MICHAEL MEDINA
Editor-in-chief
OZAMIZ CITY--All’s swell that ends swell.
A number of local media personalities sneered at the recent visit by President Gloria Arroyo in the province last week after receiving shabby treatment from the organizers and experiencing favoritism in news coverage.
The President visited Baliangao, Thursday, last week to lead the distribution of cash cards to household-beneficiaries under the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps).
It was the second time Arroyo visited Misamis Occidental this year, as part of her provincial visits to depressed rural areas in the country.
Smarting up from their experience, the journalists told MINDANAO MONITOR they wanted to send a message to the organizers that what they need is only “a fair treatment and equal opportunity in news coverage.”
In an informal evaluation meeting the other Monday, the said journalists, who requested that their names be withheld for this report, declared that they would probably boycott PGMA’s return to Ozamiz City in January 2009.
It was a lesson learned the hard way, says one reporter, who claimed she had to wake up at 5:00 in the morning and travel to Baliangao only to go home with nothing in hand to report.
“Kining pagkaimbitara morag respetar na lang man ni,” she said in disgust.
Her companion butted in: “Dili unta nila i-take for granted ang media sa probinsiya kay we do not deserve to be treated as such, we are as professional and as presentable as the ones in Manila.”
“Polpol lang gyod ang nag-organize ato,” said a current affairs anchorman, who said they were not even given lunch at the area, they had to go home, buy a can of sardines and feast on it on the way.
Some of the journalists who talked to this paper also scored Arroyo’s security men for being “too protective” and “distrustful” to them.
“Pwerte ka strikto morag si kinsa,” quips a television reporter.
“Wala ta’y mahimo kung dili sila ganahan nato kay unggoy man ilang panan-aw nato. Dili maayo ug dakong sayop ang ilang gibuhat sa atoa,” a newspaperman says his piece.
Another radio reporter who covered the event in Baliangao said that they were not given the privilege to enter the room and take potshots with the President and other public figures while a select band of reporters from the Capitol were able to do so.
“Useless ang ID nga sticker gipanghatag nila, dili man diay gihapon ta kasulod,” he said.
In assessing the situation, a veteran broadcaster said the complaint of the mediamen is a starting point for the President’s advance party or organizers to look into when they come back to the province in the future.
“These are the things anybody would not like to be treated into,” he said through his text message to this paper, recalling his experience in the past where his tape recorder got smashed because of the Presidential Security Group.
This paper tried to get an explanation from the regional office of the Press Information Agency (PIA) in Cagayan de oro City but no replies were received.
PGMA’s visit
In Baliangao, President Gloria Arroyo distributed P500 each to 10 senior citizens-beneficiaries under the “Katas Ng VAT, Tulong Kay Lolo at Lola” Program and one kilo of rice each to 715 day care children-beneficiaries under the Food-for-School Program.
She also turned-over 10 bags of hybrid rice seeds, 20 bags of certified rice seeds, 10 bags of hybrid corn seeds, and 10,000 tilapia fingerlings to farmers and fisherfolks.
Then handed over 26 certificates of land ownership award (CLOA) to 34 agrarian reform beneficiaries and 20 scholarship vouchers for commercial cooking and hairdressing courses.
To the town’s OTOP (One Town, One Product), Arroyo gave P20,000 worth of packaging materials for the bottled sardines-making.
The President also led the distribution of 20 boxes of assorted medicines for four Botika Sa Barangay outlets in the municipality, including 25 boxes of school kits for preschoolers and Grade-I pupils.
Some 3,000 food packs were also given as “Maagang Pamaskong Handog Ni PGMA” to the so-called poorest-of-the-poor families in Baliangao.
A PIA report said that a total of 320,000 households benefited the President’s 4Ps program. This statistic already included the 6,000 households from pilot areas of Esperanza and Sibagat in Agusan del Sur and Lopez-Jaena and Baliangao in this province.