Volume 8, Issue No. 5
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 . . . .
Our latest as of Tuesday, August 4, 2026
~ The facts speak for themselves. But for the publisher of Balita tabloid, her version of facts is entirely different. And here we are, confronted again by the prospect of another lawsuit because she openly disregards the truth and spins the story to suit her dubious standing.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
She Claims Paying a Total
of $1.5-Million in Damages
BUT THE CHEQUES TELL A DIFFERENT STORY
By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ
Editor, The Filipino Web Channel
"I don't think you're going to pull the wool over anyone's eyes with all this macrame talk." - FayJay
TORONTO - The three-time loser and once imprisoned publisher of Balita, Teresita "Tess" Cusipag, has potentially opened herself, again, to another defamation lawsuit with a recent posting on Facebook.
" . . . Because I was the one with the money, the lawsuits payoff was shouldered by me alone. Almost 1.5M," she says. Those words are loaded with lies, e.g. "shouldered by me alone" and "Almost 1.5M".
For context, approximately one-and-a-half-million dollars or almost $1.5 million was the figure I used in my previous articles.
It represents the sum total of all the damages and costs of the three lawsuits she lost, including the latest one initiated by businesswoman Liwayway Miranda. In each of the suits, Ms. Cusipag was ordered by the courts to pay nearly half-a-million dollars to the plaintiffs.
The barefaced lie that serves to strengthen her "millionaire" status is the claim that she alone "shouldered" paying the aggregated amount.
One of her sons had written three cheques, with his name, address, and bank account imprinted on them, for damages, costs and interest totalling $414,714.86 incurred in another defamation suit.
Those three cheques by and from her son belie her declaration, meaning she did not actually pay the entire $1.5 million by herself.
But the equally significant part of her statement is the amount - $1.5-million - which implies she has already complied with the decision of Superior Court Judge R. Lee Akazaki and upheld by a panel of three justices of the Court of Appeal for Ontario to compensate Ms. Miranda.
That false assertion puts Ms. Miranda in a bind. For one, her lawyers who are also waiting to be paid would now cast aspersions on her because she insists not a dime has been remitted to her.
And here contradicting that is Ms. Cusipag publicly saying she's already paid a total of $1.5 million. Without her realizing it, she basically calls Ms. Miranda a liar.
If Ms. Cusipag's intent is to reclaim her sagging reputation as a "millionaire," then she flatly fails, and places herself in a vulnerable position.
Based on my own experience as a reporter for Balita for seven years, obfuscating the truth seemed to be one of the hallmarks of her influence as publisher and so-called editor of the tabloid.
While there, I had tried so hard to wean away the paper's editorial outlook from the kind of reporting that bordered on gossip and rumor-mongering.
Contrary to a wild statement she posted on Facebook attacking my person but deleted promptly, I owe Balita nothing. I owe Ms. Cusipag nothing.
On the other hand, it's Ms. Cusipag and Balita who owed me everything for the years I worked there as a reporter (with the fancy but meaningless title of associate editor) and columnist upon invitation by founder Ruben Cusipag.
If not for Canada Revenue Agency which conducted an audit, I would not have known that my tenure constituted employment which entitled me to pecuniary benefits that Ms. Cusipag hid and denied.
To this day, she would not admit to any wrongdoing even at that time she was sentenced to 21 days in prison for criminal contempt resulting from her attack on a judge of the Ontario Superior Court. She cried crocodile tears and led away. (Related video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9ykwazA-WE).
Her recent post declares, and I quote: "People all know that the law cases were not to my wrongdoings but for somebody whom I trusted to help but instead put us in a lot of trouble."
(Related story: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2022/01/good-lawyering-won-libel-cases.html).
Out of respect for the late Ruben Cusipag who I considered a colleague, I am not to be lured by her into reacting to what he did and did not during his lifetime. Let me just say he was a journalist in the truest sense of the word.
His widow is a far cry from him. Her sense of values swings from people who applaud to people who admonish. I belong to the latter category because my own principles as a person and journalist do not tolerate wrongdoing by friend or foe.
If some people perceived me as waging personal battles they are wrong. Ideally, investigative journalism does not distinguish between a buddy and an adversary. It's the act, the misdeed, that's being uncovered, and why, by the person committing it.
When she is exposed, Ms. Cusipag's usual reaction is to launch into unproven personal attacks. That is borne out by five defamation lawsuits she, Balita and I (in some cases) had faced and lost.
The first two suits that also involved me had prevailed, much of it because of her poor choice of lawyers. The third by Ms. Miranda also succeeded for basically the same reason. (Copyright 2026. All Rights Reserved.)
