Times’ editorial stance

LAST week, this paper ran an editorial saying it was time to go for Palace Communications Assistant Secretary Esther Margaux “Mocha” Uson after a series of gaffes, the latest of which was a raunchy dance routine by a co-host, with her on video that purported to promote federalism.

The reactions to it, on our website and Facebook page, were mostly along partisan lines. A number of our readers agreed with our stance, while many others, including supporters of Uson herself, condemned the editorial vociferously as though it were some sort of heresy.

Make no mistake about it: Mocha Uson is a social media phenomenon with her legion of followers. She can be an to reach the larger masses of the Filipino people. She can do that as a hired media practitioner for this administration without being on top of the government information

Negative reaction to a newspaper editorial is par for the course for a national daily, especially when it takes a strong stance on a highly charged issue, in this case the now infamous “Pe-pe-de-de-ralismo” strut on a Mocha video.

We welcome criticisms; they enrich and elevate the national discourse. We will continue to take positions on relevant issues that impact the lives and well-being of our people, and rally behind causes we deem right and worthy of our name.

TheManilaTimes has taken a stance to support President

Rodrigo Duterte.

We support his agenda for peace and inclusive economic prosperity. We want him to succeed in his efforts to bring peace to our land on all fronts and enough food on the table of every family in this country. We support his efforts to bring back dignity to our Filipino workers abroad and be treated with respect as citizens of a sovereign nation in the global community of sovereign nations. We will continue to support him and his national agenda of peace and development for this country until the very end of his term.

Surely, there are many ways of showing that support. But certainly they do not include being an echo chamber for this administration, merely reverberating self-serving policy agenda. Nor would be a brown- noser, always disservice to our readers, would betray the President and undermine his national agenda.

The best way for a media institution to show support to the worthy causes of the leader of the nation is to be forthright and honest in its presentation of the day’s news, pleasant or unpleasant, to help the leader know the truth about what goes on around him and among his people. Likewise, it must present a balanced selection of commentaries for a fair assessment of what is right by those who govern with him.

We shall continue to call the attention of the President of government.

Even as we give credit to whom credit is due, we can help the President the best way we can by pointing out and writing about the excesses in his government, especially those that are committed by people closely around him.

This we shall do as we strive daily to keep our integrity and credibility as a news media institution.

For how can a legitimate newspaper promote and defend the President’s legitimate agenda with a shattered reputation?

We shall not be another pied piper to a leader already largely misunderstood abroad. What we see he needs is a mainstream media supporter who tells him the truth and gives an honest, fair opinion on the real world outside of the Palace. Not that our opinion matters, but this is our professional way of helping him reach sound decisions as he leads the nation out of the quagmire of poverty, corruption and drug-induced misery.