An exchange of apologies

IN the aftermath of the Philippine Daily Inquirer story on Jim Paredes, apologies have been exchanged between the involved parties — Inquirer publisher Isagani Yambot for the “inaccurate and unfair” headline that accompanied the report, Paredes and daughter Ala for hastily putting the blame on Gerry Lirio, the paper’s city editor who wrote it.

Paredes issued an apology on his blog after learning that an Inquirer editor, not Lirio, was responsible for editing the piece and providing the headline. He said:

Gerry, this is my humble step in picking up the feathers of your pillow of reputation I slashed because of my hastiness. The article by itself is not bad although I still felt it already had a slant even before it was written. It was looking for a poster boy for the current hopelessness felt by many and I was chosen. But I don’t question Gerry’s right to write the way he does. That’s his prerogative just as it is mine to criticize his work. I must admit it even had some parts I liked.

Paredes’s daughter Ala also apologized to Lirio, acknowledging that:

Apparently, we read into Gerry Lirio’s article too hastily as well. It was not Gerry Lirio who thought of his article’s title, the irresponsible headline that irked us so. Though I still don’t agree with the angle which he wrote the story from, I’d like to offer my truest and humblest apologies to Mr. Lirio for any unnecessary damage to his credibility as a journalist that I might have caused. Next time, I will not make the mistake of being too quick to act.

Yambot subsequently issued a statement on August 23, the full text of which is as follows:

“IT STARTED with an e-mail sent by Jim Paredes to his large network of relatives and friends. It concerned the Inquirer‘s front-page on him last Saturday headlined “Finally, APO’s Jim Paredes gives up on RP” and by-lined Gerry Lirio.

“Jim’s main beef was the headline. He said it was ‘a naked lie’ that he had given up on the Philippines. He accused Gerry Lirio, our reporter of having a headline in mind ‘even before the interview.’ To use Jim’s words, Gerry ‘cherry picked’ to fit words and impressions to the headline and so missed the true story.”

“In an update on his blog, Jim admitted that he had learned that it was not Gerry Lirio but an Inquirer editor who gave the offending article its headline. He was told that it is not a reporter but an editor who writes the head of an article. He then apologized to Gerry.

“Jim Paredes had valid reason to be angry and upset over the headline. It was inaccurate and unfair. It was based on the opening paragraph of Gerry’ article but it is one thing to say, as the article did, that Jim ‘gave up all hope for a better Philippines’ and another thing to say, as the headline did, that ‘Finally, Apo’s Jim Paredes gives up on RP.’ The first mean that Jim has given up hope that the Philippines will improve; the second, that Jim has given up on his country, period.

“The Inquirer apologizes to Jim Paredes.”