From column I THINK, THEREFORE I WRITE
BY MARK LEX G. BARRIOS
To Concerned Fellow Capiceño Journalists
We, journalists, are egoists, so says National Artist and former Manila editor F. Sionil Jose.
If, indeed, we are – and we are, I believe – among all egoists, we should be the least affected. Frequently, though, we become the most, for while it is our task to detach ourselves from our subject, the desire to evoke reform entails us otherwise. Hence, many of us today assume the role of the active advocate more than of the traditional, passive watchdog.
What is wrong with this, you may ask.
None, that is, unless you put on the mantle of the advocative journalist as cloak for your own subservient brands of journalism.
So much of impartiality, independence and integrity claims when, every month or even every day perhaps, you receive paycheck for commissioned self-serving advertorials or get an exchange deal for keeping mum on government shenanigans, ruses and tomfooleries. In so doing, you have become, instead of being the voice of the underprivileged, the stinking mouthpiece of the powers-that-be.
You contrive polls that even heaven knows nothing of. You conceive of politically well-defacing news from spurious sources. Gung ho as you are, you blaze all these abroad to effect trends – trends that, after the May 10 elections, generated a generous return of your unethical, more so diabolically immoral, investments.
The Essay on The Ethical Delimma Of Journalist
... where the absence of law exists. Consequently, whenever journalists acquire the revelation of some secret information, ... Klaid, S. &Beauchamp, T. (1987). The Virtuous Journalist. New York: Oxford University Press. Media, Entertainment and ... Arts Alliance: Australian Journalists Association section. (1997). Ethics in Journalism. Victoria: Melbourne ...
You are egoists. For quite some time, your heads have ballooned bigger than your bodies, but with bankrollers around, along with your pockets, your heads did more so.
You are egoists but in hawking yourself, you have sold out the only good faculty of our being egoists, our pride of retaining dignity and self-esteem to our person.
oOo
The May 10 elections proved to be successful, or so it seemed.
Almost everybody agrees that despite the minor glitches and the delays, the process turned out a breeze. The result of most Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines were accurate when compared to the random manual audits. Discrepancies were placed to be minimal and insignificant.
But the machines do not determine whether the ballots casts were free from vote buys or intimidations and harassments. The machines just count.
The success of the elections was but generally measured in relation to the efficiency of the machines: the security of its program and the accuracy and precision of the laser scanners installed on it. The Commission on Elections (COMELEC) and most observers, domestic and international, do not take into account what happened behind the scenes.
Vote buying was ever all the more rampant. I could only cite, for example, a close relative by affinity who was given millions by a local political warlord to grease voters from five towns come the wee hours of election day in exchange of their votes for this president-aspirant who is as rich as he claims to have been be so poor. This political warlord, I came to know, was promised to be appointed as Ambassador to the United Kingdom once this very “unpresidentiable” man gets to sit his not-so-calloused butt but calloused conscience in Malacañang. Fortunately, he didn’t make it.
Harassments were all the more common also. In the island barangay of our fledgling town of Carles, Iloilo where I served as PCOS Technician, some four persons I’ve privately talked with claim to be among the 65 who were intimidated to be forcibly evicted out of the land they are tenanting if they vote against the local mayoral choice of their landlord. In some other island barangays, insubordinate tenants were fenced in by landlords to restrain them from voting. It is the “incorruptible” system in our town for decades now – the likes of this is not isolated to our town – and it will continue to be unless genuine agrarian reform be implemented by our newly elected leaders.
The Essay on Why You Vote
1920, this year should ring a bell in everybodys mind. Especially in the minds of over 50% of this class. 1920 is the year that women earned the right to vote. After 75 years of struggles, fighting, defeats pain & tears Susan B. Anthony and her followers accomplished their biggest goal by persuading the U.S. Government to give women the right to vote.Then 35 yrs ago in 1965 the federal ...
Killings and other standoffs even made headlines. There was, however, much less violence than in the past elections. Saving hundreds of lives from election-related atrocities will go down in history as the best contribution of election automation.
Still, I maintain, to change the electoral system, it is not enough to rely on the influx of technology. It never will be. To change the system is for the country to develop a strong moral fiber. To achieve this, we could only hope and pray and do our part that the newly elected leaders will do theirs.
oOo
I share in the burden of the PCOS Technicians who were unjustly waged by Ventureslink International, Inc.
While it is true that we did the job to share in a crucial part in this history-making event, we definitely deserve to get what we are due of. Why were we then given barely PhP4,000 for our services when other technicians elsewhere received PhP13,000!
You vindicate your misdealing by saying that we were feed based on the minimum provincial daily wage rates. But did we not fare our task just like, if not harder than, our counterparts in the National Capital Region? Did we not also assemble, troubleshoot, disassemble and guard with our lives the same kind of buggy PCOS machines?
Did they not, like in my case, took over the duty of the Board of Election Inspectors (BEI’s) who knows not much of operating the PCOS machine and – weary as they are – even slept away leaving behind to me the segregation of the 30 local and national election returns, the audit log and statistical report and transmission report!
Did they have to traverse the sea for hours on bancas to get off to their respective designated precincts and stay there three to four days before election day, all withstanding the lack of allowances and some the inhospitable snob or even the hostility of barangay officials? Did they have to climb trees and rooftops positioning the Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) to locate better reception for transmission of results in remote areas where for most residents the only light at night were two hours of generator-produced electricity or plain, good old candles?
The Essay on Voting Election System
I. Introduction I.1. Background of the Study The AMA Computer Learning Center was established in 1986 as an extension center of AMA Computer College. It was organized to provide educational opportunities for Filipinos who are not financially capable to enroll in a four- year degree program. ACLC began as a school specifically offering short courses, but it started offering associate and bachelor ...
My God, Ventureslink people, you are as marauders as those in the commission you provided workers for.
Well, as the trite saying goes: Birds of the same feathers flock together.
oOo
With all due respect, the BEI’s I’ve worked with could not even understand simple English phrases of instruction printed in election envelopes. I just wonder how they ever passed the Licensure Examinations for Teachers (LET).
We could only hope that with the new administration, the dismal system of education, especially public education, in this country, which is “maleducation” actually be curbed.
