Marcos controls media; a requisite for dictatorship
THERE seemed to be a break of sunlight in the dark firmament of Marcos rule last Friday, March 28, when hundreds of thousands of Filipinos participated in huge demonstrations in a dozen cities here and at least eight abroad in support of the kidnapped former president Rodrigo Duterte, as well as to greet him on his 80th birthday.
The obvious subtext of these demonstrations — on a scale nearly approaching those of EDSA 1 and 2 — was angry calls for the kidnapping mastermind, President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., to step down. Indeed, the anger against Marcos was reflected in pollster Publicus’ poll conducted March 15 to 20 that shows the president’s trust rating plummeting from 23 percent at year’s end to 14 percent. Vice President Sara’s rating, on the other hand, rose from 31 to 39 percent.
The next day, though, it was a darkness-at-noon moment, with the mainstream print media ignoring the previous day’s historic event, which could presage an EDSA 4. The top story of the Manila Bulletin and the Philippine Star were nearly exactly the same: “US reaffirms ‘ironclad’ commitment to PH, for the former, and “US affirms ‘ironclad’ commitment to MDT.” Not only that: Both papers used the very same photo, although the Bulletin credited it to “PPA,” which stands for Professional Photographers of America, while the Star credited it to a Noel Pabalate, who, however, from his LinkedIn entry, is a Bulletin photographer. Very little, if any, coverage of the mammoth rallies.
The two articles were thinly edited rewrites of the state-run Philippine News Agency’s report titled, “US reaffirms ‘ironclad’ commitment to PH-US defense.”
This is something really amazing; in my decades of journalism during and after martial law, I have not seen such virtually identical reports in two supposedly competing papers, which points to the reality that Malacañang sent word to the two newspapers: Follow the PNA line.
The Philippine Daily Inquirer, however, appears to still have some embers of its anti-US sentiments, the result of the fact that many of its editors and reporters were with the Left, with a top editor even serving time as a subordinate in the Communist Party Manila-Rizal committee. The US defense chief’s visit was downplayed inside pages.
Spiteful
The Inquirer’s coverage of the Duterte rallies was spiteful, however, with its top story saying: “DU30 turns 80 in ICC cell.” Its choice of front-page photo on the rallies was ruthlessly unfair: It showed a photo of one of the smaller pro-Duterte rallies, taken at street-level so it would appear to be sparsely attended. And then another photo of a handful of demonstrators with the Karapatan Communist Party front holding a banner demanding, “Convict Duterte.” The paper carried no report at all of the huge nationwide rallies demanding Duterte’s release from the International Criminal Court prison, and condemning Marcos’ kidnapping of the former president.
It is certainly sad that the Inquirer and the Star, which from their founding in 1985 were fiercely against the Marcoses, have become their shameless tools now.
Controlling media — at least print media — at this time would be in one important aspect easier than during the late dictator’s rule. Before martial law, there were six newspapers, each owned by different economic elites; the most powerful was the Lopez family that owned the Manila Chronicle as well as ABS-CBN, and who had very independent writers, many intensely anti-Marcos. Now three of the biggest broadsheets and most of their columnists are anti-Duterte and slavishly pro-Marcos — a clear case of the contrast in views of the elites that own the newspapers and the masses (as revealed in the polls).
Their stance, though, is not ideological but material.
The Philippine Star is owned 51 percent by MediaQuest, a subsidiary of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., which is controlled by Manuel V. Pangilinan. The acquisition began with a 20 percent stake in 2010, increasing to 51 percent in 2014, as part of Pangilinan’s strategy to dominate the multimedia industry. The group now has in its stable Business World, TV5, two dozen radio stations and the Cignal cable TV company. One of the original founders of the Star, the Belmonte family, has a 20 percent share; Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte has been supportive of Marcos.
MVP
But contrary to the widespread belief that Pangilinan owns PLDT and other companies under the “MVP Group” (which doesn’t even exist), Pangilinan has been merely the trusted top executive of Indonesian tycoon Anthoni Salim, whose father was one of late Indonesian dictator Suharto’s top cronies. Salim’s control of the conglomerate is through the Hong Kong-based holding firm, First Pacific Co. Ltd., of which he owns (as of 2023) 45.4 percent. Pangilinan owns 1.7 percent, a level that has been unchanged since the firm was founded in 1981.
Marcos doesn’t need to ask Salim and his media to do what he wants them to do. Salim is in effect violating our Constitution that bans a single dollar of investment in Philippine media and up to 40 percent in utilities where his empire is deep into. Salim has managed to skirt this constitutional ban by having PLDT’s Beneficial Trust Fund, technically Filipino but controlled by PLDT management, as the investor in his media holding companies. If Salim’s papers cross Marcos, he can just order the Securities and Exchange Commission to declare as violative of the Constitution Salim’s various mechanisms for skirting the constitutional restrictions as I have detailed in my book “Colossal Deception” (available in my website and at amazon.com). The paper is closely guarded by Pangilinan’s top executives: his main legal counsel Ray Espinosa for many years, and now former PLDT official Victorico Vargas. Both are also assistant directors of the Hong Kong-based First Pacific.
The Philippine Daily Inquirer, owned by the Prieto-Rufino clan, lost its media militancy when it nearly keeled over under president Joseph Estrada’s ad boycott campaign. Duterte also cut off a big part of the family’s revenues when he ordered the Mile Long commercial complex in Makati returned to the government as its lease given by the first Marcos government had long expired, a fact largely kept secret for four decades. While this most likely had made the Prieto-Rufino abhor Duterte — as reflected in its vicious coverage of his administration and his war on drugs — the family has a strong link with the Marcoses. The CEO of the family’s conglomerate, including the Inquirer is Alexandra Prieto, married to Philip Romualdez, the brother of Marcos’ political lieutenant and House Speaker Martin. The Romualdez brothers also own the Manila Standard and a tabloid, People’s Journal.
The Manila Bulletin is owned by the heirs of Emilio Yap, who had been a minor investor in the paper that had existed before, through, and after the martial law era, with the bulk of the shares owned by the dictator himself through his dummy, allegedly his late personal pilot Hans Menzi. With the fall of the elder Marcos, Yap managed to gain full control of it during the Cory Aquino years, defeating the Marcos children’s intense efforts to get their father’s shares as his heirs. The paper’s corporate ethos has always been to cooperate fully with whatever is the incumbent administration.
Thus, it has always appointed as members of its board prominent retired officials. Its board chairman now is the former chief justice during Cory Aquino’s term, Hilario Davide, and its vice chairman is former Gloria Arroyo finance secretary Alberto Romulo, both of whom were once fierce critics of the Marcoses. As ironic as that is, the paper’s publisher is Hermino Coloma, the late president Benigno Aquino III’s press spokesman, who, during his college years, was a fierce anti-Marcos Communist Party cadre.
We’re indeed lucky that we still have social media, which was in a blaze reporting ATMs (“At the Moment”) coverage of the Duterte rallies last Friday and Saturday.
A free press is the cornerstone of democracy. To the mainstream press owners and editors: Don’t you have any shame?
The post Marcos controls media; a requisite for dictatorship first appeared on Rigoberto Tiglao.
Marcos controls media; a requisite for dictatorship
Source: Breaking News PH
No comments: