Philippine maritime industry gets what it deserves

GOING OVER the various publications that now serve (and claim to cover!) the Philippine maritime industry, one could not help but feel discomfort and sheer frustration.
One tabloid paper, that's been there for years, continue to survive (more appropriately gyp advertisers) without the basic qualities necessary for a high school publication. Imagine photos without captions. Also, how can you bear to read pages full of grey (because what the paper publishes and claims as stories are reprints of speeches or position papers). And when does a big story merit a two-column head and relegated into the minor pages of a newspaper. But of course, the publisher and editor (now) know no better. They both don't know what is basic, even sensible publication is. What they know, and this is obvious, is to "get" people to advertise in their so-called maritime newspaper.
The same is true with another tabloid that claims to be the leading Philippine maritime newspaper. In its latest issue, the paper insulted -- murder is more appropriate -- Shakespeare for bastardizing the great writer's soliloquy.
How about the only surviving magazine in the Philippine maritime sector? While its editor continues to draw flak for parallax journalism, he can't be blamed. His publisher, an equally self-assuming person, tries pulling strings, where it can be pulled, and bullying, where nothing else works, in favor of his editor.
Well, these are just some of the things we have come to see about how shabby Philippine maritime journalism is. Well, our seafarers -- officers and ratings -- don't deserve this kind of treatment. They are hailed as the world's best, but they are not accorded what they deserve.
How about our distinguished and respectable manning executives? Well, in recent years we have seen how many of them resort to mainstream media for their supplements during major events or important dates in their corporate lives.
That should have served notice to the publishers and editors of Philippine maritime publications. But instead, they fight tooth and claw, to be agents for the mainstream publications.
Surely, the Philippine maritime sector deserves a better media. One of the daily broadsheets recognize this. Even if one or two broadsheets have long foregone their shipping sections, there is a good potential for a better media to serve and influence this particular sector.
This kind of shabby reportage that the Philippine maritime industry also tells of how ineffective is the Fourth Estate in generating views and opinions on issues that matter in the sector. Well, as of now, most of the opinions we hear are from the players themselves. They do most of the talking and they get answered by their fellow industry players. So there are no independent opinion makers -- what maritime journalists are all about.
For now, let Capt. Gregorio Oca, an institution in the Philippine maritime industry, be muddled with the media his organization supports. For one who has done a lot to the industry, he doesn't deserve a media that doesn't know who Jean Edades is or what she advocated. Kawawa naman siya... si Kap Oca.
On the other hand, we can let the Greeks get their geek English through a magazine that claims to help their seafarers bridge the loneliness gap while at sea. They are only feeding their seafarers thrash that will not help their comprehension of the English language any. Thus, they make their seafarers more pathetic and lonely. 'Di bale na yung mga Griyego, Greek naman sila.
Probably this is the reason why many of the more discriminating (even prudent) executives in the Philippine maritime industry refuse interview and subsequent publicity. One executive had been continually asked for an interview (over the years by one tabloid), but this executive shuns requests and proves more than elusive. At one affair, where the publisher meets this executive, she remarked "Your name precedes you!" with one eyebrow raised and with a puckered lip.
Well, what do your think? Does the Philippine maritime industry deserve what it gets, in terms of media attention and coverage?