I just feel upset with how people reacted to the Probe
team feature. I'm not
much of a writer so I may not really be able to use the
right words to relay
how strongly i feel against these people who complained
about the feature!
I agree that this type of feature shouldn't be shown
outside Phippines, it
would dissuade foreign investments. What I'm so outraged about is the
reaction of the Pinoys, how apathetic and heartless to be
complaining about
something so trivial.
Why are we so concerned with our image to foreigners when
the real issue
here is the pityful plight of the Filipinos back home
towards a good life???
It's so alarming
how the filipinos just zoomed in on the effect of the
feature to the Filipino image, not even bothering to feel
and understand the
real issue of Filipinos.
This kind of reaction has just proven that we,
Filipinos don't see ourselves as one nation but as people
living in one
country. For these
OCWs, now that they've achieved a good life, they don't
seem to be concerned anymore with their fellow pinoys
who're left in the
Phils. I mean,
PROBE is talking about child abuse, prostitution, and all
they can come up with is pinoy image!
And it also came as such a surprise that this type of
reaction has "earned"
itself a place in the Inquirer headline!
I'm not really usually this patriotic, but I just got so
affected by this,
how worse we really are... I hope that with my amateurish effort to
write
this awareness essay, i was able to get others to be
conscious of what is
going on, to be sympathetic. At least that's a first step....
ARTICLE:
actual article
(28 sept 2000):
FILIPINO
organizations in Singapore believe that segments of "The
Probe
Team" featuring "negative" stories on the Philippines should not
be shown
abroad, specifically in that city-state, because they give a
bad impression
of the motherland.
The Filipino
expatriates are upset over the TV program, "Gateway Asia:
The Probe
Team," which is shown on prime time every Monday on Channel
News Asia,
with replays on Monday night and Tuesday afternoon.
The 30-minute
program runs two to three "Probe Team" segments, and the
Filipinos in
Singapore resent the fact that these feature mostly
problems on
child labor, prostitution, and poverty.
The program
has resulted in a "lopsided presentation of the
Philippines: a
country of problems, problems, and more problems," they
said in a
letter to the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas.
Signatories to
the letter include the Filipino Overseas Workers of
Singapore,
Filipino Association of Singapore, Filipino Catholic
Community of
Singapore, and Overseas Filipinos and Friends Work for
Unity and
Dignity.
"The
Probe Team" is a long-running independently produced news
magazine
program that is shown on GMA-7. It has received a number of
local and
international awards.
GMA-7, through
its arm GMA Worldwide, sells "Probe Team" episodes to
Channel News
Asia, which decides on what segments it will air in
Singapore.
Among the
"negative" segments cited by the Filipinos were those
featuring
children who earn a living by selling sampaguita garlands,
pushing
trolleys on railway tracks, picking up discarded fish in
Navotas, and
working in sugarcane fields in Negros.
There were
also segments on fraternity hazing, the impact of the San
Roque Dam on
tribal Filipinos living in the area, pedophilia, the
alleged
irregular disbursement of sweepstakes funds, and the Irisan
dump in
Baguio.
E-mails
The protesting
Filipinos have bombarded "The Probe Team" with e-mail,
blaming it for
the content of the Singapore TV program. They said
there was no
point in showing these negative features abroad.
Among their
comments were:
* "Don't
wash dirty linen in public."
* "Our
problems should be for Philippine consumption only."
* "We
must keep our self-respect and pride."
* "What
image does the 'Probe Team' want to project to foreigners?"
They also said
these episodes only added to the "humiliation" they
were suffering
abroad. They cited the case of a 5-year-old daughter of
a Filipino
expatriate who, after viewing "Gateway Asia: The Probe
Team,"
refused to call herself a Filipina and declared that she did
not want to
visit the Philippines because it was "dirty, dark, and not
safe."
One e-mail
said that while "The Probe Team" should be encouraged to
raise the
awareness of Filipinos on issues at home, this should be
"for Philippine
consumption only."
Another said
the negative impact of the program would further
encourage
Singaporean employers to abuse their Filipino employees.
There are
about 120,000 registered Filipino workers in Singapore. Of
these, about
80,000 are domestics.
No offense
meant
"The
Probe Team" executive producer Nessa Valdellon said the program
never intended
to offend Filipinos overseas in any way.
She said its
episodes, mostly investigative pieces, were intended to
inform
Filipinos at home about the problems facing the country, and
were not
really targeted at Filipinos living abroad.
"The
episodes just reflect what is going on in the country, and it so
happens that there is poverty, there is war,
there is child labor
here,"
she said.
Valdellon said
the reaction of the Filipinos in Singapore were a
surprise to
"The Probe Team" because it had always claimed the
responsibility
of exposing corruption in the government and problems
relating to
poverty, child labor and other issues.
She said
Filipinos in the United States had been persistently
requesting the
showing of episodes there because "they want so much to
know what's
happening here in the Philippines."
"The
Probe Team" does not have control over what episodes will be
shown in
Singapore because the contract is between Channel News Asia
and GMA
Worldwide.
The program
occasionally features a "good news" segment in some of its
local
episodes, but Channel News Asia has not shown this.
What the
Filipinos in Singapore want is for "The Probe Team" and GMA-7
to retain
editorial rights over their programs sold abroad. They want
negative
stories balanced with positive ones, like features on
successful
overseas Filipino workers and tourist places like Subic and
Cebu.
They cited
other "Gateway Asia" programs featuring India, Hong Kong,
Japan and
Korea, which, they noted, contained both positive and
negative
stories.
Plugs
Darlene
Dimaano, GMA Worldwide assistant vice president for
distribution,
said it had also received negative feedback from the
Filipinos in
Singapore.
She said this
actually stemmed from the plugs that Channel News Asia
showed for
"Gateway Asia: The Probe Team," featuring two Filipino
women, one an
alcoholic who wanted to commit suicide, and another
whose sons had
turned to prostitution.
Dimaano said
GMA Worldwide had taken note of the comments and relayed
these to
Channel News Asia. The Singapore TV station was urged not to
run the plugs
because these were too negative.
In
mid-October, GMA Worldwide will coordinate with the program staff
in Manila to
recommend features for broadcast in Singapore for the new
season.
"We don't
want to put the Philippines in a bad light, so were now
taking steps
to strike a balance of the negative and the positive,"
Dimaano said.
But the program
will continue to produce investigative pieces on
"negative" issues.
"You
cannot try to sanitize things," Valdellon said. "I think
Filipinos
everywhere should know what's happening in their country."
