Julius Babao controversy: Who to believe?

When the controversy involving ABS-CBN star reporter Julius Babao burst into a scandal of national proportions when he was accused by military intelligence of posting the bail of suspected terrorist Tyrone "Dawud" Santos, a lot of my friends asked me why I haven't made comments about this controversy. Truth to tell, the media always close ranks whenever our fellow media practitioners get themselves entangled with the law. But the reason why we've been mum about this case is simply because we might just be defending someone who is aiding and abetting criminals and their more diabolical cousins… terrorists! Caution is what we exercised.

Let me point out that we're not saying that Julius Babao is guilty as accused! However, since we still don't know the real score and worse for Mr. Babao, whenever big political names come out in the open to defend him, like the way Vice-President Noli de Castro openly declared his innocence, the more we get suspicious that there could be some kind of a cover up in the offing. This is the problem with many Filipinos… we immediately declare someone we know innocent or guilty, and stand by that statement, even if it muddles the issue and in the end, it is the truth that becomes the big casualty.

A case in point is the recent controversy involving US soldiers who allegedly raped a young woman. Just listen to Gabriela's statement and you'll immediately know that they've thrown that legal dictum "innocent until proven guilty" out of the window! Why can't we just shut up and let the investigators come up with evidence to prove someone's guilt or innocence?

Anyway, what complicates the case of Julius Babao is that, this story blew out from the column of Ramon Tulfo in the Inquirer who quoted no less than Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA) who told him that military intelligence pointed to Babao as the person who posted bail for Dawud Santos. So this is a case of a media man, virtually exposing another media man! So what's really the bottom line here? In the end, it turns out that the bottom line is, who should we really believe… Julius Babao who denied this accusation? Or the story as written by Ramon Tulfo?

Just when people thought or believed that Julius Babao is the victim in this controversy, Mon Tulfo came up with another column last Tuesday. Let me quote what he said: "I would be the last man to accuse a fellow journalist of wrongdoing if I thought he didn't do wrong. Being a controversial columnist, I also get hurt when fellow journalists write adverse reports about me. Moreover, Julius is my brother Erwin's compadre and close friend. I must tell you that I also got pressure from Erwin."

In that column, Tulfo now says that Babao did not really post bail for Dawud Santos… but as Dawud admitted "kuno", Julius Babao acted as guarantor for his bail bond. So Mon Tulfo corrected his earlier column. But if you ask me, being a guarantor for Dawud's bail bond is no different than posting the bail bond himself! So really, it's back to the question as to who is more credible… Mon Tulfo or Julius Babao? Incidentally, there was supposed to be a Roundtable Discussion under the auspices of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) scheduled last Nov.9th… but suddenly, this activity was postponed until further notice. Why was this postponed? Did someone perhaps realize that Mon Tulfo might have written the truth about Julius Babao's involvement?

As for me, I'm inclined to believe that Tulfo wrote the truth. I reckon the pressures of competition in the media may have driven Babao to befriend the people he ends up interviewing, which includes a lot of criminals or terrorists. Indeed, journalists must draw the line between friendship and professionalism. Too often, this "gray area" becomes totally invisible. Mind you, we still haven't forgotten the case of Mr. Paul Lauro, reporter of DyAB, the AM station owned by

ABS-CBN who was one of the "Confidential Agents" of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) who participated in the embarrassing Plantation Bay shooting fiasco a few years ago, just before Christmas. Witnesses say that Lauro allegedly fired his firearm against the innocent employees of Plantation Bay. That act was unimaginable… a reporter participating in a shooting incident… then he gets a scoop in reporting this same incident to his radio station!

When that happened, the media here in Cebu didn't go overboard in closing ranks to support Lauro. At this point, we still don't have any idea whether it was proven that Lauro fired his gun at the wrong people. I'm sure that this problem isn't exclusive to ABS-CBN alone… the other media outlets too have similar issues, but so far, they haven't yet been exposed.