Alive and still kicking · Rare Periodicals · Open Access Repository @ UPD

Title

Alive and still kicking

Creator

Tariman, Pablo A.

Identifier

The media

Language

English

Source

The Republic (2) 31 March 1973

Year

1973

Subject

Mass media -- Philippines

Mass media and politics

Martial law --- Philippines

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Fulltext

The ^Media THE UNITED DAILY NEWS Bridging the gap There is more than just a grain of truth in the message of a poster: “Peo ple are lonely because they build walls — not bridges.” Take the case of the local Chinese. Ever since one cares to remember, they have always been in the Philip pines. Time, however, has not bat tered down the Great Walls they seem to have brought with them and which even to this day separates them from the mainstream of Philippine society. For centuries, they have kept to an exclusive enclave, rarely coming out to mix with Filipinos except to trade. On the other hand, Filipinos have also maintained a wall of detachment, dis trust and even disdain between the Chinese and themselves. But the walls may yet crumble. Un der the new Philippine Constitution, for instance, a Filipina who marries a Chinese — or, for that matter, any foreign — national retains her citi zenship and by jus sanguinis their children will henceforth be considered natural-bom Filipinos. For another, the ban on exclusive foreign schools which would affect the Chinese more than any other foreign community is so designed as to help in their assimila tion. It is also to tear down the barriers of isolation that the United Daily News was conceived. Bom out of the THE COMMUNITY PRESS Alive and still kicking If one may single out a recent sem inar of community journalists to gauge the status of the community press under the new order, there is no reason to be pessimistic. Unlike many of its counterparts in the metropolitan press, a wide seg ment of the community press is still alive, willing to meet the challenge posed by Proclamation 1081. As of this writing, some 45 com munity newspapers have received per mit to operate from the Mass Media Council and are now enjoying a level of readership that has helped sustain them before martial law. Although many factors have to be considered to get a clearer view of what’s going on in the community press all over the country, a look into the papers that have resumed publication reveals that all is quite well. “We have not really stopped operat ing,” says Diogenes Fallarme, editor of the weekly Sierra Madre Post in Isa bela. “We were almost immediately given permit to resume publication and everything is back to normal.” The Sierra Madre Post, now on its third year of operation, has a circula tion ranging from 1,000 to 1,500. Its editor says the paper did not encoun ter difficulties coping with the new guidelines. “Although we were taken by surprise, we immediately accepted martial law as something needed.” Fallarme considers his paper con merger of two, now-defunct Chinese dailies — the Kong Li Po News and the Great China Press — it has for a major objective the promotion of closer Filipino-Chinese relations. “It is going to lead its Chinese readers to be law-abiding residents and eventually to be integrated into the Filipino way of life,” says Ralph Nubia, the Fili pino corporate chairman of the board. For a start, the United Daily News published Chinese translations of Pres idential decrees, orders and letters of instruction. Following the pattern set by other dailies, it stresses the positive in its news reports — a reflection of the mood of reconciliation that now marks the relations between what was once “Asia’s angriest press” and the Administration. In fact, Nubia says, “It is both our commitment and our policy to support the New Society.” Understandably, news items that are of direct concern to the local Chinese community are played up more prominently in the United Daily News than in other newspapers. Otherwise, in terms of content, the news that it carries is no different from that in other dailies. Similarly, space is provided for movies, en tertainment and human-interest stories. But in place of the comics page found in most other dailies, it digs deep into the rich Chinese cul servative and does not miss the “free dom” suspended after martial law. “I never went with the sort of commit ment many papers espoused before martial law. I know my paper is con servative, but at least I am sure it is respected. Under the new order, I am concerned about the new responsibil ity. I welcome it. In fact, I find it a big challenge. If the community press can widen its roles, it can help itself rise to a very responsible level.” Gabriel Visaya, editor of the Ca gayan Mail, feels that nothing has changed in the role played by com munity journalists — or the respon sible ones among them, anyway. Ca gayan Mail comes out weekly and claims a circulation of 2,000. Asked about-the future of the community press under the new order, Visaya an swered: “I think it has a bright fu ture.” Bright the future may be, but one still cannot be overly optimistic. Much of the community press, as everyone knows, comes to life because the men (overworked, underfed, understaffed) believe it should. If some papers have continued to exist, it is because the more responsible community journal ists have done their bit. For decades now, one stultifying factor in the growth of community newspapers has been the matter of finances. It isn’t enough, it seems, that tural heritage of myths and ancient ro mances for regular features. As if to underscore its objective, the paper itself is a product of Fili pino-Chinese cooperation: Filipinos and Chinese write, edit and print it. It even lays rightful claim to being the first daily owned and published by a Filipino corporation that caters to the local Chinese community and which contains an English section. Editor-inChief Chua Kee explains: “There are readers who know both English and Chinese. There are also those who only know one or the other language. United Daily News serves them all.” This unique arrangement somehow adds up to a peculiar package: “PM Views,” for example, is all that one who cannot read its Chinese text gets to understand of Primitivo Mijares’ Daily Express column on its front page. The bilingual reader, though, has the option of either the Chinese or English text to fill him in on business, foreign and other news developments. an editor is his own reporter, copy reader, and proofreader. Quite often, he also attends to subscription and cir culation problems, not to mention the printing bills the paper cannot pay on its own income. It is this predicament that often forces some community editors to find “other ways.” “Other ways,” of course, means compromis ing themselves with local politicians and businessmen, and heaven knows how a paper reads when publicity hounds and secret financiers come into the picture. Commenting on the problems of the community press before Proclama tion 1081, a metropolitan journal pre dicted: “Community journalism faces slow death. High costs, low revenues, danger to life and limb and getting too close to politics and politicians are the factors contributing to the sad fate of the provincial press.” A report on the state of the premartial law community press by Eduardo Sanchez, director of the Phil ippine Press Institute, stated: “It is impossible to compile a com plete list of community newspapers because of the transitory nature of many of them. But a rough quantifica tion would place the situation this way: there are 35 community newspa pers which are financially stable, regularly published, editorially inde pendent and professionally competent in some cases .... “On top of this, there are anywhere from 60 to 100 community newspa pers which come out every election year to either help the candidacy of some people or to take advantage of the political ads that come with the campaign. These . . . papers have an average circulation of about 3,000 Says one of its editors: “For our Chinese readers who are limping their way to learning English, we provide the crutches.” Chua adds that the English pages are being read too by Filipino employes of Chinese firms and househelp in Chinese families. Page for page, the United Daily News (at an average of 12 pages an issue) is perhaps the most expensive local daily. Yet, even at 35 centavos (in Greater Manila), some 16,000 cop ies find their way into the hands of Chinese, Filipinos of Chinese descent and, occasionally, a natural-bom Fili pino. This circulation figure is 16.7 per cent of the 96,000 or so Chinese regis tered with the then Bureau of Immi gration (now the Commission on Im migration and Deportation) as of 1971. It is just a drop in the bucket, though, when one considers the entire Chinese-speaking community, es timated at half a million. This includes those who have become naturalized Filipinos or are of Chinese descent, but who, with some exceptions, still have to be fully assimilated into the mainstream of Filipino life. The homogeneity of this group serves to underline the difficult task that the United Daily News has set for itself. Like one big family the lo<y’ Chinese community is bound by dee^ . ly ingrained customs and traditions. It may therefore take the proverbial pa tience, perseverance and strength of an ox to move them out of the walls they had built around themselves. Fit tingly enough, in the Chinese calen dar, this is the “Year of the Ox.” JORGE V.ARUTA copies although one of them has a cir culation of 17,000.” Despite their comparatively small circulation, community newspapers reach far-flung places. Sanchez’s re port continued: “The communif » newspapers supplement the dailies i ‘ reaching the provinces. Although their circulation is small, the community newspapers offer better penetration in areas outside Metropolitan Manila where about 60 percent of the cir culation of the Manila-based dailies are sold.” Sanchez cited the fact that in Jolo, the combined circulation of the Mani la-based dailies was only 500 while the local community newspaper had a cir culation of more than 2,000 copies. Facts and figures vary from one community to another. In terms of popularity, some community news papers deserve the reputation they have built through the years. Baguio Midland Courier, despite the journalistic lapses community journal ism is heir to, manages to live up to an acceptable standard (fairly good editorials, wider news coverage and good proofreading). Regardless of the matter of tech nical proficiency, some community newspapers, and journalists, have met far grimmer fates than a rap on the knuckles for their crusading efforts. One courageous community jour nalist named Ermin Garcia (Dagupan’s Sunday Punch) paid with his life for not coming to terms with certain local powers-that-be. Such were the moral and physical risks many community journalists found themselves in. In some cases, they turned out to be more deter mined crusaders than their metropolPage 18 31 March 1973 THE REPUBLIC Education (Frorri page 18) itan counterparts. What is in store for community journalism under the new order? The picture has somewhat changed in the same manner that the metro politan press has. Scanning samples of post-martial law community papers, one notices, as one does in the metropolitan press, the demise of the local society page. One also notices a format that puts the accent on what is often referred to as positive reporting. The quality and content of some articles indicate that local writers, given further profession al guidance, may yet emerge as firstrate developmental journalists. In many cases, though, reporting tends to be dull on account of the uniform treatment of news stories. While there are guidelines for the media to follow, there must be a way of writing about the various aspects of community life in a lively and interesting manner. Several papers do retain some of the more commendable qualities they had before. The Sunday Punch has maintained its original crusading image, this time concentrating on the “enemies of change.” The Naga Times is still the better edited among the Bicol papers and can compare favorably with the today Punch in layouting. In Cebu, the local papers — namely the Cebu Advocate, the Cebu Times, raid the Republic News — show the same writing enthusiasm of the small town journalists. Davao City’s Min danao Times tries to cover as many provinces in Mindanao but really ends up announcing plans and projects of a locality. In Tarlac, two papers (The Monitor and the Luzon Star) balance between the news from Camp Makabulos, the Constabulary headquarters in that province, and the local civic clubs. The columnists have re-appeared and, with the political pyrotechnics now non-existent in the place, have turned writing on less spicy though more sible domestic subjects (boyhood mories, why the streets of Tarlac are named after so-and-so). Armando Matias, editor of the Monitor, has his version of Jean Edades’s “How’s Your English” and adds the qualifier “Infor mation Editor eligible” below his by-line. One finds Mr. Matias’s tech nical motives commendable, but as one browses over the other paper, the Luzon Star, one realizes, remember ing Mr. Matias’s samples of murdered grammar, that Jean Edades’s Tarlac counterpart is putting one over the other paper in a petty sort of way. A fairly common, noticeable feature of both pre- and post-martial law papers is that they have all but sacrificed wider coverage for the sake of the revenue-rising court notices. Anywhere from 70 to 90 percent of the pages of today’s community news papers are occupied by such notices. It is fairly obvious that the com munity press still suffers from a num ber of old, recurrent ills. To be sure, some of the hazards that community journalists faced have disppeared since the institution of reforms now reach ing into every facet of Philippine so ciety. They no longer have to con tend, for instance, with the old per nicious political alignments and the criminal and other malevolent forces that often placed a sword of Damocles over their heads. Today, they face new challenges, new responsibilities. PABLO A. TARIMAN Quiet on the campus People had begun to sing the dirge for student activism when reports about its resurgence hit the headlines once again. “Universities watched,” bannered one morning daily. “Crack down on activism in campuses,” said a one-column, below-the-fold story in another. A concerned Education and Culture Secretary Juan Manuel sent Undersec retary Narciso Albarracin to Dumaguete for a look-see at developments in Silliman University, where much of the renewed activism was noted. Mr. Manuel later ordered the weeding out of faculty members abetting student activism and warned that a repetition of such incidents as were reported in Silliman would be dealt with more severely. For all its attendant publicity, what happened at Silliman was not the first discordant note frorn the activist camp. But it was not typical of the country’s campuses, either. Since classes resumed in October, majority of the student population had settled down to what they had gone to school for in the first place — more religious ly this time and without the distrac tion provided by that unlovely omni presence of pre-martial law days: the placards and the graffiti. “Generally the campus scene is now serene,” says one education official. A tour of school campuses confirms that assessment. Gone are the red ban ners and the posters, the manifestoes and the microphones, the teach-ins and the discussion groups. No more boycotts and demonstrations to up turn carefully planned academic calen dars. Gone too are some of the more vocal radicals. Order has returned to what once was a chaotic campus life; a calm and subdued atmosphere en velopes the nation’s educational insti tutions. Most students now tackle their academics in dead earnest, and teachers are responding with equal de termination via more readings, more term papers and more quizzes. This turn of events is being hailed by edu cators and parents alike. The prevailing mood does have some variations from school to school. At the University of the East where activism did not gain a very firm foot hold, students take to developments on the national scene in much the same manner as the majority of the Filipino people — that is to say, with relief coupled with a new-found feeling of confidence and security. “They like it this way,” says Jesus Espiritu, UE’s vice president for stu dent affairs. “They can come to their A university campus scene-, peace at last. classes without fear of being mugged or robbed. There are no more demons trations, which (had) often led to the suspension of classes.” As to why ra dicalism never took root in the coun try’s biggest (in terms of enrolment) university, he has this explanation: “Our students come from middle- and lower-income families. They are there fore in a hurry to get their degrees and help their parents.” Unlike some schools which cater to the children of the rich, he says, most UE students cannot afford a year’s delay in their studies. On the other side of the spectrum, students at the University of the Phil ippines seem to suffer a slight mental discomfort whenever they are con fronted with the new restrictions around campus. Oscar Yabes, editor of the Philippine Collegian, official student organ of the UP, perhaps encapsulizes this mood when he says: “Things are not normal yet. You can not change the UP psyche overnight.” Says Dean Armando Malay of the UP Office of Student Affairs: “Student activism is not dead. Neither is it dy ing. It is merely quiescent.” Another educator puts it this way: “In their heart of hearts, even the radicals will admit to seeing some of their own imprints in the President’s program of reforms: an end to politics, an end to official corruption and the beginning of a bright future for our farmers through land reform.” But, he adds, they seem to find difficulty ridding themselves of their doubts. It would be naive to think that the voices of doubt and cynicism have been totally stilled at this stage of the reform movement in the country. No less than the President took note of this when, in late January, he under lined the need for more effective supervision of schools, especially those where subversive forces had begun their insidious work again. A couple of weeks earlier, the President, assessing the first 100 days of martial law, warned of a reversion, a sliding back, into the undesirable and unconstructive activities of the past. It cannot be said, therefore, that the government is unaware of what is going on in the campuses. It has al ways kept a finger on the pulse of the student sector, ever sensitive to the faintest stirrings among students. And it has not been lacking, either, in the understanding of the Filipino youth’s psychology. That so far no school has been closed since the resumption of classes in October is perhaps a tribute to — or a reflection of — that discernment. It may also reflect the fact that the doubters are but a small minority of the country’s vast student population, who make up a substantial portion of our young society. Be that as it may, the majority — like the majority of the Filipino na tion — have welcomed the reforms instituted the past six months. And with every announcement of a new reform measure, the government con tinues to gain their confidence, erasing whatever vestiges of doubt may exist in their minds. In their heart of hearts, to repeat what one educator said, they know that the changes now sweeping, the cities and the countrysides were the very ones they had SQUght, had demonstrated for, during those tur bulent days preceding the historic last quarter of 1972. It is the mood of this vast number that prevails in Philippine campuses today. THE REPUBLIC 31 March 1973 Page 19

pages

18-19