Philippine Daily Inquirer (March19-23 issues)

                

                Nowadays, Journalism profession is offered to both male and female. Unlike before, this career is mostly dominated by men since women were viewed as caretakers of the family and not as professionals. Even during the ancient times, the rights of women are often discriminated for it is believed that women are just there to produce children. And they are even proud whenever they produce a baby boy and get disappointed when it is a girl.

                With the advancement of our society, the outlook for women changed and they are no longer just “baby makers.” Their skills are not only limited to the four corners of their home for they are now given the rights to do what men does. And sometimes, more rights were given to females and we have this thinking that men should always prioritize and respect women.

                On the March 19 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI), most of the byliners were women. The top story entitled ‘Senate hits peace panel’ was written by Leila Salaverria. And for that day’s issue, 4 other female writers dominated the page. Out of the 7 by liners, only 2 were male writers whose articles focused on the Disaster Risk Reduction frameworks and the recent Mamasapano tragedy.

                Meanwhile, on the following day, the numbers of female and male writers were both 3.  One story about the British boy band 1 Direction was included in the front page which was written by Tina Santos. All the other stories mostly focused on the political issues like the BBL and the Mamasapano clash.

                For 3 consecutive days, the banner stories for the Philippine Daily Inquirer were written by a male writer named Nikko Dizon. Most of the stories written by Dizon concerns the health of President Benigno Aquino III (PNoy) saying that he collapsed on around midnight, March20, without him knowing. Also, one of the stories written by Dizon focused on the release of text messages between PNoy and Purisima to help the investigation of the Fallen 44 case.

                Only one female made it to the front page, Nina Cabeja, writing about the rallies made by office workers behind Makati Mayor Jujun Binay.

                The british boy band 1 Direction made it again in the front page and this time, the writers were a male and a female. On the March 22 issue of PDI, 4 writers were female and only 2 writers for the front page were male. And among these females, Senator Loren Legarda wrote an article about nature of disaster risks.  The 3 other females wrote about the social networking sites such as the joining of Inquirer.net to facebook. And the other is about Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago ruling Twitter and Facebook with millions of her followers.

                For March 23 issue, men dominated the page having a total of 4 over 6. Two of these articles were written by Nikko Dizon focusing again on PNoy. Meanwhile, Maricar Cinco wrote an article about a new found specie of tarantulas.

               

Out of the twenty-one writers during the five-day issue of PDI, eleven were female writers and the rest are male. Most of the topics written by men focused on government meanwhile, the females were stretched up to writing news-features. Nevertheless, both men and women wrote articles about the Senate which is the highest beat in the paper industry.

(Photos by: Janine Perea)

Despite having positive ratings on his early terms, President Benigno Aquino III is now called for resignation by different organizations and church leaders saying that he should give the Filipino people a fresh start and a new government.

                With the recent clash between the Philippine National Police-Special Action Force (PNP-SAF) and Moro Islamic Liberation Font (MILF), the public questions the commanding ability of the president endangering the on-going peace process between the MILF and the government.    

        

                The mission, which was referred to as Oplan Exodus led to the deaths of 44 SAF officers and the death of one of the FBI’s most wanted terrorist, Zulkifli Abdhir, dubbing the incident as the biggest loss of the government elite force in the Philippines.

                “Bilang Commander-In-Chief-, hindi pwedeng mag-blame ng lower officials kasi yung chain of commands ay sa kanya naka-direct. Nagkasala siya sa Fallen 44 not by commission but by omission kasi hindi niya nagampanan yung role niya,” Jenina Avancena, Editor-In-Chief of The Flame, official publication of the Faculty of Arts and Letters said.

                Kabataan party-list Representative Terry Ridon emphasized that the president should not use resigned PNP Chief Director Allan Purisima as his ‘fall guy’ and that Purisima’s resignation is an admission of guilt over the clash.

                “Masyadong mataas ang tingin natin sa pamilya Aquino kaya natatakot tayong maghalal ng ibag opisyal. Na-set natin yung standards na kapag ‘Aquino’, magaling ‘to,” Avancena added.

            

                      On the other hand, University of Sto. Thomas (UST) Assistant Professor Jose Tolentino Olivar II stated that it has been embarked in the Filipino culture that whenever they wanted to oust a leader, Filipinos join hands for a revolution or do signature campaigns.

                “Kusang nagbibitiw ang isang leader sa ibang bansa. Kapag alam niyang hindi na siya karapat-dapat at hindi na niya nagampanan yung tungkulin niya,” Olivar emphasized.

                Olivar also said that Anti-Aquino groups should take into consideration the process of impeachment knowing that the election is already next year. He also stated that the public should just wait for the end of Aquino’s term.

                Another professor from UST under the Faculy of Philosophy, Marc Aldous Baccay said that the public serves as a critic which is a good thing for the leaders to know what they need to improve on their work.

                “Kelangang isipin yung consequences kapag na-impeach si PNoy. Between him and Vice President Jejomar Binay, our current president is more practical,” he stated.

Baccay also reiterated that asking for an official to step down every after crisis is not healthy for no official is considered perfect. He added that the circumstances that came in during Aquino’s term was not planned.

                “Nakaka-awa ang mga Pilipino kasi ang criteria lang ng kanilang pagboto ay ‘Who is the lesser evil?’. Wala bang ‘Who is the best?’” Baccay said.

                As for the upcoming election, the criterion for the next president, as pictured by Avancena and Olivar is that someone who is willing to point out the bad sides of politics and someone who the Filipino’s trust and fear.