OP ED OPINION-COLUMN | FIRST THINGS FIRST By Francisco S. Tatad – A question for the whole press
FIRST THINGS FIRST
Francisco S. TatadBy Francisco S. Tatad
February 10, 2023
THE recent firing of muckraking columnist Ramon Tulfo by the daily Philippine Star has triggered a lot of questions about the First Lady’s (Mrs. Liza Araneta-Marcos’) alleged involvement in the purely internal Philippine Star affair. These questions have not been answered to the public’s full satisfaction.
But why isn’t the Star, rather than LAM or the Tulfo family, the one explaining to the public why it had to drop a hard-hitting and widely read columnist without any satisfactory explanation to his readers? This is a question for the entire Philippine press, not just for one particular newspaper.
Tulfo lost his column after writing about LAM’s younger brother Martin Araneta’s alleged involvement in the smuggling of onions, among other things, in the piers. What’s the real score on the alleged smuggling? And what’s the extent of LAM’s reported intervention? A curious caller would like to know: Is this the only Martin involved in smuggling? What happened to the other Martins?
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First Things Last
By Kiddo Tadtad
Is Francisco S. Tatad basing his opinion from his experience with Tatay Digong when he attacked Lolo Dudirti? After several days his column was published attacking the Devil and Lolo Dudirti counter attacked Tatad, the Marcos Sr. Prodigy during Martial Law disappeared from The Manila Times Editorials Columnists and resurfaced only when Bo Bo Narcos was already president?
WAS CASH CHANGE HANDS BETWEEN
TATAD AND DUDIRTI?
OR
SIMPLE REQUEST / THREAT WAS SAID TO TATAD?
TATAD SHOULD EXPLAIN HIS HYBERTED DAYS IN SOLITUDE ABROAD?
A question for the whole press
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First lady Liza Araneta Marcos.
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
On February 1, Manila Times columnist Rigoberto “Bobi” Tiglao wrote in his front-page column: “Did the first lady ask for Tulfo’s head?” He said it happened “at the Palace’s behest” — LAM reportedly blew her top upon reading a post in Tulfo’s Facebook account about her brother Martin’s alleged illegal activities in the piers. It was the first direct criticism of the first lady’s family in the otherwise docile and friendly Philippine press. So it had to be nipped in the bud.
Ideally, if the first lady thought her younger brother was being unjustly and maliciously libeled in the press, she could have challenged his accuser to present all the facts and evidence, and asked her brother to present his own side in a fair and impartial public investigation. Nothing like this happened; instead, Tulfo was removed without being asked by his bosses and editors to document his serious allegation.
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LAM says she had nothing to do with the sacking. I would very much like to believe that. But even if she had asked Miguel Belmonte, PhilStar’s CEO, to throw Ramon Tulfo into the nearest piranha pond or dog pound, I would not blame her for expressing her grievous hurt over such a serious accusation. But the Star and the Star alone must bear the ultimate responsibility for cutting Tulfo off from his column.
In a fairer world, Tulfo’s bosses would have required him to document his allegation, so they could decide whether or not to stand by their writer. The first lady, concerned about her brother’s and family’s honor, and the integrity of her husband’s seven-month-old administration, while expressing personal disgust or dismay, would have demanded a thorough investigation of the allegation.
She would have exerted every effort to avoid any suspicion that she’s trying to silence the slightest criticism. Already, some people are saying she had begun to exercise “power without responsibility,” Rudyard Kipling’s famous phrase which British prime minister Stanley Baldwin had used to describe “the harlot’s prerogative throughout the ages.”
To protect LAM from this charge, I suggested in my Manila Times front-page column on February 3 (“Travails of a first lady”), that she should take on a specific official position where all her acts could be publicly vetted and validated; and that the President take a firmer hand at governance and remind all and sundry that no one is above the law, whether presidential kin, in-law or whatever. That suggestion still stands.
Apparently, LAM felt her side of the story was not being adequately aired. So on February 7, Dr. Dante Ang, the chairman emeritus of the Times and a trusted friend, in a prominent front page article, repeated the question Bobi Tiglao first raised in his February 1 column: “Did First Lady ask for Tulfo’s head at the Star?”
The article carried interviews with Tulfo, who said LAM had nothing to do with it, and with his brothers Erwin, erstwhile secretary of social welfare, and Sen. Raffy Tulfo, who claimed they were the ones who had asked the Star to fire their brother Ramon for being a “loose cannon.” This did not make it sound any better for the Star, which many have long regarded as one of the nation’s leading newspapers.
Summing up, it is irrelevant and immaterial whether LAM or Tulfo’s siblings had asked for his head at all. Human as she is, LAM could have indeed blown her top, as reported, upon reading of her younger brother’s alleged illegal activities in the piers. As for Erwin and Raffy Tulfo, they might have thought they were doing LAM and themselves a favor by claiming personal responsibility for their brother’s sacking. And the Star seemed more interested in pleasing Malacañang by shooting the messenger than in standing by its writer according to the time-honored tenets of responsible journalism.
But in the end, the real question is, would it not have been much better for LAM’s family honor, for her husband’s seven-month-old administration, and for everybody else, if she had insisted on a thorough investigation of the serious allegation against her brother so that the innocent parties could be cleared, the culpable ones charged, and the President govern in peace without any distractions from kibitzers.
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