The headline-writer is very up-to-date: He/she must have thought: “Hmm, the lead says ‘almost tagged a suspect’; but we cannot use ‘near-suspect’, or ‘almost suspect’, or ‘ex-future suspect’…”
“Person of interest” is what U.S. police officers use to refer to those who are/ were included in the investigation but not officially considered a suspect; and it’s what American news agencies also use, quoting law-enforcement agencies, to protect themselves from any suit (the word “suspect” has derogatory connotation.) The term has found itself in certain U.S. criminal statutes: “Person in interest shall mean the person who is the primary subject of a criminal justice record”.
Although… I think this is still journalese or legalese or policelese/ coplese, so some journalists put it in quotes, in the same way as “LPA” or “low pressure area” is weatherlese… Now, how to translate that to Filipino… “taong may interes”? “taong pinag-iinteresan”, “taong kamuntik nang pagsuspetsahan”, “taong pwede pang pagsuspetsahan”?… take your pick.
The Inquirer page one editor used the photo and simply put the photo credit “Malacanang photo”
(rightclicked from inquirer.net used here non-commercially for review and criticism purposes)
— ASK THEM FOR THE LINK WHERE THEY RIGHTCLICKED THE PHOTO FROM — THAT LINK EXISTS IN THE TOOL BAR OF A WINDOW IN MY COMPUTER BECAUSE I DOWNLOADED IT, THEN, IT WAS DELETED BY THE OFFICIAL GAZETTE FB, i posted the link for about an hour in my blog, then, changed my mind and removed the link because i knew that the big media organizations would use it wantonly without acknowledgement of how they found it — Hay naku, ganyan talaga ang mga taong makapal ang mukha, ako pa ang kelangang magpasensiya sa kanila (C’est la vie, that’s what thick-skinned people are made of, we have to make allowances for them). Well, youknow where you saw it first.
And you also know kung sino ang mga walang delicadeza (who are unethical).
(Tribute to Gani re-published by YahooPhilippines March 6, and the Inquirer, front page, yesterday). Around this time, we would be getting texts and phone calls from Gani about the graduation program. Aside from the certificates of recognition of the Inquirer scholarship grants, Gani would lug to the stage, with a big smile, small gift-bags of goodies which looked like he had handpicked himself, and hand them to each graduate-scholar. It made all the difference.
