Aquino grumbles against media’s negative reporting

FOR the second time in as many foreign trips, President Benigno Aquino III lashed out at the Philippine press, telling Filipinos working in Japan they probably “do not get all the news” because of the Philippine media’s heavy emphasis on negative reporting.

“What happens is that to get the attention of more people, they tend to keep on scratching tiny scrapes,” the President said in a speech to the Filipino community in Yokohama Sunday night.

“It is natural for anybody to lose his drive to work if [the] only stories of our failure are reported.”

But Mr. Aquino assured the Yokohama-based Filipinos that their families in the Philippines were “in good hands.”

“What we want to convey is simple,” he said. “Good things are happening to our country left and right. We are not failing the Filipinos. You are still my boss.”

The President kept up his attacks on the Philippine press Monday afternoon on his return, saying he was expecting more bad news even though he had reported drumming up $5.45 billion in new investment commitments from Japan.

“Here I am today reporting on what we have achieved from our trip to Japan, and I believe tomorrow we will read again more criticisms against us, but that’s okay,” he said.

Of the $5.45 billion in new investment commitments, $2.85 billion were in the pipeline, including $2.6 billion from Marubeni Corp. for the expansion of the Sual, Calaca and Pagbilao power plants; $133 million from Toshiba Corp. to expand its electronics factory; and $122 million from Itochu Corp. to develop 11,000 hectares of sugarcane in Isabela to produce bio-ethanol, Mr. Aquino said.

The remaining $2.6 billion in pledges were in the final stages of negotiation, and those included an unsolicited bid for the Metro Rail Transit Line-7; Light Rail Transit 2’s East and West expansion project; a digital TV system and equipment; and a liquefied natural gas project.

Mr. Aquino shrugged off a recent Pulse Asia survey showing a 9-percent drop in his approval rating and a 5-percent decline in his trust rating. The Aug. 23 hostage fiasco that left eight Chinese tourists dead might have contributed to it, he said.

Pulse Asia’s October survey showed 79 percent of Filipinos still approved of his performance, while 80 percent still trusted him.

In July 2010, although Mr. Aquino had already been proclaimed, the survey respondents were asked to rate his performance during his last three months in the Senate.

“Rated as a senator, President Aquino scored an overall approval rating of 88 percent and an overall trust rating of 85 percent,” Pulse Asia said.

During his official visit to Vietnam in October, the President criticized “a Manila-based newspaper of minor circulation” for quoting a Catholic bishop as saying he might fail to complete his six-year term as a result of his poor management skills and his reliance on unsound legal advice from his trusted lieutenants. -Joyce Pangco Pañares, Manila Standard Today