Is an urban legend coming full circle?

Several weeks ago, I came across this news item:

Sticky situation turns lovers into talk of town

08/12/2009 | 05:47 PM

Two secret lovers became the talk of the town in the southern Philippines Wednesday after they were found literally stuck to each other.

Doctors were at a loss on how to separate the two lovers, who had been stuck for more than 17 hours since Tuesday night, radio dzRH reported Wednesday afternoon.

The report quoted doctors at the Isulan town hospital in Sultan Kudarat province as saying the two lovers experienced penis captivus, a condition in which the muscles in the female organ clamp down on the male organ more firmly than usual, making it impossible for the man to withdraw his organ from the woman's.

Before experiencing the condition, the two lovers had a rendezvous at a local pension house in Isulan town Tuesday night.

The man, 32, was described as married and connected with the Department of Public Works and Highways. The woman, 20, was working at a local department store.

Initial investigation showed that the two experienced penis captivus at about 10 p.m., and decided to seek medical help at about 3:30 a.m. Wednesday, said the report.

Draped only in a blanket, the naked couple asked a tricycle driver outside the pension house to take them to a hospital.

At the hospital, doctors used a tranquilizer on the man to make his muscles contract, but still could not immediately separate the duo. - GMANews.TV

This news immediately brought back a particular memory of the early 60s when I was in Grade 2 or 3. I remembered a commotion in Pioneer Avenue of the municipality of Dadiangas (now General Santos City). A lot of people were gathered outside the clinic of a doctor. Some were scrambling to peek through the glass louvers of the windows and the wooden barandilya on the upper portion of the walls.

The adults were talking about a man and a woman covered in a flimsy blanket who were brought to the clinic early that morning by some fishermen. It was said that the couple spent the night together trysting on the nearby Lion's Beach. The man's wife learned of this tryst and with the help of an albularyo who gave her an amulet fashioned from the penis of a pawikan (sea turtle), she managed to affix this inside her husband's pants before he went to the beach.

While engaged in their illicit romance on the sand, the couple became stuck (as a result of the power of the amulet) and remained so until the fishermen found them the next morning. Later, I heard that the couple died of blood poisoning.

Several of my high school batch-mates also remembered this incident.

I have a theory about how this incident evolved into the urban legend that it is now.

At the time of the incident, the only means by which news of it could spread was by letters, telegrams or word-of-mouth. I would however bet on the last one as the biggest culprit for its spread.

Visitors and relatives from Luzon and Visayas islands would be regaled by local residents with this story. Local residents going to Luzon and Visayas would talk of this incident.

But I suspect that the spread of this incident might be attributed to movie checkers who were assigned here during that time. Checkers, usually men, were assigned by film distributors to escort the movies to be shown in towns and cities all over the country. Their job was to make sure the film reels arrive on schedule and to check that every ticket was torn at the tills (as whole tickets, already bought, could be returned to the ticket booth to be resold several times).
Checkers were great story tellers, often telling whomever was interested in where they had been and what has been going on in those places. This incident was such a great story they could tell and relish to tell over and over again everywhere they were assigned to go.

Until it became an urban legend. From the time I was a teener until now, I would hear variations of the incident happening in different locations in the country. Usually the location was a coastal place. The couple would be a married man and his paramour. The amulet would be made of a turtle's genital or that of another animal's. They would be found stuck together like Siamese (conjoint) twins. Some couples died, some survived.

And now the incident happened again in this part of the country. Has the urban legend finally come home?

Adventure in Journalism 6: Erratum from Philippine Daily Inquirer (Repost)

Correction, confirmation

Philippine Daily Inquirer Publisher’s note

TWO RECENT news stories and an editorial mistook an intellectual exercise for hard fact.

Yesterday’s editorial mistakenly attributed the alleged itemization of the Le Cirque bill incurred by President Macapagal-Arroyo and her party to the “New York Post.” In fact, the hypothetical itemization was done by columnist Manuel Quezon III in his blog on Aug. 8, and introduced as “a theoretical breakdown of how the presidential party could have racked up the bill.”

Our story on Aug. 9 reported that “The purported menu included caviar; such appetizers as lobster salad, wild burgundy escargot and soft shell crab tempura; main courses of black cod, halibut, Dover sole, saddle of lamb and prime dry-aged strip steak; and Krug champagne at $510 a bottle.” There was, in fact, no such menu, only a hypothetical list of ordered items.

Our story on Aug. 10 reported that “The restaurant tab, purported copies of which have since circulated on blogs, showed that the Arroyo delegation had five servings of wild golden osetra caviar ($1,400), 11 bottles of Krug champagne ($5,610), and 25 orders each of the Chef’s Seasonal Menu and Tasting Menu (totaling $1,450 and $4,500 respectively), along with 17 other items.” There were no such copies circulating, only links and images from Quezon’s blog.

Based on these two stories, yesterday’s editorial criticized the presidential party’s insensitive self-indulgence. We stand by that assessment, however, since the original New York Post report is a fact. It read, in part: “Macapagal-Arroyo ordered several bottles of very expensive wine, pushing the dinner tab up to $20,000.”

Adventure in Journalism 5: Lazy Journalism and Lazy Reading (Repost)

Lazy Journalism and Lazy Reading

August 11th, 2009 at 12:50 pm by caffeine_sparks

Yesterday on twitter I was alerted to the supposed receipt of GMA’s New York dinner. The graphic looked familiar and true enough I’d seen it on another blog and knew the breakdown was THEORETICAL, the purpose behind this exercise being to illustrate how X amount of people having dinner in a restaurant with a menu at X prices could’ve racked up $20,000.

The purpose of the THEORETICAL exercise was to see whether it was possible for 27-30 people to consume such an amount in one sitting. And true enough, at the prices food and wine were selling at Le Cirque, it was possible.

Yesterday and today news articles came out in the Inquirer, the Star and even ABS-CBN news taking the THEORETICAL break-down as factual. I am now wondering whether these journalists were alerted to the receipt in the same manner as I was – through social networking media. And in their rush to publish news in real time, they neglected to do something which makes them professionals – fact check their report.

I understand that the terrain of journalism is changing and perhaps many journalists are pressured to deliver news at a faster pace. I do not know whether this is because traditional media organizations feel they are competing against the internet and the ease with which people online, networked through sites like Facebook, Plurk and Twitter, may share information. Blogs are blogs. In Filipino Voices we do commentary. For news – we still rely on journalists – pros. So please, Mainstream Media – do not succumb to lazy journalism.

And to denizens of the internets, please do some critical thinking and a little fact-checking on your own. Follow the url links, verify the sources of forwarded information before you forward said info yourself.

Come on people. Let’s not be lazy shall we?

Adventure in Journalism 4: Not quite like Ninoy's (Repost)

(Note: Here is a report from Newsbreak online regarding the contrast between reporting on Ninoy Aquino's death and the death of his wife Pres. Cory Aquino.) Not quite like Ninoy’s

Monday, 03 August 2009

Exaggerated and clueless reports on Cory’s procession are a disservice to the public. As former President Corazon Aquino’s cortege moved from La Salle Greenhills, through EDSA, then Ayala, to the Manila Cathedral today, we monitored the extensive broadcast and online coverage of the event. And we cringed at the inaccuracies, exaggerations, or plain cluelessness that slipped through some of the reports. Mostly it was about the size of the crowd. One reporter said EDSA was packed and people could barely move. But the TV camera showed it wasn’t like sidewalk-to-sidewalk, and people could actually walk, thank you. Photos taken by our colleague show that there was enough breathing space in there. Another reporter said there were 50 vehicles of mourners from Ms. Aquino’s home province of Tarlac. But when interviewed, one of these mourners said their convoy consisted of 5 vehicles. At the corner of Ayala Avenue and Paseo de Roxas in Makati City, footages taken were mostly tight shots, making it appear that it was a packed procession. The few times the cameras took wide shots, they revealed that the there was not much crowd beyond the intersection. The same was true along Buendia. Some reports estimated the crowd at 25,000 persons. Our photographer thinks the actual size was only half of that. The crowds in “ordinary” rallies are even bigger, he said. A veteran of rallies who walked with the crowd was more generous with his estimate. The rule of thumb with rallies, he said, is to subtract one-third from the figures that the police gives. Not lost on us either—but was overlooked in many reports—was the presence of so many grade school students along Ayala. “This is so Marcos-time,” a photographer said, referring to the practice of the authoritarian regime (that Cory helped topple, remember?) of hauling school children to pro-government rallies to give the impression of a big crowd. Not a few reported—either as their own observation or quoting some politicians—that the outpouring of people on the streets at Cory’s procession was similar to what happened during the funeral of her husband in 1983. To give perspective to readers and viewers, especially those too young to know what it was like during Ninoy’s death, we compiled photos from that era—when Ninoy’s coffin was transferred from their house at Times Street to Sto. Domingo Church in Quezon City; when it was brought to Tarlac, and during his funeral. (We lifted the images from the book “Ninoy Aquino: The Willing Martyr” by Alfonso Policarpio Jr.) See how packed the crowds really were and realize that today wasn’t quite like 26 years ago. President Cory will be buried on Wednesday morning. We have more than a day to give her and her public some respect by being objective and responsible with our reports.

Adventures in Journalism 3: News writer apologizes for "killing" Pres. Arroyo (Repost)

(Note: On July 31, I blogged about my unpleasant experience to have the spelling of Sarangani rectified. Instead of thanking me for pointing out the error, the news writer rejected my comment for being a "personal attack against persons and institutions." In contrast, in this blogpost, Lala Rimando, the erring news writer apologizes for her oversight with grace and humility.)

I’m guilty. I killed our president.

I wrote an online story about the passing of a former president but inadvertently referred to the current one who’s still very much alive in portions of the story. Instead of Mrs. Aquino, some sentences had "Mrs. Arroyo" in them.

Aside from both presidents having a last name that starts with letter "A," the two have other similarities: both are lady presidents, thrust into power by bloodless people power, and belong to a political family. But the differences are stark: Mrs. Corazon Aquino was herself not corrupt, was uncomfortable with the trappings of power, and stepped down as soon as her term was over in 1992. President Gloria Arroyo, however, has been dragged in almost all political scandals during the past 8 years, and has tried, through her allies in Congress, to amend the Constitution to possibly extend her stay in power beyond her term in 2010.

In typical online fashion, the comments to the online story were immediate. Some were horrified (‘How dare you dishonor the memory of Cory’). Some were naughty (Facebook comment: ‘Was that wishful thinking?’). Some even called me names (dullwhite in plurk.com: ‘Lala Rimando you're an idiot. It's MRS. AQUINO who died, not MRS. ARROYO, doh!’).

I was sinking in my seat as I read those comments. While I immediately made the corrections on the abs-cbnNEWS.com and www.newsbreak.com.ph sites, and added an erratum, the story with the wrong names on it stayed in Yahoo Philippines’ news page for at least 2 days.

I self-flagellated. Why did I not name-check before I published the story and went to do a couple more? Why did I put my name and fruitful 9-year journalism career on the line for a simple explanatory story that’s not likely to change national policies as did my award-winning ones? It was a story that simply explained the implications and contrasts of the Aquino family’s decision to hold a private instead of a state funeral.

Then I rationalized. I was processing many information and had limited time to spend on each story that day. Mrs. Aquino’s death was announced and stories were pouring from all over. We wanted to cover as many as we could. Too, days before that I was writing and editing stories related to the State of the Nation Address delivered that same week. There was constant reference to only one president: Mrs. Arroyo.

After Mrs. Aquino’s only son Senator Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III announced in a late Saturday morning press conference that there won’t be a state funeral, I merely wanted to explain what a state funeral is and what it is not. It was a story on protocols and symbolisms that could help readers better appreciate what Mrs. Aquino's supporters and her family members are possibly missing out on.

Then I laughed. I heard broadcasters make the same mistake. “Palabas na po sa La Salle ang convoy para sa labi ni Mrs. A-a-a-aquino,” a radio commentator stuttered. “Military honors para kay Ginang Arroyo, inihahanda na,“ a TV news show flashed on its screen. The slip ups occured countless times that I sheepishly thought, "Good, I wasn't the only one who "killed" our president."

I became a statistic. On top of the minute-by-minute account of their own 'Cory watch,' the bloggers and those in social networks included in their regular status updates how other media, big and small, committed similar slip ups. "That was fast!" said a Tweeter account holder about story of a national publication's online arm with "Arroyo" on the story's large-font title. The Tweet, however, had a screenshot of the story with the wrong title, before it was corrected to "Aquino."

A Facebook "friend" said in his status page, a "network reported that President Aquino will attend the funeral of President Arroyo." Not only did they "kill" President Arroyo, they also "resurrected" Mrs. Aquino! Worse, the "foreign network" ran this phrase for about an hour in their ticker.

Hilarious they may sound, these slip ups may be causing doubts on who really died. And for contributing to that confusion, I apologize.

It is our mantra as journalists that we exhaust all means to confirm that the facts of our stories are verified or documented, that we get all sides, that we put our stories in perspective, that we stand brave when harassed by libel or intimidation tactics for saying the truth, and that we humbly apologize when we commit mistakes.

How fitting that I practice the latter as we continue to cover the wake and funeral of the late President Cory Aquino. After all, humility to her was not just an accessory. She lived it.

Adventures in journalism 1

I have blogged in 2007 about being irked by the persistence in the misspelling of Cotabato: "It irked me then and still irks me now. With the great strides in technology, the built-in spell checkers and auto-correct features in browsers and word encoding programs, the misspellings are still as rampant as weeds."

Now comes the misspelling of Sarangani as Saranggani.

Using Google Reader to read online news today, I noticed a headline from the Philippine Star's online site: Suspect in Saranggani blast nabbed. The same word was misspelled throughout the news item written by Dino Maragay. Posthaste, I submitted the following comment to the said site:

Your copyreader/editor must be sleeping on the job. It's SARANGANI and not Saranggani. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarangani

Within the day, I got an email from Philstar.com:

Regarding your post:

Your copyreader/editor must be sleeping on the job. It's SARANGANI and not Saranggani. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarangani

Moderator comment:
This forum does not allow personal attacks against people or institutions.

Moderated by:
dinomaragay

If you think this post should not be disapproved, forward this email to the philstar.com Operations Manager Eden Estopace (edenestopace@philstar.com) and optionally state why it should not be disapproved.)

Note that the main purpose of forwarding this email to the Operation Manager is to improve the moderation process. It is not aimed at immediately approving the disapproved comment.

Ref no: 464040

Wondering why I was sent such a reply rejecting my comment as a "personal attack against people or institutions," I emailed the Operations Manager Eden Estopace:

Dear Estopace,

The attached (comment) is not a personal attack on your copyreader/editor. It was meant to correct the wrong spelling of Sarangani.

Thank you.

I opened my Google Reader again and found out the said news item was revised with Sarangani spelled right this time in the headline and text. I replied to the email sender, Dino Maragay, who also wrote the said news item with the misspelled word:

Hi Dino,

I just checked the online news item you wrote and saw that you have corrected the wrong spelling of Sarangani. Thank you.

As per your email-reply, instead of a simple thank you, this is what I get from you for calling attention to the error?

And here's Dino Maragay's reply to me:

Hi reader,

I made the judgment to disapprove your comment because it promotes an atmosphere of negativity for philstar. You could've just pointed out the mistake and we'll gladly change it. But instead you hinted that someone is "sleeping on the job" while in fact, no one does here at philstar.

Please understand that we, I mean I (yes, i'm the sole editor in charge for the entire day), am working at a very fast pace to provide you readers with updates. And such "unpleasant" comments, i think, are inappropiate to be given to those striving hard to give you readers free and updated content.

Anyway, please accept my apology for not thanking you for spotting an error for us. Thanks again and keep posting.

Cheers,
dino

My comment was "unpleasant," "inappropriate" and "promotes an atmosphere of negativity for philstar"? At the risk of being redundant, I will state it here again: With the great strides in technology, the built-in spell checkers and auto-correct features in browsers and word encoding programs, can't misspelling geographical names like Sarangani or Cotabato specially on the part of news organizations and journalists, in print or online, be called "sleeping on the job"?

Anyway, to deal with the reason for Philstar's rejecting my comment because it was a "personal attack against people or institutions", I wrote:

Hi Dino,

I think you need to check your dictionary as to the difference between "personal" and "professional."

My comment "sleeping on the job" is clearly not a "personal attack."

Thank you for taking time for this. :)

And this is his reply:

Well, that's the closest reason available and applicable to your comment, as far as our forum interface is concerned. ;-) Can't really do anything about it.

But the fact that you used unpleasant words is sufficient enough, at least in my judgment (which i am fully entitled to), to have your comment disapproved.

What? "Thank you for your comment" is not among the options in Philstar's forum interface? Let's look at this scenario: If Dino Maragay replied with "Thank you for your comment" instead of spitefully rejecting it with a click of his mouse and proceeded to revise the news item he wrote, then the above exchange of emails need not happen. But noooo, instead of thanking me for my feedback, Dino turned the tables on me and labeled my comment as "unpleasant", "personal attack against him" and "inappropriate" to make it look like it was all my fault in the first place for having submitted my comment.

What is crystal clear to me was that I caught a news writer sleeping on his job (for not checking the spelling of Sarangani which is part of his job - checking facts) which he did not have the gumption and grace to admit, but revised his news items anyway and thanked me after I asked him if a simple "thank you" would have been a more appropriate response.

Jeez, methinks DepEd needs to bring GMRC (Good Manners & Right Conduct) and Values Education back to the classrooms.

A Mad Scramble for Tabloids & Newspapers

On weekdays and Saturdays, I read the news online. But on Sundays, I buy the national papers, specifically the Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI) and the Philippine Star (PS) because of their weekly magazines. While the PDI goes on sale as early as 4 a.m. daily, the rest of the dailies and tabloids get to the newsstands by 10 a.m here in General Santos City.

One Sunday, after getting a haircut, I proceeded to the nearest newsstand. It was a few minutes after 9 and so I was surprised to see that aside from the usual faces of regular subscribers and newspaper renters (they rent the papers for a fraction of the newsstand price and get to read them for as long as they like), there were others milling around the stand. There were clamors as to when the tabloids and certain national dailies would arrive. Hmmm . . . This was strange as I knew for a fact that Filipinos are not into reading.

As far as I know, these are the reasons whenever there is a mad scramble to buy newspapers:

1. results of bar/board exams are published in a series of issues (the papers are bought as incontrovertible proof of passing/failing the exams or for clipping to be added to their albums/scrapbooks or for lamination)
2. grade and secondary school teachers require their students to compile an album of pictures and articles
3. results of winning raffle numbers or entries to certain products are published
4. names of casualties/survivors are listed after a fire, earthquake, war, etc.

None of the 4 reasons cited above could be the reason for this mad scramble for tabloids(!?#). So I asked around and got these answers: I'm waiting for the lotto/sweepstakes results (understandable since the TV channel that features the draws are not shown on free TV here but only on cable TV) and We need "tips" for Lotto and Last Two (Last Two is an illegal numbers game based on the last two digits of the drawn winning sweepstakes/lotto numbers).

While many Lotto and Last Two bettors maintain certain numbers, others rely on tips from cartoons published in tabloids and certain national dailies. A lot swear by these tips as reliable and that they have won using them. One need not be a Robert Langdon (the cryptologist from Dan Brown's Da Vince Code) to decode these tips. A pair of eyeglasses is 8, a hunchback is 9, etc.

It is not unusual to see people poring over frame by frame of the cartoons and taking down notes for hours on end (they call this analyzing the tips). I don't know if encoding numbers in their work is deliberately done by the cartoonists but the numbers are really there. Some enterprising Pinoys with modicum of drawing skills sell mimeographed copies of their cartoons to these small-time gamblers.

If any intelligence agents are reading this blogpost, now they know where to go and gather info about the illegal numbers game here.