SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2011 20

WHATSiNSIDE
When Too Much is Too Much
The Tulfo Franchise

The Media as Messiah

Custom-made Journalists

Finding justice for the slain journalists

EXTRAORDINARY DELAYS I
n By Melanie Y. Pinlac

NSTEAD OF speeding up the quest for justice, legal procedures can be used to delay, and worse, even bring judicial proceedings to a standstill. Petitions for certiorari and prohibition are two of the often abused extraordinary legal remedies in the Philippines.
Certiorari is the extraordinary remedy to correct an actuation of a judge who has acted without jurisdiction in excess of jurisdiction or clearly in grave abuse of discretion, and not to correct errors of procedure and/or mistakes in the judges findings or conclusions. (Martin vs Florendo SP-09340, Jan. 27, 1982 as qtd. in Philippine Law Dictionary, Moreno F., 1988 Reprint: April 2005) Prohibition, on the other hand, is a writ issued commanding a tribunal, corporation, board, or personto desist from further proceedings when the same are without or in excess of jurisdiction. (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 the Philippines. In the Marlene Esperat case, the petitions for certiorari and

Esperat

Photos by LITO OCAMPO

prohibition filed by the alleged masterminds have resulted in a two-year delay in the prosecution of the alleged masterminds.

Turn to page 8



SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 20

Custom-Made Journalists
Theres a live and let live agreement between the regulars and the hao siaos
n By Philip C. Tubeza

IGHT AFTER being appointed to his post, newly designated Customs commissioner Rozzano Rufino Biazon raised a lot of eyebrows when he announced that he would be cracking down on pseudo-journalists at the Bureau of Customs (BOC).
Biazon said the ranks of reporters covering the customs beat had become too big and needed to be purged as some of these pseudojournalists (known among journalists as hao siao) were corrupt and were even aiding smugglers. Its a problem... It has an effect on the fight against corruption and smuggling within the Bureau because sometimes, the pseudo-journalists are being used to further the interests of smugglers, Biazon said. Theyre being used for the character assassination of employees of the Bureau. Nagagamit sila na pampabango ng mabaho. Ayaw natin yun (Theyre also used to make the corrupt look good. We dont want that), he added. While emphasizing that it isnt a top priority, Biazon said that while he would meet with these pseudo-journalists, he will also consult legitimate media groups to help develop an accreditation system to purge the ranks of those covering the bureau of alleged journalists. (Coverage of the Bureau of Customs) is supposed to be open to anyone but what is happening is it being hogged by a certain group, so we need to level the playing field by instituting an accreditation system, Biazon said. The BOC media office currently accredits 41 reporters in the customs beat. This number includes individuals from the weekly tabloids that for some reason are based in the Bureau. In addition to the national media, there are about 10 to 12 tabloids based in the BOC. They claim to come out weekly or twice a week and supposedly focus mainly on customs issues. Some have been in the Bureau for several years, but one tabloid was founded only last month. Apparently, it is this group whose number Biazon wants to trim. There are small publications whose copies you can count on your fingers, and yet they have 15 correspondents in the Bureau. We have to address that, he said. Added another Customs official: Some of (these tabloids) have five reporters while others have a one-man army. The reporter, publisher, columnist is just one person. The only one whos different is the legal adviser. But besides these tabloids and the national media, another group of reporters also cover the Bureau every week. There are groups who make an exodus all the way from Pampanga, Bulacan, and even as far away as Bicol. They come here every Friday to ask officials for money, a BOC official said. Maybe thats why they said that up to 400 reporters cover the BOC. These groups from the provinces, they come in groups of five or seven and visit the offices to ask for money for medicine, for transportation fare, what have you, the official said. We know about them only from the complaints we get from our officials. And thats part of the problem. If only they would not give these groups (money), these people from the provinces would

not come here again and again, the official added. The official complained that while the BOC media office has accredited only 41 reporters, these groups can still freely come and go at Customs. While covering Customs for the Philippine Daily Inquirer, I have yet to encounter those who make the exodus to the BOC from the provinces, it is hard to avoid those reporters allegedly covering the beat for the weekly tabloids. Press conferences at the bureau are usually held in the Presidents Room at the fourth floor of the Port of Manila building in the BOC compound. The room is much bigger than the media briefing room in Malacaang Palace, but it is usually full during press the conferences of Customs officials. Whatever one might say about them, however, the pseudo-reporters do make it a point to ask pertinent questions and are direct to the point, unlike their counterpart hao siaos who frequent the regular media forums and kapihan (press conferences over coffee) held in Metro Manilas hotels. They also cover Customs events; some bring their own cameras so they can take photos of customs officials presenting the media with the smuggled goods theyve discovered at the Port of Manila. I remember attending one Customs coverage at the Manila Harbor Center in Vitas, Tondo. There were so many of them in the van provided by the Bureaus media office for reporters that we reporters from the Manila broad-

sheets had to ask a TV crew for a ride and to sit in the back of their pick-up truck all the way back to Intramuros (the Walled City). While regular reporters covering Customs do not usually mingle with them, theres a tacit live and let live agreement between the two groups. But theres also a joke among reporters that one has to make ones face familiar to customs officials because someone might pretend hes you and, armed with your article, demand a reward from these officials. So, how do you separate the wheat from the chaff? My personal definition of a pseudo-journalist is someone who has an obvious bias in his or her reporting, said Biazon. When the reporter obviously has the habit of unfairly attacking or unfairly defending (known among journalists as AC-DC) someone, and when his outfit obviously is not a news provider but as a means of propagandahe or she is a fake journalist. Thats my personal definition, he said. A former ranking Bureau official said that some of these pseudo-journalists do practice AC/ DCor the practice of attack, collect; defend, collect among customs officials.

That would be a lucrative practice as the BOC is made up of different competing factions, each with its own agenda and political backer. But the former BOC official also pointed out another possible explanation as to why there are so many reporters covering Customs: because many of these pseudo-journalists also earn their keep by acting as brokers for importers. Theyd come to me and ask for help about such and such a shipment but I would tell them that they have to deal with the customs collector, the former official said. That is why I have doubts if this campaign of the new commissioner would succeed. Theyre also brokers so they can go inside and transact with customs officials, he added. But Biazon maintains that he has the authority to keep out undesirable pseudo-journalists from the BOC compound. Everyone should remember that the BOC is a government office... From what I heard, it seems our office at the BOC has been taken over by these pseudo-journalists, he said. So, we just want to put things into order so that the employees of the BOC can concentrate on their jobs and should not be harassed by character assassinations, etc., he added. Biazon held a dialogue with reporters from the mainstream media and the weekly tabloids on Sept. 29 and decided to create a committee that would draft the accreditation guidelines. Its a balancing act because we should also be careful so as not to trample on the freedom of expression or the freedom of the press. We will have to deal with that carefully, Biazon said. Our first move is to rationalize their presence. Do you really need to be there? Or, how many of you should be there? Then well see if their publication should be banned outright or if we should give them some elbow room (to) act as if they are really journalists, he added. n Since his graduation from the University of the Philippines in 1999 with a degree in journalism, cum laude, Philip C. Tubeza has been writing for the Philippine Daily Inquirer except for a twoyear stint with a Filipino community paper in Hong Kong from 2007-2008