TRILLANES’ OFF-THE-RECORDS JUICIER THAN ACTUAL INTERVIEWS

IF you wish to get not just firsthand but the juiciest and meatiest information from Senator Antonio “Sonny” F. Trillanes IV, you just have to wait until after the TV camera lights have dimmed and the voice recorders are off to get them. But that’s the catch—strictly off-the-record when he tells his stories.

A day before the senator’s press conference with Zamboanga press people set on October 3 at the Garden Orchid Hotel, Sam Lintongan, the designated aide of the senator for his Zamboanga trip, texted us to advice that “only one question and one follow up for each media outlet/station” would be allowed. The following day, when the conference proper was about to start, the press people trooped not to their designated tables but to the senator’s table and did a round-table interview, shooting unlimited questions one after the other.

Senator Trillanes willingly answered most of the questions and refused to answer some, saying he would later address them off-the-record.

Was the senator serious about keeping the private conversation off-the-record? He was, at at least at that time, because it came to a point when he had to ask a TV correspondent if she was recording the conversation. The correspondent said no, explaining that she was merely tinkering with her phone to get some photos of the senator. The issues that were talked about then were the circumstances that led to the siege of Zamboanga including the personalities that were involved. During that chitchat, the senator also warned about more exposes against President Binay, and that in the days to come the papers would run stories about the latter’s Batangas estate. True enough, it was the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s banner story on October 8.

On October 16, at the Kapihan sa Senado, the press people who were left behind after Senator Trillanes’ presscon again trooped to his table and got snippets of information, even some personal anecdotes about Vice-President Binay. The senator said he’d rather not talk in public about very personal things involving the Vice President and would stick to the issues that are currently being investigated by the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee.

I guess the senator merely wouldn’t want to be quoted—or misquoted—and is not actually averse to some of these stories being used by press people in their reports for whatever they are worth. BEEN THERE, DONE THAT/JOSEPHINE JARON-CODILLA

.. Continue: Remate.ph (source)

TRILLANES’ OFF-THE-RECORDS JUICIER THAN ACTUAL INTERVIEWS