if they truly wanted to serve the nation, korina and ricky should have done a definitive recap of the aborted nbn-zte deal, starting with jarius bondoc’s andjoey de venecia’s testimonies on to romulo neri’s and jun lozada’s. then maybe korina herself would be clearer about benjamin abalos’ sordid role in the whole shebang. instead, they allowed abalos to repeat himself ad nauseam on hamburjer worth dying for, nowhow idiotic is that!
anc’s korina sanchez and ricky carandang roundly deserved the put-down by sister mary john mananzan, o.s.b. [order of st. benedict; she taught us religion and history in high school] when she minced no words and declared UNFAIR the way they had set up the show so that the promised lozada-abalos face-off turned out to be a forum for abalos and panelo and razon and formoso and dee to launch a sustained attack on lozada without giving the guy equal time each time to respond. UNFAIR talaga. mabuhay! si sister mary john who was so incensed, she was prepared to give up her time on cam in favor of lozada.
what were korina and ricky thinking? sa halip na maliwanagan ang bayan, lalo lang nilang ginulo! what a waste of valuable time and what a waste of a nationwide captive audience who was expecting NOT a rehash, nay, a parody, of the senate investigation, complete with insultuhan at taasan ng boses, but rather who was expecting and wanting to be clarified, affirmed, enlightened.
what were korina and ricky thinking? can it be that they themselves don’t believe jun lozada and didn’t think he deserved ample time to answer the brickbats thrown at him? or were they just being their commercial selves, trying to get as many sensational soundbites out of as many talking heads as possible, treating the audience as though we were children with short attention spans? or maybe they’re just hedging their bets, in case gma and her cohorts prevail?
this is the problem with media’s attitude that their job is only to inform, that is, to report or give voice to both sides of an issue, but not to sway us one way or another. not for them to take sides. not for them to advocate anything except freedom of the press, never mind what they do or don’t do with that freedom. all they seem to be capable of is skepticism. which is really a cop-out, a way out for people who don’t have a real grasp of issues and therefore do not have the confidence and the nerve to take a stand. which is no way to serve the nation.
pasalamat sila na hindi sila pinahiya ni jun lozada by walking out on the show even if he had every reason to. what a guy. what a class act.
as for korina and ricky, i do believe they owe jun lozada a proper apology.
it was not unexpected that the philippine national police would find for a gas explosion, not for an explosive device. matagal na nilang sinasabi that evidence was pointing to a critical build-up of gases that could have been prevented if the guys in charge were doing their job.
but it was unexpected that the police would recommend charges only against the engineers, operators, and fire prevention officers who were immediately responsible for safety measures, and not against the mall owner nor city hall. unexpected because matagal na silang naghi-hint that the the pnp was not beyond charging even ayala land and mayor binay for command responsibility if warranted. kaya na nga panay ang press release ng ayala land before this, contesting findings of a gas explosion and negligence.
puno‘s excuse:
“. .. it was just that repairing the malfunctioning sewage system was not the job of the owners while those who had been charged had immediate responsibility for the repairs of the sewage system.”
pero kaya nga tinawag na “command” responsibility, di ba. kahit hindi ka directly responsible for repairs, pero kung mga tao mo ang pumalpak – june july august pa lang daw me problema na ang sewage system – ibig sabihin may pagkukulang ka rin. kasi kung on-top-of-the-situation ka, kung maayos ang palakad mo, wala sanang pumalpak, wala sanang namatay at nasugatan.
i smell a rat. maybe a backroom ex-deal (puno style) between ayala and malacanang. hmm. maybe re charter change? or maybe that is still to come, and nagpapapogi lang ang palasyo sa mga ayala.
not that i’m completely sold on the negligence charge.
i was expecting that anc, as is usual with important developments, would have some resource persons, maybe an engineer or two, to share their expert opinions, but no, not this time. later in the evening ricky carandang devoted the whole hour of the big picture to the same story, but again we had to listen to the same pnp guys rehashing what we had already heard, with ricky just clarifying the double blast, the ayala investigations, and the rdx angle.
the biggest let-down of all, not just from anc but from all media is that no one has yet asked the BIG question posed by some bloggers and, i hear, science e-groups, soon after the blast: conceding, for the sake of argument, that it was indeed not a bomb but a gas explosion. WHAT IF it was not a matter of criminal negligence but, rather, a matter of creative criminal engineering? surely it is humanly possible to orchestrate such a blast? what would it take? why is it not being considered by the police as a distinct possibility?
nakakadismaya our media. no time to read, no time to research, no time for critical thinking. paano kasi, ang he-hectic ng buhay. bread trip. one show after another, one deadline after another, no time to read read read and google and surf the internet, much less to turn on to pinoy blogs, where some of the discourse is remarkably (happily) higher than in broadsheet and broadcast media.
lessons learned from trillanes:
1. pwede pala maglakad from makati trial courtto manila pen
2. kasya pala tangke sa hotel
3. pag naposasan pala media, nakakalimutan ang nag-aaklas, sila na muna pinag-uusapan
4. di pala maganda si pinky webb pag walang make-up
5. kulot pala si ces drilon pag di nag blower