Last Saturday a broadsheet (not Malaya) carried a big photograph of Alex von Behr, president of Coca-Cola Far East Ltd., shaking hands with President Arroyo. The photo was accompanied by a caption that said that in his courtesy call on GMA, von Behr had reported on plans of Coca-Cola to expand its plant in the Philippines. Here finally was an indication of money flowing in!
Or was it?
The photograph was real, as was of course the courtesy call. But there was never any discussion of plant expansion in the Philippines, because von Behr’s reason for visiting GMA was something totally different.
I should know, because I helped set up the courtesy call. And in fact I was standing behind von Behr and would have been caught in the photo had the Malacanang photographer widened his angle a bit.
In fact standing next to me were George and Maria Sy, Betti’s parents. And also in the room were Interior secretary Angelo Reyes, Betti’s brothers Walter and Winnifred, anti-kidnapping advocate Teresita Ang See and kidnap victim Jackie Tiu.
During the 15 minutes or so that the President was with us, all that we talked about was kidnapping — still a scourge in the country. On behalf of the global Coca-Cola world and Betti’s local Coca-Cola officemates, von Behr expressed appreciation to the President and Secretary Reyes for the apprehension of Betti’s gunman and the few other remaining perpetrators of her kidnap-murder who had been at large since the November 2003 crime; he also expressed the continuing interest of the Coca-Cola community in the trial of the accused — for we had briefed him that in the Philippines it was one thing to apprehend the accused in a case and another thing to see them go to trial and be found guilty - or innocent, as the case may be. And this fact was made apparent to him by Jackie Tiu herself, a 2001 kidnapping victim whose case has been languishing since 2004; worse, one of her kidnappers, a Chinese national on whose behalf the Chinese embassy had intervened, had been deported despite his being on trial for kidnapping!
So much so that when Jackie Tiu firmly told the President "I want justice", she could very well be speaking not only for Betti but for all other kidnap victims whose cases are far from closed just because the alleged perpetrators had been apprehended.
But let’s go back to the main point: If von Behr had been there to speak to the President about Betti Sy, and if he never mentioned anything at all about plant expansion in the Philippines, then why was a photograph, taken by a Malacañang photographer, gracing a major Manila daily’s business pages with a caption speaking of such business expansion?
Maybe the newspaper was "making sipsip", in the process creating its own story, no matter how erroneous, and no matter how irresponsible. You see, Coca-Cola is a listed company, its stock being traded on the New York stock exchange; a caption such as that which accompanied the photograph could cause some stir in the investment community. Imagine what happens when the report is found out to be false?
I wouldn’t like to think that the caption came from the Palace, because I couldn’t imagine the Palace press people to be that irresponsible even though on political issues I may disagree with them most of the time.
Whether the "spin" was a product of the newspaper’s imagination or, worse, a product of the imagination of some Palace boys, the danger here is the false impression it can create, and the even bigger danger of everyone else believing in what is in fact a false story. At a time when we remain beset by serous problems it is totally critical that both our leaders and our people are appraised of the real situation, the real score, no matter how difficult or painful the message may be. And the real situation or the real score is not achieved by spin that is totally without basis, as in this case; whoever caused the caption to be published was definitely not doing the President of the Philippines a favor.
Saang newspaper kaya ito? Sa PhilStar? Enrique Razon's Manila Standard? PDI? Nakakahiya naman itong panloloko na ito.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment