Mr. Fidel Agcaoili’s letter (Inquirer, Dec. 21) taking issue with Mr. Ross H. Munro’s "The New Khmer Rouge" (Inquirer, Dec. 18-20) reflects less on Mr. Munro’s professionalism than on Mr. Agcaoili’s ignorance of standard journalistic practices.

He does not attack Mr. Munro’s logic or his evidence. He is content to make a big deal about the fact that the article first came out in Commentary which he describes as a conservative Jewish publication condemned by the Arabs. And yet, to us Filipinos, what should matter is that the article was deemed worthy of publication by the Inquirer and Malaya, publications which by no stretch of imagination can be called "conservative," "CIA-funded," or edited by incompetent hacks. For reasons I cannot fathom, Mr. Agcaoili seems to have more faith in the editorial judgment of a bunch of unnamed Arabs than in evaluations made by our own Filipino editors.

Mr. Agcaoili claims he was misquoted, but protests that Mr. Munro misrepresented him (Agcaoili) as the spokesman of the Task Force Detainees. Mr. Agcaoili does not seem to realize that when he talked to Mr. Munro about the TDF because Sister Marianni "could not attend to him," he was presenting (misrepresenting?) himself to Sister Marianni’s substitute. It may be that only the TFD chairperson can speak for the organization, but Mr. Agcaoili evidently felt free to do so.

When Mr. Munro identified himself as a Time-Life bureau chief, he was making no guarantee that Time would publish the Agcaoili interview. No magazine can print every story submitted to it. And, on the commonsensical theory that a statement made for publication should be published anywhere, it was all right for Mr. Munro to use the Agcaoili interview for an article submitted to Commentary provided he had first used it in a story he had sent in to Time or Life, which have first call on Mr. Munro’s work. If this proviso was met, no deception was involved.

Mr. Agcaoili should realize that any person who consents to be interviewed by a journalist (particularly a foreign newsman unfamiliar with the local context) risks being pictured as stupid or naive. Mr. Agcaoili gambled and lost.

JOSE MEDRANO