Worried about ‘real’ news

We are often advised these days to be wary of “fake” news… you know… stories containing “alternative” facts. There are people who actually make a good livelihood writing stories with no factual basis in order to support a politician, a product or a cause.

Reading the newspapers, watching TV news or going through your Facebook or Twitter account can be misleading, if you do not know how to recognize the “fake” from the “real” news. News being “fake” or “real” is not a matter of opinion. It’s black or white.

I can recognize “fake” news easily and immediately ignore these blatant attempts to paint an “alternative” reality. But “real” news is more worrisome. There is no escaping the uncomfortable reality that “real” news brings.

For instance, the story on the solicitor general urging the Court of Appeals to set Janet Napoles free is not “fake” news. It is rather sadly, very real. It makes you immediately wonder if the Duterte administration is using our tax money to free the woman involved in billions of pesos of taxpayer funds which may have been plundered by prominent politicians.

Worse, this “real” news tells us the woman has bipartisan support. Remember that P- Noy escorted this Ma’am Janet himself to Camp Crame for booking when she surrendered to him in Malacañang. Now it seems Mr. Duterte’s solicitor general is showing the world how special Ms. Napoles really is… forget PDutz’s claim that he hates corruption.

Of course, the solicitor general’s intervention was with regard to a kidnapping conviction of Ms. Napoles. But is that just stage one? Putting the credibility of the victim’s testimony in doubt may make him less credible when he stands as key witness in the plunder cases.

Then there is the ongoing Senate probe on the “real” news about a bribery scandal at the Bureau of Immigration. Apparently, being caught red handed by CCTV cameras accepting and carrying paper bags full of money and keeping it for several days until it was exposed by columnist Mon Tulfo isn’t enough to prove wrongdoing.

It was entertaining to listen to the testimony of the dis- missed Immigration officials, but also frustrating. It is as if being caught in flagrante delicto is not enough.

It doesn’t get any better in the United States. In the face of evidence that his national security adviser had been talking to the Russian ambassador about removing sanctions imposed by the Obama administration, President Trump turns around and blames media for publicizing an illegal leak.

At least Trump didn’t deny the truthfulness of the story. He just got technical about the process by which the story was obtained. Then again, leaks are facts of life in Washington and have protected their democracy from presidents who started to feel like emperors. Remember Watergate?

Back here at home, there is this “real” news about how the lower house of Congress passed a bill amending our tax law to favor one cigarette company in less than a week. Then you read about how the BIR and Customs are investigating this company on suspicion of evading taxes by a number of means, including the use of fake stamps and fake exports.

What worries me, if the reports are true, is the tremendous amount of money involved. Even if the estimated P200 billion is on the high side, it suggests enough money to buy this government wholesale. No wonder those congressmen fell over themselves and passed the measure even if the Department of Finance was against it.

We also have to be careful about good and certifiably genuine news. Sometimes, it doesn’t tell the whole story.

I attended a Citibank briefing for their clients last week and of course, they were bullish about our economy. They have good reasons to be optimistic, but I thought that like other market analysts, they are banking heavily on the announced massive infrastructure push of the Duterte administration.

I thought they could have included a caveat on the ability of the bureaucracy to absorb all that money and roll out projects. This golden age of infrastructure they are talking about is a goal and not a certainty. Government does not have enough technical skills in the bureaucracy to carry out all those projects as planned.

Indeed, I am told that even if they muster the resources of our private sector construction companies, we still will not have all the technical expertise and capacity for such a massive program. There are a lot of qualified Filipinos with the skills needed, but they are mostly working abroad.

I hope I am wrong, for our country’s sake, but I am almost sure based on the track record of DOTr and DPWH, the rollout of infra projects will disappoint. The procurement process, the lack of experienced manpower and the politics of big government budgets will see to it that the Duterte administration will be no different from the Aquino administration in terms of infra rollout.

Even if DOTr gets its emergency power, I doubt its ability to do significantly better than the DOTC of Mar Roxas and Jun Abaya. Institutional paralysis is a tough nut to crack. I am sure it is frustrating Sec. Tugade, a self made successful entrepreneur who is more used to seeing things move at a faster pace.

But there are ways of addressing this technical and managerial gap. If they really want that Clark to NAIA express train and the Tutuban to Matnog South Line to happen during Duterte’s term, these will have be done on a turnkey basis with China or Japan. Let DOTr have no part in the execution of the project after the contract signing and provision of right of way.

We should just tell China and Japan that we are accepting their offer to build those train lines and they have complete control over construction on the condition they deliver the systems as specified within the time frame agreed upon. The next time a Filipino bureaucrat gets into the picture is to accept the key to start operations.

In any case, it is the donor country’s money and it is their procurement law that will be followed. If we agree on the price and the technical specs, we should just let them work with no interference from any Filipino bureaucrat for the duration of the construction period. That’s the only way we can get projects done.

I’m not being a pessimist for no good reason. For guys like us who get to see events unfolding up close, get to meet the people involved in the news, the “real” news that ends up for the public to consume can be worrisome. We quickly see the permutations of where that news story can go and that’s often scary.

At least with “fake” news we know it’s not real. It may fool some gullible folks for a while, but it will be revealed for what it is in time. But real news like the solicitor general lawyering for Napoles… that’s scary because of very real implications for our beleaguered people.

Valentine line

Danny Gozo just told me the best Valentine line he heard last week: “Ang pag ibig ko sa iyo ay parang traffic sa EDSA… walang pagbabago noon pa man hanggang ngayon.” And Jacque Manabat who covers DOTr for ABS-CBN News quickly replied: para akong nasa EDSA. Hirap makapagmove on. Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is bchanco@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @boochanco