Tinig ng Plaridel

The stories that make it into the pages of this website are more than the ones we report. The different people and images in their coverage leave impressions on journalists. In celebration of these stories, Tinig ng Plaridel devotes this space to personal narratives reflecting how events, people and places affect our reporters.

By James Relativo
That [...]

President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III’s public castigation of the Supreme Court is something quite unprecedented in the country’s political history. Never before has a chief executive openly criticized the chief magistrate and his justices in the public to the same extent as Aquino did.
On the 30th anniversary of the Makati Business Club, Aquino questioned the [...]

The Philippines is a country beset with the problems of feudalism – a system of landlord ownership over agricultural lands, at the expense of the farmers who only rely on land for their living.
This is the set-up of Philippine society the recent ruling of the Supreme Court has dared to challenge. In a landmark decision, [...]

It isn’t difficult to answer the rallying call to remember the 2009 Maguindanao massacre. Fifty-eight people, including 32 journalists and media workers, were killed in a case of election-related violence brought about by a warlord-coddling government. It is considered the worst case of poll-related violence in the country’s history.
The massacre is also the single worst [...]

By Lindley Agustin
The University of the Philippines, like Hogwarts, is in grave danger – not from Death Eaters but from budget eaters. It tries to get out of the spooky forest while branches and twigs run through its legs. It trips, falls down, and gets up again though ignorant of what lies beyond the forest. UP [...]

By Lindley Agustin
US-based Filipino journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner Jose Antonio Vargas is nearly a whistleblower, except for the fact that he himself is culprit. In his essay published in the New York Times last June 22, he revealed what was unlikely to a Pulitzer Prize recipient and writer for the country’s major newspapers — [...]

Sa wika pa lang, mayroon na tayong matinding pagpapahalaga sa Ingles at pandidiri naman sa mga lingguwahe ng bansa. Mayroon pa rin tayong inferiority complex sa mga puti; ang kultura, lingguwahe at mga produkto ng mga Amerikano ay magaganda at abante habang ang sa mga Pilipino naman ay pangit at atrasado.

When it comes to mistakes committed, the mainstream media finds itself bearing responsibility for much of the events leading to the botched rescue operation that saw eight dead and seven injured.

Because of the majority who ignored the final session last Friday, the 14th Congress has lost its last chance to redeem itself. It will be remembered as a Congress that favored government secrecy over transparency, filled with traditional politicians owing loyalty to a president submerged in accusations of corruption.

CMC Students’ Draft Statement on the Right to Reply Bill
The election campaign season is fast approaching. The media are again expected to play the important role of helping the people make sound decisions. It is a crucial role that can make or break the country’s future; a daunting task to ensure that their democratic exercise [...]