Bacani camp, Newsbreak in war of words

The spokesman for Novaliches Bishop Teodoro Bacani accused the Newsbreak magazine editor in chief the other night of "trial by publicity" and of "trying to sell (the) magazine."

But defending Newsbreak’s June 23 cover story "A Bishop’s Fall" as factually correct, Marites Vitug said, "It is a classic case of shooting the messenger."

Monsignor Jesus Romulo Rañada and Vitug were joined by Msgr. Nico Bautista, head of the Catholic organization Mass Media Ministry, in the ANC’s "Talkback" program aired Monday night.

In between the lively exchange mostly between Rañada and Vitug, Bautista urged the local Catholic Church to have a more open and thorough discussion of the alleged sexual harassment by Bacani of his 35-year-old secretary.

Bacani, who hurriedly left for the US on the heels of the scandal, had denied the allegations but apologized for any "inappropriate" show of affection.

As if the Bacani scandal was not enough to shake the foundations of the local Catholic Church, the self-confessed lover of former Antipolo Bishop Crisostomo Yalung granted a rare television interview to declare the imminent birth of the couple’s second child. The interview was aired also on Monday evening.

ABS-CBN "TV Patrol" reported that Yalung had left at least P4 million in trust funds for the two children, which they can use upon reaching their 18th birthday. The same report said the P4 million came from the P6-million inheritance money of Yalung.

Meanwhile, Rañada, appealing for sobriety and charity toward the Bacani case, said the investigation must take its own course.

But he decried what he called media’s distortion of facts which affects the credibility of the "internal investigation" by the local Catholic Church on the matter.

It had been reported that a Catholic Church investigation into the allegations against Bacani had started as early as April and that about 100 persons had already been interviewed.

Papal Nuncio Archbishop Antonio Franco, who arrived last Friday from Italy, has not issued any statement on the Bacani case.

During the exchange, Rañada admitted that Bacani’s apology for "any inappropriate expression of affection" to his former secretary may backfire on him. But he added that the public "should not jump on the gun that he is guilty of sexual harassment."

He said the "sudden release of the report by Newsbreak has complicated matters... so now we are facing a trial by publicity." He cited an alleged misquote on what Bacani’s deputy, Fr. Gerardo Tapiador, said as to the place where the alleged sexual harassment took place.

"We cannot really correct it now because it already came out in the press and Father Gerry can only complain to me. He is now quite afraid of the media because it can always edit what it can communicate," Rañada said.

Newsbreak’s Vitug said they have yet to receive a complaint from Tapiador and challenged Rañada to go over the transcript of the interviews they had conducted.

Vitug observed that the local Catholic Church is a "very secretive institution" and has not been as open as its counterpart in the US where "disclosure is part of the process (of) healing and reaching back to the community."

The local Catholic Church was "hoping that its (investigation) could be done quietly" to protect the reputation of Bacani and the woman complainant.

Earlier, STAR sources said that Bacani had already resigned as the bishop of Novaliches for health reasons and that it was just a matter of time before it is made public.

Pressing further his tirade against the media, Rañada said the media sometimes "embellish their report in order to make some kind of news." He said, "I suppose they do that in order to sell. Let’s face it, they are trying to sell their magazine."

Vitug, however, said the June 23 Newsbreak cover story used direct quotes and that reporter Aries Rufo, who wrote the story, has been a veteran Catholic Church affairs watcher. She said the track record of their sources "speak for themselves."

"We did not fabricate the story. We did not invent. We tried our best to check all these and we are very careful with facts so I think some amount of credibility also goes to the story," Vitug said.

Asked whether she feels responsible for the problems of Bacani, Vitug said that journalism deals with the facts and what interests the public in all sectors of society.

"We write about institutions and persons of interest to the public. We write about the government, about the public sector, what makes the Church so special? What makes them unaccountable unlike government and the private sector?" she said.

"We are not out to destroy the Church. We are presenting a case, raising the questions and now that the Church is confronting it, it can learn from this experience," she said.

"I think there is a very basic issue in the (local Catholic) Church, yet the reflex is to shoot the messenger because he brought the bad news. We can debate and go over transcripts of interviews but this is not the forum for it," she challenged Rañada. — With a report from Jose Aravilla