Cerge: Media’s role is to promote understanding not conflict

By RUTCHIE AGUHOB
CAGAYAN de Oro City––Press Secretary Cerge M. Remonde’s demise is certainly a loss to the media community who has looked up to this “struggling probinsiyano” broadcast journalist, as a role model.
From his humble beginnings in Cebu, he was able to rise up and conquer the walls of Malacañang, a feat that no other mediaman, in the past, has done.
This was how Ditas Gualberto, Station Manager of DXIM-Radyo ng Bayan and Vincent Jaudian, President of the Cagayan de Oro Press Club (COPC), together with the rest of the media in the city, described their grief over the death of a “friend and leader.”
He was guest speaker of the club’s 58th induction ceremonies during the celebration of the Media Week in May, last year, almost four (4) months after he was appointed Press Secretary by Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Feb. 1.
Addressing the COPC members in English interspersed with “Cebuano,” he expounded on the power of the media and the role mediamen play in today’s Philippine setting, and we quote:
“Let us be cautious of the power of media even as we congratulate the mediamen for their dedication and dynamism in doing their job as messengers of truth.
“Power for its own sake is dirty and only becomes meaningful if used for the common good. With power comes great responsibility. We all know how important is the role that we play, because we define the issues of the day.
“We have the power to create and the power to build but we also have the power to destroy. This power can make you ‘intoxicated’ as some of our colleagues have been intoxicated wrongly.
‘Kon ang usa ka mediaman, usa ka brodkaster o usa ka magsusulat masayop, ang kasaypanan nga iyang mahimo mopatay sa kamatuoran ug kung mamatay ang kamatuoran, kita magapos sa kangitngit sa ka-ignorante.’ (A wrong-doing of a mediaman, he be in broadcast or print, can kill the truth and once the truth is dead, it makes people live in the confines of darkness and ignorance).
“Only the truth can set us free and once it is dead because of our wrong-doing, then we have been irresponsible in our practice.
“We know that politics in this country has been made into a commercial proposition instead of a noble public service.
“So that the challenge for us is to improve the quality of politics by improving the quality and level of public and political conditions, which we can do, since we are the ones that dictate the political, civic and public discourse.
“So now we wonder, ‘Ngano nakabaton kita ug katilingban nga nagkagubot ug nagkaguliyang? Di ba kaha nga kita nakatampo niining maong kagubot ug kaguliyang.’ (Why do we have a society that is in disarray and chaos? Have we not contributed to this situation?).
“Are we promoting understanding which is the purpose of communication? Is the kind of dialogue we are pushing, one that generates heat? Remember that when we generate heat, we kindle fire and when we start that fire, we will end up in social conflagration.
“Yet, when we generate light, we create illumination and understanding and in understanding we can arrive at a better social comfort.”
Obviously referring to his being a ‘Cebuano,’ the dialect of most people in the city, he said:
“If Latin is the language to communicate with God, German with that of the horse and French with that of love, then “ang atong kaugalingong pinulongan mao ang lingguwahe sa atong kasing-kasing (Our own dialect is the language of our hearts).” (PIA-10)