Call it coincidence but President Rodrigo Duterte’s latest broadsides against the media, specifically the Philippine Daily Inquirer and ABS-CBN, came at a time when two lawmakers supposedly allied with him got mired in a very public squabble that turned personal when their common law partners got involved.
There was nothing new with the President’s rants as he assailed both Inquirer and ABS-CBN concerning their coverage of his health issues as well as the allegations of corruption raised against him by Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV in relation to the P200 million in deposit he supposedly had.
These were issues that he ranted and railed against just weeks after he was given the presidential mandate by the Filipino people, and why he’s recycling these issues is anyone’s guess.
If he’s not preaching his sermon against the evils of the drug menace which by now looks more and more overblown with every tirade he makes, Duterte takes potshots at enemies real or imagined like the European Union, former US president Barack Obama and now, the private sector media.
Meanwhile, House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez’s motives in filing charges over the alleged lucrative yet questionable deal entered between a firm owned by Davao del Norte Rep. Antonio Floirendo and the Bureau of Corrections—a deal that Alvarez should have questioned back in 2004 when the deal was signed—was overshadowed by a claim made by Floirendo’s partner Cathy Binag that the feud stemmed over a fight between her and Alvarez’s girlfriend.
While Alvarez may have brushed aside public contempt over his extramarital affairs, claiming that maybe not one married lawyer doesn’t have a girlfriend or boyfriend, the resulting stink may have prompted President Duterte to strike and lash out at media for allegedly slanting stories against him and his administration allies.
President Duterte stopped short of actually threatening to press charges against the Inquirer and ABS-CBN by saying that they will receive “karmic payback,” but the invectives and cuss words were enough to show not only his displeasure but his very low opinion about media’s role as a fiscalizer and check against whatever abuses committed by his administration and his allies.
These include the very public dalliances of his officials who have taken a page from his playlist and choose to flaunt them on the caveat that their personal lives have nothing to do with their public service.
When public opinion sours over their excesses, these officials should not blame media for their troubles. Rather they should fix themselves and strive to be the upright, dedicated and scandal-free elected officials that they made themselves out to be to their constituents.
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