The Vhong Navarro incident last month has sparked another round of the media war between the television networks ABS-CBN and GMA 7. The incident following Navarro's condo visit on Deniece Cornejo was first reported by GMA 7. It took some time for ABS-CBN to officially make a report on the incident. Navarro is a co-host of ABS-CBN's noontime show “Showtime”. It appears that in the ensuing reports, GMA 7 tried to pin Navarro down by advancing on the reported “rape” case filed by Cornejo against Vhong and capitalized on the testimony of Cedric Lee who allegedly “neutralized” Navarro who was allegedly “caught in the act” literally with his pants down by the former.

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ABS-CBN reported on the serious illegal detention of Navarro by Lee and his company. It already appeared that Navarro was set up in the condo unit of Cornejo. To us as an ordinary viewer, the media war erupted on the release of the CCTV footages involving the condo incident. ABS-CBN started to be offensive with the release of the footages while GMA 7 reported on another angle of the footage. Then GMA 7 retaliated by reporting on another rape case filed by Roxanne Acosta of Cebu who was allegedly raped by Navarro last April 24, 2010. ABS-CBN fought back with the testimony of Vice Ganda, Navarro's co-host in showtime that Navarro was with him in an out-of-town concert.

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Once again, there is now demarcation line between the television networks on the Vhong Navarro incident. Apparently, ABS-CBN has to protect the interest of its talent, Navarro, while GMA 7 reported on the credibility of Cornejo and Lee. The case on serious illegal detention is now under preliminary investigation but it was sought to be stopped by Cornejo and Lee through a temporary restraining order (TRO) which was denied. Now, ABS-CBN has reported another incident of a suicide try of a child of Jose Manalo, part of GMA 7's noontime show “Eat Bulaga” for alleged family neglect. The media war between the television networks ABS-CBN and GMA 7 will continue to be on and on and on.

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In the local level, there is also a recurring media war between stations DYRD and DYTR. In the past, there was a media war between the radio stations in the early 80's. At that time, the local chapter of the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster sa Pilipinas (KBP) was not that active and so do with the Philippine Press Institute (PPI) where the local journalists seemed to keep a distance. With the activation of the KBP and PPI, we helped to iron out the differences of local media practitioners by framing the constitution and by laws of the Bohol Tri-Media Association (BTMA), a group of local media practitioners in the radio, the local cable TV and the newspapers. The BTMA establishment sent some cooler heads in the beginning except for some media bad eggs who tried to muddle it. We even have our media events and sponsors started to come in.

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Years after we started the BTMA, the ugly heads of politics started to rear. Local media practitioners became part of the payroll of politicians. Capitol and the city hall have its payrolls officially and unofficially. Politicians and their minions even resorted to unofficial payrolls where local media men is identified with a politician but is not listed in the official payroll, either with an item in the government, consultant or a casual. The cheap labor in the media seemed to drive media practitioners into the payroll system, which is to best interest of the politicians. In our time as full time media practitioner, we can only make extra money through commissions in the advertisement for the radio and the newspaper that we solicit. We made big time commissions especially during elections. (To be continued)

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POSTSCRIPT: Here's our belated birthday greetings to BGlante who marked his natal day yesterday at this paper's office. We only learned of BGlante's birthday when we called up Frony in the Sunday Post office shortly after lunch time yesterday to inquire why our column was not printed on line. An avid reader abroad sent an e-mail why our corner was not among the columns in this paper's online edition. We heard that wines floated yesterday but we declined the invitation as we did not know who were the media men present….There's more when we return.