Comments on: Of Users, Abusers and the ‘Media Complex’

By: Annalyn

Annalyn — Wed, 17 Aug 2005 02:53:26 +0000

Hi Nilo. Thanks for making your presence felt in my comments box (hehe)

I agree with you. There’s really nothing wrong in taking gifts which are given as a gesture of goodwill. But some are too expensive or laced with malice that they can be construed as trying to influence your judgment or decision; worse is when the gift-takers themselves ask for their judgment or decision to be influenced as a form of standard operating practice. Oh well…

By: nilo

nilo — Mon, 15 Aug 2005 11:53:43 +0000

Hi Annalyn,

I’m glad to know that you did not take it against me when I asked you that question. Thank you. It was really an innocent, no-hidden-insinuation query. As I’m not in the media, I honestly don’t know the goings-on behind-the-scenes (or should i say, behind-the-pages) in your industry.

Anyway, with regard to freebies, I guess it’s an issue in almost all occupations. In our office, for example, many freebies come during the christmas season. But I feel no impropriety in accepting them because those gifts could never be considered a bribe to me. I’m too low in the corporate hierarchy to have any say in our company’s dealings with them. But more importantly, I haven’t done anything in the past, nor in a position to do anything in the future, that had favored/will favor them. In other words, there couldn’t a connection between their gifts and any action on my part. And they also know that. (That I don’t have any signing, approving, nor recommending authority.) Thus, I don’t feel guilty of being bribed.

The contemptible “gift-takers” (for lack of a more apt term), I believe, are those who shamelessly ask (nay, demand) for freebies, like many goverment officials.

By: ajay

ajay — Fri, 12 Aug 2005 14:13:02 +0000

Hi Tin. I would think that “freebies” like giveaways and junkets are a given with media in any other part of the world. The question is who gets to have too much of everything;)

Tatay Watson! Sige, I’ll wait for your email although dyahe, may utang pa ako sa Concerto, lol

By: ajay

ajay — Fri, 12 Aug 2005 14:10:38 +0000

Right on, dexie…the freebies are a bonus but we shouldn’t forget that we are there to do our job in the first place.

Isn’t that extraordinary, Ben? Not everyone can refuse a “blessing from heaven,” hehe

That’s an eye-opener Dr. E. I am sure you are always surrounded by med reps, haha. We missed you during our last EB!

By: watson

watson — Fri, 12 Aug 2005 02:54:42 +0000

Ummm… I’m not sure if there will be giveaways but I would like to invite you to an event we will be having Friday next week with Concert Software. Dinner po. I’ll send it thru gmail. Hope you can come. Thanks.

By: tin

tin — Fri, 12 Aug 2005 01:18:01 +0000

is it just the filipino media or not?

anyway, you can’t please everybody talaga. there are always people who will say bad things for the sake of saying something. sigh.

By: Dr Emer

Dr Emer — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 17:40:25 +0000

I’ve always believed you’re not the type of person who would endorse a product because of a bribe. If you endorsed something, it would be for its merits.

In my line of work, marami ding “bribes” to prescribe a certain medication over another. But I do as I please. If its not warranted, I don’t give it.

Kamusta ka na, fellow Berk? Miss ko na mga EBs natin. Sana meron ulit para makasama naman ako.

By: ben

ben — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 13:20:23 +0000

Probably there’s nothing wrong with it since bribes, er, gifts are already institutionalized in media..tsk, tsk

your editor should be commended for refusing that blessing from heaven.

By: dexie

dexie — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 01:57:47 +0000

one should do his/her job because well, it’s his job, not for freebies and all. they’re nice to have and i’d be a hypocrite if I say i wouldn’t enjoy a giftbag but i’d remind myself why i applied for a certain job and why I am doing my job.