press statement
NOVEMBER 2007
PRESS RELEASE
HON. NERI BARTE
BOARD MEMBER/FIRST
DISTRICT
COMPOSTELA VALLEY
PROVINCE
To
our dear friends in the broadcast and print media, health and
blessings from the Lord!
In
the last weeks, my name has been on the news because of the so-called
complain hurled against me by Mr. Roel Sembrano, a supposed
broadcaster and announcer of a local radio station in our hometown,
Compostela, ComVal Province.
With
this open letter I want to address the issue on various fronts.
First, I am well aware that media practitioners have to follow
certain norms and ethics in broadcasting. Media practitioners are
supposed to unveil the truth by taking all sides of the story, and
NOT create intrigues and stories instead.
Roel
Sembrano never took my side to the allegations that he wantonly
broadcasted over the radio. His pronouncements on radio were all
brazen lies and intrigues. People in Compostela valley and in
Compostela municipality in particular are aware that Sembrano is not
a broadcaster that reports objective truths, issues and events, but a
media practitioner who is under the wings, caprices and influences of
some local politicians, immoral and corrupt, who are all out to
destroy my reputation as a civil servant and critique of excesses of
other politicians. People of Compostela can attest that Sembrano did
nothing in order to report the truth.
If
Sembrano is after the reporting of truth, my office in the Provincial
capitol is always open for him to visit me and discuss issues that
were hurled against me. If Sembrano is after the truth for people of
Compostela to know, he should have reported the unabated killings in
our town and the rampant proliferation of illegal drugs that
confronts Compostela, instead of maligning my reputation as a
politician who never have any record of immorality. I am known to be
the defender of truth, the oppressed and the poor.
Secondly,
I am aware that media practice should be balance and fair. It pains
me that I was condemned and subjected to the judgment not out of
justice and balance that media suppose to represent, but in the bar
of public opinion. This is what Sembrano actually did when he never
take my side in the allegations that I suppose to have committed.
Fairness
and balance is never a practice of Mr. Sembrano for he maligned a
reputation without establishing solid facts to support his
allegations. My record as a politician is open for public scrutiny,
but what Sembrano did is not to report the truth; balance and fairly,
but simply to accuse me of things I never have committed. His brazen
lies is manifested in his claim that he criticizes me because I sided
with someone who run against his friend and mentor in the last
barangay election. It was a public knowledge to the people of
Compostela that it was he, Roel Sembrano who campaigned and trumpeted
a certain candidate to whom he work with and he allows himself to be
used as a demolition man by a local politician instead of being a
broadcaster for truth and transparency.
Thirdly,
I have to make it clear that it was not this barangay election issue
that enraged my family, but the brazen lies that Sembrano tells on
the radio. He accused me on air of non-performance of my duty as a
duly constituted and elected public official. It was not because I
campaigned for a local candidate that he maligned my reputation but
issues that attacks, not my political works and achievements but
personal ones that go beyond the realm of truthful and balanced
broadcasting. To say it straight, Roel Sembrano is a blatant liar.
Lastly,
I want to make it clear that I did not attack him! It was my wife
and daughter who come to him in order to confront him of the lies he
uttered on air. I only followed to stop them. My daughter, a
graduating MassCom student of the Ateneo de Davao University was the
one very enraged for she knew that what Sembrano did on air was a
blatant violation of the code of ethics of the broadcast media.
Emotions were high and people of Compostela could attest that my wife
and daughter were entitled to their anger because what was said
against her father and husband were all but lies and empty
accusations. I will not condemn my wife and daughter, for what they
did were clear expressions of disgust brought about by moral
bankruptcy and media malpractice that Sembrano did to me.
I
wish to end this long tract with an appeal to the people of the
broadcast and written media. I am a politician and in the last two
decades of my political life I always am a voice in the wilderness
for I stood against immorality, exploitation and excesses committed
by the ruling powerful politicians. Despite all of this, and despite
all the efforts of destroying me, including the use of Sembrano’s
radio program through the lies and intrigues that he sowed on air,
the people of ComVal voted me.
I
hope to be given a fair share in the bars of public opinion where my
side will be heard and asked for, for like anyone in the media I am
also for truth and justice. I appeal that stories being written and
broadcast must carry all the time, the two sides of the coin, the
opposing views of the stories told, so that truth shall come out. I
appeal to media people to report only the truth and not allow
themselves to be used as speaking parrots and puppets of people who
are immoral and corrupt for it will deprive the unveiling of the
truth.
As
the bible says, Only the Truth shall set us free… So is my
wish for those who are out to destroy and malign me. In the end, it
is the people and God who will judge us.
