Honesty, such a lonely word

DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
10/8/2007



At the last “serenade” at Neri’s #28 Palale St. residence, near Retiro, a wonderful new addition came along: U.P. Law School students of Atty. Harry Roque, led by the class president Voltaire Alferez, who added a joyful spirit to occasion which evoked nostalgia of my own student activism days. I engaged the students to sing, which after some prodding spurred more impromptu compositions like “Ang Pasko ay si Neri,” “I have ‘two hundred,’ the left and the right” aside from the “A,B, ZTE, FG…”; but the song the students suggested that felt most apropos for the occasion was from Billy Joel, and they sang –

“Honesty is such a lonely word, Everyone is so untrue, Honesty is hardly ever heard, And mostly what I need from you.” That’s also the song the detained and suffering idealist military officers in Camp Capinpin in Tanay, as well as all the younger officer corps members, sung to Esperon - to tell the truth about the 2004 elections. That too, is my call to the Edsa Uno and Dos icons like the Inquirer and its icon Eggie Apostol – complete and total honesty, for without it we can not have the truth and without truth we can not be free this nation’s march towards its destiny. Honestly, why is Eggie Apostol worn out and passé black prop against Estrada?

People I surveyed invariably have concluded that the re-issue of the demonizing Pinoy Times is patently “persecutory,” but I still am pursuing the debate: to debunk the Inquirer and Eggie Apostol as icons of democracy and, independent and courageous journalism. Oliver Wendell Holmes said, “Rough work, iconoclasm, but the only way to get at truth.” I’ll pick up from the Inquirer editorial in the wake of Estrada reaction to the Eggie Apostol re-issue of the black prop tabloid Pinoy Times the Inquirer editorial retorted to Estrada’s press statement raising several points that I will confront here. The Inquirer said:

“Appalled that too many …were ready to forget what the convicted plunderer had done” and “The defunct newspaper rose to prominence during the “juetenggate” scandal … the point of the ads… was to remind the public -- of information they already knew...” Juetenggate has been dealt a deathblow by Bishop Oscar Cruz’s charge that jueteng has increased threefold after Edsa Dos. No one ever forgot that Chavit Singson is the really guilty party: what Apostol alleges that the public “always knew” was what the Inquirer pumped into the middle class minds and wish to revive now. One just cannot escape thinking that Eggie Apostol is now simply giving Gloria a little hand on the ZTE scandal.

What the country really believed and reinforced over the years is what a recent SWS survey reported, “62 percent of Filipinos do not believe that Estrada enriched himself from corrupt practices when he was President.” Yet, Eggie Apostol and the Inquirer would brand Estrada a “criminal” - paining Estrada immensely. Inquirer explained, the “Sandiganbayan has already rendered judgment on his plunder case”. But they skirt the real issue. Honest Filipinos know the Sandiganbayan is a political court, and the Sandiganbayan record shows it: remember Justice Badoy’s antics? and Justice Nazario’s SC appointment? Who’s next to the SC?

Eggie Apostol and the Inquirer editorial attack the Estrada for “the subtle charge that some mysterious group… is behind the ads.” The detained President maintains some niceties – but this columnist has always been direct about that bunch of hypocrites and fraudulent democracy advocates. So don’t give us that hypocritical line: “There is no guarantee that the re-publication of the Pinoy Times … will turn a profit” - FWWPP (Foundation for World Wide People Power) board members and funders of Pinoy Times (distributed free in Makati then) profited from Estrada’s fall, - dipping into PCSO funds (remember Joker?) or “sovereign guarantee” and privatization, deregulation plunder.

If there’s one thing I agree with in the Inquirer editorial is the error of the “Inquirer advertising boycott” by Estrada supporters in 2000 – it was doomed to fail. The Estrada destabilization was driven by interests of transnational and local corporations that are the biggest media advertisers (from oil to power and water, to shampoo etc.) - they supported Inquirer and Gloria to ensure their economic domination was not encumbered by a chief executive in Malacañang eager to rein in corporate profit to cushion the hardships of the people.

Finally, Apostol and the Inquirer says, “… the best guarantee of freedom of the press is a healthy bottom line.” Then Dante Ang should lead the R.P. Journalism Hall of Fame!? That line only guarantees “the best press that money can buy”, not an independent press! Noam Chomsky defines the problem: “… advertiser reliance means really the newspapers are being run by the advertisers. If the source of income is advertising, the main source, well that's of course going to have an inordinant influence… advertisers.… along with concentration of capital, has essentially eliminated or sharply reduced the… independent locally based media.“

Honestly: starving, honest journalists Eggie Apostol and company never were. Today, it is the starving Tribune – never untrue, threatened with arrest and closure, its editors and reporters with over 150 nuisance cases – and with few advertisers, that’s providing the contrapuntal note to Philippine journalism music. Likewise, our young sundalong tagapagtanggol!

(Tune in to 1098AM, 6-7pm, M-W-F)