Thursday, July 24, 2008 So: Politics in my audit By Michelle P. So Caught in the Net
POLITICS has a way of leaking into the lives of the Pampangueno and into my audit of the content of Sun.Star Pampanga.
Auditing news stories is tedious. It’s also a lonely job and is better suited for the insomniac who might find the reading and tallying just about the tranquilizer that can lull him to sleep.
That’s why issue per issue, I come across the politics that the Pampaguenos are mired in. Gov. Ed Panlilio and Vice Gov. Yeng Guiao fill my life these days and I am both entertained and frustrated.
Panlilio, a priest who won the governorship of Pampanga with the help of private citizens clamoring for transparent and clean governance, has a theatrical calm that irritates Guiao, a professional basketball coach, and everyone else who sees him as threat to their business and public office.
That a priest and a coach run the provincial government of Pampanga is interesting enough if only I didn’t have to count the newspaper space that’s being devoted to their word quarrels. I think they’re quarreling for my benefit, perhaps getting word somewhere that I would be auditing the Sun.Star Pampanga stories.
I met Panlilio in Cebu, of all places, a few months after he had assumed office. My chances of meeting him in Pampanga would have been remote unless he had dropped by the office along the Olongapo-Gapan highway.
Dilaab Cebu’s Fr. Carmelo Diola, whose advocacy ranges from narcopolitics to good governance, had wanted me to meet him. Panlilio, together with his chief aide, complained about the way Sun.Star Pampanga has been treating news stories about him.
That Panlilio stressed news stories revealed to me a man who knows the work of media. He didn’t complain about the opinion columns, just the news stories that he said were slanted against him. He was precise in his complaint, specifying headlines, dates, space treatment and bylines.
I have not met Guiao but I know he had complained about the way Sun.Star Pampanga had covered him on one or two issues.
In Pampanga, patronage politics is a practice. So is patronage media. In Pampanga, politics and media leak into each other like ingredients of a Kapampangan dish. Here, every article about a politician is perceived as tinged with partisanship and every media person with a name is tagged.
So issue per issue, Panlilio and Guiao trade accusations of corruption and rationalizations, filling my tally on “politics” with a lot of kahon. And so it is that the Pampanga heat breeds people who are likely to stab reputation than human beings.
Politics gets more coverage by the Pampanga media than crime and law enforcement. This doesn’t mean that Pampanguenos are a peaceful lot or that few crimes happen in the province of President Arroyo. It’s just that they find politics more interesting to talk about than murder or robbery unless it involves politicians.
I have little interest in stories about politics unless they involve murder, robbery, or better yet, sex. So far, I have not come across a news story about this in Sun.Star Pampanga. That’s why I woke up drooling on the July file.
Maybe Panlilio and Guiao can spice up their exchanges a little bit, like throwing crushed pepper at each other or pulling each other’s hair. But wait, Guiao is bald.
