Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — A gathering meant to reconcile journalists covering the Senate beat and Communications Secretary Martin Andanar with each other didn’t go quite as planned.
Senate President Koko Pimentel hosted a dinner on Wednesday for Senate reporters, including this CNN Philippines correspondent. Later that night, the journalists were surprised when they found out that Andanar would be attending.
“I’m glad Secretary Andanar is here upon my invitation para mag-share naman tayo ng [so that we could share] one meal — the Secretary and the Senate media — in the hope that I can patch things up,” Pimentel said.
“This is my effort of establishing good relations between the Secretary and the Senate media,” he added.
The meeting was cordial, but lacked the usual warmth between Andanar, a former anchor of broadcast station TV5, and many of the reporters.
The alleged payoff
Relations between Andanar and the Senate media turned sour when Andanar said in a CNN Philippines interview that a $1,000 (around ₱50,000) bribe was supposedly offered to reporters who covered Senator Antonio Trillanes IV’s press conference on February 20.
Read: Andanar alleges bribes of $1,000 offered to journalists; reporters slam claim
Trillanes, a fierce critic of President Rodrigo Duterte, hosted former police officer Arthur Lascañas in the Senate.
In the briefing, Lascañas retracted earlier testimony to the Senate and this time, claimed to be the founder of the alleged Davao Death Squad, a vigilante group linked to extrajudicial killings supposedly ordered by then-Mayor Duterte.
Read: Blind loyalty: Self-proclaimed DDS leader says he followed Duterte’s orders to kill
In a Malacañang press conference days later, Andanar praised Senate reporters for “sticking to their journalistic integrity,” saying that he did not receive any reports of journalists accepting the alleged payoff.
Read: Andanar: Alleged $1000 media bribe part of plot to oust Duterte
No apology yet
Senate reporters demanded an apology from Andanar.
“We would like to ask the good Secretary to prove his allegations as we are now placed under a cloud of doubt, and our reputations besmirched. Otherwise, we would ask Secretary Andanar to publicly apologize for his irresponsible statements,” they said in a statement.
No apology has been given up to this day.
Meanwhile, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines urged Senate reporters to file charges against Andanar for his claims and demanded that he resign from his position.
CNN Philippines Digital Producer VJ Bacungan contributed to this report.
