Dumaguete City | The News Commentator Jones Manaban

Dumaguete City | The News Commentator Jones Manaban

The News Commentator Jones Manaban

Jones Manaban is a legend in Dumaguete City in terms of radio broadcasting. His name will be forever engraved in the history books of Dumaguete as one of the witty radio hosts. 

But does his name and title excuse him from making irresponsible statements on air?

Here’s where I am coming from. Last October 11 at around 5-PM, Jones Manaban was covering on air the exit of former Mayor and Governor Pryde Henry Teves, as Roel Degamo was about to retake the Governor’s seat. It is very obvious that Jones Manaban is a supporter of the Teves. And during that day on his program, he became agitated when one of the callers referred to a Facebook post accusing the Teves of something irregular.

He made several statements, then he closed it by making a remark about using Facebook for “sex”, and making a joke about "Jim Paredes" and his tongue. He is referring to the explicit leaked video of the musician.

Now here is my personal opinion.

I would not talk more about Jones Manaban, but I would like to share my opinion about what was wrong with his actions.

Radio personalities are influencers. This means that a lot of people, young and old, are heavily influenced by what radio personalities speak on air. Influencers should have the personal awareness to filter out words coming out of their mouth because they might send wrong signals or information to the listeners. They can pollute the minds of young people. 

Especially if their program is primetime, radio hosts should be very mindful of what they say. And leading to my next point.

Sex scandals are not something to make fun of. Especially from someone whose voice is listened to by many. Though this is the bad habit of former President Duterte, it should not be a practice by radio hosts. We must be reminded that thousands of victims are hurting from the exploitation of sex videos. It is not something to make fun of because what if it was you? Would you want your sex stories told to the rest of the world? Or, is it morally or in any way correct to make fun of people inside sex videos? 

Radio hosts in whatever field should portray and execute a character of high good moral values.

Radio hosts should maintain their cool on air. If you want a successful career in radio hosting, specifically in the field of news commentary, you should learn to keep your cool. You should learn to listen to and respect other people’s views. You should be a good listener and be considerate of other people’s opinions. You should learn to extract the roots of their opinion to gain insights, and not burn the listener when their opinion is different from yours.

Final Thoughts

All of us are entitled to express what is inside our heads. But there are times when we need to curtail our actions because we are influencers, and we are speaking to the general public. 

Though this is just my personal opinion, I do hope that morality, and good character becomes a revived fashion on the radio.

Read More: The Two Governors of Negros Oriental, Degamo vs. Teves