Balita's Impudent Display of 'Schadenfreude'

Volume 1, Issue No. 29

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 Wednesday, February 19, 2020 

~ The pleasure people experience at the misfortune that befalls someone else is what the Germans call schadenfreude. It's a human thing, according to psychologists. In Toronto's Filipino community, there's at least one periodical that thrives on harm and joy, the combining form of schadenfreude.

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IS THIS TEAMWORK?

Wayward Balita's Display of 'Schadenfreude' 

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ 

Editor, The Filipino Web Channel

"To hear that your neighbor was worse off than yourself was not an altogether unpleasant experience". - Lizette Woodworth Reese

TORONTO - These past several weeks, that complex emotion called schadenfreude (from the German schaden, harm, and freude, joy) was at its most prominent display no less by Balita, currently the largest photo album tabloid in the Filipino community.

Schadenfreude, says Wikipedia, is the experience of pleasure, joy, or self-satisfaction that comes from learning of or witnessing the troubles, failures, or humiliation of another.

When we (I was one of the respondents while writing for that paper) lost two libel suits (out of four) against us years ago, our adversaries hiding in the shadows were, of course, extremely delighted, their grin from ear to ear whipped up by a communist propaganda sheet.

It's a loss we must accept regardless of our personal belief that our legal defense was wanting. But even as we were badly damaged, I was not going to let them take away my dignity as a person and as a journalist for all of my adult life. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrIFXOV-7mU).

Lawsuits, threats to life and limb, and actual physical harm are inherent in the practice of the profession, particularly if one is heavily invested in investigative journalism as I still am.

I loath schadenfreude. But Balita, in its careless exercise of gratuitous editorial muscle, has unfairly demonized at least five women without giving them the opportunity to explain why they shouldn't be labeled as "scammers" as the tabloid repeatedly keeps harping.

Where's the presumption of innocence, that sacred principle that says that one is considered innocent until proven guilty? I believe this doctrine has been set aside by Balita many times over in the pursuit of schadenfreude. (Related story at: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2020/01/trial-and-condemnation-by-publicity.html).

As a matter of fact, there's an in-house team that does it, namely, Teresita "Tess" Cusipag, the paper's publisher and self-appointed editor; and her distributor acting as a "guest writer" - the copycat Edwin Mercurio. Together they spun yarns of half-truths and press releases and published them as legitimate stories.

Not so surprising, actually, because neither has the inquisitive mind, the knowledge, and the experience of an analytical journalist to distinguish between crap just by the smell of it, and real-life narratives of people caught in extreme circumstances.

The series of articles bylined by the human copier and his principal would not pass the basic fact-checking yet in the rush to have their schadenfreude, they forgot (or they don't know) that journalism has rules and a professional code of ethics.

Sloppy writing does not journalism make; it's not a genre, it's not a literary style. What it is, is plain and simple run-of-the-mill writing. Mediocre, in other words. Garbage, to put it bluntly.

I had this feeling - now being borne out by facts - that this Balita-Cusipag-Mercurio campaign of demonization is actually a diversion to evade shining the light on the real scammers in the community who I'd like to dub as the "elite scammers". 

I use "elite" advisedly as an adjective to highlight what I knew a long-time ago - that they are the leading, the finest, sweet-talking scammers the community knows very little about. Most of them are charlatans.

By the way, there's a recently-surfaced group that calls itself "elite crusaders". Well, if they have their "elite crusaders" I also have my "elite scammers". I will expose them one by one after I finished gathering all available evidence. (Related story at: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2020/01/who-in-toronto-is-real-swindler.html).

Questions: if they're real "crusaders" what are they crusading for and for whom? Why don't they crusade for transparency and accountability, for example, among community organizations like Filipino Centre Toronto or Taste of Manila? They just might uncover some hocus-pocus there, you know.

There's no doubt that scammers of all colors, shapes, and sizes exist. They're everywhere. There are people pretending to be do-gooders but in reality, they are wolves in sheep's clothing. I know some in our midst and I will name them at the proper time.

Schadenfreude is all over the place, apparently to fill up a vacuum in hard news reporting and news analysis in Balita. 

For all its imagined power and reach, the paper's content is focused on loose talk in Philippine moviedom (for example, Guess Who?), the lives of movie stars, and dozens of pictures of socials and social climbers. The misfortune of one movie actor losing a partner in a divorce because of infidelity is fodder for schadenfreude, or is it?

That's my personal assessment. I had been against it because I knew some of the people being impugned and from which instant gratification was being derived by a few troublemakers.

But more than fake news and rumor-mongering that Balita seems to be trying to institutionalize, my concern as a journalist is its prejudicial treatment of news subjects such as the alleged scammers and con artists that causes hatred and disrespect in the community.

Balita, and for that matter, any news periodical in the community, has no right, much less a license, to be the judge, jury, and executioner at the same time. And to think a bunch of misfits would wield that power? Terrifying, isn't it? (Copyright 2020. All Rights Reserved).

U.S. Grand Jury Indicts 3 Officials of Philippine-Based Church

Volume 1, Issue No. 28

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, February 14, 2020 

~ A federal grand jury in California has indicted top officials of a church founded and led by the self-declared "appointed son of God" for allegedly conspiring to engage in trafficking through immigration and marriage fraud. The three defendants who were arrested on January 29 are scheduled to be arraigned on February 20 in Los Angeles, California.

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TRAFFICKING, FRAUD ARE ALLEGED

Acolytes of 'Appointed Son of God' Indicted

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ 

Editor, The Filipino Web Channel

TORONTO - Three top officials of a Philippine-based church founded by Apollo Quiboloy, the self-declared "appointed son of God", have been indicted in California for allegedly conspiring "to commit a series of offenses, including trafficking with respect to forced labor, document servitude, immigration fraud and marriage fraud". (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ytDeX8-EWA).

Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the United States Attorney in the Central District of California, identified the defendants in a press statement furnished The Filipino Web Channel on Thursday, February 13, 2020, as:  

1. Guia Cabactulan, 59, the lead administrator of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, The Name Above Every Name (KOJC) in the United States who maintained direct communication with KOJC leadership in the Philippines; (Background: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Jesus_Christ_(church)).

2. Marissa Duenas, 41, who allegedly secured the passports immediately after workers entered the U.S. and handled fraudulent immigration documents for KOJC workers; and 

3. Amanda Estopare, 48, who allegedly was in charge of tracking and reporting the money raised in the U.S. to KOJC officials in the Philippines.

"All three defendants – who were arrested on January 29 and remain in federal custody – are scheduled to be arraigned on the indictment on February 20 in United States District Court in Los Angeles," the spokesman said.

Quiboloy, referred to as Pastor Quiboloy by his KOJC followers, is a close friend and supporter of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte in whose hometown, Davao City, his church's main cathedral is located. (More info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Quiboloy).

The indictment alleged that KOJC representatives obtained visas for church members to enter the U.S. by claiming, for example, they would be performing at musical events. But once the church members arrived in the U.S., they were required to surrender their passports and work long hours as “FTWs” (full-time workers), who solicited donations for a church non-profit called the Children’s Joy Foundation USA (CJF). 

The indictment claimed that while the workers raised funds by telling donors their money would benefit impoverished children in the Philippines, most or all of the money raised was used to finance KOJC operations and the lavish lifestyles of church leaders.

"While some KOJC workers knew they were entering the U.S. to be fundraisers," the indictment alleged “other KOJC workers were unaware of the actual purpose until they were forced . . . to solicit on the streets nearly every day, year-round, working very long hours, and often sleeping in cars overnight, without normal access to over-the-counter medicine or even clothes.”

"The defendants confiscated the victims’ passports and other immigration documents to prevent and restrict . . . JC workers’ liberty to move and travel in order to maintain the labor and services of KOJC workers, some of whom were and had been a victim of a severe form of trafficking,” according to the indictment.

 "As part of the long-running scheme, the three defendants kept productive workers in the U.S. by obtaining student visas or by arranging sham marriages with KOJC workers who were U.S. citizens," the indictment alleged. 

"To create the illusion of legitimate marriages," the indictment alleged, "Duenas possessed ATM cards to show immigration officials that workers in the sham marriages had joint bank accounts. 

"Furthermore, Cabactulan and Duenas possessed wedding rings for KOJC workers to use during their fraudulent marriage ceremonies. Immigration records summarized in the criminal complaint indicate there were 82 marriages involving KOJC administrators and FTWs over the past two decades," according to the indictment. 

"When authorities searched the KOJC compound in Van Nuys on January 29, Cabactulan and Duenas possessed approximately 72 Filipino passports, seven United States passports, and one Ukrainian passport that belonged to other people," the indictment alleged. It also noted that Duenas possessed four male wedding rings and three female wedding rings in an office at the KOJC compound. (Copyright 2020. All Rights Reserved).