Cebu Citizens-Press Council

Cebu Print Media Coverage of the 2010 Elections
Third Monitoring Period
(March 14-27 2010)
Written on May 6, 2010 – 5:30 am

The number of election-related news reports continued to increase as the May 10, 2010 elections drew near. From 335 (22%) reports in Weeks 3 and 4, there were 388 reports about the elections or 26% of the news hole in Weeks 5 and 6.

The Freeman had the most number of election-related reports at 157 (33% of its news hole), followed by Sun.Star Cebu at 129 (22% of its news hole) and Cebu Daily News at 102 (24% of its news hole). Focus on the local elections rebounded as the official campaign period for the local positions started on March 26.

Placement

There were no notable changes in the placement of election-related reports in Weeks 5 and 6, with 5% of the election-related reports in the front page while the rest were in the inside pages (95%).  Eleven election-related reports, seven of which came from The Freeman and four from Sun.Star Cebu, were bannered. While the majority (56%) of the election-related reports were still in the main news pages, the secondary sections (Nation, Business, Community) carried more election-related reports in Weeks 5 and 6 compared to the previous weeks at 164 or 44% of all election-related reports.

Placement

Focus/Election-Related Area

For the third monitoring period (Weeks 5 and 6), coverage of the local elections rebounded from a decrease in the second monitoring period which focused on elections in general. This could be due to the start of the official campaign period for local elective positions on March 26.

There were 170 reports about the local elections, 124 reports about elections in general, and 77 reports about the presidential elections. There was a slight increase in the number of reports on the party-list elections due to the controversy on alleged bogus party-list organizations, among them Ang Galing Pinoy, which purportedly represents security guards, with presidential son and congressman Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo as nominee.

Focus

Themes

While greater prominence was given to the local elections, the coverage was focused more on political defections and alliances, and  the contest/horse race and cockfight (“he said, she said”).  Although One Cebu’s Gov. Gwen Garcia said Loren Legarda won over her closest rival, Jejomar Binay, Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino-United Opposition vice presidential candidate, due to a shared advocacy for women and ecology, the coverage dwelt less on issues than on the  “elimination rounds” as One Cebu narrowed their VP choices first to two—Legarda and Binay— before choosing the former.

Notable was an increase in the reports on development/policy issues. Bu the discussion of candidates’ platforms, which could have benefited voters more, was limited to motherhood statements on development/policy issues. Coverage of the candidates’ stances on development issues rarely rose above the traditional politician’s  list of campaign promises. While Legarda was chosen by One Cebu for her track record in, and advocacy of women and environment, there was no report on her specific programs. The March 21 article, “Archdiocese to join Earth Hour” of Sun.Star Cebu was better. This article had local politicians elaborating on their eco programs. But as in the second monitoring period, the third period’s articles could have been more socially relevant if  the candidates’ campaign promises had been enhanced to include their track records and platforms.

The local Liberal party coverage focused on the return to Cebu of former Chief Justice Hilario Davide, Jr., who resigned as UN ambassador to campaign for his son, opposition gubernatorial candidate Hilario Davide III.  The acrimonious fighting between the Bando Osmena-Pundok Kauswagan (BO-PK) and the Kugi Uswag (Kusug) was played up when the Cebu City Government removed basketball boards and goal posts donated by Kusug congressional candidate Jonathan Guardo. With the removal of the boards sometimes occurring a day before a village tournament, this strategy of Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña gave rise to so-called “basketball terrorism.” The Cebu City Government was also engaged in a word war with the Cebu province. After Vice Mayor Michael Rama was quoted by another local daily as saying he was willing to cooperate with Gov. Gwen Garcia, an arch enemy of Osmeña, this gave rise to cockfight stories, with the following configurations: Rama versus Tomas, Tomas versus Gwen, and Rama versus urban poor occupying Capitol lots (who felt betrayed by Rama’s “peace offering” to the governor, who has threatened to eject them).

Defections to the camp of presidential candidate Manuel Villar splintered political clans and parties: Kusug, led by former mayor Alvin Garcia, inked a partnership with the Nacionalista Party, while the other Garcias leading One Cebu—Gov. Gwen Garcia, Rep. Pablo Garcia and Rep. Pablo John Garcia—stayed with Lakas-Kampi-CMD’s Giberto Teodoro.  Rep. Nerissa Soon-Ruiz and her entire Mandaue slate jumped the One Cebu ship to join Villar.

Another example of the “campaign” focus of this period’s coverage is the report on the March 21 launch of the Lahug for Cutie Movement (LCM) to support the congressional bid of Rachel “Cutie” del Mar in Cebu City’s north district. Lahug is the bailiwick of her Kusug rival, Barangay Captain Mary Ann de los Santos.

Launching their bids in a rival’s bailiwick or hometown was popular among local candidates. One Cebu started their provincial motorcade in Argao, hometown of the rival contender for gubernatorial post, Hilario Davide III. Davide and running mate, Vice Gov. Gregorio Sanchez, ended their motorcade in Garcia’s hometown of Dumanjug. The horserace angle played up the competition angle.

Commendably, The Freeman’s front-page reports on “Know Your Candidates” provided ample space for both the lighter and serious side of the featured local candidates’ views, personality and track record. It also provided them an opportunity to explain their stand on major issues and  their platform of government. Also, a Sun.Star Cebu “face-off” of local bets seeking the gubernatorial and mayoral posts was published on Mar. 26. “Bets Reveal Their Identities” had candidates answering, “What’s the most urgent challenge of LGU you want to lead.” The presentation of stance, programs and plans was culled from the paper’s reportorial team’s interviews with candidates.

Other observations:

1. In-house, non-scientific surveys putting local administration candidates at the lead were of little or dubious use to voters. One report said that 39,992 respondents were selected from Cebu Province but there were no other details regarding the sampling method.

2. Serious allegations between rival camps were still limited to “he said-she said” treatment.

For example, while an electoral issue, continuing investigation and lack of evidence on narco-politics kept the police from concluding that the illegal drug trade finances the campaigns of some candidates.

Themes

Subjects

The Comelec was still the most reported news subject. However,  in all three newspapers, the news hole was dominated by the major election players. The survey standing of tailenders appeared in the news mainly when they had sorties in Cebu. Nick Perlas, whose advocacy is  the environment, reproductive health and cultural recovery, was covered. A ½ page article on March 20 reported support for Perlas  from the Supreme Council of Datus-Alimaong (The Holy Warriors), a federation of cultural and indigenous tribes.

More articles reported the efforts of civil society in voters’ education. The coverage of civil society participation in the election included a March 14 article by Sun.Star Cebu on the Cebu Provincial Board requesting television networks to air the instructional animated video, “Voter’s Education Animation Project,” produced by non-government organizations in Cebuano and Filipino to educate voters on the Automated Elections System. Also featured was the series of online chats spearheaded by the Sun.Star Network Exchange, highlights of it reported in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper, following newsroom convergence. Election watchdog official Henrietta de Villa, current head of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), and Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal interacted with Sunnex followers in these online chats.

Subjects

Sources

No major changes in  news sources were observed during this period except for the notable rise of Cebu gubernatorial candidate Hilario “Junjun” Davide III in the source ranking from  the first monitoring period. Tomas Osmeña remained the most quoted, and perhaps the most soundbite-worthy, local news source for election-related reports.

Sources

Slant/Focus

Most articles (95%) included background and context to enable readers not just to understand shifting  local political alliances but, as in one newspaper’s report, also an incumbent’s  use of public funds and programs to “dole out” assistance during an election year.

As monitored during the second period of this study (February 28 to March 13), most election-related articles published during the third period also included context to show the complex   alliances between candidates running for national positions and local politicians and parties. But aside from explaining the acrobatics going on within and among political parties, background and context, particularly in Sun.Star Cebu reports, showed how City Hall programs could be used for political mileage.

For instance, in reporting the Cebu City Government’s program offering summer jobs for 2,200 students this year, an election year, Sun.Star Cebu reporter Linette C. Ramos pointed out that this batch of beneficiaries was three times higher than the number hired last year.  In 2009, there were 681 beneficiaries, hired with a budget of P3 million. In 2010, P11 million was allotted for students at P267 per day, noted the Sun.Star Cebu report. In 2004, another election year, the budget for 3,000 beneficiaries was P12 million, reduced to 300 beneficiaries in the years 2005, 2007 and 2008.  Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña and Vice-Mayor Mike Rama have gone on record to deny the “dole-outs” for the students, as well as for senior citizens and persons with disability, are buying votes. Rama is running for the Cebu City mayoralty post while Osmeña is seeking the congressional seat for the north district.

Articles promoting  Comelec efforts to promote voters’ education on the automated elections were balanced with articles covering civil society’s criticism of  Comelec procedures and initiatives. Particularly in  the Sun.Star Cebu reports, the Comelec also disseminated its campaign to encourage responsible voting, such as checking the Online Precinct Finder before May 10 and voting early.

Four reports, particularly in The Freeman, appeared slanted in favor of Manuel Villar. Six reports appeared slanted against the Comelec, while Rep. Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo got negative treatment in two reports for his role as nominee in the allegedly bogus party-list for security guards. Cebu Daily News was the most neutral newspaper (91% of election related news), followed by Sun.Star Cebu (89%) and The Freeman (79%).

Neutral Reports

Neutral vs. Slanted reports

Cebu’s Bisaya-language Dailiesfocused on Local Elections
in Middle Weeks of the Campaign

Cebu Print Media Coverage of the 2010 Elections
Third Monitoring Period
(March 14,-27 2010)

As expected, there was a marked increase in the number of election-related reports published in Cebu’s Bisaya-language dailies as the elections draw near. In the third monitoring period from March 14 to 27, 28% of the reports were election-related compared to 19% in the second monitoring period. This time, SuperBalita had more election-related reports numerically and proportionally than Banat at 76 (32%) and 54 (24%), respectively.

Placement

Ninety-five percent of the election-related reports were  in the inside pages. Most of the election-related reports in SuperBalita were in the “Ngari/Didto/Nasod” section. Banat meanwhile concentrated its election-related reports in the “Balita” or main news sections. This explains why SuperBalita had more reports on the presidential, vice-presidential, and “elections in general” than Banat as the main news pages were usually allotted for local stories and national stories with local implications.

Placement

Focus/Election-Related Area

The focus of the election-related reports was still the local elections. In fact, reports on the local elections significantly increased, with 75 reports in this period compared to 53 reports in the second monitoring period. Twenty-eight reports were about the elections in general, 27  on the presidential elections, nine on the vice-presidential race, six on the senatorial contest, and three each for party-list and local elections outside Cebu.

Focus

Themes

The campaign was still the top theme of the election coverage of the Bisaya-language dailies which increased from 32 reports in the second monitoring period to 44 reports in this period. Notably, the candidates’ personalities, character and/or track record and their platform or programs also became the focus of the Bisaya dailies in this period, which  can be seen as an improvement considering that the “cockfight” angle  used to be given primary attention. Governance and corruption remained the top issues in reports that carried the theme “Development/Policy Issue,” followed by health, the economy/jobs, and poverty.

Themes

Photos and Artwork

Fewer election-related photos were published during this period compared to the second monitoring period, with 28 photos and one caricature. Twelve of the photos were  in SuperBalita while 16 were published in Banat. Cebu City mayoralty candidate Alvin Garcia had the most number of photos of him published (4), followed by his rival Michael Rama (3), Talisay City councilor Shirley Belleza (2), Bogo mayoralty candidate Mariquita Salimbangon-Yeung (2), Cebu reelectionist governor Gwen Garcia (2), her rival Hilario “Junjun” Davide III (2), vice presidential candidate Loren Legarda (2), and Mandaue City mayoralty candidate Nerissa Soon-Ruiz (2).

Subjects

The Liberal Party and Cebu governor Gwen Garcia were the most frequently reported news subjects  during this period, with 21 reports each. They were followed by Manny Villar (20), Tomas Osmeña (15), Gibo Teodoro (13), the Comelec (12), Nacionalista Party (12), and Hilario “Junjun” Davide III (11). Reports about Gwen Garcia included her assertion that her party One Cebu would continue to support Gibo Teodoro despite the reported transfer of some of her local allies to Manny Villar’s camp.

Subjects

Sources

Cebu governor Gwen Garcia and Cebu City mayor Tomas Osmeña were the top news sources during this period, followed by the Comelec, the PNP, Liberal Party, and Alvin Garcia.

Sources

Slant/Focus

Most of the election-related reports had adequate background at 80%, an improvement from the 72% of the second monitoring period. Neutrality however slid by two percentage points from the second monitoring period with 82% neutral election-related reports during this period. Of the 18% of election-related reports coded as slanted, there were 14 positively-slanted reports and nine negatively-slanted reports. Of the two Bisaya-language dailies, SuperBalita was the most neutral at 91% while Banat was neutral in 70% of its election-related reports.

Banat had three positively-slanted reports in favor of Gibo Teodoro while SuperBalita had two positively-slanted reports about Bogo mayoralty candidate Mariquita Salimbangon-Yeung. While the reports about Salimbangon-Yeung seemed only plain reports about her charitable activities, the context, title and propaganda-like tone of the report cannot escape a reader’s perception of bias (e.i. “Mariquita Salimbangon-Yeung padayon sa pagtabang sa mga kabus”).

Neutral Reports

Neutral vs. Slanted reports

(This report can also be found on the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility’s media elections link at http://www.cmfr-phil.org/mediaandelections.)