By Mortz C. Ortigoza
The problem with some if not many reporters they have all the hubris but they ain’t got the intellect to back them. In the vernacular: Puro yabang hindi naman matalino.
Who said that idiom? Still waters run deep while shallow water runs noisily.
That one about "shallow water" applies to many members of the Fourth Estate who thought sporting that huge identification card with a bold red letter printed and called MEDIA is their pass for being treated as a sui generis (something that is unique) by the society.
I felt sorry for a broadcaster who told me that the phantom Corona Virus Disease -19 pandemic dealt him a twin hard blows economically after he was yanked out in his radio and television programs.
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| Photo Credit: Google.com |
His fault? He corrected a co-host about how he pronounced words in English.
“Mantakin mo ba naman pare ang “Pennsylvania” tawag niya “ Penicillinvania” ang “Excise Tax” “Exit Tax”, he confided to me those boo boos.
“At least hindi niya ni mention iyong Transylvania ang birth place ni Count Dracula. O baka may tulo ang lover niya kaya na mention niya ang “Penicillin-vania” hahahaha!” I guffawed upon hearing them.
Penicillin is a group of antibiotics while Pennsylvania is the state that could make and unmake Republican Donald Trump after his U.S Presidential rival Democrats Sleepy Joe Biden clinched this morning the 16 Electoral College Votes (ECV) of the State of Michigan that would make his pursuit of the White House only short of six votes to make to the Magic 270 ECV.
Penicillinvynia, er, Pennsylvania has 20 ECVs.
But his amusement was short lived. He regretted his propensity to correct his partner who pronounced the SACHET of a shampoo as SAKI instead of saˈSHā or SASHAY hahahaha!
The co-host is the confidant of the owner of the station.
The following day the poor media man, who became poorer because of this call, received a phone ring (that would haunt him for the rest of his life) from his shallow minded partner:
“Sabi ni XYZ huwag ka na daw mag report sa program bukas,” a call he heard from the other side of the line that gave him cold chills.
Veteran reporter did not allow that treatment sitting down. He mulled to file a law suit against XYZ to the Department of Labor for compensation and moral damages because he worked for decades in the station and the employer did not give him due process for his separation.
Threatened by the actuation of the complainant, XYZ, a politician who eyes to make an electoral comeback in the 2022 Election, told an emissary to explain to poor reporter that XYZ did not know his being fired from the station.
“Una inaayos ako with a pittance ayaw ko pumayag. Barya.Tapos pinababalik ako sa station kasi hindi naman daw ako tinanggal,” he remarked to me.
Xxx
In this pandemic, many of our brothers and sisters in the media profession especially those in the lower rung have been the hardest hit.
COVID-19 protocol through the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) did not allow convergence of people like those bettors of Peryahan or Fair where drop-ball sa pula o puti betting game is being played.
Many media men go to the operator of these peryas where the latter without qualm automatically shelled out to each of them P300 to P500 bills. Rookies could show their station I.D or newspapers so they could get their share of the dough. They visit the fair once or twice a month in every town. Pangasinan has 44 towns and 4 cities and some local government units have up to four peryahan each especially the cities.
These bribes not to expose the presence of these illegal activities have been a source of livelihood for media men and family members whom the former tow shamelessly in their "extortion".
Some even hailed in Pampanga seeing how lucrative the peryas, protected by the cops and the mayors, in the mammoth Pangasinan province
Here’s a mayor who told me the millions of pesos the operator shelled out to her to allow the illegal operation of the peryas that fronts as a gambling den that baited even school children to bet their school monies.
Lady Mayor depended on the payolas given to her by a syndicate.
ME: Mayora bakit iyong peryahan na may drop ball at pula puti (betting games) na pati mga bata ay nagsusugal ay nasa gitna lang ng simbahan at munisipyo?
MAYORA: Pabayaan mo na sila. Iyong payola diyan ay binibigay ko sa mga namamatayan at mga mahihirap na pumupunta dito lalo na wala ng jueteng na nakakatulong.
XXX
Payola from operator of the peryahan to the mayors vary from three hundred thousand pesos to four million of pesos to each of them.
The illegal gambling games offered by the faire were part of the paid illegal amusement there like tupada (illegal cockfight).
The games patronized by the great unwashed were version of the rich men’s casinos in Clark in Pampanga and Heritage Hotel in Pasay City.
“I used that P350,000 to pay for the orchestra and other expenses for our fiesta,” another mayor in Pangasinan told some media men he considered his closed pals.
“So how much you will give to a poor man whose loved ones die,” I posed to hizzoner (his honor).
“It depends, if he is my supporter I give P3000 to P5000. If he was an avid supporter of my rival, I chide him first and then give him a small amount”.
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Aside from the Perya, illegal number game's jueteng stopped its operation in the province that saw many print and radio reporters lose their monthly allowances that run to P10,000 each from elected politicians who received weekly payolas from the operators of the betting game.
The absence of the payola makes media men not only in my province but to other provinces and independent cities in the country reel on financial strait.
I remembered a rich publisher and printing press owner telling me that national reporters ABC and DEF were intelligent but he was not impressed by them because they loved to free ride with his generosity every time they go to the bar and restaurants to imbibe beers and expensive liquours.
“Matalino nga sila pero hindi nila kayang e convert ang talino nila sa pera,” he grieved in telling me about the sad reality not only of the duo but many members in the print and broadcast professions.
And we are not yet talking about the female members who became moneyed because they sold their souls to the devil.
“Iyong isang kasama ninyong babae na naka shade, lagi pumapasok doon sa loob ng hotel room ni Director,” a former body guard of a regional director, a Lothario, of a corrupt government's agency told me when I bumped into him years ago in the agency’s national office in Quezon City.
Many media men, some of them intelligent editor-in-chief and radio commentators, died in penury where some politician friends answered financially for their hospital bills and pay for their funeral expenses including their coffins.
So who wants to be in the media profession?
(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)
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