i Report Issue No. 3 2005 - Philippine Center for Investigative ...

T H E V I C E P R E S I D E N T
WHO
D BE
HEADED FOR
MALACAÑANG? Noli de
Castro has come a long
way from his beginnings
as an unknown radio
broadcaster.
T
that’s a value Filipinos cherish
as well. He could have easily
grabbed the opportunity to become
president, I suppose, but
he’s not like that.”
ICON FOR THE MASSES
What exactly is he like then?
To the public, Noli de Castro is
the Joseph Estrada of the 1990s,
an icon for the masses of his
generation. People know his TV
image too well—the guy who
appeared on nationwide television
night after night for close to
20 years, the news anchor who
practically held the patent to the
phrase “Magandang Gabi, Bayan
(Good evening, Philippines).”
The nation also knows him as
the candidate who topped the
2001 senatorial race and won 15
million votes in the vice-presidential
contest in 2004.
But de Castro has something
Joseph Estrada didn’t
have: a college degree. And he
has something Gloria Arroyo
doesn’t: a feel for the public
pulse borne of years as a broadcaster.
His friends and supporters
insist these and other traits,
plus knowledge of the basics,
more than make up for de Castro’s
inexperience and lack of
political savvy.
“He listens attentively….He
knows how to ask questions,”
says Recto. “Sometimes I listen to
him during his Saturday programs.
He makes sense naman.”
Former social welfare secretary
Dinky Soliman says practically
the same thing. “Noli asks
if he doesn’t know what’s going
on. He doesn’t pretend that he
knows things,” she says of de
Castro, her seatmate during
cabinet meetings.
Having a vice president
who might be clueless about a
lot of things isn’t a particularly
comforting thought; elevate that
person to the presidency and
chances are there will be a lot
of handholding going on. But
presidents were never meant to
have all the answers, de Castro’s
supporters say. That’s where his
friends and advisers come in. In
the event of a de Castro presidency,
what the people will get
is Team Noli.
“No single person is the
answer to all our problems” is
Recto’s reply to those who expect
de Castro to be the nation’s
savior. “It’s always a team,” the
senator insists. “That’s why you
have political parties….There is
no messiah. Noli’s not a messiah
definitely.”
“PLUS-PLUS” AND
MINUSES
If Noli de Castro becomes president,
Soliman says, Filipinos will
be getting a package deal: de
Castro, plus the support of at
least four major political blocs,
plus immediate economic and
political reform. She calls it the
“Noli-Plus-Plus” scenario. “The
challenge is convincing people
that the Noli-Plus-Plus scenario is
a better deal than we have now,”
says Soliman who was one of the
cabinet members who quit last
July. In this scenario, pushed by
some NGOs, Noli would be a
transition president who would
preside over a process of charter
change and pave the way for new
elections and a new government.
He would also govern with a
council of advisers drawn from a
cross-section of political groups.
It’s going to take a lot of
convincing. Right now, what
people are thinking when they
see de Castro is not the possibility
of a top-notch team working
for the good of the country.
Instead, what most likely comes
to mind is a pack of friends waiting
for their turn to ravage it. In
classic Erap lingo, it’s “weatherweather”
all over again.
The danger really is that there
are far too many people who
see de Castro as a blank slate on
which they can write whatever
they want. Actually, perhaps the
better metaphor for a former “talking
head” is a puppet that moves
only according to the pulls of the
puppeteer – or in this case, puppeteers.
Harsh as that may sound,
it is nevertheless apt for a person
who has yet to be portrayed as
making a decision on his own, or
at least against the interests of his
supposed handlers.
Former University of the
Philippines president Francisco
Nemenzo, convenor of the
democratic-left alliance Laban
ng Masa, summarizes the apprehensions
over a Noli presidency:
“De Castro’s track record
as an envelopmental journalist
and short stint as senator with
no real credentials or evidence
FAMILIAR FACE. De Castro, shown with coanchor
Korina Sanchez in the early 1990s,
read the primetime news for nearly 20 years.
of competence has shown him
to be simply an all too willing
pawn of elite interests, especially
the Lopez oligarchy.”
The Lopezes, of course, own
the giant media organization
ABS-CBN, de Castro’s former
employer. Rumors of de Castro’s
so-called envelopmental journalism,
or his “attack-and-collect,
defend-and-collect” (ACDC)
style of reporting have hounded
him and ABS-CBN for years. In
the 2004 elections, reports surfaced
that he took money from
subjects of his investigative reports
who wanted certain stories
quelled. The payoffs were reportedly
in cash or in kind.
De Castro has denied them
all, but the rumors persist. Charges
like these, though, are difficult
to prove. To some, it may have
been simple just to point to de
Castro’s P51.3 million net worth
declared in his 2004 Statement of
Assets and Liabilities that included
choice real-estate holdings.
Or cite as evidence the fact that
in the 2004 polls, he declared to
the Commission on Elections that
he put in P59.3 million of his and
his family’s own money into the
campaign. But then it shouldn’t
be a surprise that de Castro has
that much wealth. He worked for
one of the country’s most generous
employers for decades, after
all, and he was even ABS-CBN’s
highest-paid news anchor for
several years. He held the title
vice president for news for quite
sometime, too, and owns, along
with his wife Arlene Sinsuat, the
production outfit that produces
the weekly investigative program
“Magandang Gabi, Bayan.”
THE LOPEZ FACTOR
But perhaps more than the reports
of unethical journalistic
practices, it is De Castro’s Lopez
connection that is the public’s
unspoken fear. Long a fixture
in Philippine politics and business,
the Lopezes preside over
an interlocking web of business
interests that range from power
generation to power distribution,
telecommunications to water concessions,
infrastructure, to broadcasting
and publishing. Because
PHILIPPINE CENTER FOR INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM
I REPORT
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