‘We hope … the shift from a self-regulatory national council to an independent co-regulatory mechanism succeeds in upholding a free, professional and ethical press, and mediating potential libel cases.’
ON this day, 60 years ago, the Philippine Press Council elected its first members. Today, we reflect on the evolution of that original press council into today’s local media-citizen councils.
The Philippine Press Council was created by way of a rider to a 1965 law “amending further” a provision stipulating the venue for a libel case where the complainant is a public officer.
Section 3 of Republic Act No. 4363 says: “This Act shall take effect only if and when, within thirty days from its approval, the newspapermen in the Philippines shall organize, and elect the members of, a Philippine Press Council, a private agency of the said newspapermen, whose function shall be to promulgate a Code of Ethics for them and the Philippine press, investigate violations thereof, and censure any newspaperman or newspaper guilty of any violation of the said Code, and the fact that such Philippine Press Council has been organized and its members have been duly elected in accordance herewith shall be ascertained and proclaimed by the President of the Philippines.”
Twenty-five days later, these “newspapermen” elected Alejo Labrador, Pastor Endencia, Gloria Feliciano, Joaquin P. Roces, Nereo Andolong and Felix G. Gonzalez. As provided by law, President Diosdado Macapagal himself announced their election through Proclamation No. 422.
Three of them were from the news media: “Chino” Roces, as publisher of the Manila Times and president of the Philippine Newspaper Publishers Association. Andolong was a reporter for the Manila Chronicle and, at the time of his election, also president of the National Press Club. Gonzalez, known in the local press as “Judge,” was editor of the Manila Daily Bulletin.
Labrador and Endencia were retired Supreme Court Justices, while Dr. Feliciano was director of the Institute of Mass Communication at the University of the Philippines, who would become dean of the U.P. College of Mass Communication, now known as the College of Media and Communication.
A year before the creation of the press council came the establishment of the Philippine Press Institute. Roces, a member of the International Press Institute executive board, is on top of the list of PPI founding governors, along with his brother Ramon Roces, the “komiks” publisher. Another pioneering governor was Gonzalez, as was Bulletin publisher Hans Menzi.
I have yet to find records of what the original press council actually did. There is no record of their Code of Ethics. What we have today is a document approved in 1988 jointly with the National Journalists of the Philippines and the National Press Club.
We know, however, that the council and the PPI were among the casualties of martial law in 1972. In 1974, President Ferdinand Marcos appointed Menzi as chair of the Philippine Council for Print Media (PCPM). Menzi, in turn, organized the Publishers Association of the Philippines, whose early members included the publications owned or run by PCPM officers.
The fall of Marcos in 1986 restored press freedom, along which came abuses — this time by the press themselves this time.
On Nov. 10, 1988, Alice Colet Villadolid, executive director of the revived PPI, called on its members to appoint a “readers’ advocate or ombudsman” to address a “public clamor for greater responsibility among newspapermen.” These advocates had their first meeting on Nov. 24 at the former PPI headquarters in Puerta Isabel, Intramuros.
On Jan. 12, 1989, Chief Justice Marcelo Fernan administered the oath of office to the advocates. By the end of July, the PPI endorsed a complaint filed by two senators against a columnist, to the Press Council, the first time the name was used again, for “speedy investigation and appropriate action.” One of the signatories of that endorsement was Amado Macasaet of Malaya.
From an Aug. 1, 1989 notice of meeting, we learn that this Press Council is composed of the readers’ advocates. Minutes of the Aug. 11 meeting described the council as: “a non-profit, non-stock organization of registered News Ombudsmen under the auspices of PPI, and whose main concern is the freedom of the press and the promotion of the corresponding duty and responsibility of journalists to the public thru [sic] through the enforcement of the Filipino journalists Code of Ethics.”
From what used to be a mixed-council in 1965, we see an exclusive body composed of publisher-appointed news ombudsmen. The minutes add that “All PPI members in the future shall be required as a matter of policy to appoint their News Ombudsmen.”
In 2001, non-press members made a return, upon invitation: Appeals Justice Ramon Mabutas, former UP Masscom dean Luis Teodoro, and Chito Salazar of PHINMA. The PPI had decided to add a representative from the business community.
It was in this context that I was invited to the council, following the resignation of Dean Teodoro. The press members were Isagani Yambot of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Joy de los Reyes and Ma. Teresa Molina (Malaya), Benjie Defensor (Manila Times), Paul Icamina (Journal), Ramon Tomeldan (Manila Standard), Arnold Belleza and Marvin Tort (BusinessWorld), Eden Estopace (Philippine STAR), and Lourdes Fernandez and Lyn Resurreccion (Today).
Tort, then chairman, resigned in 2004 when a presidential appointee thought the council was taking too much time on his complaint against a veteran columnist, and went to court. I was elected to replace Tort.
We spent much of our time polishing our complaints mechanism and promoting nationwide the news subject’s right of reply. Simultaneously, we also assured a senior senator that PPI-member editors would make the right of reply standard newsroom policy in lieu of a legislated, mandatory, court-enforceable right of reply.
During my tenure, I recall only one case, filed by a mayor against a local publisher. Following our revised procedure, we asked the editor for a written explanation which we received three days later. A week later, the mayor expressed satisfaction with the reply.
I resigned in 2007. Atty. Antonio La Viña had earlier succeeded Justice Mabutas and was eventually elected chair in 2011. Today the press council has no members, does not meet, and is not functioning as such. Nevertheless, the council has not been formally dissolved and, as of three years ago, the PPI still acknowledged Atty. La Viña as the council’s “current and long-standing chairman.”
But the vision of an effective body that deflected libel cases in favor of voluntary settlement never left the PPI’s Ariel Sebellino who was program director during my term. As executive director eventually, Sebellino had been setting the ground for regional media-citizen councils. There are currently 10 of them nationwide, each of them with representatives who have passed a comprehensive course on mediation and conciliation given by the Department of Justice’s Office of Alternative Resolution. They are also at various stages of completing their registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Bureau of Internal Revenue, and their respective local governments.
We hope that after 60 years, the shift from a self-regulatory national council to an independent co-regulatory mechanism succeeds in upholding a free, professional and ethical press, and mediating potential libel cases.
