Making (hush) Money In Times of Political Crisis

Posted by: Jaileen F. Jimeno | February 14, 2008 at 2:00 pm
Filed under: In the News, Media Issues

IT seems when Malacañang is faced with a crisis, it throws money around to control the damage. The memory of the P500,000 cash gifts given to congressmen and local government officials right inside the Palace on October 11 last year has yet to fade, yet the scent of money is again in the air.

A group calling itself Kongreso ng Mamamayan came out with full-page advertisements on two broadsheets and several tabloids yesterday, in an obvious attempt to demolish the credibility of Rodolfo Noel Lozada Jr., who testified in the Senate about the anomalies in the national broadband network (NBN) contract.


In the paid ad, the group disparaged Lozada as being part of the “dysfunctional procurement system” he criticized. “He admitted he was never an official consultant of Secretary Romulo Neri, and said he has never received compensation other than occasional lunches and dinners, yet he handled huge multibillion-peso projects, such as the NBN.”

“In the process, he actually negotiated with top officials, high-level business executives and high-powered project proponents, such as Abalos and de Venecia. For what? For his friendship with Neri? For love of country? Of course, he said he was there to ‘moderate the greed.’ Which means, he can actually accept the greed and that he can deal with the greedy. In other words, a fixer. Fixers share in the commissions, even if these are ‘moderated’ and ‘permissible.”

A full-page ad on broadsheets, inclusive of taxes, costs over P170,000. Tabloids charge P50,000.

The Philippine Star said the ad was placed by an entity calling itself Medialine. Inquirer publisher Isagani Yambot says he is still checking how the ad got the green light for printing. He says non-traditional ads usually go through him and a lawyer for review. The anti-Lozada ad did not go through his desk, he says.

However, a check with the Securities and Exchange Commission reveals Medialine is not in its database of entities allowed to do business in the country. Neither is the group named Kongreso ng Mamamayan, whose chapters in Central Luzon, National Capital Region, and Southern Tagalog the newspaper ad was attributed to.

Presumably, the group is the same as the one bearing the full name of Kongreso ng Mamamayan para sa Pagkakaisa at Kapayapaan (People’s Congress for Unity and Peace), convened last year by Pampanga local officials and leaders to express their support for their “cabalen,” President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. These are mostly the same officials who have been at odds with Pampanga Governor Ed Panlilio, especially after the latter admitted receiving a paper bag stuffed with half a million pesos after attending a meeting in Malacañang last October.

The group had its most recent meeting in November 2007, just days after the Batasan blast, where it passed resolutions calling on “all peace-loving Filipinos” to allow Arroyo to finish her term.

Among Kongreso’s purported convenors are all the mayors (led by Pampanga Mayors’ League president Dennis Pineda) and vice-mayors of Pampanga, Rep. Carmelo Lazatin, Subic-Clark Area Development Chairman Edgardo Pamintuan, and the Provincial Board led by Vice Governor Joseller Guiao. Among its supposed members are farmers and various nongovernmental organizations.

Yet Candaba Mayor Jerry Pelayo, spokesman of the mayors’ league, says he was not consulted nor informed about the full-page ad.

Rep. Lazatin, aside from not knowing that previous reports named him as convenor of the group, said he knows nothing about the ad.

What also makes the group’s full-page ad more interesting is the editorial that it caused to appear in yesterday’s issue of Abante entitled “Tinatrabaho na nga ba ang media? (Is the media being managed?)” The paper’s editorial team reveals it rejected the ad because it failed to meet basic journalistic tests, especially on the group’s legitimacy and accountability.

“Bineripika namin kung sino ang mga bumubuo ng grupong ito. Kung saan ang kanilang tanggapan. Kung ilan ang kasapian nila. Hinanapan din namin ng ‘signatories’ ang manifesto. Kahit ilang pangalan lang, tirahan nila at lagda. Kailangan namin ng patunay na mga lehitimong mamamayang Filipino, taxpayers at mga kababayang naghahanap ng ‘venue’ ng kanilang boses sa gitna ng broadband deal controversy ang tunay na nasa likod ng ‘paid ads’ na ito, ngunit walang mailatag na mga pangalan ang pinagmulan ng anunsyo. Gusto naming maging patas sa lahat ng sektor ng lipunan at handa kaming bigyan sila ng patas na espasyo sa pahayagang ito. Ang kailangan lang ay lumantad sila at ‘wag silang magtago sa isang ‘collective name’ na Kongreso ng Mamamayan.”
Abante managing editor Nicolas Quijano dismisses the ad as one that could have only come from pro-Arroyo groups. He reveals that upon seeing the ad, he knew it was not fit to see print. For one, “it showed Lozada behind bars,” he says, which made it libelous. The version that came out in other papers today had Lozada in white shirt, minus the bars.

Quijano, who has spent the past three decades in the newspaper business, warns that apart from the unsigned ad, the more disturbing development the past few days is the apparent attempt by some sectors close to Malacañang to manipulate the media’s reportage on the NBN deal.

In his conversation with former presidential chief of staff Mike Defensor the night after he was taken from the airport by lawmen, Lozada said Defensor warned him that if he issues statements negative to Malacañang about the NBN deal, “tatrabahuhin lang naman namin iyan sa media (We can manage the media).”

Quijano notes that strangely enough, the day after the gruelling Senate hearing where Lozada faced airport officials and lawmen who took part in “securing” him upon his arrival, most tabloids’ lead stories leaned towards debunking Lozada’s claim that he was kidnapped. The angle that was played up centered on the statements made by the police officials, Environment Secretary Jose ‘Lito’ Atienza and Defensor.

“This is patently a media operation. May kumikita na naman (Someone is making money again),” he says. He laments that the practice of dictating headlines, long gone after the martial law years, has returned in recent years, especially during times of crisis in Malacañang.

Indeed, a former media operator privy to activities in the political press relations industry reveals that “media operations” have begun long before Lozada arrived from Hong Kong on February 5. He says two losing senatorial candidates, five palace officials, their “pagadors” or bagmen, and “subcontractors,” are now actively “handling” the media.

One telling detail, he says, is the envelope containing P50,000 that Defensor handed to Lozada as “assistance” when they met in La Salle Greenhills on the evening of February 6.

“That money was already in an envelope. That’s the practice when you give money to media people,” says the source.

While the “operators” had long been ready with their envelopes, it seems they had no credible counter-attack against Lozada. Proof is the full-page ad that no one was ready to sign, and few are inclined to believe.