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Philippines, 25 Apr 2024 |
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THE MEDIA (AGAIN) TAKES THE BLAME! PhilBoxing.com Sun, 06 Mar 2011  In the war of nations and in the arenas of conflict around the world, warring groups, unless they are terrorists, observe certain conventions, one of which is that journalists and Red Cross workers must never be harmed. In the history of the wars of the world, the Red Cross (and Red Crescent in Islamic countries) workers were given free passage because they cared for everybody. Journalists, whose job is to report the happenings in the battlefield so that fathers and mothers of soldiers fighting in the war would know the fate of their sons, are never harmed. Every now and then, however, there are deranged individuals who blame the journalists for the conflagration not realizing that they were the ones who started the fire. And they attack the messengers. I was called a "low-life" and a "loser" and told to "Go, get a life!" for writing about the Donaire Father and Son public feud. As a former politician, I am used to verbal attacks like these. But I am no longer a politician. I have become a journalist again and a farmer. I was merely writing about an issue and reporting events as they happened and as I interpreted them. The characters in the story did it, the media merely wrote about it. They started the fire, not the media. Low life? Well, this low-life graduated valedictorian, holds a masters degree and is pursuing a doctorate degree, a writer, a broadcaster, a former mayor, former vice governor, former governor, a farmer and a happy family man. This low life waged and won one of the landmark legal battles ever handled by the Philippine Supreme Court (see the Philippine Supreme Court website) which resulted in the thrashing of the unconstitutional Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) between the government of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) which could have resulted in the partitioning of the Southern Philippines into Muslim and Christian enclaves. This low life believes God loves him having survived two ambushes and one bombing attempt, the results of his hardline stance against rebels and terrorists as Governor of North Cotabato. Loser? Well, this loser posted the biggest winning margin in the contest for the governorship in the history of North Cotabato and was leading 65-35% in the surveys prior to the elections of 2010 but the post election results showed otherwise. My "loss" is an issue that will still be settled by the Commission on Elections which has received the protest that I filed. But my "loss" in the last elections is not something that gives me sleepless nights. I have a life. I breed goats, I produce organic fertilizers out of goat manure, I breed gamefowls, I plant vegetables, bananas, rubber and oil palm, I play to a single handicap in golf and most of all I have a wife and children who love me in spite of my human imperfections. Oh yes, I have my problems. Who does not have problems in life? The only person who has no problem would be the stiff. But having been through a lot of crisis both in governance and personal life, I have long learned how to confront and handle problems. It is an art called "Crisis Management." The premises are simple: Every problem has a solution; Do not turn your back and run away from a problem because tomorrow when you wake up, it will still be a problem; A mistake cannot be corrected by another mistake; Never attempt to lie in justifying a mistake because in the end, the lie will unmask itself. The Donaire Family Reconciliation was a beautiful story, a bit late, yes but still, it was something that all of us wanted to see. That would have been a perfect story had the main characters in that drama just owned up to the mistakes and misjudgments that they committed. Everything would have died down quietly. But no, some of the characters in the story wanted to come out clean and decided to blame the butler for the crime. And that leaves a bad taste in the mouth. "It was the media's fault. They reported the story incorrectly and they blew it out of proportion because they are promoting their websites to make money," came the statement. Dong Secuya, the webmaster and owner of philboxing.com, undoubtedly the biggest boxing website in the world today, would die laughing at that claim. He owns philboxing.com, not Granville Ampong, not Recah Trinidad and certainly not Manny Pinol. Granville Ampong had the right to complain against the blame heaped on the media by one of the characters in that feud. Writers in philboxing.com are contributors. THEY DO NOT GET PAID for the articles they write, not a penny. They do it because they love to write and they love boxing. Dr. Ed dela Vega, for one, travels around the world covering boxing at his own expense. Many more write articles because it is their passion. These people are artists who weave a beautiful tapestry of life's events so others will appreciate these stories. They are not jukeboxes who will play the music you like to hear simply because you dropped a coin. With this said, here is my advice to the boxing champion and his wife: SHHH! Be quiet now. The problem is over, do not start another. And never ever pick up a fight with the media. You will never win against them in the war of words. Top photo: Nonito and Rachel with Top Rank photographer Cris Farina during a photo shoot at the Top Rank Gym in Las Vegas. Photo by Dong Secuya. Click here for a complete listing of columns by this author. Click here for a complete listing of this author's articles from different news sources. |
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