Former president Fidel V. Ramos is flanked by the winners of the 2013 Civic Journalism Awards. Beside him is PPI president Atty. Jesus Dureza who is also the publisher of the Mindanao Times. (PHOTO FROM PHILIPPINE PRESS INSTITUTE)
Cracking jokes and giving his trademark victory jump, former president Fidel V. Ramos showed the lighter side of his role as a statesman as he laced an otherwise serious speech to journalists with shots of humor.
He also had advice for President Aquino on how to face 2016 when a turnover of power requires grace.
Ramos, the guest speaker in the 50th anniversary of the Philippine Press Institute (PPI), addressed editors and publishers gathered at the Traders Hotel in Pasay City. He called them members of “the fourth estate and conscience of the nation.”
Before he got to the heavy part about his views on what is a “responsible press”, the 86-year-old former Army general loosened up the crowd by asking members of the audience to greet each other with a handshake, a hug and a kiss “con todo amor”.
(He later demonstrated a four-kiss greeting on the cheeks of a female guest he escorted on stage.)
“If we don’t do this to congressmen and senators as well, that FOI (Freedom of Information Act) will never get passed,” he quipped.
He said the challenges faced by the media today – the need to uphold press freedom, stay vigilant, and professionalize skills – “are PPI’s main reason for being which are as urgent and necessary today as they were 50 years ago.”
It was during Ramos’ term as president from 1992 to 1998, that reforms in the telecommunication industry broke up monopolies, and spurred the rapid growth of mobile phone and Internet use in a digital world that is forcing traditional media today to change its business models and the way journalists use information.
“Credibility must be earned,” Ramos said, through three attributes – veracity, independence and accountability.
“Veracity means accuracy with facts through thorough verification. Today’s social media as a rule falls short of this imperative,” he said, adding that one can find a post in Facebook, then share or “like” it without checking if the content is true.
Ramos and PPI president Jesus Dureza later handed out trophies to community papers that exelled in disaster reporting, photojournalism, and other aspects of editorial quality in the 2013 PPI Civic Journalism Community Press Awards.
The former president welcomed the PPI’s initiative for 2014 to activate citizens press councils around the country as a forum for the public to seek redress for complaints, and to have an internal ombudsman to police the ranks of the media.
The successful example of the Cebu Citizens-Press Council, which started in 2002, was discussed in the annual conference held May 1 and 2, along with challenges of the digital era and new opportunities for earning revenue on line.
Ramos said the ability of the press to police its own ranks was necessary so that no government or party “will intrude into this exclusive domain that our Philippine Constitution protectsand holds paramount, which is press freedom.”
On a personal note, Ramos recalled that his late father published a small paper in Lingayen, Pangasinan, where like many community journalists, Narciso Ramos multi-tasked as “editor, treasure, printer and salesman rolled into one” with Ramos’ mother helping as “the English language consultant and the lone member of the board of directors.”
The PPI was organized in 1964 and currently has about 100 newspaper members, including Manila-based broadsheets. It ceased existing during the martial law regime, but reopened in 1987, when democracy was restored in the country.
The PPI chairman of the board, Dureza, is publisher of Mindanao Times, while the vice chairman Raul Pangalanan is publisher of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
JUGGLING ACT
As the guest of honor of PPI’s awards night, Ramos had his comic moments – pulling a copy of his speech from inside his socks, and tossing pages on the floor after reading it because, according to him, the speech prepared by Dureza “was too long”.
But Ramos was solemn and spoke like a kindly grandfather in his appeal for unity behind “our ship of state”, asking journalists to “appreciate” the pressures facing President Benigno Aquino III.
He said all Filipinos aspire for a better quality of life “free from poverty and bad governance” and that the role of a president is “like a juggler, balancing high on a wire, keeping aloft at least ten balls in the air which are national problems or hot potatoes.”
If the president slips due to lack of focus, panic or uncoordinated movements, said Ramos, “the whole nation will also crash down with him.”
“That is how difficult it is,” said Ramos.
“Let us appreciate our officials. Let’s try to help them. After all they are the crew of our one and only ship of state, where all of us are aboard… So instead of putting more holes in our ship of state, lets all help plugging the holes.”
Playing his role as elderly statesman, Ramos discouraged misplaced conflicts.
“There is no need to quarrel about this or that policy of government or this or that advantage or disadvantage in Mindanao, Visayas or Luzon if we look at ourselves as one Philippine family that must move forward and progress.”
Ramos said that after the President’s term ends in 2016, he hopes the same support would be given to the successor as part of the “one-country-one team” concept, rallying behind an elected leader regardless of political ties, ethnic origin or religion.
“Our attitude must always be, as you turn it over:
Dear friend, I hope you succeed better than me and I will be there to support you all the way.”