The Contratistas’ defender

 

Onion-skinned received quite a number of e-mails reacting to yesterday’s post.

Some provided Onion-skinned  names of Prima Contratista’s reliable media contacts and details of The Contratistas’ activities.  Not a few simply gave the e-mail equivalent of a hearty laugh.

Interestingly, of all the e-mails Onion-skinned received, only one wrote in defense of Prima Contratista.  On Onion-skinned’s claim that Prima Contratista left journalism, implying that her current gig is more lucrative, the sender wrote:  “No, no, no.  She was fired!”

So we stand corrected.

Wait.  That’s not a defense?

We stand corrected.

The Contratistas

Which means, of course, “The Contractors”.

And true to their name, this recently formed cabal of young, relatively young and reluctantly old journalists and media persons are contracted by their leader, Prima Contratista, to sneak press releases into newsrooms and push slants into news stories coming out of them.

The group used to hang out at the office of a government official, where Prima Contratista used to work (unofficially), and on particularly good “paydays”, in videoke bars as well. In videoke bars, they rehearse not only the lines to their favorite songs, but more importantly, the lines they have been contracted to write into their stories,

With that government official gone, Prima Contratista was picked up recently by an old discredited politico who is not only aging, but is dying to make a comeback.

Prima Contratista used to be a reporter, though not a very successful one. She wrote bad stories, and embarrassed other reporters in press conferences by asking bad questons and her bad habit of bringing her noisy kid along. And for scooping up the free snacks before everyone else, and even before the host could offer them.

But hey, who knows? She already has under contract reporters from all major dailies — Cebu Daily News, The Freeman and even SunStar — as well as radio and TV stations. Maybe, by being a “contratista” — that is, contracting out p.r. work to jourmalists and media persons — she has found her true calling.

Maybe even, I’m told, being true to her name.

Cheking’s Liberal Party drinking buddies

kinsay kurap reminded onion-skinned, which has been slacking lately, about updating this blog, especially since September and Press Freedom Week are fast approaching.

He/she further volunteers the information that The Freeman has made good its threat not to host this year’s Press Freedom Week, supposedly to show its disapproval of the way Cheking Seares and his cronies (mis)handled last year’s celebrations. (Please refer to previous posts.)

onion-skinned apologizes for taking an extended leave.  We were too busy writing boring stuff.

Which doesn’t mean, however, that our ears (and those of our informants) have not been busy.  So, to make up for our absence, here’s a juicy bit of information:

A waiter at a bar in a hotel near Fuente Osmena informs onion-skinned that Cheking Seares, the Grand Old Man of Cebu’s media, is now a frequent drinking companion of Liberal Party leaders, particularly Bogo City Mayor Celestino “Junie” Martinez Jr. and defeated 2nd congressional district candidate for congressman and former Provincial Board Member Cary Kintanar.  Once, radio broadcaster and columnist (who identifies himself as “author” in his Facebook Page), SuperBobby Nalzaro was even present.

The head of security of that hotel, who is a friend of onion-skinned, says he can get me video footage from their security cameras if these gentlemen should deny this.  (So onion-skinned is waiting for Cheking to deny this.)

So people shouldn’t wonder anymore why these people have fully embraced the Liberal Party’s tactic of attacking their political opponents this early in the political cycle.

One more thing:  The waiter is wondering why the Liberal Party leaders aren’t living up to their party’s name and instead it’s Cheking and his media cronies who are quite Liberal with their drinks, and who seem to know how to Party.

If Cheking Seares is so clean…

Wby is he protecting one particular reporter?

Almost five years ago, the Capitol filed a complaint against Karlon N. Rama, or KNR, a reporter for SunStar, for using fraud in securing documents from the Capitol, and for having a personal and pecuniary interest in a story which he nonetheless covered.

To make a long story short, he — in his stories — lambasted the Capitol, whose Governor was and continues to be the chair of the Mactan-Cebu Bridge Management Baord (MCBMB), for the latter board’s award of a contract for the exclusive use of the bridge for marketing and advertising material to a certain company, which won in a public bidding.

Of course, KNR was rooting for  the losing bidder.

That’s fine.  But in pursuit of his story against the Capitol, KNR obtained documents from a department at the Capitol by claiming, falsely, that he had the clearance of the Governor and her consultant on information, which was a big fat lie.

Pretending to be mortified by KNR’s acts, Cheking Seares assured the Governor that a “committee” had been convened to investigate KNR’s actions, and that the committee would inform the Governor of the results, and the action taken.

That was more than four years ago.  Just to prove this, onion-skinned had been harping about Cheking’s inaction in a blog written three years ago.

After that foolhardy video documentary that Cheking Seares produced (and which KNR executed, in accordance with Cheking Seares’ wishes), onion-skinned sent a text message to Cheking Seares, asking him about the status of the complaint.

And this is Cheking Seares’ reply:  “I now do other tasks in SunStar but I will refer your question to Isolde and Michelle.”

Four years?  Still no action?  Is this why he was awarded the Gawad Plaridel?  Because of his ability to protect his cronies from liability and accountability?

onion-skinned asked Michelle (because she’s always nice), but not Isolde (because she’s bitter), about the status of the case, but it seems SunStar is stumped.  No one knows what happened to it because Cheking Seares buried the case while he was editor-in-chief.

So it seems Karlon N. Rama, or KNR is Cheking Seares’ bitch.  If you recall, Cheking Seares, in a meeting with members of the Cebu Federation of Beat Journalists (CFBJ), blamed the stupid video documentary on media corruption on KNR.

So is that what everything has come to?  Cheking Seares condemns reporters in general for eating lunches served them during press conferences, and yet sits on clear cases of conflct of interest, just because the reporter in question is his bitch?

No wonder reporters are grumbling about the hypocrisy of that video documentary.  Cheking Seares, producer of that video, cannot even come clean about this apparent case of media corruption.

onion-skinned is waiting for the results of that so-called investigaiton.

Reporters under the glare, but who checks editors?

SunStar’s Anol Mongaya, in his column today, speaks of the deepening conflict in Cebu media caused by that holier-than-thou video documentary on media corruption produced by the Cebu Citizens Press Council (CCPC).

As reported here on onion-skinned, reporters belonging to the Cebu Federation of Beat Journalists (CFBJ) have fired the initial salvo in what is shaping up to be a full-scale rebellion against the editors — and their cronies — behind the video.

Onion-skinned shares Mongaya’s analysis of the situation, that the video is “unfair”, that it serves the limited ambitions of its producers at the expense of all of Cebu’s reporters.

onion-skinned cannot agree, however, with Mongaya, that “disunity” between reporters and editors is necessarily a bad thing.  That “reporters digging up forgotten skeletons in retaliation for what they perceive as a blanket attack on their integrity” is a tragedy that should be avoided.

In fact, onion-skinned believes it should be encouraged.

Editors check on their reporters everyday, for every perceivable slant or bias, for signs of familiarity with their sources, for indications of what Cheking Seares hypocritically once called “sleeping with the elephant.”  Reporters have to live under all this scrutiny everyday.

But who checks the editors, the opinion writers, the commentators?  They have the power to kill a story, to re-write it, to mangle it beyond recognition, to bury it in the inside pages, to editorialize on it and comment on it to muddle the issue.  And yet nobody’s checking that power by asking the right questions.

Who are these editors dining, wining and getting cozy with?  If an editor, for instance, is constantly dining and drinking with a congressman (well, former), and a telecoms executive whose company is constantly running into regulatory issues with certain local governments, should reporters just close their eyes, and shut their mouths, in the spirit of “unity”?

Shouldn’t reporters, and their associations like the CFBJ, instead, be the check and balance, and ensure that editors are held to the same standards as they are?

onion-skinned believes so.  Maybe this is the “better system” of monitoring that Mongaya frequently writes about.  It should be encouraged.

In fact, onion-skinned is thinking of a program to encourage reporters to dig those “skeletons”.  Perhaps a modest grant for a scholarly paper on the role these editors played during the dark days of Martial Law.  Perhaps another one for a video documentary on the other side — the editorial side — of media corruption.

onion-skinned had better start raising funds.

The backfire continues…

Onion-skinned has learned from media sources that in a mid-week meeting of the Cebu Federation of Beat Journalists (CFBJ), there was almost unanimous condemnation of the Cebu Citizens Press Council (CCPC) video documentary on media corruption.

Reporters reportedly agreed that the video was the handiwork of Cheking Seares, retired editor of SunStar, motivated either by a desire to be immortalized as a (they say) dubious giant of Cebu journalism, or a desire to get back at his pet peeves (the Capitol and journalists who do not kowtow to him, among others),. or both.

CFBJ passed a resolution urging the CCPC to refrain from further showing, distributing and reproducing the controversial video, condemning the producers and demanding a public apology.

If the CCPC ignores the demand, the journalists have threatened to disseminate the resolution nationwide.

Plus, there’s the threat of their producing a video focusing on Cheking Seares’ and his crony editors’ alleged corruption, tentatively dubbed “The Other Side of Media Corruption.”

Let’s see how Checking Seares and his cronies at CCPC respond to this resolution, which is the first time, in recent memory, that a federation of journalists openly defied and condemned their editors.  Will Cheking Seares maintain his legendary obstinacy and single-minded ambition to be remembered as the champion of press freedom (to hide an inconvenient involvement with a Marcos crony in the dark days of Martial Law)?

Next week should be interesting for Cebu media.

Heard above the din caused by that video docu

1. Female reporter to a male commentator (perceived to be behind the video documentary on media corruption): “Dili man ka limpyo! Modawat ra man ka’g limpyo!”.

For those who do not speak Cebuano, onion-skinned apologizes. The statement is too rich to be translated without losing its flavor.  onion-skinned invites readers to come up with a suitable translation.  Post as comment.  (Winner will win a modest prize.  No, not sibuyas bombay.)

2.  An editor who was a resource person in that video documentary wasn’t spared the backlash its caused.  Reporters, seeing him on the video on media corruption, were said to have muttered:  “Unya, ikaw?  Solicit diri, Tulis-it didto!”

Said to harbor anti-Capitol feelings, this same senior editor once prohibited his reporter from accompanying Governor Gwen Garcia on a trip to which the reporter was invited to cover.  This, despite the fact that his editor-in-chief had approved the trip.  Since the top boss, the editor-in-chief, had approved the trip, the reporter went.  Soon after, this reporter was yanked off the Capitol beat and transferred elsewhere.

Ironically, this same senior editor was, around the time of trip that offended his sensibilities, going around soliciting funds from public personalities, private individuals and corporations to defray his trip to Singapore.

3.  Reporters choked upon hearing a known p.r. practitioner commenting about “corruption in media”.  Reporters cried:  “Ikaw ma’y nag-corrupt sa media!”

Wondering what could possibly qualify this p.r. practitioner to comment on corruption in media, reporters found the answer.  He is making media less corrupt.  How?  On a recent junket for reporters to an Asian country, arranged by his corporate principal, he gave each reporter $100 out of the $500 budget per reporter given by his principal, and kept the $400 for himself.  So there:  he minimized media corruption.

Cheking washes hands, gets pie in the face

I guess this will be another lazy day for onion-skinned.  Not much writing, and certainly not much snooping around needed.

Another reader, Scorpio, made this blog-worthy comment to our previous post, confirming our earlier scoop regarding a meeting, hastily called yesterday by Cheking Seares, of members of the Cebu Federation of Beat Journalists (CFBJ).

It’s rich in detail, not only about the meeting, but, more importantly, about how — considering the lifestyles and the fabulous ways the editors and cronies behind the video are wined, dined and bribed by Cebu’s movers and shakers — the video was, ultimately, one-sided and hypocritical.

“Atty. Cheking Seares who is known as PAS inside the newsroom is a master of using scapegoats that makes Robert Greene and Machiavelli proud. In the aforementioned 4 pm meeting, PAS conveniently blamed Karlon N. Rama for the alleged lapses in the documentary on media corruption.

“Poor KNR, Cheking is now trying to make him the target for the Cebu media community’s anger for what this guy Kinsay Kurap has exposed as a “slanted” piece of film. As a result, stories about KNR’s activities at the NBI and the Palace of Justice have begun circulating. As one story goes, “KNR cannot be bought. That’s if your offer is P5,000 or below. No wonder he could afford his expensive guns.”

“Cheking, the wily old lawyer that he is, called the meeting held at the Superbalita conference room supposedly to explain his side and issue instructions on what is to be done. He conveniently glossed over the reality that KNR only followed the script prepared by the scriptwriter. Who is the scriptwriter? Cheking himself.

“In fairness to KNR, everybody in the Sun.Star newsroom knows one, especially loyal lapdogs, cannot go against the wishes of gods. KNR is expected to just stay quiet and wait for the storm to go away. Would KNR continue to keep quiet and roll over? Just don’t push him to a corner. Don’t force him to bite the master’s hand.

“Back to the meeting, Cheking took some time to explain the supposed loftiness of his motive. He simply wants to eliminate corruption in media. He does not need another award. The Plaridel award is the highest he could get in the Philippines. He has no beef against Gov. Gwen Garcia. His script also mentioned corruption by editors. He urged Sun.Star writers who are officers of the Cebu Federation of Beat Journalists (CFBJ) to review the script and the film together with members during a meeting at Crossroads two days hence. There is nothing wrong with his film. If there are lapses, he said, these are KNR’s fault.

“This leads us to examine the video closely. Are the so-called lapses actually the fault of Karlon Rama? Because I don’t have a copy of the controversial film at the moment, I just want to pose the following questions which I hope reporters during the CFBJ meeting and other members of Cebu media will use.

“• Shortly after his interview, one of the video sources asked KNR what the others actually said. Karlon cynically answered, “Pareho man mong lihay tanan bay.” KNR meant nobody admitted there was corruption in Cebu media. The video sources were saying that those who are besmirching the media community are so-called block time broadcasters especially those without a radio program. They flock to press conferences and ask for payola or present solicitation letters for their supposed programs. Question. Why were these statements not included in the video? Was it because it did not fit into Cheking’s script or agenda?

“• What happened when the references to blocktimers were deleted and the sources’ statements were accompanied with staged footages of envelopes in a comfort room? Did it not visually blame reporters in general?

“• One source was asked about envelopes given in election related press conferences. When his interview was shown, the accompanying images did not refer to elections but press conferences in general. Why was his statement taken out of context? Was this simply a lapse by KNR? Or was this the instruction of the video scriptwriter?

“• According to Cheking, the script also mentioned editors. Why were there only footages showing reporters. Nothing about editors. Why attorney scriptwriter? You could have simply instructed the use of footages or photographs of the annual exclusive dinner for editors sponsored by a big business conglomerate during Press Freedom Week celebrations.

“• Cheking also explained that the filmmaker could only put so much into a 25-minute film. Is this a valid excuse for splicing statements with images which would result in an entirely different audio-visual message? In the ABS-CBN incident involving a drunken police officer, the deleted portion of the film took only a few seconds. The deletion gave viewers an entirely different picture. In Cheking’s video, the overall impact was a condemnation of Cebu reporters as corrupt. Why attorney scriptwriter? Is this kind of splicing ethical? The end justifies the means, Atty. Public and Standards Editor? In Cebu, there is only one Public And Standards editor and he is PAS.

“• If there’s no bias against Gov. Gwen Garcia, why use only footages on the free lunch at the Capitol? Why did it not include free lunches using Cebu City Hall money or also the daily free lunch at the Mandaue City Hall? Cheking is not biased against Capitol free lunches? Read his September 9, 2010 column on Vice Gov. Greg Sanchez’ take on the Capitol lunches when he wrote, “To public officials who offer and reporters who accept, the lunches are free but to province taxpayers they cost money. That’s economics. In politics, as in other aspects of life, a favor calls for repayment. And often one repays, consciously or not.”

“Cheking, definitely knows what he is talking about although not all Wednesday, Friday and Saturday binges are free. It was only when a certain former congressman or a former governor or a former press secretary was around.

“At least, the free lunches at Capitol have not caused uncontrollable upset stomachs unlike excess beer at an uptown hangout. His loyalists are talking about the actual sh** he failed to control. The one who narrated this in a colorful manner heard it first from a Wednesday group loyalist. No, not the one who had a quarrel with a spouse?

“• There is no political agenda in this attack against Capitol? No higher awards than Plaridel? You are not after something international? This suspicion about political agenda is fairly obvious. The one about awards probably stemmed from what one of Cheking’s favored editors has been telling friends. She remembers that a Cebuano publisher was also nominated to that Plaridel award and how badly Cheking wanted it for himself?”

Thank you, Scorpio.  And keep the good stuff coming.

The first stone was cast by dirty hands?

The best thing about writing the onion-skinned blog is that sometimes, you don’t really have to write.

The good stuff just keeps coming in, from readers who share our — (ahem) — advocacy.

Kinsay kurap, whose comment we featured in a previous post, wrote again, to give us more juicy details about the shenanigans and shady dealings of the editors and senior journalists behind that controversial video on — (you may regurgitate here) — media corruption.

This comment — as well as all the interesting stuff coming out in reaction to the video — proves that if you’re always sanctimonious, holier-than-thou, and eager to point fingers, you must be hiding some pretty bad sh**.

Here goes:

“The leaders of Cebu media should be worried by now about the kind of stories being circulated by word of mouth among new and veteran journalists after they produced the controversial video on media corruption. The video has opened up Pandora’s Box. The rest of Cebu media wanted these stories to be part of another video with the title “The Other Side of Media Corruption.” Just to give readers of this blog an idea of the stories:

“1. The motive behind the video is the quest for another award by an aging media leader at the expense of Cebu media. The reporter who conducted the interviews for the video documentary had admitted through text messages and explanations with fellow reporters on how the product of his work was unethically circumcised beyond recognition at the expense of the sources for the documentary.

“2. A top editor and media leader asked a reporter to protest an activity of the Press Freedom Week many years ago. It turned out the top editor and media leader only wanted a P50000.00 share of the sponsorship budget for the activity to fund his book project. The book project was aimed to enshrine him as a top Cebu media leader.

“3. While the rest of the Cebu media community have to contend with winning cell phones during press conference raffles, a leading clique of media leaders each secretly received top of the line cell phones. Guess who are they?

“4. Cebu sports writers have long heard of what is now an open secret in the world of cockfighting in Cebu. Money to the tune of P10000.00 a week is changing hands to ensure the publication of derby schedules in one daily tabloid. Ironic that the young point person in this caper is a member of Cebu media’s Wednesday and Friday clique. Why has the paramount leader condoned this?

“5. During the early 90s, the staff of a newspaper signed a document on media ethics. Shortly after, appliances from a senator were delivered to a top editor right at the newspaper office. Who is this top editor? Too bad, the late Vic Canoy cannot anymore talk about this issue.

“6. At a time of Freedom Marches led by Inday Nita Cortes-Daluz when the image of the dictator was at its lowest in Cebu, a leading editor convinced his editorial staff to join a new newspaper to be published by a Marcos crony who was a kingmaker in Cebu. The top editor was able to entice writers identified with the opposition. During the late Marcos years, he enjoyed freebies at the plush Cebu Plaza Hotel and in trips to Manila to keep pro-Marcos stories flowing.

“7. Right after the restoration of democracy in 1986, members of a labor union at then Cebu Plaza Hotel found a document at the office of a known Marcos crony. The document listed those who received payola from the crony during the snap elections. A reporter wrote about this. The issue was even included in a journalism book. Guess the identity of one prominent editor included in the list.

“8. It is ironic that a leading beneficiary of benefits during the Marcos years when press freedom was suppressed and mangled is now recognized as a leader of the celebration of Cebu press freedom. He now wants to be recognized for his legacy as a champion against media corruption by shrewdly blaming reporters as corrupt with the use of his slanted video documentary.”

Thank you, kinsay kurap.

Latest update:  Atty. Pachico Seares of the CCPC called the presidents of the Cebu Federation of Beat Journalists (CFBJ) to a meeting at 4:00 p.m. today.  Onion-skinned can only guess that the CCPC — fearing the backlash generated by the video — is trying to put out a hell of a fire.

kinsay kurap asks the right questions

Our previous post, “CCPC docu stirs up a nest of a wrong hornet”, got a comment from someone who calls himself/herself kinsay kurap.

While you may view this at the comments section of the post, onion-skinned believes that only by elevating the comment into a separate post can we do justice to a thoughtful, thought-provoking and obviously carefully crafted piece.

Here it is:

“We all agree that making reporters look corrupt by holier-than-thou editors behind the video on alleged media corruption is wrong. It is morally and ethically wrong.

“Please allow me to put in my two cents worth. I don’t have a blog and I hope this will be published in toto in your popular blog:

“1. The video has unleashed a storm that first threw mud at reporters last week and is resulting in reporters readying something more than mud against all the other members of the Cebu media in general. Kinsay kurap, everybody are asking with each finger pointing at everybody else. LOL!

“2. Before everybody gets muddied all over along with bloody noses, let us take a closer look at the video itself which started this. The sources are now complaining they were quoted out of context. They did not blame the reporters. However, the scriptwriter and the editor made them look as if they were condemning the reporters. The reporters are now up in arms, not against the video producers-editors-scriptwriters, but against the sources whose statements were spliced in such a manner that made them the bad guys.

“3. Looking back at what happened to our television colleague caught splicing a video of a drunk police officers years ago, we know that such a practice is intrinsically unethical. A spliced video, which only presents a part of reality to fit a legacy or political agenda or both, should have not been part of Cebu media’s celebration of Press Freedom Week. At the very least, it has created division and disunity. It defeated our objective of showing the world our Cebu media unity.

“4. Once we look at the issue by examining how the video was made in the first place, we will see that it has done great injustice to the sources and its targets which includes Capitol, the reporters in general, and the viewing public who were fed slanted information apparently to fit into an agenda we all still need to figure out. It also is unfair to all editors and columnists who are now becoming targets although they have no hand whatsoever with the making of the video because only a small but elite clique is behind it.

“5. In your earlier posts, it is clear that you know the identities of the members of this clique who belongs to the so-called Saturday Club and the smaller core called the Wednesday and Friday Group. Isn’t it only proper for everybody to focus on the capers of this clique first like why they unleashed on Cebu media and the public a maliciously spliced and slanted video on corruption? Is it for legacy’s sake ala Plaridel? Or is it political because I noticed how attention was pointed at the free food at the Capitol and not on, for example, Cebu City Hall?

“6. On the other hand, whether it involves everybody or this small clique, it is not good for Cebu media and all Cebuanos for local journalists to wash dirty linen in public. It is our collective reputation and credibility were are all bludgeoning to death. Let the institutions we set up like the Cebu Citizens-Press Council (CCPC) and the KBP work silently to rid Cebu media of corruption. If these institutions have proven inadequate, let us set up more potent cleansing systems.

“7. It is very unfortunate that this intrinsically flawed video has been produced in the first place. Like products with factory defects, it is only proper for its producers to recall the video and issue the appropriate apologies to all that has been hurt needlessly.

“To close this comment, I would like to repeat this message to the video producers. Recall the video. Issue a public apology.”