Fake Reporters

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Look what I saw last Saturday? The controversial and media pet peeved Chinese businessman Willy Chua.

FAKE MEDIA MEN — People’s Television 4 (PTV4) Executive Producer Emil Carreon (right) points at the bogus press ID of suspect Milandro Reyes and his alleged cohort Patrick Cortez, who were entrapped by police while soliciting P50,000 from the Provincial Information Office of Pampanga last Thursday. (PHOTO CREDIT Franco G. Regala)

Chua, to the uninitiated, is not only the owner of the Chinese cheap bargained but low quality products 168 Stores all over Pangasinan but the trader who purportedly bought from Governor Amado T. Espino, Jr. the 2.2 hectares Barangay Bical, Bayambang property that Chua, through some sleight of hands, wanted to swap with the prime lands 3.2 hectares Bayambang Central School after the School was suspiciously gutted by fire in 2012.

Chua was accused by media men to dummy for the property of the governor.

***

Now, why did I meet the young and innocuous Chua?

(He looked so ordinary that one could mistake him for a cook in some restaurants in Binondo).

I was sent to cover the public hearing of the stone crusher plant owned by the Chinese in Barangay Bacabac, Bugallon. 
Cua was one of the panelists there composed of the village chief, Municipal Planning Development Coordinator, Municipal Assessor, and representative from the Mines and Geosciences Bureau who asked the people there to reconsider their opposition to the plant.

The hearing was acrimonious as residents protested the machine's emit air and noise pollution once it started to operate.

“Kung sa Aguilar galing ang mga bato ninyo, bakit hindi ninyo na lang ilagay doon sa Aguilar at hinde na dito sa amin ang stone crusher ninyo?” asked by a dark skinned young man, who speaks like a student leader in my college days, I later learned was Municipal Councilor Ranie Rick Orduna – the son of Vice Mayor Ric Orduna.

“Dito ko nilagay ang Stone Crusher kasi dahil sa baket,” Chua retorted.

Orduna and some residents had to ask Chua what he means by “baket”.

Chua kept repeating the word, and the people there kept asking him what a “baket” was.

“Iyong baket, iyong crushed na stones malapit sa baket sa Lingayen, baket sa Mangatarem, baket sa Labrador,” he haltingly but tried to explain clearly in Filipino
 for the comprehension of everybody.

We later found out he means “Market”.

Sannamagan, mabuti na lang hindi sila nagsuntukan doon dahil sa hindi pagiging di 
pagka intindihan.

***

 Fakes are everywhere. They are ubiquitous even in the media circle.

The other day some of them even followed a gubernatorial candidate and his party at the high end restaurant in Calasiao, Pangasinan.

These phony, who were former laborers and house wives, do not even know why subject is followed by a predicate in a simple sentence.

One of them told me that predicate is a police word derived from “Pare, dikit (partner, follow him closely)” before the police arrest the subject.

These bogus reporters swelled in number nowadays because those few callous 
faced fake scribes invited them while the new one not content with the ‘intelligensia’ given to them by those  in illegal gambling operators like the color games drop ball, jueteng bukis operators, tupada, the politicians, and others, bring in tow the entire family members to spike their revenues.   

There was a case where I chided one of them by not observing decorum when they 
gate crashed the table where I  and some respected media men were discussing some serious policy questions with a high government official.

 “Why are you here? Have you not seen we are in a serious conversation?" I sternly posed.

I even told a provincial candidate that some of the fellows milling around were bogus reporters.

When I was at the house in Iba, Zambales of Zambales Governor Jun Ebdane last December to attend his birthday, I was flabbergasted how huge were the number of the NHSCP or the National Hao-Shiao Club of the Philippines based in Metro Manila had become.

Almost 50 of them were there who were not only gnawing as if there would be no tomorrow on the expensive food the governor prepared but had to package some of the foods and hid them in their bags.

 “Noong last na punta ko dito, iyong mga taga Pampanga na isang van na hao-shiao (phony) pinagmumura ni Governor noong makita sila sa bahay niya,” told to me by a Manila based media man.
"The same media men composed of those brash men and fat women were thrown at the  jail in Bugallon when Mayor Ric Orduna was the mayor then dahil ayaw umalis hanggang hinde nagbigay ng pera si mayor sa kanila," I told him.

But I'll cap this article about a media woman who works in a national newspaper 
who pretended to be competent despite her non-proficiency to write in English.

“Paano pinapasulat niya by paying other writers before she sent to the editor her article,” a friend told me.

While national reporters lead in posing intelligent questions to their interviewee, this newshen was at the sideline with her distinctive blank stare because she has nothing to ask.

“Ang problema, pag umasta parang elite na media rin pero wala naman laman ang ulo,” a Manila reporter told me.
Bluffing, huh?

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