by Vic Nierva
ABSCBN Bicol's MAG TV! Oragon Na! is supposedly an entertaining telemagazine show. But last Sunday, February 7, it was not. When it presented a segment that showed the footage of the Cebu tour that BRBWMP sponsored for a handful of residents of my town Lupi, it was reduced to a mere ridiculous publicity that desperately seeks for public approval. Perhaps, it is what BRB’s idea of earning their own concept of public acceptance. Unsympathetically, a shorter version of the segment was shown on MAK (Marhay na Aga Kapamilya). Pity the stupidity; loathe the arrogance; question the inexorable waste of public money. Chito Monzon and Ricky Tomotorgo should be questioned for this.
For in fact, how many Lupi folks went to Cebu? Not even thirty—half of them, honorable municipal councilors who are BRB’s political allies and whom we abhor and no longer trust. What is the population of Lupi? The number of those who went to Cebu is, in research parlance, negligible. How, then, they came up with the boldest of information that we all are now in favor of the dam? Monzon, Tomotorgo, and their cohorts, had never gone to Lupi to face the people. Yeah, they’ve been there before, only under the reception of the honorable Sangguniang Bayan of which only one or two can draft a sensible board resolution.
In MagTV, the audience had the impression that the people of Lupi are already saying yes to the Libmanan-Cabusao Dam Project. In this case, the media, upon the dictates of the powerful, strikes for the nth time. The program did the people of Lupi a great injustice and disservice—when the station loudly bellows that it is ‘in the service of the Filipino.’ I say, then, go to Lupi and know the real sentiments of the people. I doubt if they’ll get any positive response to the dam project. Here enters responsibility. MagTV should apologize; MagTV should correct the notion; MagTV should tell the truth.
Only then will it be worthy of one of the noblest of Bikol terms, oragon.
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