To avoid misquoting the President-elect Duterte and end up distorting the facts, a Mindanao-based journalist offers her unsolicited advice to fellow journalist in a viral post.
Credits to www.mb.com.ph
In a Facebook post shared 190 times as of Thursday evening, veteran journalist Edith Ging Z. Caduaya published an article containing important survival tips for fellow journalists who will be assigned to cover the incoming President.
In the post, Ms. Caduaya felt nostalgic and recalled what the newspaper editor told her when she was tasked to cover President-elect Duterte 20 years ago.
Study Duterte’s mouth and his body language for you to understand him better.
Please read the full text of her post below for your indulgence:
Understanding Duterte’s mouth
President-elect Mayor Rody Duterte is now the subject of the media after he issued a statement about some members of the Philippine Press.
I used to cover Duterte as my news source for more than two decades now.
Covering his press conferences and his day to day activities as mayor of Davao was more of a challenge than just a coverage.First, Duterte talks the way he thinks on the issue and you cannot stop him from explaining when he wants to emphasize certain points.
Davao media is aware that Duterte sometimes use a particular case to contextualize what he means to emphasize his point.
“Interviewing Duterte sometimes mean, you need to do a research because he often give you a figure of speech and if you do not know the issue you will end up misquoting him,” says one of my mentors when I was about to join the mainstream media in 1992.
The editor who fielded me to the daily newspaper specifically pointed out “study Duterte’s mouth and his body language for you to understand him better.”
True enough, for how many years covering the Duterte mayorship, I heard in many instances, Duterte ended up asking the media “is this what you mean? please repeat your question, I didn’t get it”.
During interviews, Duterte provides every answer to your question.
But IF YOU TAKE HIS WORDS HOOK LINE and SINKER AND WITHOUT CONTEXTUALIZING IT, YOU WILL END UP MISQUOTING HIM AND YOUR INTERPRETATION OF FACTS WILL BE DISTORTED.
His recent statement about the media killing was A TYPICAL situation, he was asked “what is your policy on media killing?’
I guess Duterte answered on the premise that a broadcaster was killed in Metro manila and he went on with his usual explanation about how the media work and how some members of the media who are on the take works.
But he emphasized, “There are so many good members of the media.”Now, the question and the answer was not contextualized–the result?? oh well, SOME MEDIA GROUPS URGED JOURNALIST TO BOYCOTT the Duterte press conference.
But, during the last three weeks, Duterte only held three announced press conferences– In many occasions, it was the media who spied and held ambush/tipped interviews.
Now, who gets what?
What are your thoughts on this?
SOURCE: Edith Ging Z. Caduaya
Cebuanos are culturally different from Tagalogs and journalists from Manila should understand this. For us Bisaya, a catcall from the man to a female friend is never pambabastos. Instead, it is a form of praise or complement as if to say, you are beautiful and sexy. Cebuanas who get this “witwew” from their male friends would just smile because they know na “nagwapahan lang” and then dismiss this expression. The President considers the female journalist as a friend and as a matter of fact, she was given the attention among others. President Digong should be understood this way because culturally this is appropriate.
You explained it well! Thank you
Tinuod good! Hwag lang sana bigyan ng masamang kahulugan.Mabuting nilalang ng Dios ang President Duterte.
Ay so true..it never was meant as pambabastos…which irked me why label that as sexual harrassment? I’m 55yo. And i had my share of being cat-called, which was for me like “oh wow!”
Very well said…I am a cebuana so I understand mayor Duterte…can i share this po?
yes and it is a compliment for us ladies to be whistled…especially if the one who whistled is an honorable man…
Good comment Ed, but you forgot to mention that “catcall” is one of the Davao city ordinance that implies harrassment to women that the mayor wants to stop. Therefore it is not “nagwapahan lang” and should not be implied as appropriate because the mayor specifically prohibits “catcall” to women in Davao, which is one of the city ordinances he created.
Yes If you don’t know President Duterte you will misquote him because he always set an example or story telling so that you could understand what he mean…
Hahahahaha
President Rody is not a hungry person for publicity…he is not interested for publicity…its the media who are interested in him….a very strong personality..that the rallen Philippines need to rise up again…he is not committed to anyone but the filipino who help him…
No its very clear what he said the manila media is just purposely exaggerating what he said cmon is there any pro – duterte news during election named it abs gma rappler all this media are payed
So duterte mean it i dont care if this corrupt media be assassinated. Talaga naman abusado mga taga media
Magbalita lang kau wagkau bias and wagkau kumapit sa mga pulitiko dahil jan kau mamamatay pagnagalit sa inyo kalabang pulitiko!
Never mind the media boycott call, these media persons wouldn’t have anything to report without Du30’s rhetorics and badmouthing the illegals here in this country. Media sensationalizes reports or news for people to read or listen. If there is no Du30, no money for these media companies, because Du30 is the IN thing for the next 6 years, whether media likes it or don’t.
The media must level up their way of questioning to mayor duterte, bakit? Walang logic ang mga tanong sa karamihan. Duterte is a lawyer, his answer is logical and depend the first premise.
I agree with u.ung alam mo na ang isasagot, itatanong pa rin.
Totoong tao yan di siya kulang sa pansin sincere siya he is an action person ayaw nyang maarte strsightforward simply because he is honest to his feelings and he knew ver well his frailty why i know he is an authentic born leader aries am too.
Mayor is as simple as he is… I agree, media must learn his language before qouting him. Your knowledge cannot understand his wisdom.
Its not Tatay Digong’s loss afterall. Its the media’s loss. No news…..no job…..no money…. ….sinong kawawa ngayon?
Look at the monster 16.6M Pilipino has created! God Please save my mother land!
If a supposef monster was created it was not by the people who voted for him, but by the hypocrical oligarchs who for decades feasted on the weakness of the poor.
Manila-based media workers need to shake off their biases against the personality and leadership style of President-elect Duterte before they can appreciate his stance on issues they seek for comments. Ms. Edith Caduaya is right when she said that members of the media will only end misquoting Duterte if they do not have ample background information on issues they seek for comments.
Being a Dabawenyo myself who had a chance to work in one of the programs of the city, we are already familiar with President-elect Duterte’s personality that we can easily understand what he meant in his utterances and statements, which most of the times are not given in full context. Among his common way of elaborating a point is to relate it, or share a past event to demonstrate how things will happen if presented again in the same context.
When pressed for comments on media killings, the President-elect simply meant that the corrupt members of the media will end up assassinated by people they are victimizing. But, sensationalist Manila-based media workers made it appear that Duterte was insinuating that journalists who were assassinated were bad media workers. While citing that there are many honest media workers who protect the integrity of their profession, Duterte also highlighted that many of them are also practicing “envelopmental” journalism.
A case that Duterte shared to elaborate his point was about the assassination of Davao broadcaster Jun Porras Pala in early 2000. Dabawenyos knew Pala as the ever-recalcitrant radio broadcaster spewing anti-communist tirades daily on primetime at the height of the Alsa Masa campaign in the 80s. Everybody knew that he was being used as mouthpiece of the military. But, when Davao became peaceful with Mayor Duterte at the helm, Pala directed his tirades on anyone in his fancy. Rabidly attacking people on air, making endless accusations without reliable basis. Many people believed that Pala needed to raise funds to sustain his lifestyle. He was then known to be hooked on gambling with the local casino.
His case was mentioned by the President-elect during the media conference, as example why some journalists are being killed because of corruption in the media. Manila-based media workers indeed have to know the full context of Duterte’s statements and comments to understand his points.
One must have a keen sense of analysis to understand the messages of pres elect Duterte….He often times uses FIGURES OF SPEECH…MORE OF IRONY in which he is misunderstood by the masses who do not know these figures of speech…
Cultural differences. Tagalogs differ culturally from the Visayans. You cannot tell the Romans to act like Jews in their own backyard.
Ako di ko pa nakita personally si Mayor Duterte pero ako ay naniniwala at nakaunawa sa kanyang ugali. Siya ay palabiro talaga at kahit sino pwede niya makakausap dahil di siya plastik na tao. Ako ay nakakilala na sa kanya buhat ng tumakbo na siya sa pagka presidente.
Most but not all journalist in the Philippines seem to have downgraded their skills of comprehension and interpretation.
He is a good mam, hindi plastic . Hindi nya kailangan ang media na makakadagdag pa at hindi makakagaan ng trabaho nya bilang mayor/president natin
very clearly he said: “I am just giving you the terrain”
Better no media to cover only Facebook users…for when there are bad critics BLOCKED THEM!
I may not be a reporter but i understand Digong’s words…. A reader should know who is the writer for him to understand his materials; in the same manner, Reporters must know DUTERTE not as a president or mayor but as an individual for them to understand the real Duterte. Sorry for the reporters, the issue on journalist killings is very distorted, this is what maybe called as “demonizing” the facts.
Kasi po its the first time in the philippine history na bisaya ang PRESIDENT.ANd also becoz mga desente raw sila..nkakapag init lang ng ulo sila.dba sila nag aral ng psychology?from what school are you from..
I understood Pres. Duterte’s way of speech after I watched most of his campaign videos. He is intelligent, honest, frank, informative yet humorous and charismatic. When he speaks, you’ve drawn from every word from his mouth. You should listen to him intently to understand the main context of his speech. He loves true to life story telling to explain his point. For us ordinary citizens we understood his point all the time. But wondering why the reporters and journalists often misunderstood him. Are they deliverately doing this to brainwash the people or they are simply **** do you what I mean?