Friday 27 December 2019

Liars and Wannabe Media in Toronto's Filipino Community


Volume 1, Issue No. 21
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@gmail.com) for the information and understanding of Filipinos and the diverse communities in North America . . . 

Our latest as of Friday, December 27, 2019 

~  The dust hasn't settled yet and here comes another controversy that could potentially bankrupt businesses and individuals. A surfeit of liars is surfaced with the dropping of all cases against a Filipino businesswoman. Now we know why people lied, who their enablers were, and why they tried to propagate their black propaganda.

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AFTERMATH OF SUITS VS LIWAYWAY MIRANDA

Dismissed Cases Expose the Liars


By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ
Editor, The Filipino Web Channel


“I wasn't sure which was worse - to know you were a liar or to believe your own bullshit.” ― Eileen Cook, The Hanging Girl


TORONTO - Looking intense, her ferocious eyes bulging from their sockets, Liwayway Miranda aka Lily Hammer vowed to chase down her accusers, including those in the local Filipino media, for ruining her reputation and her successful business. (Latest video at: ).

She would not let them walk away just like that - no remorse, no admission of guilt, no word of apology, nothing that would soothe the pain they have caused her over months of casting aspersions on her as a person and as a businesswoman.

Her anger is understandable at this point, after all, she was the one at the receiving end of a seemingly relentless campaign to smear her business by people who wanted a share of the one-billion-dollar mushroom industry pie and by those threatened by her thriving recruitment agency.

She rages against the incompetent copycat "guest writer" and the equally inept publisher who both overlooked the truth for the convenience of satisfying the mob of liars breathing down their necks for Ms. Miranda's head.

And this mob - the accusers - are the six runaway mushroom pickers aided by Dominador "Jun" Saludares, a paralegal suspended by the Law Society Tribunal for committing professional misconduct. (More info at: https://lawsocietytribunal.ca/OrderAndReasons/Saludares%20(2018-12-17).pdf).

That's basically the situation Ms. Miranda found herself in once she's become the go-to person for aspiring Filipino workers seeking a better life in Canada. (More stories at: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2019/12/cabal-of-mushroom-pickers-exposed-in.html).

The mob, propped up no less by willing enablers in media who apparently paid little or no attention to their sources, had initially succeeded in destroying her, thanks to a corrupted article by a certain Edwin Mercurio and published in Balita. 

Mercurio's article turned out to be a press release by Migrante Ontario, a workers' advocacy organization. That same press release was published in May 2019 in TML Weekly, the newspaper of the Ottawa-based Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Canada.

The "success" the mob and its enablers thought they had pulled off started to collapse during the pre-trial hearings in Superior Court. Upon cross-examination, three out of ten witnesses - a fourth was scheduled but had backed out - confessed their lies. The flaws were already showing.

Faced with the uncertainty of conviction, Crown prosecutors moved to withdraw all the charges, including human trafficking and misrepresentation, against Ms. Miranda, for lack of evidence. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QprwiFQiLjs).

So, on that cold morning of Wednesday, December 11, 2019, the judge nodded his agreement and dropped the indictments. If the case proved anything, it is that the Filipino community is littered with liars and wannabe media people.

Teresita Cusipag, publisher and self-declared editor of Balita, the community's largest photo album of a tabloid, wrote in June 2019, and I quote: "Lily Scammer is Lily Hammer the fraud and scammer". This pitiful attempt at rhyme is fraught with legal issues.

I had objected to the categorization on grounds that no court has proven those allegations. But she was implacable, declaring instead that she was "convicted" and that I should help the "victims" find her. "Dont (sic) try to help a scammer and fraud," she asserted.

Three months earlier, in March 2019, Ms. Cusipag asked friends for a picture of Ms. Hammer so she could publish in Balita. Indeed, the paper's March 16-31, 2019 issue, carried her photo that accompanied a reprint of a Toronto Star story involving the six runaways in Small Claims Court.

Coupled with Ms. Cusipag's request for a photo was her assertion that Ms. Hammer was, in her own words, and I quote: " . . . MANLOLOKO PA RIN, SCAMMER PA RIN, CROOK PA RIN".

For good measure, she added, and I quote again verbatim: "I HOPE THESE PEOPLE (the victims supposedly) WILL CONTINUE TO FILE THE CIVIL CASE OF FRAUD. she should rot in jail. so you can visit her".

The statement presupposes a connection between me and Ms. Miranda. There's none. But I would not let that pass without comment even as I had experienced her knack for mindless outbursts every time I complained against her censoring some of my articles unfavorable to her friends.

It wasn't the first time that Ms. Cusipag tried to establish linkages. She also claimed, without proof, that Ms. Miranda "lived with him before". The "him" here is the guy who affixes "Dr." to his name to enhance his image. I personally believe he is a quack, if not, a sham.

" . . . at least he is not fraud," she wrote in defense of him like her words would magically legitimize his unchallenged claim as a "Dr.", whatever that connotes.

As I see now, and with all the background information I gathered, the cheat is the "Dr.", not Ms. Miranda. Would that make Ms. Cusipag a prevaricator? Is she his protector?

Ms. Miranda explains that she did business with the "Dr." for two months in 2011 and invested $20,000 in his recruitment agency, which, by the way, still operates in Toronto and advertises in local papers, including Balita.

"On January 2012 when I came back to Toronto (from Florida where she saw her husband), all my money that I invested were gone," Ms. Miranda explains"He used my name to get money from applicants. And used my money for his personal needs," she adds.

From what I learn these past few days, Ms. Cusipag and the "Dr." are coming together for what's shaping up to be another sizable lawsuit for Balita. I can't wait to see how the "Dr." would unravel himself and see how he managed to dupe the community all these years. (Copyright 2019. All Rights Reserved).

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