Everyone of us had their own failures and successes in the current year. As we welcome the coming of the year 2016, let us all be optimistic for a brighter and prosperous new year just as we have welcomed the coming of the previous years. Our failures in the current year should not affect our high spirits in welcoming the New Year with hope and passion to continue striving for what we were not able to reach. Let us be the eye opener of our neighbors for them to do what they want others do unto them and vice versa. Let us not allow our failures to overshadow our successes but instead use the lessons we have learned to refrain from repeating what we should not have done wrong.
Your Herald Express had its own stumbling blocks and success stories in the first of year of our existence. We welcome the New Year with much confidence that we will be able to continue achieving breakthroughs in our existence as the fastest growing new organization and the undeniably widely patronized on-line news portal daily. We will not stop there and surely our viewers and our readers will continue to see one-of-a-kind innovations which we are going to introduce as we continue wading through the road to success.
Our over 3,000 stories that were published on print and posted on-line had their own varieties that were compelling to our readers. We had an array of expose of the electronic bingo fiasco where most of our city councilors were involved. We also worked out various exposes on the existence of numerous ponzi firms that duped thousands of Cordilleras of over P3 billion of their hard earned money. Many companies have decided to fold up, a good number still continue to exist but with still the practice of a ponzi scheme, while many willing investors ended up filing the necessary charges against their recruiters that ended up to the issuance of numerous warrants of arrest and the subsequent arrest of people involved in such controversial cases. Aside from high profile crimes, we also had a share of high profile and even ordinary crime reportage that provided our viewers outside the city and the region a clearer view of the prevailing peace and order situation in their respective villages. We did not dwell on domestic crimes although we were witnesses to numerous ones in the police blotters and the police journals that we receive. WE try to balance the interest of the involved parties and the communities where they come from that is why we simply select what would be palatable to our readers and our viewers.
In terms of development stories, we can boast of numerous ones, thanks to the stories of a Baguio lad ending up as the topnotcher of the graduating class of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) and a home-grown Baguio girl placing second in the Criminology Licensure Examination in 2014 that contributed in fulfilling her father’s dream of becoming a member of the country’s police force among many others.
We became controversial when we exposed the high profile rape incident that reportedly involved two members of the Baguio City Police Office (BCPO) that ended up to the dismissal of the said charges against them while their civilian companions were eventually charged. People can still in our read in our on-line news the details of the case and the testimonies of the suspects for your appreciation.
Generally, it was a compelling year for your Herald Express because we were able to exceed our expectations. But we will not end up there. The road to success is still that far. We have to hurdle the obstacles like fellow media personalities doing their own ‘dirty job’ against us when we have done nothing against them. We do not deserve multiple awards on our shoulders if we tend to go to the extent of destroying the image of fellow media personalities just to advance the interest of one’s sagging publication. We have lost respect to people who are constantly doing the ‘dirty tricks’ against us but if they believe that we will bite into their bait for us to be discredited, we are not that fool to do so because we believe we are more mature than the childish thinking journalists of today. We were raised to give due honor and respect to where it is due and we will continue to adhere to that. We will not deviate from what brought us to where we are but we will continue to use the public as our shield towards the clandestine moved of some giant and business-funded publications to put us down for them to be the ones to exist and dominate the market.
People of the Cordilleras are intelligent people, good analysts, professionals, wise decision-makers, wide readers and most of all resilient that is why we will keep the fire burning and for the flames of your Herald Express to continue hovering around us and nearby communities representing our desire to be part of the most read publications in Northern Luzon.