Finalist: National Book Award for Journalism (1997)
This easy-to-use reference book compiles information on the workings of key government institutions: the presidency, Congress, the courts, the police, the agencies that regulate the economy and the environment, and those that provide education and health services.
It describes the structure of these institutions and the laws that govern them. It explains how these agencies work and untangles the often arcane procedures that govern their operation. Government is a maze, and Uncovering the Beat is a guide to that maze.
A road map, survival guide and security blanket, this book is meant for reporters, journalism students and others who wish to learn more about the current practice of day-to-day journalism—and also day-to-day governing—in the Philippines. It is a practical guide that goes into what the President of the Republic can do, how a law is made and how the criminal justice system is supposed to operate. Uncovering the Beat lays down the rules as they are written in the books, but it also gets real, by describing how the rules are bent, mangled, ignored in courtrooms, jails, even the august halls of Congress.
© 1997, 332 pages, ISBN 971-8686-15-0
The book is available at the PCIJ office. For more information, email pcij@pcij.org or call (+632) 4319204.