Friday, November 14, 2014

STUPID MEDIA MEN

By MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA


PHOTO CREDIT: www.hollywoodtoday.net
Bureau of Internal Revenue Regional Director Arnel Guballa, Revenue District Officer – 4 Chief  Renato Molina, and Assistant RDO-4 Chief Charmaine dela Torre should check this Mainland Chinese –owned three-storey store near the Orchid’s Hotel in Dagupan City. I just called it a store since it has no commercial signage displayed on its façade.
It does not issue a BIR official receipt or O.R, instead it gives its customer a piece of paper enumerating the goods and the corresponding prices the latter bought there.
“Under process pa po ang O.R noong papel namin kaya papel na lang po ang recibo namin na i-issue sa iyo, “ a Filipina sales lady told a man who bought a set of kitchen utensils
BIR should charge the Chinese who owned the store with either a fine of P10 to P20 thousand for failure to issue the O.R or tax fraud. The owner’s malpractices give unfair competition with their Filipino counterparts who religiously pay their dues at the tax bureau.

Some of these Chinese stores who used this underhanded business strategy have been padlocked and fined by the BIR in the past through Operation Kandado.
*** 

Could you still remember my columns before about a broadcaster (a pastor who accidentally became a radio commentator of a religious station) who asked the mayor of a city why the hizzoner practiced double standard on filling a corruption cases against the city treasurer, cashier, and a clerk who were found to have Prima Facie (Latin words “on the first appearance”) on the cases they allegedly committed.
“Bakit niyo kinasuhan iyong tatlo ng Anti-Graft & Corrupt Practices, bakit si Prima Facie hindi niyo kinasuhan – ano ba ang meron kay Prima Facie at hindi magalaw-galaw, mayor?” he exasperatedly posed in a press conference in San Carlos City.
Of the 30 media men who were at that conference, only three chuckled. The rest were probably as “stupid” as the broadcaster, they thought Prima Facie or Prima Fa-Sy was the older brother of Northern Times publisher Lelia Sy.
Could you still remember a lady radio commentator explaining in his program that those suspected John Doe and Jane Doe who escaped the police dragnet were probably sibling or cousins because of their similar surnames?
The Americans have a quipped for all of those boo-boos: “I’ll be damned!”

Several mornings ago, a TV reporter of a national network reported that Governor Amado T. Espino and two of his department heads had filed a Motion for Reconsideration on the administrative indictment of the Ombudsman against them on the illegal mining in 2011 of magnetite black sand they allegedly committed.
Her report was wrong unless she and her news writer perused the press release of the Ombudsman sent to us media men through our e-mails.
In that e-mail it showed that the Governor was absolved administratively because he won his reelection bid in 2013. The law says that the election of a public officials exonerate him for the administrative case or cases filed against him before he won his reelection. The logic, according to jurisprudence, is the electorates have forgiven him.
But he would not be absolved on the Criminal Case’s Anti-Graft & Corrupt Practices Act filled against him even if he allegedly committed it before his victory in the 2013 polls.
The governor, media reports said, had filled a motion for reconsideration to free him and company from the indictment because the black sand just stand idly, but that’s already another story from the distinction of administrative and criminal cases.  
Administrative Case is a whale of different to Criminal Case.
That TV reporter and news writer should have known the difference if they have consulted a lawyer before they broadcast their blunder to millions of listeners from Bulacan to Ilocos.
***
O ito pa, when Mangaldan Mayor Bona Fe de Vera-Parayno came from an administrative hearing she presided versus two of her department heads who swindled a bank in Villasis town, a lady reporter of  the same religious station I mentioned earlier confidently asked her when the two would go to prison.
The mayor could just shook her head and be amused on the uneducated question.
“Son of a gun, when did it happen that an administratively liable public official goes into prison? Walang nakukulong sa administrative o civil case, iyong nakukulong iyong nasira ang door knob ng kuwarto niya kaya hindi siya makalabas ng bahay o iyong na convict ng criminal case, “  I told another media guy who cut his teeth on the trade.
But still the wannabe reporter persisted in asking some other out- of- this- world questions that the mayor found queer.
Parayno, who felt irritated, asked her to go to the town’s legal consultant and inquire what she wants to report.
“Ano ang natapos mo,” I asked the reporter.
“Theology, “she retorted.
“May itatanong ako sa iyo, basic ng political science. Ano ang pinag-kaiba ng Legislative, Executive, and Judiciary as branches of government?”
“Ay, hindi ko po alam iyan.Theology kasi ang natapos ko,” she turned pink with embarrassment in answering my question.
Susmariosep, I’ll be damned!
This is the problem with media outlets; they sent nincompoop, imbecile, and idiots to gather news for them. They don’t know that it has a repercussion on the stocks of their stations before the eyes of their listeners or viewers.
Back to that TV news guys, it does not mean that after you graduated in journalism or mass communication and worked with marquee news network it means you’re already infallible.
“If  you do not want to go to law school just to take the basic of political, civil, and criminal law in first year, you better buy books on these subjects and read diligently the laws there so that in the press conference (remember that Prima Facie guy?) or during your news reporting you would not find yourself ludicrous, er, ridiculous before your viewers,” I told media friends.  

 (You can read my selected columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com and articles at Pangasinan News Aro. You can send comments too attotomortz@yahoo.com).

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