The intense battle between the two presidential front-runners has raised concerns over the resort to “black operations” in a political campaign. A leading broadcast network found itself at the vortex of the raging propaganda battle last week. Maria Ressa, head of news and current affairs for ABS-CBN, related how the network got embroiled in a controversy spawned by propaganda unleashed by the Nacionalista Party of Sen. Manuel Villar.
In an article entitled, Telling It Like It Is, published by ABS-CBN News online on April 12, Ms. Ressa recounted that on the morning of April 8, she convened her editorial staff to “discuss a potentially explosive document given to us by a source from the Nacionalista Party.” Later in the day, she wrote, “We received the same document from another source in the Nacionalista Party.”
She was referring, of course, to a report “allegedly done by the Ateneo psychology department on Sen. Benigno Aquino III signed by Fr. Carmelo Caluag,” and she observed that “if (found to be) true, it could spell the end of Sen. Aquino’s campaign.
As assorted rumors and tales were being spun from this report and finding their way into cyberspace via mobile phones and the internet, Ms. Ressa decided to check directly with Fr. Caluag and Sen. Aquino. She recalled:
“I called Fr. Caluag, and he denied the report, saying he wasn’t a psychologist or psychiatrist and that his signature was lifted from other documents. Ces Orena-Drilon, on the campaign trail with Sen. Aquino, showed him the document and his initial reaction, she said, was to laugh. He spoke openly - no PR spin, no consultations - and denied the document’s authenticity.” (The meeting between Ms. Drilon and Sen. Aquino was videotaped and shown over TV Patrol in the evening of April 8.)
By airing these first-person testimonies on TV Patrol, Ms. Ressa said, they made the public aware of the “denial of a salacious document masquerading as fact.”
Why did Ms. Ressa go to great lengths sharing this behind-the-scenes account?
Her narrative:
“By disclosing our sources (two individuals from the NP) without naming names, we gave we gave our viewers a glimpse of what was going on behind the scenes. (The meeting between Ms. Drilon and Sen. Aquino was video-taped and shown over TV Patrol in the evening of April 8.) That is why this story is important. Events are never isolated so context defines the story’s value.
“Three days earlier, the Nacionalista Party used the word “topak” to describe Aquino.
‘Ano yung TOPAK ni Noynoy? Ito po yung Trapo, Oportunista at Kamaganak Inc. na pumapaligid kay Noynoy Aquino,’ said Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, secretary-general of the Nacionalista Party. This statement echoed earlier remarks by Villar spokesman Gilbert Remulla on ANC.
“The context of this fake document story seems to show an NP campaign to question Sen. Aquino’s mental health, something its standard-bearer, Sen. Manuel Villar publicly did on DZMM on Saturday, April 10.”
Ms. Ressa deserves the gratitude of the citizenry for exposing this thinly veiled attempt by a leading presidential candidate to foist a blatant lie upon the Filipino people. But wait, we also need to recall what transpired afterwards in other ABS-CBN news programs.
On the morning of April 10, Sen. Villar was invited as a guest in Julius Babao’s radio program over ABS-CBN’s DZMM. As acknowledged by Ms. Ressa herself, their station allowed Sen. Villar to carry on the NP’s black operations campaign two full days after the network was convinced that it was based entirely on a fake document being peddled by his party.
Other radio programs on DZMM last Saturday, April 10 (including that of Atty. Amado Valdez and Jasmin Romero) continued to air the allegations stemming from that fake report. This went on until Monday, April 12, when Anthony Taberna interviewed Sen. Aquino’s spokesperson, Atty. Edwin Lacierda, in Umagang Kay Ganda. In response to Mr. Taberna’s constant recycling of the allegations from the fake document, Atty. Lacierda asked him, “So why are you also spinning the same lies?” Liberal Party media monitors also observed that ANC, ABS-CBN’s news channel, continued to run a crawler or streaming headline at the bottom of the TV screen that read: “Villar dares Aquino to refute fake report”.
Two weeks earlier, two documents --- a death certificate of Danny Villar and a transfer certificate of title on a piece of property in San Rafael Village, Navotas --- were discussed in newspaper columns written by Ms. Solita Monsod and Messrs. William Esposo, Conrad de Quiros and Lito Banayo. The facts established from the authentic documents belied what Ms. Monsod characterized as “awesome claims” that Mr. Villar has been making in TV and radio commercials. Interestingly, Ms. Ressa had this to say about these authentic documents:
“Nacionalista Party representatives also thanked us for disclosing two weeks ago that sources from the Liberal party gave ABS-CBN the documents questioning Sen. Villar’s ad campaign. Although the documents are authentic, the intent to demolish is the same.”
(She also wrote that “The Liberal Party also denied giving those documents to ABS-CBN.”)
These twin documents --- determined and acknowledged by all concerned, including Mr. Villar and the NP, as being authentic --- raised serious doubts about the NP candidate’s persistent claims that he came from a background of extreme poverty. In a TV commercial, he asked “Nakaranas na ba kayo na mamatayan ng kapatid dahil walang perang ipagpapagamot sa kaniya?” (“Have you ever experienced losing a brother because your family did not have money to have his illness cured?)
It was established that at the time of his brother’s death (1962), the Villar family had transferred from Moriones, Tondo to a relatively upscale neighborhood and was residing in a home on a 560 square meter lot. It was also determined that Danny Villar died of leukemia, the same disease that killed a sister of US President George W. Bush at about the same time.
Ms. Ressa’s editorial comment on “the intent to demolish” is clearly inappropriate and disputable. In the canons of journalism and advertising, isn’t adherence to the truth the primary principle? If there are authentic documents that prove that a presidential candidate is making false claims, then what is being “demolished” are falsehoods and lies. If Ms. Ressa and ABS-CBN are truly committed to propagating the truth, then what makes them hesitant or unwilling to “demolish” lies?
Be that as it may, Ms. Ressa conclusion from this chain of events is instructive. She admonished the political parties that “how you run your campaign gives us an idea of how you will run our nation.” Indeed, if a candidate uses lies --- including making false claims about his own brother’s death and his family’s socio-economic status, and then goes on to fabricate and peddle false reports about his opponent --- what will Filipinos gain from electing him to the presidency?
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