Volume 8, Issue No. 1
OPINION/COMMENTARY
/ News That Fears None, Views That Favor Nobody /
. . . A community service of The Filipino Web Channel (TheFilipinoWebChannel@gmail.com) and the Philippine Village Voice (PhilVoiceNews@aol.com) for the information and understanding of Filipinos and the diverse communities in North America and Europe . . .
Our latest as of Monday, July 13, 2026
~ Keeping track of news developments relevant to the Filipino diaspora has been one thankless but rewarding job in the service of the community. The Filipino Web Magazine enters its eighth year undeterred by threats and criticisms expected of a news outlet that prioritizes exposing the ills, corruption and deceptive schemes victimizing our compatriots.
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FILIPINO WEB MAGAZINE
Online Mag Enters 8th Year
of Service to the Community
By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ
Editor, The Filipino Web Channel
"The press is not the enemy of the people. The press is the people's guarantee that they will know what is done in their name." — Ali Velshi
TORONTO - More than 400 articles over a span of seven years - that's roughly 57 articles per year or an average of four articles a month - embody the Filipino Web Magazine (FWM) as it turns another chapter in its self-supporting outreach to the community.
The online blog enters its eighth year serving the information needs of Filipinos in Canada, the United States, the Philippines, and some European countries, notably the United Kingdom, Germany, and Spain.
Year after year after year, I mark FWM's birth on July 19, 2019 in much the same modest way I would the natal days of loved ones, close friends, and my other social media news channels.
Be they of individuals or of unemotional entities like corporations, birthdays are significant milestones worth remembering, at least, for what they've made of one self in a moment of time.
FWM's coming was forced by differences in principles, disparities in competence and honesty, and deep-seated beliefs, among them, strict adherence to the truth.
Truth is paramount in journalism. Any attempt to stifle it, as far I'm concerned, would violate a code of ethics journalists are duty-bound to uphold regardless of the cost to their professional and personal lives.
In my particular case, the cost of standing up for the truth was the close of a writing stint in Balita that had been rich in news, features, and investigative reporting but awfully lacking in decent compensation.
(Related story: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2019/12/defending-truth-has-its-downside.html).
My work there was terminated through a brusque email in June 2019, and when it ended - happily for me - I felt being released from moronic stupor that had shrunk my brain.
Once out, I discovered that all through the years I had been writing for the paper, I had become an employee by operation of law, which meant entitlement to some employment benefits.
That morsel of truth was hidden from me. Only after Canada Revenue Agency conducted an audit of the publication did it surface. Everything due me as an employee was never redressed.
Far from whining, my point in mentioning the circumstances of FWM's birth was to show how grateful I am at the turn of events. Where else would I get a record 123,424 reads (as of this post) if I had stayed with a tabloid claiming a dubious 15,000 copies in circulation?
The moral compass I carry since I started a journalism career years back remains active and steadfast. I believe that's the reason readers flock to FWM and to my video news outlets under the banner of Romar Media Canada.
Until I joined Balita in January 2012 upon invitation by its late editor Ruben Cusipag, the tabloid never had the prestige of a dynamic community newspaper that went mainstream with its reporting when circumstances warranted.
That's because I harnessed my knowledge and experience in international reporting as a former foreign correspondent in the treatment of local news.
It's no empty boast, it's the truth. Soon as I left, it's gone back to its old self, excelling in its forte, which is entertainment, rumour-mongering, and mindless reporting of inconsequential events.
(Related story: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2024/05/balita-libel-scorecard-5-cases-3-losses.html).
Take any copy of the paper from Filipino stores where it's dumped, and find out that what I'm saying is not an exaggeration. Its specialty writ large is there for everyone to see and read.
Says Ontario Superior Court Justice R. Lee Akazaki in a decision finding Tess Cusipag liable for defaming businesswoman Liwayway Miranda: "Apart from her evidence that she took over Balita from her husband, Ms. Cusipag did not provide any evidence of any training or background in journalism."
Whew! It stings. The incompetence is institutionalized in a court decision. And she calls herself editor!
My hasty departure from Balita did not end my journalistic pursuits to the absolute dismay of my detractors. Rather, it energized me to strive harder to uncover wrongdoing perpetrated by Filipinos on Filipinos.
(Related story: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2025/04/balita-wronged-businesswoman-liwayway.html).
Balita had exploited my unfamiliarity with Toronto's Filipino community when I came in from California in 2010. Per findings of an audit by Canada Revenue Agency, it had victimized me by withholding information that I was an employee. Sounds unbelievable but it's true.
That experience reminds me of another Filipino tabloid, The Philippine Reporter, whose husband-and-wife editors cheated two writers, lied about it, and even perpetrated a hoax for months to conceal the deception.
Related stories:
It's hard to imagine that these two Filipino newspapers which supposedly are exemplars of virtue would be the very ones to commit disgraceful acts against their colleagues. (Copyright 2026. All Rights Reserved).
