Volume 3, Issue No. 60
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 Saturday, June 18, 2022
~ The Filipino community's oldest tabloid, Atin Ito, quietly and without explanation, took down what it called "press release" penned by a bogus reporter named Lovely Danna Luna after this writer asked the editor/staff to publish his reaction to false claims and outright lies she was propagating. The unvetted article, notable for its lapses in grammar and syntax, ran for a few days early this month. It could potentially trigger defamation lawsuits against the publication and the author who based her report on an interview conducted by a dude named Mon Datol alias Mondee with Rolly Mangante, aka Kabise, the retired driver of the Philippine Consulate who stole the idea of the Taste of Manila festival and claimed it was his.
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ATIN ITO, TORONTO'S OLDEST FILIPINO NEWSPAPER
Tabloid Pulls Out Taste of Manila Propaganda
The unvetted hit piece by a bogus reporter ran for days
By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ
Editor, The Filipino Web Channel
"Money is not my god, nor having lots of it my purpose in life".
- Romy Marquez in a letter to Atin Ito
TORONTO - The unvetted article supposedly authored "By Lovely Danna Luna, TOM Inc. Media Executive Liaison" has vanished from the website of Atin Ito tabloid nearly two weeks after I questioned its wide claims against this writer, a newspaper publisher, a legitimate not-for-profit organization, and former broadcast giant ABS-CBN.
Atin Ito is the oldest monthly newspaper in Canada at 47 years old this year. Its print edition is circulated in the Greater Toronto Area. (Full story at: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2019/08/eddie-lee-non-journalist-publishing.html ). (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gHgKO9MUkQ).
The cutesy Luna who also goes by the name Dannasol Luna, an alleged "reporter" for having paid a membership fee at "International Association of Press Photographers Inc." is hardly the person to write that gibberish without the assistance of at least three other blabbermouths, namely, Mon Datol alias Mondee, Rolly Mangante aka "Kabise", and Cecille Araneta of jeepney-as-national-car-of-the-Philippines fame.
Having read her childish postings on Facebook, and having read as much also from Mondee, Kabise and Araneta, it is my opinion as a journalist that none of the four could write independently a decent five-paragraph essay in English without consulting with one another, and much better, with a grammarian. Still, whatever comes out of their collaboration would surely embarrass any grade school teacher.
Such was Luna's "reportage" on a purported one-and-a-half-hour interview of Kabise by Mondee on May 29, 2022, over what she referred to as a "multicultural broadcast network" located in North York's Little Manila. (Related video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qd02DO503DU).
Inexperienced and unschooled in journalism, and utterly ignorant of community issues, Luna cast a wide net in her article, echoing Donald Trump's mantra of fake news, and labeling impeccably-sourced reports by this reporter as "fake news" themselves.
As I previously said, this group minus Araneta is the newly-emerged Trio Los Bobos of Little Manila whose main preoccupation is raking in money from the proposed Taste of Manila festival. (Full story at: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2022/06/taste-of-manilas-in-house-talents.html).
But I give credit to Luna for saying what Kabise allegedly stated in the interview. She quoted him in this wise: “There’s no million-dollar money from the ABS-CBN here, fake news again, the money from the Philippine TV network was the royalty fee paid to the Taste of Manila, Inc. that owns the Taste of Manila Street Festival.”
Further, Kabise explained, according to Luna: “I only received $48,000 after incurring and paying lots of expenses on the staging of the festival, di pa kasama ruon yong bayad sa taxes. ABS-CBN also paid PLACA through Teresa Torralba, the amount of $34,000 as payment for organizing the 2019 T.O.M. festival.”
That is quite a revelation three years after the fact. Kabise's admission that he got $48,000 from ABS-CBN only confirms the recurring buzz in Little Manila that he allegedly pocketed $40,000 (which is about close to $48,000) and fled to the Philippines for a grand vacation with his family.
He explained, however, according to Luna again, that the money he spent for the vacation came from his $75,000 retirement fund and "not from the ABS-CBN royalty fee TOM, Inc. that he received.” (Full story at:https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2022/04/international-journalist-in-taste-of.html ).
True or not, only Kabise knows. ToM has not had official financial statements for the years ToM went on. Questions continue to arise: Why did it go bankrupt? Why did it beg Toronto authorities to waive a number of fees due the city? Why did it dismantle the original not-for-profit org only to put up another one, and still another one?
Forty-eight thousand dollars plus $34,000 equals $82,000, certainly a lot of moola. That's just from one sponsor. Imagine the other corporate sponsors and payments from individual booth renters, and one can see why the Trio Los Bobos and Araneta's purported not-for-profit org are fighting tooth and nail to stage ToM.
The prospect of hitting it big is mind-blowing.
But back to Luna's disappearing article in Atin Ito. Upon learning it days after it was published, I wrote a reaction letter to the tabloid authorities. My letter probably awoke the publishers/editors from their stupor, realized the potential legal implication of running the article, and took it down.
It's gone now, but I took pictures of the web page and copied the article just to make sure I have the evidence to prove the defamatory nature of Luna's write-up. Its disappearance does not free any of them, Atin Ito included, from legal liabilities.
Below is my reaction that Atin Ito did not publish:
***** *****
June 9, 2022
Hello, good afternoon,
I write in the off-chance that you might consider publishing my response to a story titled " 'Taste of Manila' Street Festival Returns!" and subheaded: "It's 'Fake News' circulating ToM is scrapped" dated May 31, 2022.
I am particularly mentioned in the badly-written article by one "Lovely Danna Luna, TOM Inc. Media Executive Liaison" who, in the interest of truth, lacks the bonafides to be a "media executive," a journalist, or a writer. She's just a cute face in Little Manila pretending to be a member of the press.
For decades, I've adhered to both written and unwritten rules, laws, and ethics in the practice of journalism. Disseminating the truth has always been the sole criterion of my journalism career in the Philippines, in the United States, in Canada, and in some countries in Europe where I worked as a foreign correspondent.
Because I engage in investigative journalism, hostile reactions from affected parties are common. I've been physically assaulted, threatened, and slapped with libel suits; in fact, four defamation cases in Toronto alone. So, it's nothing new to be at the receiving end of outrage.
Now, I take exception to all the claims made by Danna Luna on behalf of her patrons Rolly Mangante and Ramon Datol. I am not going to dignify any of those by contesting each one of their assertions. They knew what I stand for as a journalist, and as a person.
Money is not my god, nor having lots of it my purpose in life. I am of modest means but it is my unblemished reputation as an honest, hard-working journalist that brought me to parts of the world I never imagined I would ever reach.
Luna, Datol, and Mangante have an ax to grind. I might have stopped them in their attempt to swindle the Filipino community through this vehicle called Taste of Manila by continuously writing about them and their tactics. My articles have impacted them negatively and I mean only to inform the community, not to attack them personally.
As a journalist, I am sworn to uphold the truth even if it's not pleasing to some people and highly offensive to others. That has been the case in more than 50 years of a rewarding, though challenging, journalism career.
Just to emphasize, I would not have lasted long (nearly 20 years) as a foreign correspondent in two worldwide news agencies had I been what Luna, Datol, and Mangante are claiming. My experience there underlined the trust, honesty, and dependability reposed in me as a person first, and as a journalist, second.
To be sure, I am not faultless. I have limitations and shortcomings. But I assure you, none of those frailties involved money or its equivalent in benefits. I worked hard to earn my keep.
As you would notice, Luna, Datol, and Mangante did not address the very root cause of this issue, which is that their purported not-for-profit organization stole film footage from my copyrighted intellectual property. I exhausted every means to remind them that I never tolerate such wrongdoing.
None of them responded. They refused to take it down from their website. They refused to apologize for the misdeed. They refused to give credit to the source of the footage. And as a last resort, I asked them to pay so they can continue using it. They refused.
The only recourse left for me is to expose what they did. Admission of wrong and an apology would have sufficed to end the dispute. No, they would not do it. They'd rather steal than say "we're sorry for stealing your work, and we apologize". That would have ended it.
I am not going to be their hopeless victim. I have given them all the leeway to correct their transgressions but my efforts came to naught. Even more galling is this article that you published - without being vetted obviously - that demonizes me and reduces me to a small-time crook.
Unlike Luna, Datol, and Mangante who have nothing intelligent to show except to pass rumors and baseless claims, my body of work and the length of time I practice investigative journalism speak for me. They are my indisputable credentials.
Thank you.
Romy Márquez
(Romy Marquez is a former foreign correspondent, editor, reporter, videographer, blogger, and previously, editor and publisher of three community newspapers in California. He currently writes for his blog (https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/) and creates videos for his major news channels on YouTube under the umbrella of his media outfit Romar Media Canada. These are: (https://www.youtube.com/user/FilipinoWebChannel#g/u and https://www.youtube.com/user/TheGotchaJournalist#g/u). Prior to his stint as a member of the foreign press corps in Manila (on behalf of the Asahi Shimbun and Deutsche Presse-Agentur), Marquez was a staff reporter at The Times Journal and earlier on, at The Manila Chronicle. He also wrote as a business reporter for The Manila Bulletin). (Copyright 2022. All Rights Reserved).
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