Close Estrada aide calls for

Boycott Time magazine.

One of the closest advisers of President Estrada called for a boycott of the international news magazine after it printed an "exaggerated and sensationalized" article about Mr. Estrada's administration.

Secretary Jose Jaime Policarpio Jr. of the Presidential Legislative Liaison Office said he started the boycott yesterday when he canceled his one-year subscription to the magazine.

"The article was not only unfair to the President but more so to the Filipino people," Policarpio said.

Written by Terry McCarthy, the article pictured Mr. Estrada as being "totally incompetent and ill-equipped," said Sen. Sergio Osmeña III. For instance, the writer likened Mr. Estrada to the character played by Marlon Brando in the movie The Godfather, who looks "after his friends" and makes "his enemies offers they can't refuse."

The friends being described to were "a cabal of businessmen, many of them Chinese."

McCarthy wrote that these businessmen were "corporate climbers" who donated to Mr. Estrada's war chest in the 1998 presidential elections. It thus gave these traders a "seat at the table -- or at the bar, in the legendary night-drinking sessions."

There were many other faults in the presidency that McCarthy had written in that article, including the absence of good governance, plans on the insurgency as well as the President's days in the movies, his extra-marital affairs, failing physical condition and drinking sprees.

"Lacking a coherent vision, many of his ideas are likely to end up like unused footage from one of his movies on the cutting-room floor," McCarthy wrote.

According to opposition Sen. Raul Roco, there was nothing wrong with McCarthy's article.

He, however, would not say if the article was fairly written.

"Fairness is a frame of mind," the senator said. "What is fair to one is always unfair to somebody else."

Osmeña said the article was "grossly unfair."

"Time magazine went overboard," he said in a statement. "Constructive criticism is acceptable. I have been critical of the Estrada administration ... But exaggeration and sensationalism should not be condoned," he added.

Press Secretary Ricardo Puno described McCarthy as one of the several "parachute journalists," flying to countries without studying its culture and traditions.

"These foreign media, like these parachute journalists who come here and stay for only two or three days, suddenly become experts on things about our country. This is the sort of journalism I call yellow," Puno said.

"This is the problem we have with these people, who come here and who make conclusions and yet they jump to conclusions because they parachute, and then make this article," he said. "We need some comic relief once in a while."

He told a press conference that McCarthy was "simplistic and gratuitous" because the writer had no knowledge of the things he had written.

Puno also lashed at the writer for obviously omitting certain achievements of the President. He cited a topic wherein the McCarthy described the Chief Executive as only having been a small town mayor.

The press secretary said the writer did not mention that Mr. Estrada was also elected senator and then vice president before becoming the Chief Executive.

"I think this man who pretends to write articles like this needs a lot more of education. For that purpose, I think the article can be dismissed. It sounded to me like an extended press release of a political oppositionist and that essentially what it is," Puno said.

"But in terms of insight, in terms of appreciation of the current problems, in terms of real knowledge about things like insurgency, it was zilch."

"We feel that the article fell short of its standards that Time magazine is capable of showing off," he said.

Puno said the President will not file a libel suit, but added that he had been ordered by Mr. Estrada to write a rejoinder.

"We are hoping that Time will print the rejoinder, but we know they will just print the statement in their letter-to-the-editor section," said Executive Secretary Ronaldo Zamora. --