OPM to be Played in Philippine Radio Stations

I learned from our HUMAART online group discussion that Pres. Aquino wanted at least 4 OPM to be played in Philippine radio stations every hour. The article in http://mb.com.ph/node/272301/noynoy-call discusses that in detail. But come to think of it, this order has been existing since 1987 and yet it's not even implemented. Some of the students in the group still complained about this, and I tried to respond to their arguments.

• It's hard to implement this, because stations need to adjust to it.
  • If radio stations can play songs requested by their listeners... Why will it be hard for them to accommodate the request of the president?


• It will decrease the number of people listening the radio.
  • It's just a minimum of 4 OPMs per hour.
  • The directive does not force stations to play it exactly in a particular time.
  • People can switch from one station to another as they wish.
  • Majority of Filipinos still loves OPM (I think)


• More people will just use their own MP3 players.
  • It only shows that we are in a democratic society.
  • It's better than not playing at least 4 OPM at all or in an hour.


• Why not promote OPM in another way like supporting bands to perform in bars or fancy restaurants.
  • Not all people go to bars, and fancy restaurants are even expensive.
  • People won't go to concerts if they do not even know the band or some of the songs.
  • FM Radios are cheap and accessible for all. Music is free!
  • OPM played in radios can advertise the songs and the bands, which encourage people to buy their albums and attend their concerts.


• People will dislike OPM even more.
  • This is something I don't understand.
  • Not all OPM songs are good, but we have some that are really good, so we must not generalize.


• Radio industry may go down.
  • Is it really going to happen? It may even happen if all radio stations will not play any OPM songs at all.


• There's no freedom
  • How many songs do we have? The order is not even forcing us to listen at a defined set of OPM songs. Thus, the intention is not to violate freedom, but to promote our own music.