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Category: Vera Files

Training how to teach fact-checking

VERA Files has been doing fact-checking training all over the country sharing the knowledge and skills we have learned to sift what is true from the falsehoods that abound in social media.

Our campus tours have been educational for us as we have seen young people, social media savvy yet so vulnerable to the evils of the phenomenal medium. We are invigorated to see that many of them value truthfulness and we are encouraged by their enthusiasm to learn how to fight lies which now come under the banner of “fake news.”

Future teachers at the University of Antique. Photo by Allyssa Marie C. Villeza.

Two weeks ago we were at the University of Antique in the town of Sibalom with 300 education students. Since the participants were future teachers we tweaked our training from “How to fact-check” to “How to teach fact-checking.”

We divided the participants into ten groups and gave the each group suggested statements to fact check. We told them that they can also choose their own subject to fact check. After a 30- minute mini-conference among themselves, they each made their presentation.

The result was fantastic. Using various teaching tools, they made fact-checking fun.

SEA lawyers groups call on Senate not to pass Villanueva bill on fake news

Southeast Asian lawyers tackle Freedom of Expression and Fake News. Photo from Ade Wahyudin Facebook.

The concern about Fake news has created another concern: in the urgent desire to solve the problem of fake news, we might end up with a cure that is worse than the disease.

Fake News has been blamed for political upsets like the decision of the United Kingdom to leave the European Union and the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States.

In the Philippines, the Duterte government maintains an aggressive presence in social media through its Duterte Diehard Supporters led by a communications undersecretary.

Collins Dictionary, which has chosen Fake News as the word for the year 2017, defines Fake News as “as false news stories, often of a sensational nature, created to be widely shared online for the purpose of generating ad revenue via web traffic or discrediting a public figure, political movement, company, etc.”

Last Friday, the Advocates for Freedom of Expression Coalition- Southeast Asia (AFEC-SEA), Center Law and American Bar Association- Rule of Law Initiative gathered lawyers, journalists and online activists from Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines ,Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam to discuss the situation as regards the rise of Fake News with the objective of forging a Southeast-Asian Response.

ASEAN 2017 bid rules skewed to favor one company?

President Rodrigo Duterte accepts the gavel to symbolize Philippine chairmanship of ASEAN 2017 meetings  from Laotian Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith at the National Convention Center in Vientiane, Laos on September 8. Malacanang photo
President Rodrigo Duterte accepts the gavel to symbolize Philippine chairmanship of ASEAN 2017 meetings from Laotian Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith at the National Convention Center in Vientiane, Laos on September 8. Malacanang photo


By CHARMAINE C. DEOGRACIAS and ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS

VERA Files

Conclusion
WHEN the government bidded out the P2.8 billion events management contract for the 50th anniversary of the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations to be held in the Philippines this year, it tailor-made the criteria so that a favored company would bag the deal, a company excluded from the bidding said.
In fact, sources say, when the bidding was held Dec. 1 at the DBM-PS office on Cristobal Street in Paco, Manila, only one company showed up: StageCraft International.

With a bid of P1 billion, StageCraft, headed by Francisco Zabala, logically got the gargantuan contract, the biggest in Philippine history of events management.

But Events Organizer Network Inc (EON), a company which took part in the initial process, wrote the executive director of the DBM-PS and asked her “to reject the sole bid of submitted, declare a failure of bidding, or not to award the contract to the sole bidder.”

DBM shortcuts bid process for P2.8 billion ASEAN hosting deal

President Rodrigo Duterte accepts the gavel to symbolize the handing over of the ASEAN Chairmanship to the Philippines from Laotian Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith at the National Convention Center in Vientiane, Laos on September 8. Malacanang photo.
President Rodrigo Duterte accepts the gavel to symbolize the handing over of the ASEAN Chairmanship to the Philippines from Laotian Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith at the National Convention Center in Vientiane, Laos on September 8. Malacanang photo.

By CHARMAINE C. DEOGRACIAS and ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS
VERA Files
First of two parts

THE Department of Budget and Management-Procurement Service (DBM-PS) has allegedly violated the government procurement law when it bidded out the gargantuan P2.8 billion events management contract for the hosting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations conferences this year, a company excluded from the bidding said.

The contract is supposedly the biggest of its kind and involves the management of 48 international conferences from January to December 2017, the 50th anniversary of the ASEAN’s founding and the year the Philippines is ASEAN chair.

The sole bidder and apparent winner is Stagecraft International which offered P1 billion at the bidding held Dec. 1, 45 days before the commemorative launching of the Philippine chairmanship of ASEAN on Jan. 15, 2017 in Davao city.

But Events Organizer Network Inc. (EON), a company that participated in the initial procurement process, alleges that the DBM-PS bidded out the contract as “goods” instead of “services,” in violation of the government procurement law Republic Act 9184.

Duterte wants media as watchdog and partner

Press Undersecretary Enrique Tandan delivers his message at the MOM launch.
Press Undersecretary Enrique Tandan delivers his message at the MOM launch.

By VERA Files

President Duterte welcomes media’s role as watchdog even as he considers it a partner in informing the people about what the government is doing for them, a Palace official said.

In a message he delivered in behalf of Press Secretary Martin Andanar at the launching of the Media Ownership Monitor (MOM) website ((http://philippines.mom-rsf.org/ ), Thursday last week, Press Undersecretary Enrique Tandan said, “President Duterte believes that, as partners for change, the members of the media have a huge responsibility in keeping the government institutions in check. Change happens when there is a constant voice that keeps the government up on its feet, making sure that no detail will go unknown from the public eye.”

But the President also wants media to be a partner in delivering the government’s messages to the people. ‘’For the President, this is how the media works as the government’s sidekick, so to speak,” Tandan said.

SEC policy disallowing reverse search a blow to transparency

Panelists in the forum on Media Ownership in the Philippines. (L-R) Prof. Clarissa David of  the Philippine Competition Commission and University of the Philippines;  Maria Regina  Reyes, head of Integrated News and Current Affairs, ABS-CBN; John Nery, editor in chief, Inquirer.net  and Rigoberto Tiglao, Manila Times columnist and author of the book,”Colossal Deception.”
Panelists in the forum on Media Ownership in the Philippines. (L-R)
Prof. Clarissa David of the Philippine Competition Commission and University of the Philippines; Maria Regina Reyes, head of Integrated News and Current Affairs, ABS-CBN; John Nery, editor in chief, Inquirer.net and Rigoberto Tiglao, Manila Times columnist and author of the book,”Colossal Deception.”

First things first: I’d like to thank each and every one who took time to attend the whole day launch and conference of the Media Ownership Monitor Philippines (http://philippines.mom-rsf.org/ ) last Thursday.

My special thanks to Press Undersecretary Enrique Tandan who delivered the keynote address in behalf of Press Secretary Martin Andanar, who was in Lima, Peru with President Duterte for the APEC summit; Atty Romel Bagares, who did the legal assessment of media ownership in the Philippines; and the four panelists – Ging Reyes, head of Integrated News and Current Affairs, ABS-CBN Corporation; John Nery, editor in chief, Inquirer.net and opinion columnist, Philippine Daily Inquirer; Prof. Clarissa David of the Philippine Competition Commission and the Graduate Studies Department, College of Mass Communication, University of the Philippines; and Bobi Tiglao, Manila Times columnist and author of the book, Colossal Deception- How Foreigners Control our Telecoms Sector.

The participants enjoyed the lively exchanges among the panelists –especially between Tiglao and Nery- which happens only in a gathering of learned and strong- minded personalities.

MOM is a joint project of Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) Germany and VERA Files (disclosure: I’m a trustee of VERA Files) which both believe that media ownership matters in the quality and credibility of the news that the public gets.

Road safety journalism award launched

By Jake Soriano, VERA Files

Journalist and VERA Files trustee Ellen Tordesillas announced on April 12 the launch of a new award to honor the best student work on road safety issues.

Chit Estella
Chit Estella
The Chit Estella Road Safety Journalism Award, named in honor of journalist Lourdes “Chit” Estella-Simbulan, will be given next year as a special category in the Philippine Journalism Research Conference (PJRC).

PJRC is an annual event organized by the Journalism Department of the University of the Philippines (UP) College of Mass Communication.

The new special award expands the current Chit Estella Memorial Awards for Journalism Research, given at the PJRC, for the best student work in journalism research, special projects, and investigative journalism.

“It will be given to the most outstanding research paper or in-depth report, multiple formats allowed, on road safety by journalism or communication students,” said Tordesillas, during the closing program of the 2016 PJRC.

“VERA Files is offering to cover the cash prize and the trophy for this award. This is in addition to the yearly support it extends to the [PJRC],” she added.

Norman Sison

Norman in a Philippine revolutionary army uniform. At the Lopez museum
Norman in a Philippine revolutionary army uniform. At the Lopez museum

I haven’t bid Norman goodbye properly and I feel bad about it.

Norman is a very good writer and it was a privilege for VERA Files to have him as one of our writers.

When young writers inquire about contributing feature stories for VERA Files, a group that publishes in- depth and feature stories, I always tell them to check out articles by Norman, Pablo Tariman, Babeth Lolarga, and Winnie Velasquez as examples of good writing.

It’s good writing if once you’ve started with the first paragraph, you continue reading until you get to the last sentence. It’s a good article if you learned something new– an information or a perspective of an issue.

Beneficiaries seek accounting of MMFF funds

Metro Manila Film Festival

Text and photos Maria Feona Imperial

VERA Files

(First of two parts)
Movies featuring the country’s most popular stars—including presidential sister Kris Aquino, comedian Vice Ganda, screen favorites John Lloyd Cruz and Jennylyn Mercado, and young love team Alden Richards and Maine Mendoza—are likely to make the 2015 Metro Manila Film Festival another smash hit, possibly raking in much more than last year’s almost P1 billion earnings.

But government auditors and MMFF critics say proceeds from the festival, in dwindling amounts, are not reaching their intended beneficiaries on time, and that an accounting of the festival proceeds is long overdue.

MMFF officials, on the other hand, say the festival is a private undertaking not covered by government audit rules and regulations, even if it is run by the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA).

The main issue is the amusement tax collected from Metro Manila theater owners who screen only MMFF entries for 10 days from Dec. 25 until Jan. 5. For that period, the local government units waive amusement taxes in favor of movie industry beneficiaries.