Changes

DIE HARD III / Herman Tiu Laurel / 8/7/2013 / Daily Tribune

There is an air of change wafting through Metro Manila these days. It can be sensed in several spheres of Filipino life at the heart of this nation. What is bringing this about is probably the onset of the search for alternatives by the Filipino people, who have patiently lived under the post-1986 ruling powers' promises of heaven-and-earth but got the opposite, coupled with the emergence of the Edsa III consciousness among the displaced middle class out of the decades-long decay in their economic and social standing. This Edsa III awareness may not be wholly understood by the middle classes themselves but is signified by the outstanding comeback of President-Mayor Joseph Estrada, especially after his recent impact clean-up and traffic easing projects in the City of Manila.

In the media community, too, this air of change is being reflected in the many new "kapihans" emerging in the metropolis, challenging the old, tired media breakfast and coffee klatches that began in the 80s and 90s that have overextended their natural lives, surviving only for the sponsorships that the state gaming bodies and a few other government financial and social institutions provide. Among these new and exciting "kapihans" that have sprouted is the Aristocrat Kapihan every Monday morning (in the historic Aristocrat on Roxas Boulevard, naturally) organized by veteran mediaman Melo Acuña of Radio Veritas; another is the Mabuhay Forum at the Mabuhay Resto fronting the demolished Army Navy Club, every Tuesday, by former press club prexy Fred Gabot and Fil-Am Gawad Kalinga leader, lawyer Rose Cabrera.
These two new media kapihans are both fresh and energizing, oxygenated by the breeze of Manila Bay and far from the smog of Mabini, M.H. Del Pilar, Ortigas, Greenhills, Morato, etc.

The organizers also offer new media presence as Melo Acuña brings in the foreign correspondents from Focap (Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines) as well as members of the diplomatic corps (as in the last forum on Philippine-China issues with a Bloomberg correspondent and Mr. Cang Hoang Nghia of the Vietnamese Embassy present), which is also the case with the group of Ricky Sunga and Fred Gabot, the latter of whom networks events at the Mabuhay Forum with a chain of Filipino-American newspapers in the different US states that he is connected with.

There is another forum I almost forgot — the Bayleaf Media Forum with Greggy Licaros and Jonathan de la Cruz, which we'll have more of in future columns.
From such gatherings I have mentioned, I noted significant changes in the perspectives of media that would reflect changes in the public's mind on major issues as well.

In the Aristocrat Kapihan on the issue of the West Philippine Sea with Sen. Leticia Shahani, Chito Sta. Romana, Jay Bataongbacal of the Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea of the UP Law Center, and Richard Javad Heydarian of the Ateneo, both resource persons as well as the audience manifested the dominant view that "bilateral" talks between the Philippines and China is the practical and almost inevitable conclusion, even if the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea case filed by RP prospers in the long run. That was also the point of Tess Villapando, a Church lay media worker.

The Mabuhay Forum, organized under the auspices of the Manila City Hall Press Club and established in the 50s, is, we are told by Fred Gabot, the forerunner of the National Press Club by three or four years. The last topic of discussion there that I attended was the Botong Francisco painting pull-out from city hall for the purpose of restoration but without the proper documentation. Previous to this was the discussion on Mayor Estrada's action to free Manila's major streets from traffic jams, with the removal of "colorum" and unauthorized buses. The next issues will likely be the Manila Bay reclamation project and the proposed privatization of public parking slots. Be that as it may, media covering the Manila beat sense a new openness, transparency and decisiveness at city hall today.

Over and above all these, however, is the most startling change in the mood and perspective of the nation now reflected in social networking sites. This change I would reiterate I trace to the premise I stated above — the failure of the Edsa I promises and the outstanding example presented by the alternative leadership that Joseph Estrada represents and has exhibited. A screenshot of ABS-CBN News' Facebook page shows various endless threads that say, "I remember her (Cory) as someone who contributed to the misery of the Filipino people; an oligarch doormat who doomed the Filipinos to poverty … May she burn in hell — if it existed; the one who put the Philippines to its greatest misery. She gave… ABiaS-CBN and… other companies back to the Lopezes without anything in return…"

Indeed, the truth shall set us free.

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