NPC backs Antiporda
Calls on all affiliated media groups support ex- NPC prexy
THE National Press Club of the Philippines (NPC), the biggest and one of the oldest organizations of active members of the press, expressed its full support for its former two-term president and current National Irrigation Administration (NIA) administrator, Benny Antiporda.
“As Antiporda’s personal acquittance and fellow media colleagues for over 2 decades now during our collective effort to reform and promote the credibility of the NPC in particular, and the Philippine media in general, we witnessed the many times he made personal sacrifices and took personal risks,” the NPC said in a statement.
The NPC recalled that “right after the Ampatuan Massacre in November 2009 that killed 34 of our media colleagues, Antiporda rejected the P20 million bribe, in cash, offered to him by an emissary —“with more to come”— to dissuade him from leading the Philippine media from further pursuing justice for the massacre victims.
“If Antiporda is such a corrupt person as the OMB and his detractors now want him to be pictured thru his suspension, why did he not take the bribe money back then, at a time when he is also just another struggling journalist?, the statement added.
And why did he not also accept the cash “pasalubong” offered to him when he was appointed agency last February?,” the NPC asked.
Also, the NPC bared in its statement that “during the Club’s oath-taking with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., last August 25, 2022 with Antiporda as our guest, we witnessed his pledge to the President that if he could not reform the agency by cleansing it of its corrupt personnel within one year in order for the NIA to deliver on its core mission of irrigating the country’s farmlands during the Marcos administration, he would tender his resignation.”
“We are calling on all NPC-affiliated media organizations in the country to issue their separate statements of support to Antiporda and his campaign to rid the NIA, a critical government agency, of graft and corruption. Finally, we also call on Congress and President Marcos Jr., to urgently look into this matter,” the NPC added.
