Volume 3, Issue No. 46
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, April 22, 2022
~ Mondee is not exactly the kind of talking head who could be trusted with his words. He speaks with a forked tongue not infrequently but almost every time he opens his piehole, which means from the moment he starts foaming at the mouth. He talks needlessly, senselessly. tirelessly. Mondee is one of the comic characters - the others are, in the order of absurdity, a Cecille Araneta, a Rolly Mangante, and a Danna Luna, to name a few - lusting to have a Taste of Manila festival in summer.
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'BRAINS' BEHIND PROPOSED TASTE OF MANILA
The Goofy, Sillyspeak of a Brainless Podcaster
By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ
Editor, The Filipino Web Channel
“Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt". - Abraham Lincoln
TORONTO - For a time, I thought that this guy endearingly called by caregivers as "Mondee" was a full-blooded journalist. I was of the belief that since he was peddling himself as a sportswriter in the Philippines before moving to Toronto, he must be good.
I knew several sportswriters in the homeland, having worked with them, not in the sports desk in particular, but in the paper's sprawling editorial department where each wing such as business, entertainment, society, etc. was delineated by a bank of tables and typewriters. I reported for the news section.
Sportswriters are a creative lot, their language precise and colorful. They made up for what cameras are today in describing action, for example, in boxing and basketball, in vivid detail. Newspaper readers would be able to visualize what's happening in the ring or in the basketball court as exactly as it is happening.
One of the best sportswriters of the time was Teddy Benigno, who graduated from sportswriting to Manila bureau chief of Agence France Presse to press secretary of President Corazon Aquino. I also remember Abraham "Abe" Dingle, Bert Cuevas, and Gus Villanueva - all of whom I had interacted in various capacities at The Manila Chronicle, The Times Journal, and as a foreign correspondent with Deutsche Presse-Agentur.
They reported their stories in a blink, beating deadlines after deadlines, without missing a beat in composing articles based on notes and a good memory. There are many more. And because of them, I had high respect for this breed of newspapermen. So when somebody says he's a sportswriter, my admiration grows fonder.
I recall now my first meeting here with a dear departed friend, Tenny Soriano, who introduced me to what looked like a short and stocky fellow named Mon Datol or Ramon Datol aka Mondee. He's not tall despite the way he paints himself as "The Tall Order", which of course rhymes with his last name.
Datol is "that tall" among the lonely caregivers he had convinced to be potential beauty queens for his money-making venture "Anghel ng Tahanan". Did he exploit them financially and sexually? One time, however, he told me after a meeting at the Philippine Consulate on Eglinton that he was in a hurry to meet up with a date, who turned up to be one of the candidates for "Anghel".
I had the first impression that Mondee, as he repeatedly asserted, was a sportswriter. I did not doubt it then. As time went by, however, he was debunking his own declaration. Lacking depth and substance, his articles and commentaries - in Taglish (the combination of Tagalog and English) - are the best proof that he was more into rumor-mongering than journalism.
If Mondee was truly a sportswriter, he must be at the very bottom of the editorial hierarchy, a cub needing guidance in the basic fundamentals of news writing, and grammar. His rag sheet, the Philippine Courier, which apparently does not exist anymore, reflects his sorry situation.
His side activities are suspect. For example, why is he preoccupied with beauty contests of the worst kind, that which I believe exploit unsuspecting women, mostly caregivers, the very people we ought to protect from predators? Why does he write and talk nonsense in his imbecilic podcast when he was supposed to be a journalist? Was it money, sex, or both? C'mon Mondee, be forthright.
His tabloid had two slogans, one, "we deliver the truth" and two, "the truth will set you free", the latter lifted from the Bible, John 8:32, but not attributed. Mondee seems to have a habit of picking up (including women?) from someone without giving credit to the source.
That's what happened to my videos. He and his cohorts (somebody suggests calling them "gang of thieves") pirated important excerpts from my videos, manipulated the images, and strung them together like it was their original work. I got wind of the steal recently and I strongly condemn what they did.
"A free press is what The Philippine Courier is all about," says its website. I now believe this declaration is being interpreted by Mondee and his gang as a command to take anything that fancies them for free and without charge. Well, my videos are not just there for the taking, particularly by a group with questionable motives.
What truth are they going to deliver? Well, I propose that they straighten themselves out. Who are the unidentified people behind the three purported not-for-profit groups lusting to have Taste of Manila under their wings? Who is Ramon Datol, Cecille Araneta, Rolly Mangante, Danna Luna, and others in real life? Are they the "gang of thieves"?
Mondee tried to justify the steal with this statement during a press conference on Sunday, April 10, 2022, and I quote: "The Taste of Manila who owns the Taste of Manila owns any videos that have been shown . . . YouTube, Facebook, and any other application."
If such affirmation were made by a judge in a court of law, it would be a landmark decision that would overturn long-held precedents and case law in countries that have copyright laws.
Mondee explains further, and I quote: "You won't have your videos if there is no Taste of Manila. You did not ask Taste of Manila founder and the president to have videos on that". (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qd02DO503DU).
Suddenly the person who stole the idea of Taste of Manila and claimed it's his has been empowered by Mondee, or shall I say Judge Mondee. In reality, Mondee sometimes sits down as a judge in beauty contests that exploit our women. What a prick! (Copyright 2022. All Rights Reserved).
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