BAGUIO CITY – La Paz, Abra Mayor Joseph Sto. Nino Bernos urged the members of the local and national media for fairness in reporting on the peace and order situation and the politics in Abra to ensure that outsiders will be provided with a true picture of what is really happening in their province.
Bernos, who is also the president of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines, was the guest of honor and speaker during the induction of the new set of officers of the Baguio Correspondents and Broadcasters Club (BCBC) held at the Pedro Dumol Hall of the Benguet Electric Cooperative (BENECO) Tuesday evening.
He pointed out that killings in other nearby provinces in the Ilocos, Cagayan Valley and Central Luzon regions are being reported in the national media as mere crime incidents but when there are killings in Abra, it is exaggerated to make it appear that these incidents are politically motivated and an offshoot of intense political rivalry even if these are petty crimes.
“Abra is part of the Cordillera which is a peaceful region. When crimes happening in Abra are projected in the media as politically motivated, the overall image of the Cordillera is affected and we do not want Abra to be the culprit. Actually, the people of Abra are ashamed because of the bad image being painted of the province by the exaggerated media reports,” Mayor Bernos stressed.
The LMP resident pointed out that the officialdom and the people of Abra are doing their best to maintain law and order in the province and that the conduct of the generally peaceful and orderly elections over the past six elections in Abra clearly shows that the peace and order in the province had significantly improved compared to the situation during the elections in the early and late 1990s.
He asserted that much had been done to make Abra a peaceful and progressive province but he feels there is a concerted effort to discredit such gains by always linking crimes to the intense political rivalry of politicians. He claims they are doing their best to combat this negative image and make a big difference in the lives of the people.
Bernos extended an open invitation to foreign and domestic visitors to visit the various tourist destinations in Abra to experience the warm welcome from the people and for them to have a first hand experience on the situation of law and order in the province contrary to what is being projected as a violent-stricken area.
He emphasized that the officialdom and people of Abra do not want to be labeled as a violent-stricken province in the Cordillera and they are making every move to make a total reversal of such image that has tainted the province since Cordillerans have been known to be peace-loving people.
They do not want to negate this positive image through the evidently exaggerated reports from the national media, thus, he believes the active participation of the local media is important in helping change the bad image of Abra through fair and true reports of the real score on the ground in terms of efforts to achieve lasting peace for the benefit of the whole Cordillera. By Dexter A. See
