LuisTeodoro.com

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s declaration that the coming Christmas should be a happy one for Filipinos is likely to be greeted by hoots of derision by people who’ve seen the prices of basic commodities rising in the last few months, and who have had to deal with them by tightening their belts, or by simply doing without. December 25 is likely to be just another date in the calendar for these Filipinos–and their number is legion.

Eight out of ten Philippine households are hungry, the Food and Nutrition Research Institute of the Department of Science and Technology survey found last August. Although the FNRI-DOST survey confirmed a suspicion derived from anecdotal evidence that there is indeed hunger in the Philippines as there is in Bangladesh and certain African countries, the discovery that it afflicts as much as 80 percent of Philippine households was shocking to many people, except for the Communist Party, which has always said that there’s more poverty in this country than doctored government statistics reveal. »

Speaking for the last time as Armed Forces Chief of Staff last October 29, Narciso Abaya had critical words for the media, the politicians and the civilian government. He was correct on all counts–but incorrect in making the AFP seem like the hapless victim of both in the making of the scandals that have rocked the military establishment.

The media do tend to sensationalize. They do publish unverified information and even to present speculation as fact. And in cases too numerous to mention, they do engage in trial by publicity. Conventional journalism wisdom declares these practices to be unethical and unprofessional. »