Advocacy for community-based journalism
By Bro. Herbert P. Mapiles
Since I started working for Sun Star Pampanga, it has been my advocacy to write community-based stories. Some of these stories are not commonly published in the past as they involve topics which are unique to local folks in my beat assignment such as the turtles invading the national road, adventurous gecko hunters who shift to bounty hunting, bird hunters in Candaba - a town known for its migratory birds, asking for a day to practice their shooting skills, dogs along major streets causing series of motorcycle accidents and a lot more.
At the back of these stories is my desire to educate the readers about the danger of having ecological imbalance. Too much turtles might ruin fishing industry also too much birds might compromise the harvest of the farmers.
Consequently, our stories have moved officials into action. Few months ago, the top officials from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) cancelled several infrastructure projects involving rehabilitation of Pampanga major dikes.
This came first as the Guemasan Dike in Arayat town scoured due to strong current of water coming from the upstream of Pampanga River .
Sun Star Pampanga came up with a story with the provincial elected officials and other local chief executives asking DPWH to reconsider the decision.
It was in September 13, 2010, when Governor Lilia Pineda first told the public that Secretary Rogelio Singson approved a P25-M budget for the proposed cut-off channel at Pampanga River along the portion of Barangay Guemasan.
The cut off channel aims to bring back the flow of water in the area to its original course, otherwise thousands of residents not only in Arayat but the also in the neighboring towns might be displaced.
The governor then recognized the role of media in information dissemination. Sun Star was the first to write the stories on this matter.
I remember Governor Pineda in one of the ocular inspections in the scoured dike asking members of the media present.
The construction of cut off channel was completed but the problem remains. This time, the dike's portion along Barangay Cupang was instead hit by huge volume of water resulting to the displacement of eight families.
Our story came out, with this; the provincial government provided financial assistance amounting to P25-K for the affected families.
Recently, when Typhoon "Quiel" bombarded the province affecting several thousands of residents particularly in the 4th district, Sun Star Pampanga closely monitor through its stories the real situation and every single development.
With the help of other media entities both local and national, several cause oriented groups, non-governmental organizations and individuals sent relief goods and assistance for the flooded families.
Subsequently, Philippine Medical Association (PMA) conducted a series of medical missions dubbed as 'Doctors on Boat' to different towns in the 4th district. It was Dr. Mike Aragon, PMA chairman on media affairs, who contacted us for coverage.
From him, we learned that their group initiated water sampling in the isolated villages in Masantol town as there were reports of diarrhea cases in the localities.
It was Sunday morning then, when we crossed Pampanga River using a speed boat commissioned by the Philippine Army.
After one hour of travel, we finally reached Barangay Nigui in Masantol. After a series of interviews to residents, we learned that at least 20 children were hospitalized due to diarrhea.
The story was first published with us although it was first came out with the television networks. Basically, this spells the difference between the print and broadcast media.
Another story which I think deserves a space here, is a story about the allege over collection of electric bills by the Pampanga 1 Electric Cooperative. (Pelco 1)
The consumers-members of Pelco 1 claimed that the 80 percent increase in their electric bills should be properly explained to them.
Folks thanked us as the story was published in Sun Star Pampanga.
This story led to the creation of Pelco1 Consumers Protection Group (PCPG) - a group organized by the people to protect themselves from abuses by officials of power coop.