Malaya 11.11.08)
“Verzosa may have actually increased the reporters’ access to the stories available at the police precincts.”
Verzosa’s Blotter
by Ducky Paredes
We have a pretty dumb Senate that will pounce on anything that moves.
Philippine National Police (PNP) chief, Director General Jesus Verzosa was clearly within his authority to issue a directive on Oct. 30 entitled “The Decentralization of the Public Information Office.”
What our Senators took issue with “without thinking” was this part of the directive: ““The information contained in the police blotter, in order to protect the integrity of the document and the identity of any victim and suspect, shall not be made accessible to the public or media without the proper authorization from the head of office or unless the disclosure is in compliance with a lawful order of the court or any pertinent authority.”
Immediately, some media practitioners and some of our Senators went to town on this. The usual practice for police reporters is to spend most of the day on other cocerns. Then, with the day’s deadline approaching, they go to the blotter and copy their stories verbatim from the record.
Perhaps, some of our senators are unaware that ir is not unusual tjhat information accessed from the police blotter has been used to extract funds from both victims and named suspects in the blotter.
In a case that is familiar to everyone, a congressman was accosted by tabloid reporters on the day that his name appeared in a police blotter as the accused rapist of what turned out to be an under-aged prostitute. What happened before the story finally came out in print was that a delegation of reporters sent word to the congressman that they could very easily “kill” the story for a small consideration that the congressman could easily afford. Our representative replied with a few well-chosen expletives. So, our criminal reporters went to town with the story.
A broadsheet reporter then approached the group that had spoken to the congressman and who went to town with the story of the congressman committing statutory rape on a minor. Apparently, the emissary let them know that the congressman still wanted the story killed; this time, however, the reporters replied that their price was now ten times the original amount. Again, our congressman screamed bloody murder. The final outcome of the story is that our congressman had to serve several years in Muntinglupa.
What is the moral of the story? There is none. True, because the congressman refused to pay up, his story became part of our recent history. So, is the moral lesson that there would not have been any story if he had parted with his money; that doing so, may have saved him jail time? The congressman deserved whatever punishment society could impose on him for his despicable acts, not because he did not pay up to the reporter-mulcters.
What I point out is that the reporters’ access to the police blotter is not always used for the noble purpose of reporting to the general public the stories that can be found in the blotters of our police precincts. Not all reporters have souls of reformers.
What Verzosa did, on the one hand, was to stop the direct access of media to the police blotter – the registry of complaints filed at a police precinct. This is reasonable since there are complaints filed and recorded in the blotter that require sensitive handling. Another way of looking at this, however, is that the precinct commanders have been given carte blanche in releasing to the reporters whatever stories they may want to release to the public; there is no more need to send these stories to be handled by the PNP’s PIO. Thus, Verzosa may have actually increased the reporters’ access to the stories available at the police precincts.
PNP spokesman, Chief Supt. Nicanor Bartolome says: “The (PNP) headquarters approved the ‘decentralization’ of the public information function with pure good intention of allowing media to get better and more efficient access to information on police concerns.
“The decentralization of information now defines the responsibility of unit commanders to assist media and facilitate access to official reports, and other public documents. The same policy also defines the levels of approving authority for release of information to the public and the media.”
One senator who apparently never took the trouble to see things clearly before opening his mouth, says:
“Clearly, the directive of the chief of the PNP on prohibiting media access to police blotters is wrong. I don’t see the logic behind the memorandum. We should not curtail press freedom in the country. The PNP should reconsider and recall this order.
“It is situations like these that show the need for a law that will ensure freedom of access to information, and in my capacity as chairman of the committee on public information, I will be conducting public hearings on this immediately.”
Again, that much-feared public hearing! Perhaps, we ought to stop pretending that we are electing senators; let’s call them investigators!
Says the Senator who obviously does not know what he is saying:
“They should bear in mind that the Constitution clearly provides freedom of the press and freedom of information. No one has the authority to prohibit anyone from exercising these rights.”
Clearly, what the PNP has done is to afford those who would report crimes with a modicum of anonymity. Their entry in the police blotter can be kept private until the proper time that this has to be revealed. Perhaps, this may even encourage some to report crimes they would not otherwise report to the police.
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The Couples for Christ (CFC) St. Thomas More and Associates (STMA) South B Sector is holding its annual fund-raising golf tournament at the Villamor Air Base Golf Club on Friday, November 21, 2008.
CFC is a private national and international association of lay faithful involved in renewing families to Christ and helping our marginalized and poor brothers and sisters in uplifting them. Thus, CFC is not only concerned with spiritual formation but also with the material and physical needs of our less fortunate brethren.
STMA assists CFC in implementing an integrated program towards total human liberation in many places in the country in “Gawad Kalinga” communities. The various programs in these communities include “TATAG” for housing, “SIBOL” for the kids, “SIGA” for the youth, “SAGIP” for the out-of-school youth, “LUSOG” for health, and “SIKAP” for livelihood.
There are more than 1,220 Gawad Kalinga areas throughout the country and several of them are within the Parañaque-Las Piñas area where STMA is based.
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hvp 11.10.08)
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