Malacanang’s hao-siao people bilking journalists covering Asean

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PUBLISHED ON November 19, 2006 AT 12:04 AM

As I write this, I haven’t gotten word from the organizers of the 12th Asean Summit scheduled next month in Cebu whether my application for media accreditation has been approved. I’m probably running the risk here of not being allowed to cover the event for my papers.

At any rate, I haven’t figured out how to cover the summit, if ever I go there. A big problem is the question on where to stay. Most of the hotels in Cebu are either booked for the event or, as Newsbreak magazine pointed out in a recent “Inside Track” item, they have some sort of arrangement with Malacanang’s International Press Center, through which hotel and transportation bookings have to be made. It’s like, “No IPC, no entry.”

The problem, of course, is the outrageously exorbitant rates the IPC is supposedly demanding from journalists, particularly foreign ones. The IPC rates go as high as $250 per room per night when published rates are only $60 per room per night. As they say in Tagalog, super-taga!

This arrangement has been the subject of discussion between the organizers and journalists who have cried foul over the issue.
Now, most foreign media companies do not hesitate to spend a fortune for covering a story. What they do not want is for some people in government to bilk them. That’s just plain distasteful. It not only puts to risk the government’s campaign to project a positive media image of the country — it paints our country as home to extortionists.

I didn’t know that the Office of the Press Secretary also engages in a form of hao-siao — against journalists!

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One Response to “Malacanang’s hao-siao people bilking journalists covering Asean”

wilson ng Says:
November 20th, 2006 at 1:47 pm
I’m sure the government has no such plan.

The high rates have been something that is somewhat like a law of supply and demand - there are not that many hotels in Cebu for that huge affair YET, and this is creating a situation where the prices have gone up.

i’m sure the office of the press, being what it is, will be able to get some good concessons from the hotel.s

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