Official Statement
We address our plight to the responsible citizens of Bacolod.
We are Skyscrapercity Bacolod, a group of like-minded Negrenses residing both in our beloved Negros Island and overseas who share the same passion: to promote Bacolod City as a tourism and investment hub, through sharing of opinions in the website called SkyScrapercity.com. Outside the forum website, we also maintain a private group in Facebook, viewable only by invitation.
As such, we regularly track the new developments happening in our Province of Negros Occidental and City of Bacolod. Individually, we are from various professions and careers, differing in opinions, but sharing the same passion and that is to see a prosperous province. It was and still is our wish to see our fellow Negrenses reaping the full benefits of his hard labor in his own land.
It came to our attention that certain individuals in media came across a private conversation in our private Facebook group through a screenshot. The private conversation contains personal opinions on the state of media in our beloved province. The conversation refers to an incident at a recent media event of a certain mall where some forum members stated opinions about the rudeness of certain “unnamed” media personalities.
Our 74-member strong Facebook group is a “secret group” which means, “Only members see the group, who’s in it and what members post.” This is to ensure that forum members can post their personal opinions on matters pertaining to the city and province, and the forum website in a private setting.
As to how certain media personalities got hold of our secret conversations still puzzles us but we condemn the infringement of our constitutionally-given right to privacy. We also condemn how some personalities have sweepingly dragged people unrelated to SkyscraperCity and our private Facebook group into this matter. The controversial thread was meant for our eyes only and never to slander media in general as some of our numbers are also members of the local and national media corps.
We give our sincerest apology to those who are unnecessarily affected by this controversy but we remain unapologetic with our steadfast call to responsible media, free from politics and bias. Media is a powerful tool for nation-building, especially in bringing developments to our beloved city and province.
We ask for the understanding of our kasimanwas and to clear the poisonous cloud maliciously placed above our heads. Mag-ugyon kita, uswag Negros!
At your sincerest service,
