Volume 2, Issue No. 24
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, October 5, 2020
~ Hardly saturating a market of fortnightlies and monthlies, Periodico, the new tabloid introduced in March, makes an unfounded and excessive claim that it has already caused a sensation in Toronto's Filipino community with just a single issue. Of course, nobody believes that; it's a lie perpetrated by a devious publisher who can't even come out of hiding. In reality, the paper has been prepped to neutralize the personal attacks by another unreliable publication.
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TORONTO'S PERIODICO TABLOID
Stealing Content and Claiming Instant Fame
By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ
Editor, The Filipino Web Channel
“The problem with incompetence is its inability to recognize itself.” ―
TORONTO - For the very few people who managed to pick up a copy of Periodico, the 24-page tabloid recently revived from COVID death by its owner who seems to be in perpetual hiding from creditors, be warned of its false identity and deceptive practices.
On October 15, the paper will have its third issue, according to an announcement on its website. I wonder how it can do this. Its only paying advertiser is wasting money on a paper with questionable readership in areas it claims to circulate in, such as the Greater Toronto Area, Barrie, Hamilton, London, Ontario; and Niagara Falls.
To penetrate the GTA alone is a big challenge for any ethnic paper, particularly for one that's just two-issues old, with no name recall, and with a limited number of copies at 10,000. GTA has nearly 283,000 Filipinos. Clearly, it's unwise for advertisers to even consider it for their marketing.
The claim that the paper created "quite a stir in the community" on its first issue in March is nothing but an empty boast by a small neighbourhood group of merry-makers adept at karaoke-singing and binge-drinking.
Maybe among themselves, it stirred them awake after they found out that I am denouncing the people behind Periodico, mainly their buddy Naomi Ong, for stealing my copyrighted articles and publishing them without my knowledge and consent.
My articles, some stripped of bylines, occupied eight full pages, spread prominently to give a semblance of knowledgeability to the periodical that barely qualifies as a newspaper. I've never been so wantonly exploited like that to win the respect of readers and advertisers as this paper has tried.
Periodico says it is "a newspaper with substance, clout and authority" and that it was "fortunate to have a brilliant team, packed with talent, determination and creativity". How can it be so dishonest? How can it be so cavalier in treating its advertisers and prospective readers?
Well, remove all my articles and Periodico would limp to oblivion. Why? Because those articles provided the "substance, clout and authority" to make it readable. Without them, the tabloid is worst than miserable. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7JWqL2AUDc).
And the "brilliant team" so-called? Actually, the "team" that I had met with for the March issue was just Naomi Ong, her husband Roxlee Ong, and Marinel Lozano - the trio that harbors a simmering hatred for Balita publisher Teresita Cusipag and her suspicious gang of "crusaders". They may be brilliant in some other ways, like duping people?
I didn't know how much Ms. Cusipag and Ms. Ong resented each other but the articles I had earlier written exposing Balita's hypocrisy fitted the dismal picture Ms. Ong had long wanted to portray of her enemy.
(Related story at: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2020/02/balitas-impudent-display-of.html).
The hypocrisy rose to the surface when Ms. Cusipag had strongly refused to publish my story about Chito Collantes, the labor recruiter who purports to be a "Dr." (whatever that means) because he was her long-time friend and a regular advertiser.
(Full story at: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2020/03/so-called-elite-crusaders-raises-red.html).
Collantes is highly-visible in photographs in Balita as the founder of a questionable group called "Elite Crusaders" that supposedly runs against scammers in the Filipino community. Yet he hasn't defended himself against a very public accusation that he was a scammer himself for swindling a local businesswoman of $20,000.
(Related story at: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2020/08/impostors-verbal-abusers-in-torontos.html).
The appearance of my articles in Periodico online and in October's print issue may be viewed in two ways: one, that I continue to write for that periodical, and two, that my articles specifically targeted Ms. Cusipag and her cohorts in defense of Ms. Ong.
Those are false assumptions. My association with Periodico had ended in March. After that, I stopped writing for Ms. Ong or for Periodico or for whoever was using my name to show my alleged connection with them.
Ms. Ong had usurped my identity and owned my work from April to September. She also made it appear that I still belonged by using, without my explicit authority, six of my articles in the October print edition.
I have a pretty good sense of news design owing to years of doing my own newspapers. The recent publication of my stories in Periodico is the perfect example of how not to do a newspaper. The ignorance of whoever did it, and I assume it's Naomi Ong, is easily perceptible.
To illustrate my point. The leading (the vertical spaces between text lines) of my three stories on pages 2, 3, 10, 11 (half only), 18, and 19, is double-spaced unlike my other stories on pages 5, 11, and 23, which had the normal spacing. The layout looks stupid.
Obviously, it indicates an awful lack of materials (either an advert or a story) that, in order to compensate, the content had to be stretched to fit the space. Without really trying, Ms. Ong has shown how ill-equipped she is to edit a newspaper. She's grossly incompetent.
I decry the manner in how I was portrayed in that print edition. My stories carried my byline which, for many readers, was enough assurance for them to trust my reportage. But with the treatment my stories got, Ms. Ong basically showed her contempt. Yet she hung on to those same articles to smoothen her image.
I advise my readers to not be deluded by appearances and unproven assertions. Beware of glib-tongued con artists! (Copyright 2020. All Rights Reserved).
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