Corruptors of media
Posted on January 29, 2008 - Filed Under General |
SOMETIME last December, a media colleague forwarded to me a message from Regional Police Director Pol Bataoil apparently meant to answer the issue on media payola from illegal gambling that has somehowlinked the police to the issue.
It still gains relevance, I believe, as illegal gambling seems to be very alive and well in Pangasinan and the cities – with the media, a great majority of it anyway, already hardly mentioning the “bad word” in their commentaries.
Here’s the text message(yes, I haven’t erased it yet all these time) from the Great Pol Profile.
“Here’s my rejoinder re alleged “mediayola”: The PNP respects the freedom of the Press. Whatever internal issue or problem the tri-media associations may be encountering, we r confident that (this) can be resolved among themselves as enti(ties). The PNP maintain(s) that we are relentless in our campaign against all forms of illegal gambling, in cooperation with all sectors, especially the church. We even launched a gambling demand reduction drive project…”
Unfortunately, the message was cut.
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We surmise that the good police director, a Lingayenense, had been asked thru text for his reaction to the matter of payola being received by members of the local Press and he felt the very question impugned the capability, sincerity and effectiveness of the loud police campaign against, okay, let’s say it, jueteng. Thus he must have felt compelled to call the controversy (on the payola being given some mediamen ) as an “internal issue” best left for the Press boys to settle among themselves.
If it can all be reduced to that, just a simple case of “sharing of the loot,” no one should lose much sleep over it. But it is more than that, General, sir. It is the very matter of corruption of media practitioners by gambling lords ( and some uniformed ones) that actually deserves the protestations from (and in fact, is being protested by) a minority – note the word ‘minority’ – group in the media institution itself.
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Reading thru the lines of the Bataoil ‘rejoinder’, it is clear that he has neither confirmed nor denied the existence of such an agreement between mediamen on the take and some gambling influentials and that he would rather leave the parties to sort things out (equal sharing?) for themselves.
And that, insofar as he is concerned, he believes he is campaigning against illegal gambling – the daily spectacle of open betting in one’s neighborhood and even in government building premises with hardly any sign of a prohibition from lawmen notwithstanding.
Meanwhile, word from our media grapevine says those media guys and gals on the take that we had once, twice broiled in this column for eating of the poisoned fruit (and enjoying it) are now locked in mortal combat over the “hush fund,” their once tight camaraderie now showing deep cracks over the “division of spoils.”
Whatta shame!
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