[NEWS]In spite of the issue of being ineffective… APO runs for the 8th time castigating PDAF scam

Alpha Phi Omega (APO) Epsilon Kappa Chapter held their oblation run again for the 8th time, reminding the Bulacan State University on the issue of Public Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) Scam, December 4.




Carrying the theme of ‘Sino ang dapat makinabang, Nawawalang kaban ng bayan?’, a total of 30 members of the fraternity participated in the event, urging the students and BulSU community to keep their eyes on the issues of PDAF scam amidst national calamity brought by Typhoon Yolanda.




"Yong pinaglalaban natin ngayon or 'yong gusto naming i-address ngayon ay 'yong issue sa PDAF. Kasi alam naman natin na nagkaro'n tayo ng mga kalamidad pero hindi naman natin sinasabi na 'wag nating i-etsapuwera 'yon. Nakikisimpatiya kami do'n, kaso nga lang sana wag makalimutan ng mga tao na before that meron tayong issue nA malaking kinahaharap which is PDAF. Masyado nan nakakalimutan 'yong issue." said Jerone Sanchez, APO Epsilon Kappa Chapter Chancellor.




Aside from the issue of PDAF, the fraternity also supports the fight against Roadmap to Public Higher Education Reform (RPHER). But inspite of different advocacy that the runners want the community to be concern of, students have different opinion about the effectiveness of the fraternity in informing the BulSU community.




“Siguro para sa akin, effective naman kasi naca-caught naman ‘yong atensyon ng university dahil sa ginagawa nila eh, ‘yong way naman kasi ng pag-iinform nila sa atin, ginagawa na rin ng ibang university pero at least, sa atin, meron din at may gusto silang mabago kaya ginagawa nila ‘yon,” said Luisa Andrada,from CAL.




While others still believes that the annual run is still effective as advocacy campaign, some students says otherwise.




“Sa tingin ko po hindi na s’ya gano’n ka-effective na way para marinig ng mga estudyante, kasi may ilan na kaya lang nagpupunta e para makakita ng mga bagay na gusto nila makita, pero kung tutuusin, hindi naman nila nakukuha ‘yong mensahe na gusto iparating ng pagtakbo ng APO. Pumupunta lang sila for the entertainment factor,” said Carl Espiritu.

[REPORT]The Importance of Media

Media have been and will always be the prime distributor of information from the sources to the masses. Since the beginning, from those times when the only communication device to be used is telephone, down at this present time when sharing of information is one click away, media practitioners always find quick ways to relay the news and information to the people. As those years passes by and as numerous media people started conquering Philippine politics, their fellows have been waiting for one solid law that will be enforce to protect the rights of media men. The waiting continues until early this year.

Of course, we cannot deny the fact that there are certain provisions in few existing laws that can be considered to be an advantage for media people. There is the Article III, Section 4 of the Philippine Constitution which empowers the freedom of speech, of expression, and of the press, and Article IX concerning foreign media ownership. But there is no law made solely for the media alone.

Until President Noynoy Aquino, the Data Privacy Act (Republic Act 10173) in August and the Cybercrime Prevention Act (Republic Act 10175) in September.

At first glance, you can’t tell that these laws will affect the media industry in a very disastrous manner. The Data Privacy Act states that, although the free flow of information promotes innovation and growth, it is essential that personal information in the government’s and private sector’s information and communications systems is secured and protected, while the controversial Cybercrime Prevention Act supposedly protects the people from cyber crime offenses like cybersquatting, cybersex, child pornography, identity theft, illegal access to data and libel.

But at these present times when the competition in the media industry is stiff, when information flows should be as fast as it can be, media is really affected by these laws which prohibits them to get information and relay it all at once. It slows down information and news, and people have to wait for a long time to know.

The two laws doesn't really block the information flow, but it limits the media and the people on what they are and they are not suppose to know.

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As said in the book, Media ownership is one of the most problematic aspects of the media institution in the Philippines. Foreign people are prohibited to own a media outlet without any solid reason. That is why even if a media company is slowly losing its funds to support their operation, any foreign man cannot help the company by funding it and eventually be the owner of the outlet.

The prime reason why there’s provision in the law because of the issue of influence of the owner to the views and opinions of the people working in the media outlet they own. Of course, you cannot go against the person feeding you, as they say, so an invisible limit to the news and information and there, whether they admit it or not.

This reason may be applied also to fellow Filipino media owners, but a foreign one is more harder to be controlled by the government due to the reason of being ‘loyal’ not to the Philippines but to his own country. It can be an easy way of foreign countries to control what they can in our own land. Of course, media is an obvious target, because if you can control it, then it will not be hard for you to control public’s opinion, too. The media is the main distributor of information, anything they release on public will be the truth in the eyes of some or many.

Public believes in media, and anyone who can control what the media can release is vital to the views and opinion of the Filipinos.