The local media is here to stay in serving the public
As the opposition to the controversial ordinance allowing small-scale coal mining grew, the Tribune team traveled to Bagamanoc to participate in a bidding and dropped by Panganiban town to inquire about the municipal council’s stand on the issue.
It was on the third floor of the newly completed municipal building that the publisher-editor came upon two Sangguniang Bayan officials who seemed to have an idea of that the Tribune was looking for.
Without much ado, they gave this paper copies of the request the LGU made to the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office (PENRO) to investigate reports of alleged coal mining in Cabuyoan and Campo Ermitanyo, as well as the PENRO report signed by its ranking officials on the actual discovery of the 90 sacks of coal found at the Cabuyoan site.
The headline story that appeared in the next issue added context to the controversy and raised new questions about how concerned government agencies handle, or rather withhold, information from the media.
As a subsequent editorial pointed out, the fact that illegal extraction of coal had been going on in Cabuyoan could have come to the public’s knowledge had the police reported the incident on its media chat group.
This paper actually went to the PENRO office in San Isidro Village to request copies of the photos taken by the investigating team but was told to file a request, which could not be acted upon immediately as the officer-in-charge was in the mainland.
Last week, on its way to Pandan town, the Tribune team espied from the highway above Asgad, San Andres, a small ship with orange hull and something like a steel boom at its rear slowly moving in the sea about 100 to 200 meters from the shore.
On the trip back, the team dropped by the Coast Guard Sub-Station (CGSS) in Codon where personnel informed that the ship was undertaking a survey for the National Grid Corporation (NGCP).
The vessel arrived sometime in early November and reportedly informed the PCG of its intention to survey the bottom of the sea from Asgad to Virac.
But a check with the CGS Catanduanes office showed no such letter was sent by the surveyors. And the First Catanduanes Electric Cooperative, Inc. (FICELCO) management itself did not know that the NGCP has started such a survey.
It may be recalled that in 2022, the Tribune reported that the NGCP is intent on developing the P9.5-billion Camarines Sur-Catanduanes interconnection project (CCIP).
Under the proposed project, NGCP will lay down a 23-kilometer 69 kV submarine cable and install overhead transmission lines: the 70-kilometer 230 kV Naga-Presentacion transmission line, the 28-kilometer 69-kV Presentacion-Lagonoy transmission line, the 12-kilometer 69-kV Presentacion-Bitaogan CTS, and a one-kilometer Asgad CTS-San Andres transmission line.
A consultant of the National Transmission Corporation (Transco), which was earlier reported to the one to do the project, told a FICELCO official that it should not matter who will eventually build the project, as the objective is to have built as soon as possible.
Both these developments would not have been brought to light without the media, specifically this paper.
Such is the importance of the public’s support not only for this four-decade old community newspaper but also for other local media entities, especially in the light of social media personalities trying to sell themselves and their opinions online.
With its long history of providing the public with relevant information, the local media and its staunch defense of the freedom of expression is here to stay.
It has survived politicians and their kind who, at times, resorted to harassment, libel suits and threats of violence in an effort to cow local journalists into submission.
It will still be here long after the people have gotten tired of social media personalities’ thirst for self-promotion at the expense of truth.