An Essay by Roberto Reyes Mercado rewritten in 2001 especially for the Philippine Time Magazine (now called Filipino-American MegaScene) of Chicago, Illinois

Editor's Notes: This essay was first issued as a Xeroxed pamphlet by media and community activist Roberto Reyes Mercado on Nov. 13, 1995. Its original title was "Here's the Reason We Launched the War of the Proses (sic) Against (Some) Filipino-American Publishers, Who Seldom Knew What Journalism Is All About. And Why Filipinos Must Share The Blame." Roberto and his friends launched the "War of the Proses" in 1993 and continue to wage it to date in Southern California. Another version of this essay was printed in the May 2001 issue of the Yimby.com online magazine. This essay may make people understand why Roberto became a defendant in a libel case at the Superior Court of Los Angeles, California, and was so happy that the plaintiffs filed the case. For the libel case has afforded Roberto and his supporters a true legal battleground. For what is a war, even a word war, without battles and battlefields? The author wants the good elements of the Filipino-American press in other American cities to join the war and cleanse their respective communities of scalawags and scoundrels masquerading as "journalists" and "publishers."

S ome of my closest friends asked why we launched the War of the Proses? They said that we could have kept the controversy within the confines of the Filipino-American Press Club of Los Angeles (FAPCLA) that we joined in the 1980s. They correctly say that the word war will turn some of the Filipino publishers who are our close friends into bitter enemies. Why then a need to "wash the dirty Philippine linen in public?"

The reason we went public with our criticism of the Filipino-American press? Organizations like the FAPCLA refused to act on our initiatives to introduce reforms for the Filipino-American publications. We did not create overnight this War of the Proses. It was the result of a seven-year itch to reform the Filipino press. We wrote many confidential and open letters to the FAPCLA, Filipino-American writers and Manila-based journalists of national fame like Maximo V. Soliven.

On Aug. 17, 1993, in Los Angeles, we surprised the visiting Mr. Soliven when he met with the Filipino-American press. I passed a one-page open letter that questioned Max Soliven's and the other Manila writers' silence on the sale of Philippine Air Lines' (PAL) stocks. My letter virtually accused Mr. Soliven of aiding (the then) Philippine President Cory Aquino in selling the PAL stocks to a private group headed by four of her nephews. I had to leave the press conference – on the advice of an editor-friend – as my stunt visibly irked Mr. Soliven, then the dean and doyen of Filipino columnists; he was red-faced. Even before the press conference started, Mr. Soliven raised his voice in fending off my criticism. (Since that incident, the writer made peace with Mr. Soliven, who was really a personal friend. The author saw Mr. Soliven during the latter's last trip to Los Angeles, California, a few months before he died in Japan.)

"Tea, Coffey and Me"

S omeday we may publish the letters I have sent to the Philippine press and American media, together with the replies I received. We may dub the series of booklets "Born Against." My literary guru, Fred Burce Bunao, suggested the series' title. Mr. Bunao may edit the series.

One of the volumes in the series will carry the letters that I sent, since 1992, to Shelby Coffey III, the (then) editor and executive vice-president of the Los Angeles Times and his staff. The booklet's title? "Tea, Coffey and Me." Why tea? In one of my letters to Mr. Coffey, I said that the Philippines was obviously not his cup of tea. As you can now note, I do not discriminate. I do not distinguish between the mainstream and the minority press. I criticize whenever I feel the media warrants criticism.

While the War of the Proses was still undeclared in 1994, we sent several letters to the FAPCLA that often surprised its officers. In the letters we demanded reforms, especially the manner in which the press club conducted its affairs with the Franchise Tax Board and the IRS. Did you know that – instead of scheduling a formal hearing of my complaints – the FAPCLA officers and board ousted me as a member? In October 1994 I issued a 10-page, single-spaced platform of government as many FAPCLA members urged me to run for the club's presidency. The club officers disqualified me from becoming a candidate. My supporters and I refused to pay the 1993-1994 membership fees on the ground that the State of California revoked the club's corporate status way back in 1992. The club waived the 1993 fee but insisted on collecting the 1994 membership fee. More than half of the members refused to pay the $20 fee as a matter of principle.

The press club, moribund as it was, proceeded to disenfranchise us and conduct a mock election. Now the FAPCLA does not even hold regular monthly meetings. On the other hand the Media Breakfast Club (MBC) meets at least four times a month. The MBC was the public relations' vehicle and community forum that I organized in June 1993. It is an outreach program for some of the FAPCLA's and the Philippine Press Club of America's members, who find it a credible alternative to their clubs' inactivity and lack of socioeconomic activism.

Reforms Within the System

In short, the War of the Proses' supporters and I tried to introduce reforms within the system. The system, instead of listening to us, opted to disregard our suggested reforms. Here's another example. We launched the campaign in February 1994 to protest the description of the Manhattan Beach Police Officer Martin Ganz's killer as "Asian, possibly Filipino." Both Filipino press clubs did not join nor support the protest. The Asian-American Journalists' Association (AAJA) of Los Angeles refused even to issue a board resolution in support of our protest against a major network. The AAJA directors termed it "a political matter."

Only the Black Journalists' Association (BJA) of Los Angeles chose to support us. Its president at that time, George White, a business writer of the Los Angeles Times, attended a couple of our MBC meetings called to plan the protest. Eventually, we won. The network deleted the racially-offensive term in the nation-wide broadcast of its program. We were lucky that we caught the program just as the NBC aired it in Southern California only.

How the NBC Won the Filipinos' Respect

S omeday during the anniversary of the protest, we will not only give awards of commendation to Mr. White and the BJA but also to NBC-TV Channel 4. It was the station that became the center of the protest. The NBC will get an award for responsible journalism. Its executives demonstrated fairness by calling the Manhattan Beach Police. They asked if it had any proof that the suspect was indeed "Asian, possibly Filipino." When the police department said that it did not have the evidence to support the suspect's racial description, the NBC, on its own initiative, deleted the offensive phrase in the subsequent broadcasts of its "Prime Suspect" show.

There were other instances when we urged Filipino-American journalists to exercise responsible journalism. In January 1994 we passed on to fellow writers clippings of Charley Reese's column. Mr. Reese is a nationally-syndicated columnist and author.

In September 1995 I reproduced in my essay excerpts from Mr. Reese's column that appeared in the Jan. 24, 1994, issue of the San Gabriel Valley Tribune. We called the essay "Why Filipino-American Publications Are Irrelevant to the Community." That composition ignited the War of the Proses.

Changing the Filipino's Character

The War of the Proses' bottom line is to start the process of changing the Filipino's character. I mentioned this in the open letter that I distributed during the second national media conference in North America in November 1994, as organized by (now defunct) Federation of Filipino-American Media Organizations (FFAMAS). The changing of the Filipino's character and traits must start with the transformation of the Filipino writers' and journalists' integrity, disposition, style and attributes.

As Charlie Reese said in his column: "Criticism of the press matters because the press matters. The whole of self-government rests on the premise that if the people are properly informed, they will in the long run make the right decisions . . . They are forced to rely on the press for an accounting of their government, of ideas of public interest and of events that have a bearing on their lives . . . Political reform without an honest press doing its job is virtually impossible . . ."

We maintain that the Filipino, and the Filipino-American press, can use a lot of doses of honesty, candor, independence and idealism. Filipino writers and journalists must put to a stop the infamous "envelopmental-" and "scissors-" (now called “copy-and-paste”) types of journalism. As we say again, these forms of journalism are not only illegal but also immoral. Yes, writers and journalists need to receive decent wages from publishers; they must not, however, receive "pay envelopes" from politicians and those who represent vested interests.

"The Cynicism Complaint"

One of my readers passed on a clipping from the Newsweek magazine's Sept. 12, 1994, issue. It was a column called "The Last Word" that Ms. Meg Greenfield wrote. This reader said that maybe we Filipino literary activists in America were actually doing what Ms. Greenfield described. She wrote: "To some extent, of course, such cynicism comes from our intellectual tradition and is in our very political bloodstream. Is anyone more cynical about public life in 1994 than Mark Twain was in his time, or Will Rogers in his? They were but two among the countless other writers, wise guys, pamphleteers and sourpusses whose irreverence, vituperation and unappeasable suspicion have been a saving glory of the republic since its founding."

We thanked the reader, especially when he compared Poet Fred Burce Bunao to Mark Twain. He also called me the Filipino version of Will Rogers. We said that we were happy just being called the Filipino Don Quixotes. I said that probably Mr. Bunao might like the moniker, the Filipino Mark Twain, as both of them belonged to the same generation (sic) of writers. (Yes, Mr. Bunao is that old.)

The reader's point was that Filipino writers and pamphleteers should have the quality of "irreverence, vituperation and unappeasable suspicion." The Filipino writer or journalist must be disrespectful of the Establishment's vested interests – although he or she can be polite in his or her language or writings. The writer must have the attribute of a leader who can denounce, condemn, chastise, censure and castigate those who want to take advantage of, or abuse, the public. The Filipino writer must be unbending and relentless in the pursuit of skepticism and cynicism – in his or her professional mission to find out and write the truth.

Ms. Greenfield ends "The Cynicism Complaint" article by saying: "For such cynicism – never mind how much we in the press may stir it up and make it worse – is essentially a function of cumulative experience. So is trust."

The Public Must Share The Blame

Ms. Meg Greenfield also wrote: "And, if anyone among the public cares to look briefly into the mirror, there is the self-evident but generally suppressed hypocrisy of droves of citizens who demand at the same time that government up their benefits and lower their taxes and just stop spending so darn much money and balance the budget – and who, on the basis of this essentially mindless, phony and self-serving argument, gather together to throw decent public servants out of office all the time."

The Filipino public and the Filipino-American community must share the blame for the gutter-like level of their Fourth Estate. With notable exceptions, the Filipino-American press, for instance, prints numerous publications that, borrowing the words of Ms. Greenfield, one can describe too as "mindless, phony and self-serving" periodicals. There are many Filipino-American magazines and tabloids. And, yes, many broadsheet newspapers that some Filipinos pronounce the "sheet" with a short "I."

Why should the Filipino-American readers share the blame? Many individuals in the Filipino-American community do not want to shell out good money for subscriptions. They like to pick-up at Filipino stores Filipino-American publications that come free. We have been saying that quality costs money, especially in America. For the nth time, we say that Filipino Americans must pay for worthy publications. They must start buying deserving books, newspapers and magazines that Filipino and other-minority authors write or publish. Unless they start putting their wallets in their mouths, people can whine and complain about the poor standard of their community periodicals but nothing will change. Good writers and trained editors have to eat, too. Writers will never receive the right compensation if the community wants to read only freebies.

BUNAO'S WISDOM AND WIT

P oet-pundit Fred Bunao (now deceased) was one of the best copy editors of Don Chino Roces' Manila Times' group of publications. He noticed that many of the Filipino-American publications call themselves also as the "Manila Times." They just add to it a prefix or another word like "California-" to "Manila." Fred Bunao irreverently suggests that all Filipino-American publications carry the name "SomeTimes."

Mr. Bunao says that by adopting "Some-Times," Filipino-American publishers can now honestly describe the true status of their businesses, if one can call them an enterprise. For Mr. Bunao says that most Filipino newspapers sometimes pay their writers, sometimes they don't pay them. Sometimes they forget to include the bylines of pirated articles and news reports; sometimes they print the bylines. Sometimes the publications come out; sometimes they discontinue the publication without informing the readers. # # #