I HAPPENED to be tuned in to ?Tambalang Failon at Sanchez? the morning of April 15, where Ted Failon, then doing a solo turn, took note of how, in Quezon City, ?not one, not two, not three, but four? cases of carjacking had taken place not just ?over four days, three days, or two days? but overnight!
I had a good laugh, especially as Failon proceeded to skewer the newly-appointed OIC of the Central Police District who was hard put to explain this boomlet in crime. Then, as most everyone knows by now, Failon cut short his program to rush home and there, as he says, found his wife with a bullet wound in the head.
In the hours since that traumatic incident, the Failon (Etong) and Arteche families, along with the rest of the nation, have gone through the wringer. Failon, his daughters, his wife?s siblings and even household staff have gone through it in reality. The Filipino people ? or at least the segment that has followed their ordeal closely ? have lived it vicariously, most probably telling themselves: There but for the grace of God?
Some of us might also be saying: If the police could do that to a nationally-known broadcaster and TV news anchor of Failon?s stature, then they must treat humbler citizens, whose every move does not enjoy media scrutiny, much more harshly and cruelly. For how else could you describe trying to drag a man away from the deathbed of his wife? Or taking siblings from their sister?s bedside such that they would miss her final moments?
The Quezon City police might argue that by their actions they were merely trying to prove that ?no one is above the law? and that their treatment of Failon and his relatives and household staff was just standard procedure. But if this was standard procedure, done to a public figure under the glare of TV cameras, can you imagine what standard procedure must be like away from the klieg lights for non-celebrities?
I also can?t help but remember the skewering the QC police got at the hands of Failon that morning, and many other mornings when he and his radio partner Korina Sanchez got on the case not just of the police but of the national leadership. Plausible indeed is the speculation that the harshness of the police action is motivated in part by a desire to get back at a stubborn critic.
Failon, in an interview, had admitted that he now realized that after being rewarded with fame and fortune in his career as a broadcaster, he is now paying the price for his celebrity status ? his every action and utterance scrutinized, recorded and interpreted; his home invaded; his privacy shattered. But we must also say that even celebrities have rights, and one?s celebrity gives no one, especially law enforcers, the right to forget or ignore that one is also a citizen and human being.
* * *
Radio Veritas Asia (RVA), once called by Pope John Paul II as the ?Missionary of Asia,? celebrates 40 years of existence this year, with the theme ?Crossing Borders, Sharing Christ.?
Founded at a time when communism was a major concern for Asian bishops, and when Catholics in communist-controlled countries had very little sources of independent and reliable information as well as of Catholic formation, Radio Veritas became a beacon of hope and faith for the ?persecuted Church? of the region.
To be sure, its beginnings were far from idyllic. Although envisioned by the Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences as a radio service reaching out to all peoples of Asia, for the first decade or so, its management, content and even reach were decidedly Filipino. But the objections of other Asian bishops and staff, as well as foreign funders (mainly German), went unheeded until Jaime Cardinal Sin, the new archbishop of Manila, saw the light and agreed to the separation of the local Radio Veritas from Radio Veritas Asia.
Today, while it continues its short-wave broadcasts in numerous languages and reaches the faithful (and even non-Catholics) in countries like Vietnam, Burma (Myanmar), India, China, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and others, Radio Veritas faces new challenges. Fr. Roberto ?Bobby? Ebisa, SVD, RVA general manager, notes that ?the communication panorama [has] changed drastically without warning,? posing the question: ?What do we do in the midst of these tremendous changes in communication technology??
For Father Bobby, the answer lay in ?carefully and bravely [embracing the new media] as a new channel for the very core of its mission that brought about its existence. And in the process, RVA uncovered a silhouette of a blessing, not a curse.?
Of course, wading into digitalization and decentralization of operations (programs will be produced in their countries of destination and sent to the Quezon City studios by Internet) will bring with it a new set of complications. But with a new generation of computer-savvy listeners tuning in through webcasts added to its core audience of short-wave listeners, Radio Veritas Asia can continue to claim its place and relevance in an ever-changing Asian communications landscape.
* * *
Bob Fitts, described as an ?internationally renowned worship leader,? presents ?Restore the Heart of Worship,? a gospel concert, this Friday, April 24 at 7 p.m. at the Megatent, Meralco Avenue, Pasig (beside the Renaissance Center).
Part of the proceeds from the concert will help complete the Jubilee Homes for the Poor.
Ticket prices start at P300, P500 and P1,000. For more tickets and information, call Ticketnet (911-5555), Praise Inc. (920-5291 loc. 139), Serviam Catholic Charismatic Community Foundation Inc. (722-2909), Merk Media Inc. (892-0160) and Barbara?s (522-9547).
