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SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 20

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WHATSiNSIDE

The TulfoFranchise

SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2011

WhenTooMuch

is TooMuch

The Media

as Messiah

Esperat Photos by LITO OCAMPO

INSTEAD OF speeding up the quest for justice, le-gal procedures can be used to delay, and worse,even bring judicial proceedings to a standstill.Petitions for certiorari and prohibition are twoof the often abused extraordinary legal remedies

in the Philippines.

Finding justice for the slain journalists

EXTRAORDINARYDELAYS

n By Melanie Y. Pinlac

Certiorari is the extraordinaryremedy to correct an actuation of

a judge who has acted without ju-risdiction in excess of jurisdictionor clearly in grave abuse of discre-tion, and not to correct errors of

procedure and/or mistakes in thejudges ndings or conclusions.(Martin vs Florendo SP-09340,Jan. 27, 1982 as qtd. in Philippine

Law Dictionary, Moreno F., 1988Reprint: April 2005)

Prohibition, on the otherhand, is a writ issued command-ing a tribunal, corporation, board,

or personto desist from furtherproceedings when the same arewithout or in excess of jurisdic-tion. (Sec.2, Rule 65, Rules of

Court qtd. in Moreno, p.752)Both can be found under Rule

65 of the Rules of Courts of thePhilippines.

In the Marlene Esperat case,the petitions for certiorari and

prohibition led by the alleged

masterminds have resulted in atwo-year delay in the prosecutionof the alleged masterminds.

Custom-madeJournalists

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Theres a live and let liveagreement between the

regulars and the hao siaos

n By Philip C. Tubeza

RIGHT AFTER being appointed to his post,newly designated Customs commissioner Ro-zzano Runo Biazon raised a lot of eyebrows

when he announced that he would be crack-ing down on pseudo-journalists at the Bu-

reau of Customs (BOC).

Custom-MadeJournalists

Biazon said the ranks of report-ers covering the customs beat had

become too big and needed to bepurged as some of these pseudo-journalists (known among jour-nalists as hao siao) were corrupt

and were even aiding smugglers.Its a problem... It has an ef-

fect on the ght against corrup-tion and smuggling within the

Bureau because sometimes, thepseudo-journalists are being usedto further the interests of smug-

glers, Biazon said.Theyre being used for the

character assassination of em-ployees of the Bureau.Nagagamitsila na pampabango ng mabaho.

Ayaw natin yun (Theyre alsoused to make the corrupt lookgood. We dont want that), headded.

While emphasizing that it isnta top priority, Biazon said thatwhile he would meet with thesepseudo-journalists, he will also

consult legitimate media groupsto help develop an accreditationsystem to purge the ranks of thosecovering the bureau of alleged

journalists.(Coverage of the Bureau of

Customs) is supposed to be opento anyone but what is happening

is it being hogged by a certaingroup, so we need to level theplaying eld by instituting an ac-creditation system, Biazon said.

The BOC media ofce cur-rently accredits 41 reporters inthe customs beat. This numberincludes individuals from the

weekly tabloids that for some rea-son are based in the Bureau.

In addition to the nationalmedia, there are about 10 to 12

tabloids based in the BOC.They claim to come out weekly

or twice a week and supposedlyfocus mainly on customs issues.Some have been in the Bureau forseveral years, but one tabloid was

founded only last month.Apparently, it is this group

whose number Biazon wants totrim.

There are small publicationswhose copies you can count onyour ngers, and yet they have 15

correspondents in the Bureau. Wehave to address that, he said.

Added another Customs of-cial: Some of (these tabloids)have ve reporters while others

have a one-man army. The report-er, publisher, columnist is just oneperson. The only one whos differ-ent is the legal adviser.

But besides these tabloids andthe national media, another groupof reporters also cover the Bu-reau every week.

There are groups who makean exodus all the way from Pam-panga, Bulacan, and even as faraway as Bicol. They come here

every Friday to ask ofcials formoney, a BOC ofcial said.

Maybe thats why they saidthat up to 400 reporters cover the

BOC. These groups from the prov-inces, they come in groups of veor seven and visit the ofces to askfor money for medicine, for trans-

portation fare, what have you,the ofcial said.

We know about them onlyfrom the complaints we get from

our ofcials. And thats part of theproblem. If only they would notgive these groups (money), thesepeople from the provinces would

not comehere again

and again,the ofcialadded.

The ofcial com-

plained that while theBOC media ofce hasaccredited only 41 re-porters, these groups

can still freely comeand go atCustoms.

Whil ecovering Cus-toms for thePhilippine Dai-ly Inquirer, I have yet toencounter those who makethe exodus to the BOCfrom the provinces, it is hard toavoid those reporters allegedlycovering the beat for the weeklytabloids.

Press conferences at the bu-reau are usually held in the Presi-dents Room at the fourth oor ofthe Port of Manila building in theBOC compound.

The room is much biggerthan the media brieng room inMalacaang Palace, but it is usu-ally full during press the confer-ences of Customs ofcials.

Whatever one might say aboutthem, however, the pseudo-report-ers do make it a point to ask perti -nent questions and are direct to thepoint, unlike their counterpart haosiaos who frequent the regular me-dia forums and kapihan (press con-ferences over coffee) held in MetroManilas hotels.

They also cover Customsevents; some bring their own

cameras so they can take photosof customs ofcials presenting themedia with the smuggled goodstheyve discovered at the Port of

Manila.I remember attending one

Customs coverage at the ManilaHarbor Center in Vitas, Tondo.

There were so many of them inthe van provided by the Bureausmedia ofce for reporters that wereporters from the Manila broad-

sheets had to

ask a TV crew for a ride and to sitin the back of their pick-up truckall the way back to Intramuros(the Walled City).

While regular reporters cover-ing Customs do not usually minglewith them, theres a tacit live andlet live agreement between the

two groups.But theres also a joke among

reporters that one has to makeones face familiar to customs of-

cials because someone mightpretend hes you and, armed withyour article, demand a rewardfrom these ofcials.

So, how do you separate the

wheat from the chaff?My personal denition of a

pseudo-journalist is someone who

has an obvious bias in his or herreporting, said Biazon.

When the reporter obviouslyhas the habit of unfairly attack-

ing or unfairly defending (knownamong journalists as AC-DC)someone, and when his outt ob-viously is not a news provider but

as a means of propagandahe orshe is a fake journalist. Thats my

personal denition, he said.A former ranking Bureau of-

cial said that some of these pseu-do-journalists do practice AC/DCor the practice of attack,collect; defend, collect among

customs ofcials.

That would be a lucrative

practice as the BOC is madeup of different compet-ing factions, each with its

own agenda and political

backer.But the former BOC of-

cial also pointed out anotherpossible explanation as to why

there are so many reporterscovering Customs: because

many of these pseudo-journal-ists also earn their keep by acting

as brokers for importers.Theyd come to me and

ask for help about suchand such a shipment but

I would tell them that

they have to deal withthe customs collector,

the former ofcial said.

That is why I have doubtsif this campaign of the newcommissioner would succeed.Theyre also brokers so they

can go inside and transact withcustoms ofcials, he added.But Biazon maintains that he

has the authority to keep out un-

desirable pseudo-journalistsfrom the BOC compound.

Everyone should rememberthat the BOC is a government of-

ce... From what I heard, it seemsour ofce at the BOC has been

taken over by these pseudo-jour-nalists, he said.

So, wejust want toput things into

order so that the employees of the

BOC can concentrate on their jobsand should not be harassed bycharacter assassinations, etc., he

added.Biazon held a dialogue with

reporters from the mainstreammedia and the weekly tabloids onSept. 29 and decided to create a

committee that would draft theaccreditation guidelines.

Its a balancing act becausewe should also be careful so as

not to trample on the freedom ofexpression or the freedom of thepress. We will have to deal withthat carefully, Biazon said.

Our first move is to ratio-nalize their presence. Do youreally need to be there? Or, howmany of you should be there?

Then well see if their publica-tion should be banned outrightor if we should give them someelbow room (to) act as if they

are really journalists, he add-ed. n

Since his graduation from the

University of the Philippines in

1999 with a degree in journalism,cum laude, Philip C. Tubeza hasbeen writing for the Philippine

Daily Inquirer except for a two-year stint with a Filipino commu-nity paper in Hong Kong from2007-2008