A community struggles for civility

 

 

 

The Filipino community in Toronto is being torn apart by a nasty spat between a long-standing and established community newspaper, on one hand, and a group of so-called concerned members of the community, on the other. It is sharply dividing the community and the growing rift does not reflect well on the Filipino’s unwarlike image.

 

It all begun when Ms. Rosemer Enverga was grilled by Ms. Tess Cusipag, editor of Balita during an open forum on why there were no audited financial statements of Ms. Enverga’s running of beauty pageants when she was still an officer with the Philippine Independence Day Celebration (PIDC). Ms. Cusipag, who also runs a similar beauty pageant called Miss Manila but not as big as the ones ran by Ms. Enverga, has claimed that her pageant earns money every year it’s held. Ms. Enverga is the wife of recently appointed Filipino senator in Canada’s Parliament, Mr. Tobias “Jun” Enverga, who was at one-time the president of PIDC.

Filipino-Canadian Senator Tobias "Jun" Enverga and his wife, Rosemer, meet
with Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim when they visited the Philippines. Click link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyla69pZUnI to view "Senator Enverga's
Message to the Filipino community."

But the squabble could really have started even much earlier when Mr. Enverga, not yet a senator at that time, his wife and their group organized the Philippine Canadian Charitable Foundation (PCCF) that rivalled and duplicated the activities of PIDC. Whereas before, PIDC was the umbrella Filipino organization in Toronto responsible for holding all festivals related to the commemoration of Philippine Independence Day, PCCF has replicated the same activities and been fighting for the same advertisers and sponsors that supported PIDC.

 

Here are some relevant questions to ponder, though. Would Mr. Enverga encourage the formation of PCCF if he had foreseen his appointment to the Senate by Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper? Or, have these so-called community leaders realized early on that their fascination with senseless beauty pageants would somehow become the spark-plug of this present crisis in the community? So, should blame be assigned on the Filipino’s obsession with the trivial?

 

However petty the nature of this bickering, the parties involved have raised the conflict to a point that is now breaking up the community. Balita, the community newspaper formerly edited by Filipino journalist Ruben Cusipag, husband of the present editor, maintains that the genuine issue in the ongoing schism in the community is the question of transparency and accountability which the Envergas’ failed to adequately respond to. Romeo Marquez, Balita’s associate editor, further alleges that the rest of the disagreement between the two groups such as the petition started by Mr. Oswald Magno is only a smokescreen to divert the attention from the Envergas’ fixation with power.

 

For its part, the other group argues that Balita has abused its newspaper’s stature by harassing and ridiculing certain personalities in the community, not just the Envergas but also Mr. Magno, Miss Lilac Cana, and now, Ms. Livvy Camacho. The group has asked the Philippine Press Club of Ontario (PPCO) to intervene by way of sanctioning Balita’s behaviour as a contravention of its Code of Ethics. The choice of the PPCO as an arbiter is rather unfortunate since it was never intended to make determinations contrary to the exercise of free press, besides the fact that it is a mere social club.

 

Short of litigating in court the defamatory damages that both sides have unknowingly or apparently hurled at each other, one way to resolve the conflict is to bring both groups together in a community town hall meeting where they can discuss their differences in a friendly and civil manner. But obviously this appears not a viable option anymore, because so much hurt and pain have already be been cast by both sides. Or perhaps, egos have been so bruised that the concerned parties have obliterated from their cultural background the natural inclination of Filipinos to sit down and settle family disagreements. Maybe, too much obsession with the adversarial process has shaken our Filipino cultural trait of promoting amity and harmony among ourselves.

 

One thing I personally know is this. In my more than 25 years in Toronto, long before Romeo Marquez descended upon the city to peddle his journalistic skills, Balita under Ruben Cusipag has never been at the centre of a community controversy, much less as one of the parties involved. Ruben understood what investigative journalism is. That it is not enough to expose the bad apples in the community, but a newspaper has the obligation to present news stories to help shape perceptions of the future of our community. So to Ruben, it is equally just as important to write stories that uncover the roots of injustice and unfairness in our society as a whole.

Former Balita Editor Ruben Cusipag and his wife, Tess, who now runs and edits
the iconic Filipino community newspaper in Toronto. Click link to view "The
Rouge, the Bad & the Wiggly in the Filipino Community" by Romeo Marquez,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNgA25EFHBs.

If Balita today were still in the able hands of Ruben Cusipag, this ongoing row will never have escalated into a senseless shouting match that uses so much inflammatory and hateful language. Ruben had given up the day-to-day running of Balita to his wife Tess after a serious car accident almost took his life. We became close friends after he covered many of my court hearings that involved Filipino children who were taken away from the custody of their parents. As I knew him then and now, he would have continued to expose shenanigans in the community or issues that were inimical to the best interests of the Filipino community, but in a fashion that would never sow discord or break up our people. He knew when to be doggedly critical and pursue an exposé to its rightful conclusion, but at the same time to be keenly aware when to mediate disputes before they spread like wildfire.

 

Early in my law practice, Tess Cusipag had invited me to sit as a judge in her Miss Manila beauty pageant. When you’re a lawyer or a doctor, you get invited to these fancy occasions. Normally, I would not accept any such invitation but as a courtesy to her husband Ruben I agreed. Ruben told me it was all right as the contestants would not be allowed to parade themselves in swim suits and even told Tess he would never support beauty pageants because that would objectify the contestants. In fairness to Tess, she kept her promise to Ruben and her Miss Manila beauty pageant has been a successful activity every year although I still can’t find its relevance to our cultural empowerment.

 

This current community spat started with Tess Cusipag’s zealousness to compel Ms. Enverga to be accountable and transparent with her own beauty pageants, consistent with Balita’s objective to report any irregular activity in the community so the people may know. It is far-fetched to suggest that Tess and Balita wanted to reverse the appointment of Mr. Jun Enverga to the Senate. Mr. Enverga was not a senator yet at that time and no one knew—including himself—which he admitted in a press interview, that he would be appointed.

 

But the arrival of Romeo Marquez, Tess Balita’s Associate Editor and a former San Diego journalist, has added fuel in the already-raging controversy, particularly with the kind of incendiary language he employs in his articles. It is the same modus operandi that Marquez followed in his newspapering stint in the US that he is now replicating here in Toronto. The trail of controversies he has left behind—his quarrels with various Filipinos, community leaders or otherwise, and videos on YouTube—speaks for the kind of journalism that Balita is currently espousing.

 

In its latest issue, Balita published an article written by Carlos Padilla, a board member of the Kalayaan Cultural Community Center (KCCC) in Mississauga, who claimed he has asked Mr. Enverga way back in 2000 to report on fundraising events he held at KCCC. According to the article, to date, Mr. Enverga has not complied with Mr. Padilla’s request but he made a pledge he would clear up everything eventually. During a chance meeting with Mr. Enverga last April 2012, and as if he could already read the ominous handwriting on the wall, Mr. Padilla warned Mr. Enverga that his continuing failure to honour his pledge could spell trouble for him in the future.

 

Maybe the office of Prime Minister Harper did not fully vet Mr. Enverga’s record as a leader in the Filipino community. Perhaps, Mr. Enverga’s high profile in the community was not enough to qualify him as senator, save for his unabashed support of the Conservative Party. There are many skeletons just coming out of the closet. Mr. Enverga needs to address them if he must win and earn the respect and support of the Filipino community which he’s been proud to tell everyone is his natural constituency.

 

As many a statesman is apt to do, maybe Mr. Enverga could bring the folks in our community together again. There is no better and more opportune time for him than now to show his gravitas in helping heal the wounds inflicted by this raging unfortunate squabble in the community. Just because he wasn’t elected doesn’t mean he could simply watch idly and ignore his community’s disintegration right before his eyes.

 

As to the controversy in the community, both Balita and the group allegedly led by Oswald Magno should take a break and let cooler heads prevail. As a newspaper, Balita should understand that it is the freedom of the press that makes it a powerful and significant pillar in the community. It should not take this freedom and power lightly— that it can outrightly censure, silence or even bully its critics anytime it’s not happy with complaints from groups in the community about their news reporting.

 

By the same token, disgruntled or unhappy groups in the community, just because they also have the right to free speech, cannot dictate how newspapers should write their stories. It is the free market of ideas that makes our society vibrant, but how these ideas can be expressed should not be subject to the whims and caprices of overzealous newspapers or the short fuses of some groups unwilling to take criticism if their favourite idol in the nation’s Senate is subjected to the probing eye of the community.

 

As Goethe once said, “there is a courtesy of the heart,” and out of it arises the purest courtesy in outward behaviour. While conflict is natural to the human condition, it behooves us to bear in mind the pleas for civility as a means of at least managing it.

Community journalism

A transplanted journalist from San Diego recently wrote in his column in one of Toronto’s Filipino community newspapers that he thought “coverage of the Filipino community in the Greater Toronto Area is wanting in depth and substance.” The fault he said did not lie with the newspapers or their publishers but in the community’s desire for “flimsy coverage where they see only the fun and content side of their neighbourhood and friends.”

His hopes were to bring to Toronto his 16 years of experience in community journalism in San Diego with emphasis on adversarial investigative reporting. In other words, he plans to adopt the same journalistic perspective that is more skeptical in coverage rather than playing favourites. Reporting that focuses on exposing rogues in the community he says is his kind of journalism.

Though brash and quite audacious, however, this newsman’s 16 years of experience in San Diego pale in comparison with his now-adopted Toronto broadsheet which has been serving Toronto’s community since 1978, and with another equally perceptive paper which has been publishing for more than 21 years. Both papers were established by experienced journalists in the Philippines who brought with them a keen sense for news that the community ought to know.

A proliferation of Filipino community newspapers in Toronto. Photo by Romeo P.
Marquez. Click link to view http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVKGUctuoXE
 "Tips From Bob Woodward on Investigative Journalism," as Woodward (half of
the famous duo who reported on the Watergate scandal) explains the three ways
journalists get their information and his comments on the future of in-depth
reporting in the digital age.

Investigative journalism is simply not about exposing the bad apples in the community. It is also about how to present news stories to help shape perceptions of the future of our community. It’s not enough to disrobe the crooks, scammers or swindlers but equally just as important to write stories that uncover the roots of injustice and unfairness in our society as a whole.

Take for example the aforementioned writer/columnist’s take on the allegations of irregularity in the running of beauty pageants by a certain community organization and his apparent single-minded focus on suspicions of wrongdoing. This not the true and ethical type of investigative reporting. It’s more like “gotcha” journalism. Putting a person on the defensive and casting unfounded suspicions can scare anyone to the point of yielding to pressure and owning up to something which he or she wasn’t responsible for in the first place. This is also a characteristic of the adversarial process that is most common in our legal system.

Granted investigative journalists must be unafraid and dog-minded in their pursuits, however, they must also ferret out the facts from painstaking enquiry—which involves gathering evidence from interviews, documents, records, proofs and intense paper work. Not simply from asking questions during a press conference and then to be content with making allegations of wrongdoing based on a few quick Q&As. This aforementioned writer/journalist did not embark on doing any of the fact-checking actions required of a professional investigative journalist. His stories came out merely from the oral proceedings of a press conference. This is far from the responsible journalism required of a real news gatherer: to write stories that could help shape or influence public opinion based on sufficient verification of facts or information. It is not enough to undress a scammer, one must also bear in mind the protection of those who are innocent.

In addition, a committed investigative journalist would go beyond allegations of financial wrongdoings of the pageant organizers. He or she would also question why the community needs to perpetuate values that promote a shameless subculture of holding beauty pageants, and whether they represent the best of our Filipino culture. In the final analysis, it is much more important for a journalist to influence the making of social change that will benefit the community as a whole, especially if this concerns promoting and preserving our values and traditions as a people.

Another recent example of so-called investigated journalistic work this so-called writer was his reportage on the protest held by Toronto supporters of the U.S. Pinoys for Good Governance (USP4GG) against China’s bullying tactics in the South China Sea dispute that involves the Philippines’ territorial claims to the Scarborough Shoal and to the Spratly Islands. By focusing his story more on the small turnout of protesters and describing it as “dull,” and therefore almost inconsequential, he made the protesters look even more pathetic by describing their excitement when the Toronto-based Chinese press arrived and the former obligingly posed for what he called “Kodak moments.” Instead of analyzing the futility of the protest from the perspective of mobilizing the community for political or social causes, this “investigative” writer conveniently focused on the obvious (small turnout) and sidestepped the bigger substantive issue of whether our Filipino folks in Toronto have fully grasped the arguments raised by China and the Philippines to support their respective claims.

Who then should be faulted with this kind of “adversarial” reporting?

Not the Filipino community who only wanted to read “flimsy coverage,” as this writer claimed. How can your community be responsible for the poor quality of journalism being catered to them? They do not report and analyze the news. All our local Filipinos newspapers in Toronto are free and our folks don’t pay to get their copies, so it seems rather disingenuous to blame them for influencing the type of news and stories they want to hear or read. Our local publishers are not selling the news to a segmented market of readers who would prefer to read only entertainment or see their photos plastered on the pages of community tabloids or stories with a particular slant that interests them.

Toronto is swamped with about 15 or so Filipino community newspapers. Obviously, it is a thriving business even if publishers compete for the same pool of advertisers. It’s also an indication of our community’s hunger and craving for news and stories, not just about what’s happening in the community but also in the home country as well. It really matters not if stories from the Philippines are reprints because they could be the first time that these stories are told to our folks in the community. The mainstream media rarely cover our community and stories from our home country while newspapers published in the Philippines are scarce in a foreign city if not unavailable most of the time.

One community newspaper, The Philippine Reporter, publishes reprints of opinions and critical observations of Filipino writers at home on many social and political issues which would never be available to our Toronto community if not through the dedication of this paper to bring them here. In addition to the paper’s own reportage on matters affecting migrants, human rights and social justice issues, the views and commentaries of our Filipino minds at home bring insights on the real causes of most of the issues that affect our community in Toronto. In many ways, our local issues in Toronto are also interconnected with issues at home and could be better understood if backstopped by firsthand analyses of our observers at home.



A culture of impunity in which only a handful of journalists' killers has
been penalized encourages more killings. Photo courtesy of cmfrphilippines.

No one has a monopoly of investigative journalism, certainly not by this former San Diego newspaperman. Substance and depth in news reporting is not achieved merely by exposing the crooks or shenanigans going on in our community. Exposé reporting on a wrongdoing for the sake of public indictment can sometimes denigrate into muckraking journalism, especially if ethics or expectations of fairness are ignored or taken very lightly.

In the final analysis, the true journalist has the responsibility to observe his or her written or unwritten code of ethics. Revealing scandals, infringement of laws or social morals is never easy. The principles of truthfulness, accuracy, objectivity, impartiality, fair play, and public accountability must be deeply ingrained in the mind and soul of the journalist.

As one freelance writer once said, “Investigative reporting uses objectively true material—that is, facts that any reasonable observer would agree are true—toward the subjective goal of reforming the world. That is not a license to lie in a good cause. It is a responsibility, to learn the truth so that the world can change.”