Volume 3, Issue No. 66
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, June 29, 2022
~ I've long adopted the idiom “suffer fools gladly” in my journalism practice. It means, as explained by the dictionary in this sentence, thus: A person who does not “suffer fools gladly” is one who does not tolerate stupidity in others. But stupidity coupled with misplaced daring (as in the act of stealing) is inexcusable and deserves censure. Stealing is wrong. In olden times, it is punishable by death.
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WHY BEAT A DEAD HORSE?
Stealing Shouldn't Go Unpunished
'Not suffer fools gladly' is a good template for journalists
By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ
Editor, The Filipino Web Channel
“It's always easier to take something than work for it...” ―
That friend sounded tired reading the stories involving Mon Datol alias Mondee and his gang, including Cecille Araneta, Rolly "Kabise" Mangante, and Dannasol Luna alias Lovely who are part of the purported not-for-profit International Entertainment Company (IEC) in various capacities.
The hint was obvious: that I should now stop writing about them mainly because it's a dead issue. Not for me though. To stop is to condone their wrongdoing. To keep quiet is to indulge their excesses.
In any circumstance, I will not be a victim. Nor would I allow anyone to victimize me, or abuse me in any shape or form. Through the years as a journalist, I've adopted this idiom as a simple guide: "not suffer fools gladly".
In any language, stealing is stealing, an act punishable in law by fine or jail time, or both, or at its most extreme, by death as in the olden times. Remember the biblical account of two thieves who were crucified with Jesus Christ?
The property taken from me may look petty, after all, they're only film footage, which means intangible. But they are the intellectual fruits of my work as a multimedia journalist. To see an incompetent bunch steal and walk away just like that is deeply insulting.
And to add injury, the stolen footage was manipulated and spliced with the images of Kabise's wife, Nieves Mangante, and Cecille Araneta. Like her husband, Nieves was so enamored with the description "first lady of ToM" affixed to her name by a local writer in a moment of drunken stupor. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_398v7dDQhQ).
Let it go, says another friend, reasoning that the steal committed is a done deal and they're poised to pursue their ambitious goal to stage the festival in August regardless of the bad press. "No way," I replied.
Another friend told me that I'm unnecessarily raising their profile for the reason many entertainers believe in - that it's publicity whether good or bad. This is especially helpful for those trying hard to put their names out in the public sphere.
I'd say there's some truth to that. True-to-life examples are plenty, most of them based on experience.
Prior to the first Taste of Manila (ToM) festival in 2014, Mangante or Kabise was a driver at the Philippine Consulate. His daily face-to-face interaction with Filipino diplomats had lulled him into believing he was a diplomat himself.
Lowly as his position may be, he had used that physical proximity to great advantage. I mean for his advantage. And it paid off.
At a top-level meeting years ago, for example, between Consul General Pedro Chan and Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair about the possibility of holding a ToM fest, Mangante seated himself in the room like he was also one of the discussants. (Related videos at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJtOXyRqRmw and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDnJ7AVaDik).
My FREE (meaning without charge) coverage of ToM online (20 stories in my blog alone since August 2019), excluding those in some newspapers, and videos (at least seventy-seven videos) elevated Mangante to heights he never dreamed would happen in his job as a driver. Overnight, he was transformed from obscurity to celebrity!
A similar thing happened to Dannasol Luna alias Lovely Luna who, before the steal of my videos, was a little-known sexpot waiting for the day she would be in the limelight. It didn't matter that she passed herself off as a radio host, a podcaster, and an "international journalist", she was relatively off the radar. (Related story at: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2022/04/international-journalist-in-taste-of.html).
She arguably rose to fame because of my coverage and the expository articles involving her despite lapses in the most fundamental rules of grammar. Well, I really don't know if journalism failed her, or if she's the one who failed journalism, assuming she's really serious going into it. The truth is, she needs to study and understand what journalism is. (Related story at: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2022/06/the-goofy-bunch-of-tom-characters.html).
Then there's Cecille Araneta (Nieves Mangante's look-alike) whose popularity shot up once she declared in a video interview (not mine) that the jeepney, which was repurposed from the American jeep after the Second World War, is the "national car" of the Philippines. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdTnX700_a8).
That embarrassing historical blunder fortified my personal belief that she's no more than just another wannabe craving for attention at all costs. Of the many Spanish-descended Aranetas of the Philippines, Cecille seems to be the only one who looks Chinese, which leads me to inquire about her origins.
I am told unofficially by my sources that the surname Araneta was adopted when she was asked to choose from a list in place of a Chinese name during an immigration process. I have tried to verify this claim but as of this writing, the Araneta family has not responded to my request for information. She herself has not said anything to clear doubts. (Related story at: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2022/06/whats-in-name-is-araneta-araneta.html).
Her long-time business partner is Mon Datol, alias Mondee, the stubby podcaster who talks like a promdi (the Tagalog slang for "from the province"). Prior to his benighted declaration on copyrights, he was just a talking head occupying a small room glorified as a "studio" in Little Manila. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qd02DO503DU).
His joint venture with Araneta was a beauty pageant, the so-called "Anghel ng Tahanan" that targeted Filipino caregivers. Its past stagings in a now-shutdown nightclub had attracted a lot of non-Filipinos looking for sexual relationships with gullible and vulnerable Filipino women.
For reasons that may not be immediately obvious, I've previously referred to Mangante, Luna and Datol as The Trio Los Bobos. With Cecille Araneta's fumbling in a video interview about the jeepney, I updated the label to The Trio Los Bobos Plus One.
Should ToM become a reality in August, watch how this quartet will perform. I think their names and faces will be up there on the signboard, like this: "Tuloy ang Saya with The Trio Los Bobos Plus One". Come one, come all for this never-ending fun! (Copyright 2022. All Rights Reserved).
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