Impostors, Verbal Abusers in Toronto's Filipino Community

 Volume 2, Issue No. 10

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 Monday, August 17, 2020 

~ The internecine strife online and on paper picks up amidst the coronavirus pandemic that literally held us to a standstill for several months. The alleged scammers and their enablers are back and so are the people who keep a tight watch on their nefarious activities. Investigative journalism is taking a hit, expectedly, from people who make a career of bluffing and obfuscation.

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A QUESTION OF WHO'S TELLING THE TRUTH

Watchdog Reporting in the Time of COVID-19

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ

Editor, The Filipino Web Channel

"If an investigative reporter finds out that someone has been robbing the store, that may be gotcha journalism, but it's also good journalism". - Ben Bradlee

TORONTO - In March when the health situation was not as distressing as it is these days, Periodico came out with its first issue, the latest to join a market already saturated with identical tabloids catering to the Filipino community in the Greater Toronto Area.

The paper had ventured to be different in every aspect of news coverage. Content was to be its strength. Its vision was to stand out in an impartial and intelligent treatment of newsworthy articles impacting Filipinos. Its loyalty was to the public.

Periodico deliberately avoided soft news such as those about Philippine movie stars, and the usual entertainment fare that drives most, if not all, of the existing fortnightly and monthly periodicals. 

Neither Kapamilya nor Kapuso in terms of adverts and social engagement, it was not dependent, as the others are, on the largesse of the competing broadcast networks, which had split the Filipino community into zealous enclaves of screaming fandoms. Unity, preached but not practiced by all, is one of the paper's goals.

I do not own Periodico; I was offered to head it as editor-in-chief, and I accepted on the one condition that I would be given free rein in the management and choice of stories and pictures to be published. And so in mid-March, the modest 24-page paper came into being, boldly as it were, but not-so-perfectly.

There and then it spoke - and will continue to speak - truth to power, which means, to borrow a precise definition, "believing deeply in what you say and fighting every day to have that heard. It may not be popular; it means taking a risk, it means standing for something".

I remember writing an article on the subject in another paper on the belief it deserved such a token of acknowledgment. As time went by it became clear to me that I was mistaken; the personal interests of friends and allies mattered more than the interests of the community it serves.

Five months have passed and the expository articles that Periodico had published are unchallenged. The substantive contents are not disputed by the individuals identified in the exposés. Not the slightest whimper could be heard from their safe havens.

If this definition of truth to power reflects the paper's guiding principle, then it was courageously upholding every fiber of these words: "Speak truth to power means to confront those who hold important positions, whether in government, business or religious institutions. To speak truth to power means to demand a moral response to a problem, rather than an expedient, easy or selfish response".

Boasting aside, that March 2020 issue of Periodico was a model for watchdog reporting. The paper had become welcome nourishment for the other news outlets mainly because the contents are as controversial as they are unassailable.

None of the existing periodicals would dare touch those kinds of stories in Periodico for whatever reason. But for a paper to stand true to its role as the public entity to account for - the fourth estate, as it is called - it must report the reality and the falsehood at the same time and hold people responsible.

This core function has long been abandoned by what passes for as the Filipino media in Toronto, the reason people we thought we knew publicly are not what they really are, thrive and prosper. They ply their illicit trade in an atmosphere of indifference and open disregard for authority.

As much as we could get before publishing, we attempted to reach out to the individuals concerned. For others, such a process was irrelevant as their declarations are posted on social media for everyone to see and comment on. (Related story: https:// filwebchannelmagazine. blogspot.com/2020/08/balitas- non-story-to-avenge-hurt.html) .

"Who's Afraid of Tess Cusipag?" was Periodico's top story that ran on two pages. The second major story headlined "Hall of Shame" occupied two pages also. The third - "A Red Flag for 'Elite Crusaders' " took a full page, as did "The Stolen Idea of Taste of Manila".

Other stories were equally important, namely: "Eyes on the Lies", "Dismissed Cases Expose the Liars", "Writer Snaps at Balita", "Where Does the Truth End and the Lies Begin", "The Copycat with Multiple Personalities", "Elite Scammers or Elite Crusaders?", and other less contentious articles.

The headlines are mere snapshots of the depth and breadth of the whole narrative about the individual personalities and their activities in the community. (Related video at: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=0NGQX-SucJ4).

An example is Tess Cusipag, publisher and self-appointed editor of Balita tabloid. Her positions dictate an objective, careful and wise handling of issues. Ideally, she shouldn't be siding with protagonists. Her outlook must be independent of either side. However, it didn't happen before, it isn't happening now.

As I said in an earlier story, Ms. Cusipag is like a loose cannon. She has no compunction labeling people "stupid," "scammers," "magnanakaw" or "thieves" and the like. She landed a 21-day jail sentence and spent 13 days caged for casting aspersions on a judge who had decided in favor of the complainant in a libel case.

She belittles people like she's way richer than Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, or Mark Zuckerberg. She always has a word for them, "patay gutom" or dirt poor, which happens to be the epithet she hurled on a plaintiff in another lawsuit. (Full story at: https:// filwebchannelmagazine. blogspot.com/2020/03/bully- loose-cannon-whos-afraid-of- tess.html).

She calls a writer, supposedly, who also distributes her paper "that stupid edwin mercurio" (sic) who, as we now know, had copied a press release and passed it as his own, and got a byline in Balita where it was published. As soon as I discovered the plagiarized article, I called him a copycat. The last time I heard, she fired him.

Then there's the uncontroverted article by Allen Hammer featuring Toronto labor recruiter Chito Collantes, who, to improve his standing, has been affixing the abbreviation "Dr." to his name, unmindful of the probing inquiries on how the title came about, if legitimately.

"Through the years," writes Mr. Hammer, a writer, poet, and painter in the United States, "Collantes desperately needed a star on his shoulder to establish his credibility". He calls him a "freeloader" whose "alleged tales of relentless scams in the community were well known, though largely unreported by the meek and scared press".

His wife, Ms. Lily Hammer, who claims to have been gypped of $20,000 by Collantes, was not as generous with her words. "Chito Collantes is just as much of a crook as others are, ripping people off," she says. "People like him are no better than a common cockroach".

My article about the Taste of Manila (ToM) festival was also an eye-opener for those who didn't know. As conceived and carried out, ToM did not come from the fertile mind of Rolly Mangante as some people might have believed. He did not invent it.

The thought of having a ToM street fest had been crystallized during a meeting between city officials, notably then police chief Bill Blair (now a Member of Parliament), and Ambassador Pedro Chan, then the Philippine consul general in Toronto. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=7BqjP4DWUpg).

Mangante, a chauffeur of the Philippine Consulate who drove diplomatic officials to their appointments, was an unwanted bystander sitting in at a meeting he wasn't supposed to attend. That's where he got - or stole - the ToM idea he now claims as his. (Related story: https:// filwebchannelmagazine. blogspot.com/2020/08/a- lookback-at-taste-of-manila. html).

How ToM lasted for six years is a tribute, not to the amateurish Mangante who had fronted for it, but to the unsung volunteers who had conceptualized the festival from beginning to end, year after year, and had the decency to stay in the sidelines, not wanting to call attention to themselves.

The stories and events I mention here are just the tips of the iceberg, so to speak. There are many more waiting to be unraveled. (Related story: https:// filwebchannelmagazine. blogspot.com/2020/07/ community-journalists-as- watchdogs.html).

If we're really going to protect the community from individuals of dubious backgrounds and interests, let's be on the alert. Let's all be the watchdogs. (Copyright 2020. All Rights Reserved).