Tingog.com

I hate it when reporters for the sake of submitting something, don’t dig deeper. It may be that they are pressed for time, the editor wants their piece ASAP without consideration of completion, or that the reporter just wants a simple story without diving into real investigative reporting.

I’m only mentioning this, because I found yet another story, coming from Inquirer.net a bit lacking. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a loyal reader, but certainly not in the future if this keeps up. The story was on an alleged corruption matter involving the mayor of Roxas City and an allegation made by a congressman of that region.

Roxas’ supporters feud over ghost projects,

Representative Antonio del Rosario of the Capiz first district alleged that he had documents showing that Roxas City Mayor Vicente Bermejo had a “ghost project” worth over P2 million when he was Capiz governor.

Del Rosario said the documents made it appear that the project was started on June 1, 2007 and was completed on June 30 of the same year.

Bermejo said the project was one of the 45 projects undertaken by the provincial government for the months of February to June 2007.

Notice that the whole story was “He said, blah blah blah”. Now, I hope this reporter continues with this report, I’m certainly interested whether or not the allegations are factual. But when a reporter gets a story from a congressman that who undoubtedly raised this controversy in order to fuel political mileage, whether or not his claims are true, I think that reporter should at least get information other than these two politicians.

I mean, couldn’t he have went to the site of the said project itself? Asked the locals if any of these projects actually took place? Ask councilors that aren’t affiliated with these politicians? Asked the local DPWH office?

As a reader, I’m left with so many questions unanswered. Thank you for the information, but what the hell do we do with this now that he’s given us just a teaser? If I wanted news like this, I would just settle for press releases.

Lastly, commentary on this alleged corruption matter. I wouldn’t be surprised if these allegations turn out to be true. A 30 day project? During election season? Road Work? P3.3 million sounds just right for campaign funds.