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Friday, March 29, 2024

Professionalize journalism

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"Journalism is a calling, and this is the least we can do for workers who face risk and hardship."

 

Sometime in 1996 when President Fidel Ramos went on a state visit to Moscow, I joined the business delegation. being the chairman of a travel agency—Metrolink Travel and Tours.

We—including Mr. Ramos—were all booked at a gated government building with surrounding walls eight feet high. I learned that it used to be the KGB headquarters.

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It could be my imagination, but late at night when our lights were off, I heard strange sounds—people moaning and screaming. Later, my companions told me I was not the only one who heard these!

That building was used by the Russian government to house foreign visitors. In any case, we survived it.

On our way back from Moscow, the President and the business delegation made a stopover in Prague, in the Czech Republic. At that time, there were demonstrations and rallies in Metro Manila against a People’s Initiative Movement to extend the term of Ramos. The rallies were being led by Jose Concepcion, a former Cabinet member of President Cory Aquino. Curiously, JoeCon’s brother Rene, president of their air-conditioning and appliance company, was with us in the group.

The trip gave me the opportunity to consult with the President, and Foreign Affairs Secretary Roberto Romulo. I had a plan to counter the People’s Initiative movement by having the entire business delegation form itself into a team aimed at supporting President Ramos, and more importantly to be a core group that accompanies the President in his foreign trips, helping him attract foreign investments.

Ramos and Romulo approved of my plan. They gave me the go-signal to form the group which we called Team Philippines.

Eventually, the People’s Initiative Movement died a natural death. Team Philippines continued. When Joseph Estrada became president, I continued to accompany him in his foreign trips. I was then chairman of the Board of Advisers since I was the one who founded the organization.

During Erap’s incumbency, we realized Team Philippines sounded like a sports group so we changed the name to Philippines Inc.

Philippines Inc. continued on to the Arroyo and Noynoy Aquino presidencies. Tonyboy Cojuangco was made chairman and Tony Lopa, my former student, became president. The group was even invited to Washington.

I resigned my role as chairman because I did not want to be identified with BS Aquino. Besides, I can also no longer afford paying P100,000 for the membership. Annie Tan Yee continues to be both secretary and treasurer.

It’s unfortunate that President Rodrigo Duterte has not used Philippines Inc. It is now a moribund organization. Still, I think it served its purpose, and well.

* * *

In my column last Friday, I lamented the fact that despite my 70 years as a journalist, I still have to pound on my typewriter and beat my deadline three times a week because I still have to earn a living. As a journalist, I cannot look forward to a pension or retirement pay. If any of my immediate family members, or I, get hospitalized, I do not even have health insurance.

This is why I say journalism is a calling rather than a profession.

When I went to Australia many years ago, I learned that journalists there are co-owners of the news organization where they work. They are part of a cooperative. This cooperative gives them loans and health insurance. When they retire, they can look forward to retirement pay and a pension. The co-op even puts up a trust fund for them, tax-free!

This is a good formula for rewarding professional journalists for all the risks and hardships they face on the job. Sometimes they get sued for libel, or receive death threats. Indeed, journalism is not your ordinary profession.

I make this suggestion for serious study. It will benefit media institutions because their workers would have a stake in their success, and of course journalists will be justly compensated for their efforts.

Maybe press organizations can take a look at this as a way of solving the problem, not really for me or my contemporaries, but for the next generation of journalists.

* * *

House Bill 5267, sponsored by Albay Rep. Joey Salceda, promises to resolve the debate on whether or not to tax Philippine Offshore Gaming Operations.

The Salceda bill will make POGOs pay a 5-percent franchise tax and 25-percent withholding tax for foreign workers earning at least P600,000 monthly. The measure is expected to earn for the country taxes of around P45 billion a year.

HB 5267 seeks to amend Presidential Decree 1869, the law covering Pagcor by directly imposing a franchise tax on the P200-billion POGO industry.

Currently, Pagcor collects only a regulatory fee of 2 percent, or P8 billion per year, and plans to remit only P400 million to the Bureau of Internal Revenue.

This House bill also seeks to regulate POGOs. Imagine, out of some 100 POGOs operating here, only 60 have been given a license by Pagcor!

Solicitor General Jose Calida said POGOs cannot be taxed because the law imposes tax from source, and since POGOs get their earnings not in the country in which they operate but from outside bettors, they cannot be taxed. But why is he giving his opinion at all? Isn’t that the function of the Department of Finance through the BIR?

* * *

There is a strong move to have Senator Leila de Lima released from detention. She has spent 1,000 days in prison, on charges of drug trafficking.

The movement is obviously led by the Yellows, which has been quoting the dissenting opinions to the majority decision thumbing down the move to release her.

I have also read portions of these dissenting opinions. Still, I know that it is the majority opinion that counts and they must bow to that decision.

Now, whether or not President Duterte committed an injustice by prosecuting De Lima is another matter.

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