good and the true?”

“Surviving means getting rid of those who don’t deserve to survive,” he added.

10:45 a.m.
Session 2

For the second session of the last day of the PPI annual conference, Atty. Nepomuceno Malaluan of the Right to Know Right Now Coalition gave an update on the long-stalled Freedom of Information bill.

Malaluan said the FOI bill will again have to start from scratch when the 16th Congress begins with the President’s State of the Nation Address.

“We felt the FOI bill was more than ripe already after all those years,” Malaluan said. Malaluan said that FOI advocates are making adjustments with the lessons from the failure of the FOI to pass through the 15th Congress.

For instance, Malaluan said they relied mainly on a core of FOI champions in the lower chamber to push the bill through “on the belief that this could be done with the backing from the President.”

However, since Malacanang appeared cool to the FOI, the measure languished in the lower chamber, barely squeezing through the House committee on public information, and wallowing in the plenary. On the other hand, the FOI bill in the Senate had already been passed on third reading.

 

Malaluan said FOI advocates plan to “hit the ground running” with a press conference on the 24th of June, 2013.

Malaluan said the version that the coalition will push with the 16th Congress is an “embodiment of the consensus” of various advocacy groups that have consistently pushed the FOI.

The major points of the latest version of the FOI bill include:

• A clear definition of Freedom of Information that also clearly lists the exceptions to the FOI
• The removal of a wide discretion on the part of government to deny FOI
• Speedy procedure for the access of documents
• Enumeration of specific acts that are violative of the right to information, constituting administrative or criminal offenses.
• Standards for record keeping and disclosure by the government
• And finally, an affirmation that any move to include a Right of Reply proviso would be rejected outright, and would in fact be the line that divides true FOI champions and those who only pretend to push the measure.

“We have seen in the past five Congresses that the full application of our right to information is strongly resisted by bureaucrats. We will never get the FOI easily. It is clear that determined political action is necessary, and we are hoping to work with you as soon as the 16th Congress opens,” Malaluan said.

Asked to comment on the approval by the Supreme Court of a petition by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) for the release of the statements of assets, liabilities, and net worth of the Supreme Court Justices, Malaluan said the decision by the tribunal was a victory for FOI advocates. However, Malaluan stressed that there were more battles ahead, especially on the issue of getting the SC to revise its rules and guidelines for the release of the SALNs.

Malou Mangahas, Executive Director of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, pointed out that the PCIJ petition was with the court for a total of ten months before the petition was acted upon.

Mangahas added that the tribunal had imposed too many conditions for the court to even consider the petition, including notarized affidavits and articles of incorporation, as well as lengthy justifications for the request and what interest the request was supposed to serve.

This, even though Republic Act 6713, the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public OFficials and Employees, merely states that SALNs should be made accessible to anyone within 15 working days after these are filed.

Mangahas also spoke on how the media covered the 2013 midterm elections, and the importance of learning from the recent poll experience in order to apply these lessons for 2016.

Managahas said the coverage of the midterm elections was a mixed bag of sorts, with some media agencies going beyond the spot breaking reports and the usual general profiles of candidates, while others were content to report uncritically what the campaign spins of the candidates.

For example, she said it was clear that many media organizations gave inordinate focus on “better known and more moneyed candidates” of the administration and the opposition. On the other hand, many media agencies merely gave “negligible and token coverage of independent candidates.”

Mangahas said reporters and editors would do well to remember that political coverage does not end with the May 2013 elections, and that media should now shift to collecting on the promises that candidates made should, and prepare to cover the May 2016 elections better.

“More than sending candidates to power, it is about holding them to account for abusing that power,” she said. “It is wrong to think that the coverage ends on May 13, 2013, when in fact, we should expand, continue, and sustain it even today, in preparation for 2016.”

“More than the usual coverage of elections, we should be happy that somehow we have done more than the usual coverage,” Mangahas said. “But is doing better than usual good enough for our audience?”

“I think the focus should be how can we cover the elections better in 2016. After all, everyone says the 2013 elections is just the front act for 2016,”she said

Mangahas also revealed some details of a PCIJ study on the living and working conditions of journalists, especially in the Visayas, and how economic circumstances may be one element that could affect how a journalist behaves. Mangahas said the study would be released later this month.

At the same time,  Managahas sought to place corruption in media in the proper context, saying corruption is a complex issue that should not be painted in broad strokes of black and white. Minor and grave omissions or violations of the journalism’s code of ethics may all be what some people mean when they talk about “corruption” in the media, she said.

Likewise, the issue of “corruption” is better addressed by media organizations, not by finger-pointing or by declaring one to be holier than the rest, but by a combined and concerted effort at self-regulation. At the same time, she said the media should even more vigorously rail against “the supply side” of corruption, notably sources “who seem to think that everyone in media has a price.”

Journalism codes of ethics, she spelled out, cluster possible violations between “black and white” issues such as accepting cash or gifts or favors, in exchange for favorable stories, but also the “grey domain” of conflict of interest situations, deceptive methods of getting stories, and even sloppy reporting or failure to get all sides to a story, she said.

“The challenge is to live it (ethics) out every day in the field and in the newsroom, to take the issues as they come, to disclose conflicts of interests, to decide with the welfare of the audience as primary concern,” Mangahas said. “Mas maganda aralin kung ano ang gagawin step by step, as individuals, as newsrooms, and as a community.”

She said any discussions of supposed “corruption” in the media should not be seen as occasion for the government to crack down on the citizen’s freedom of speech, of the press, and to assemble peaceably that are inalienable rights of all the citizens under the Constitution.

 

 

ELECTIONS in the Philippines, especially for candidates to national office, are considered to be primarily “air war” affairs.

This was, in fact, what happened again in the May 2013 elections, which saw most of the moneyed candidates for senator, and the administration and opposition political coalitions, splurging on political advertisements like there was no tomorrow.

Our latest report. “The ‘air war’ for votes in May 2013″, is authored by PCIJ Training Director Che de los Reyes.

According to Nielsen data that PCIJ reviewed, the candidates for senator, the political parties, and some party-list groups waged pitched ad battles on television during the last balloting, and at the cost of stupendous sums.

TV ads seemed to have worked wonders for the victors. There were a few others, however, who spent big but lost big, too.

During the 90-day official campaign period, the 12 winning candidates for senator and their political coalitions — administration Team PNoy and the opposition United Nationalist Alliance or UNA — altogether spent an indicative total of P1.18 billion on TV ads alone.

Five other candidates for senator who lost incurred another P466.58 million in TV ad expenses during the period.

Team PNoy and UNA, meanwhile, spent a combined total of P154.32 million on TV ads that featured their candidates.

But that is not the end of the story.

Even before the official campaign period could start, Nielsen data show that the two coalitions and 14 candidates for senator had aired “advocacy ads” from Nov. 11, 2012 to Feb. 11, 2013. Altogether, these ads amounted to another P424.87 million.

Combined, the sums show that the composite spending on TV ads alone of the two coalitions and their senatorial candidates totaled P2.23 billion in six months (November 11, 2012 to May 11, 2013), or an average of P371.11 million a month, or P12.37 million a day

And wait, there’s more.

Nine senatorial candidates and one party-list group would have breached the airtime limit for political ads on TV had it not been for a crucial order from the Supreme Court regarding a new rule being imposed by the Commission on Elections (Comelec). One of those nine candidates would have also surpassed the campaign-spending limit.

Seven of the nine actually won, while the party-list group, Buhay, eventually garnered the most number of votes among party-list groups and is poised to occupy three seats in Congress.

Last April 16, less than a month before the elections, the Supreme Court issued a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) on the “aggregate time limit” rule imposed by Comelec.

The TRO effectively reverted the counting of advertising minutes to the “per station” basis, just like in the May 2010 presidential polls.

Read our latest report, The ‘air war’ for votes in May 2013:

Main: Without SC TRO, 9 Senate bets, Buhay liable for breaching TV ads airtime limit
Sidebar: Serious, furious
Sidebar: Pre-campaign ad blast

 

AT ITS 17TH National Conference that opens today at the New World Hotel in Makati City, the Philippine Press Institute (PPI), the national association of newspapers of the Philippines, tackles a delicate yet necessary theme: a self re-exmination of the responsibilities of the Philippine press.

The conference, titled Watching the Watchdog: Re-examining Ourselves, calls attention to the need for the Philippine press to exercise its watchdog role, not just on the three pillars of government, but on the fourth estate as well.

Indeed, the conference opens with a talk by University of the Philippines College of Mass Communications Dean Roland Tolentino on the issue of competence and professional values in the media. Tolentino will discuss the sensitive question: Is the quality of professional practice by the Philippine media poor?

Other topics that are certain to generate much discussion and possibly even debate during the conference are economic rights and working conditions of journalists, and how traditional newspapers are surviving the digital age.

The PPI is the national association of newspapers whose primary mandate is the defense of press freedom and the promotion of ethical standards in the journalism community. The Institute was founded in 1964, but was only revived in 1986 with the ouster of former President Ferdinand Marcos.

The Institute holds a National Press Forum and general membership meeting every year in order to gather senior members of the journalism community for a dialogue on the pressing needs and concerns of the industry. The PPI also works closely with media organizations such as the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism on a wide spectrum of issues such as media concerns, governance, press freedom, and freedom of information.

Aside from Dean Tolentino, the other resource persons who had been invited to address the PPI forum are: Rowena Paraan, national president of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP); Malou Mangahas, executive director of the Philippine Center on Investigative Journalism (PCIJ); and Marites Vitug of social news network Rappler; journalist-blogger Raissa Robles; and Ramon Tuazon of the Asian Institute of Journalism and Communication (AIJC).

 

 

What follows is a live blog of the two-day 17th PPI National Press Forum at the New World Hotel in Makati City. 

DAY 1

June 13, 2013

1:30

The PPI national conference began with the cutting of the ribbon for the 17th Annual Press Forum at the entrance of the grand ballroom of the New World Hotel in Makati.

Gracing the occasion were PPI President and Chairman Amado Macasaet, PPI vice chairman Vergel Santos, and Adel Tamano, director for public affairs of Coca Cola Philippines, which assisted in the conference.

This was followed by the viewing by the PPI members and guests of exhibits from newspapers all over the country of their stories and editions based on the theme Climate Change and Biodiversity.

PPI President and chairman Amado ‘Jake’ Macasaet opened the annual conference with a reminder to the assembled journalists that journalists are not a special class of people who must be given special privileges – or preferences.

Macasaet said it was necessary for media to conduct a self examination of he industry because of the need to address the issue of corruption in the media.

“We will try to address this not by stabbing ourselves in the back, but right  here, where we can get hurt. There should not be personal feelings about how we have failed in doing our jobs,” Macasaet said.

“We cannot lay claim to honesty and integrity if you have a thief in your own home,” Macasaet said.

As well, Macasaet said it was about time that mediamen realize that they should not hold themselves above the rest of society, with special privileges that are not granted to ordinary Filipinos.

“In my thinking, a newspaperman should not look at selves as one who is different from the man next door,” Macasaet said. For example, Macasaet pointed out how mediamen raise hell whenever one of their own is killed. However, “do we care about a balut vendor, for example, whose daily earnings are fleeced by a cop?”

“We really don’t,” he said.

“We should veer away from the idea that we are a special class of people,” Macasaet said.

At the same time Macasaet decried how, despite repeated conferences and meetings, the PPI has not been able to keep its member-publishers in line in terms of ethics and professionalism.

“We cannot get the publishers to be bound,” Macasaet said. “For example, the press councils; we have investigations of complaints, and guilt is found, and recommendations are sent to the publishers – and then nothing happens!”

In his opening remarks, PPI vice chairman Vergel Santos traced the roots of some of the causes of today’s issues in journalism and media, beginning with the declaration of Martial Law which derailed the development of the media industry, and globalization and the rush of new technologies, which he said turned everything into a matter of markets and economies.

 

Santos also bewailed how journalism in the traditional sense has been “hijacked” by new communications technology that has overtaken many practitioners.

“Now, the field belongs more to non journalists, the professionals in whose suitably trained hands it was supposed to rest,” Santos said.

“this technology culprit now allows anyone to string words together, and to foist on the rest of the world misinformation and confusion instead of enlightenment,” Santos said.

For his part UP College of Mass Communications Dean Roland Tolentino, in his talk on the quality of the professional skills of mediamen today, pointed to the new modality in journalism wherein journalism has to contend with popular appeal. This is more apparent in broadcast, where, for example, Tolentino says national news is “showbizified,” and showbiz is “nationalized.”

In the first, Tolentino says, the trivial aspects of national personalities are highlighted; for example, stories on the lovelife of the President, or red carpet reports on important state events, or stories on the hobbies of political personalities. The second, on the other hand, pushes trivial matters such as showbiz on the national scene, giving them equal prominence as more urgent issues.

“This underscores the system of equivalences, the dumbing down of news and the condescending take on audiences,” Tolentino said. “Newspapers need to tell the truth, but they also need to sell the truth.”

‘The negotiation is based on the truth on one hand, and the selling of the truth on the other hand,” Tolentino said.

Tolentino added that while there appears to be more than enough students graduating from journalism schools today, a sizeable number of media workers do not come from these programs. As such, “the competencies are to be learned and mastered on the job. This makes for an uneven landscape of competencies.”

“The result is a need for more training of core values, and a perennial catch-up game to meet professional standards,” Tolentino said.

PPI vice chairman Vergel Santos

UP MassComm Dean Roland Tolentino

Several issues came up during the open forum for the first panel, including the lack of a venue for working journalists to upgrade their skills while at the same time working. The audience asked if universities are already offering short certification courses on, for example, how to understand a financial statement.

Dean Tolentino said that these courses are being studied now by many universities. Santos for his part cited the importance of continuing studies and training, if only to ensure that journalists who report the news must first know how to understand the news they report. For example, Santos said that the ability of a journalist to read a financial statement would ensure that he knows how the data in a financial statement could be fudged by government officials who want to look good.

Another member of the audience cited the need for journalists and their media agencies to reveal their “environment,” or “where they are coming from,” so that their audience or readers are better able to understand them.

Santos however took it a step further by stressing the need for newspapers and media organizations to reveal their funders and business interests to the public so as to erase any doubts. Santos said this is akin to requiring government officials to submit and disclose their statements of assets, liabilities, and net worth or SALNs.

June 13, 2013
2:55 p.m.

For the second panel, Asian Institute of Journalism president Ramon Tuazon spoke of media’s re-examination of the role of news in a democracy. Tuazon centered on two issues here: marketability as a news value, and corruption in media.

Tuazon said that marketability has established itself in the news media as one of the primary elements of a story. Marketability is called several names, or defined in several ways, the most popular being the ratings system.

As for corruption in media, Tuazon said a series of roundtable discussions among media men in the provinces reveal that corruption is very prevalent in media, permeating all levels from the lowest to the highest.

Tuazon said the it has gotten to the point that it already has its own vocabulary: bukol, didal, ATM journalism, etc. Corruption has also evolved into other forms, giving the appearance of regularity.

For example, some media agencies make their journalists do double roles as account executives.  Other media agencies foist the argument that there is no corruption if there is no under the table deal, and that a contract can legitimize the changing of hands of money.

Other arguments and statements that came up during the roundtable discussions:

• There is no corruption pag hindi mo hiningi ang ibinigay sa iyo
• Pag walang corruptuon, maraming journalists na maghihirap

“That everyone does it is now an excuse to justify corruption,” Tuazon said.

Rowena Paraan, head of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), for her part pointed to violations of the economic rights of journalists as another kind of violence against media.

For example, Paraan said many journalists especially in the countryside “have no idea of the minimum wage, or that minimum wage should apply to them.”

 

Paraan also decried the practice of many media agencies in the provinces of requiring reporters to sell ad space or airtime to the people they cover, in exchange for a ten or 20 percent commission.

In fact, Paraan said, she has heard that some media agencies actually find it more convenient and profitable to have their more prominent reporters personally sell ad space or airtime to their sources. “Let’s face it, this is a conflict of interest situation,” Paraan said.

Paraan also pointed to yet another practice by media agencies of refusing to recognize an employer-employee relationship with their reporters in order to avoid giving them labor benefits. This contractualization of journalists makes them more vulnerable to safety and ethical issues, Paraan said.

In fact, Paraan said some media agencies, including the major networks, have already shown expertise in finding loopholes in labor laws. Some networks, for example, invented all sorts of levels in order to ensure that there are few employees who can become members of unions.

Paraan said it was unfortunate that many media agencies have taken this route, so that “the future of the profession that is the backbone of democracy is now in danger.”

Raissa Robles, Manila correspondent of the South China Morning Post and a popular blogger, in turn spoke on how new technology was reshaping the way journalists bring the news to the public.

Robles, who says she was once also digitally challenged, now challenged editors and publishers to adapt to a rapidly changing world instead of staying as part of the “digitally homeless.”

“The once a day cycle is gone, and the newspapers don’t seem to care,” she said. “But the people want it now, not tomorrow.”

Robles said the what was a one-way street before is now an interactive world. “Before, the press told readers what stand to take through their editorials, and controlled feedback through the letters to the editors,” she said. Now, however, Robles said, newspapers need to move from “entitlement to people empowerment.”

Robles added that journalists should not fear becoming obsolete. Mainstream journalists would survive, Robles said, provided they maintain and develop four skills:

• The ability to recognize something as newsy;
• The ability to get facts completely and accurately;
• The ability to get the other side or the contrary view;
• and the ability to sense a pattern of events and make sense of it

Eileen Mangubat, editor of the Cebu Daily News, remarked that it would also be good for the panelists to speak about the positive efforts by many journalists to fight corruption in the media. Mangubat said that while publishers and editors recognize the problem of corruption, there is value in also applauding the efforts of journalists to clean their ranks.

The discussion on corruption in media proved quite controversial, as some publishers took the floor to explain why some media agencies adopt practices that media organizations describe as unethical.

One publisher said it was difficult for his newspaper to take the cudgels for his local officials if it tries to be critical. The local officials in his province, for example, have proven to be quite supportive of his newspaper to begin with.

This remark drew many comments from the panel and the floor, with several panelists saying they were disturbed by the remark of the publisher. Tuazon pointed out that it is not the job of a journalist “to take the cudgels for his local officials” to begin with.

Another publisher was more cautious, saying it was not fair to talk about corruption by journalists, when the issue is really “corruption of the publisher.”

“There is a difference between publishers and mediamen,” he said. “We survive by the patronage of the politicians and the businessmen, they are the source of our income. This supports my theory that in the rural areas, you should not call it corruption of the media or of the journalists, it could be corruption of the publisher.”

Tuazon for his part proposed a system of accreditation and classification of media personnel by a reputable group or network of groups, so long as government is in no way involved in the system. This, Tuazon said, would help address the issue of professionalizing the media industry.

Eileen Mangubat of the Cebu Daily News pointed out the need for everyone to disclose just how much they are paying their journalists. Mangubat said if need be, an independent organization should come out with a study or a white paper, since “it will never come out of the owners.”
“It’s important to see the baeline, so that we see what is fair and exploitative,” Mangubat said.

Paraan said owners and publishers should also not use their economic woes to justify their refusal to pay their employees decent wages, or to give their employees benefits, or even to simply recognize or acknowledge their journalists as actual bona fide employees.