Although the main news (May 10 elections still a go. Arroyo accepts poll lawyer resignation) has little space provided for the comments of the various candidates, I find it generally neutral or slightly positive at most for those mentioned candidates.
Meanwhile, the main editorial (Editorial: Calling Comelec: Go manual) of the paper is also headlined in the front page. The Editorial mainly says that it trusts that the recent failures in the COMELEC are caused by incompetence rather than intentional plans to delay the elections. At last, the paper has gotten real. In fact, it should have been the focus of all noises concerning the upcoming elections. People should have been wary of incompetence rather than a supposed grand scheme by the COMELEC to cheat (as what many quarters are trying to lead us to believe which idea is given way too much space by the Inquirer). We should have been looking at how to protect the process from incompetence rather than bark maliciously at everything that COMELEC does. The former makes sure the elections are clean and that it pushes through. The latter is mere politicking.
Another news had Chairman Melo losing sleep (Sleepless, scowling Melo asks for trust). Again, said news seems neutral.
There is still news in the front page on the same topic (Smartmatic under fire for chaotic bugs) which gave former President Estrada ample space for his opinion. The same news however repeated the news yesterday about Maceda saying Estrada is the possible last hope for the administration:
Ernesto Maceda, Estrada’s campaign manager, has said Malacañang may yet place its bets on Estrada and support the former president because its supposedly secret candidate, Villar, was falling in the surveys.
I am not sure what is Maceda's purpose for this statement. Whatever it is, it diminishes Teodoro while at the same time solidifies support for Aquino.
Still, there is another news (Worried Arroyo tackles ‘no-el’ plan at Palace meeting) concerning the problems with COMELEC's PCOS machines, this time centered on the cabinet meeting called by the President, which as it turn out gives both positive and negative treatment to the Chief Executive.
The news about Agra (Agra backs off, includes 2 Ampatuans in raps) is again surprisingly neutral.
The only two reports today that are political are the INC endorsement of Aquino and Roxas (INC endorses Aquino, Roxas based on its members’ survey) and the feature on Sen. Villar (MANUEL B. VILLAR: It’s not impossible to end poverty). Of course the INC endorsement goes very positive for the LP camp. The feature on Villar however is both negative, about 30% of the article and positive for the last 70% of the same.
In the end, let me call this issue of the Inquirer as positive to Villar, positive to Aquino and slightly positive to Estrada.. There is little or no mention of the other candidates in today's issue.
For the first time in our monitor, let me say Villar is given today the most positive treatment among the candidates.
So the score goes:
Aquino: 12
Estrada: 2
Villanueva: 1
Teodoro: 1
Madrigal: 1
Perlas: 1
Villar: 1
All others: 0
No comments:
Post a Comment
Spam comments and comments using foul language will be deleted. Comments by readers does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the owners of this blog.