Volume 2, Issue No. 23
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 Thursday, October 1, 2020
~ Periodico, the new kid on the media block in Toronto's Filipino community, has high aspirations to be instantly recognized. Its true owners are unspecified although a certain Naomi Ong is privately fronting as a proprietor. The tabloid's early beginning in March appears to have been fast-tracked at warp speed so that instead of counting seven months till this writing, it claims to have gone through a period to reach volume 12 which, in publishing, means "the number of years the publication has been circulated". Well, that's part of the lie. Most of the articles on its website are pirated from unknowing authors.
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PERIODICO'S NAOMI ONG
The 'Colourful' Story of an Online Pirate
By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ
Editor, The Filipino Web Channel
An admission and a challenge to probe deeper - that's how I interpret the two sentences emailed to me by a passing acquaintance, Naomi Ong who, until I wrote about the online piracy committed by a new tabloid, Periodico, was as invisible as the coronavirus but just as deadly.
"Deadly" in the way she trashes the legitimacy of copyrighted articles and posts them on a website still struggling to find its place in local media circles. She even keeps track of them neatly in an archive where 95 percent of the contents are from this reporter.
Just imagine the brazenness of her act and one will understand why I'm up in arms over the unauthorized use of my copyrighted articles in the online website Naomi Ong claims to be hers, as also the unverified owner of its print counterpart of the same name.
She had contracted me earlier this year to be the editor of a paper that I came to know later was Periodico. We agreed and came out with the print issue in March. It was the first and last for me, as it turned out. She must have thought that from the first issue onwards, she already had the right to publish my articles.
And so for six months from April to September, Naomi Ong had taken liberties with my articles and photos, publishing them on a website I didn't know existed. It appeared as if I was her staffer working for the paper. (Full story at: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2020/09/the-truth-must-be-told-i-was-deceived.html).
How she combed the web and fished for articles to make Periodico look like an established brand is a testament to her derring-do. I concede that, but it is wrong.
Her not being a journalist, at least as far as I know, must be the justification for her ignorance about writing and publishing. There's really nothing to show, she has no single body of work - a measure of one's journalistic output - from which to view her background in the written word.
It's difficult to define her by that perspective. However, Naomi Ong may be known by her former self, if that is all accurate. The existing claim is that she's a former concert producer. In addition, there's Periodico supplying the missing link to what seems to be her sordid past. (Video at: https://youtu.be/g7JWqL2AUDc).
"Ong is a well known scammer and a fleeing fugitive, who had fled to cities after cities and has a ‘Warrant of Arrest’ in Toronto and Vancouver," according to a certain Rowena Liangcungco aka Rowena Guinto. True or not, this accusation is published in Periodico's website.
It continued: "She’s recently spread false information that Naomi Ong is an academic fraud with fake nursing degree and falsified university credentials." There's no way of confirming this claim but the fact is, it's published in Periodico which presumably also tried to cross-check it.
One informant who did not wish to be identified for reasons not explained emailed this reporter after reading the earlier story, saying, and I quote word for word: "Romy there are lots of Filipinos here that are victims of Roxlee and Naomi with their investment resto and immigration. it is very sad na kapwa Filipino is doing this".
I've asked those alleged victims to speak out on condition of anonymity. I assured them their identities will be protected.
An unbylined article in Periodico which I assumed was written by Naomi Ong herself because it intimately recalled her relatives and work experiences, claimed she worked in Saudi Arabia as a full-time ICU nurse.
From 2000, she had momentary jobs in Canada as, to quote her exact words again, "certified PSW in North York, an Airline Ticketing Officer in Toronto, a Flight Attendant at Fort Saint John and a Restaurateur in London Ontario and Toronto".
Nothing in her work history indicated any academic or professional experience as a journalist, much less a writer, or anything that would identify her as having an affinity with newspaper publishing. Her hesitancy to come out in the open as Periodico owner may be attributed to that fact. Or, she's hiding in plain sight of people who claimed being victimized by her.
Only Naomi Ong can explain. She should really come clean.
On its website, Periodico makes the claim that: "More people believe in Periodico because we express disapproval of fake news, exaggeration and disinformation". Look who's talking. Isn't it ridiculous? (Copyright 2020. All Rights Reserved).
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