Volume 4, Issue No. 47
OPINION/COMMENTARY
/ News That Fears None, Views That Favor Nobody /
Our latest as of Thursday, February 16, 2023
~ Now confronted with a new libel suit, the two-time loser, twice-fined, and once-jailed publisher of Balita tabloid has vowed to exact revenge on people she considers hostile to her. "I can have a heart of stone," she blares. It isn't clear if she was just letting off steam, or if she lost control of her bearings as to sound like a vindictive woman, contrary to what she has consistently portrayed herself as deeply religious.
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NOT CONTENT WITH THREATS, INSULTS, INTIMIDATION
Balita Publisher Now Vows Revenge
Tess Cusipag Says She Has 'Heart of Stone'
By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ
Editor, The Filipino Web Channel
"Facts are threatening to those invested in fraud." - DaShanne Stokes
TORONTO - Infantile rants are quite common among juveniles wanting to get even with their peers, or just seeking revenge for a perceived slight.
But when such rants come from a supposedly respected member of the community - and a septuagenarian at that - the hapless recipient raises questions about the sanity of the nitpicker.
That was the situation I found myself in recently. Reporting just got riskier by the number of insults, intimidation, and threats one gets every now and then.
I hate to be drawn into such childish bickering as what happened after I reported on the libel lawsuit filed against Balita tabloid and its publisher/editor Teresita "Tess" Cusipag by businesswoman Liwayway Miranda aka Lily Miranda Hammer.
I will refer to them casually in this story as Tess and Lily, the nicknames they're more popularly known. I never knew them to be friends perhaps because of generational differences; the former is a boomer (born 1946-1964) and the latter is generation X (born mid-to-late 60s to early 1980s).
The trigger for Tess' latest broadside was my January 25 exclusive story about her reaction to the serving of a notice of libel action at her home office in Markham, Ontario on Jan. 20, 2023. (Full story at: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2023/01/libel-suit-readied-vs-balita-and-its.html).
Somehow I got used to her unreasonable outbursts and senseless rhetoric, dismissing them as vents needing release. Unfortunately, the whole hot air almost always lands on my lap.
Over the years, my reporting would engender adverse reactions from her, especially if it impacts Balita and her friends who incessantly pander to her. Surely, the blame would be laid on me.
On the same day (January 26) I posted my article on my blog, she emailed friends expressing her disappointment in a telegraphic message, thus (and I quote verbatim, italics mine):
"Using his poisonous pen all the time
"why dont he reply and reason out using his brain and not his pen, which he thinks can make him superior when he has not proven anything else..
"For me he is a big COWARD".
And she calls herself editor. My gosh, I can't imagine how real editors would react to this.
Two weeks later when I was informed that Lily's lawyers had filed a libel suit at the Superior Court of Justice, Tess insinuated that I had turned a blind eye, in her own words, "with the miseries of others for a small amount of money", and that it was the equivalent of what she calls "pabente bente".
"Pabente bente" or 20/20 (for $20 bill) is a jab at the under-the-table deal of a deceased media practitioner in Toronto to ask for money in exchange for publicizing press releases in friendly newspapers extolling the activities of whoever was his subject.
"You can earn respect if you look at the whole picture not just for pabente bente," Tess tells her friends. She meant I should take a look at the claim of a Migrante official, her friend, whose daughter and some other workers were allegedly duped by Lily's company.
The claim was clearly propaganda. I personally believe it was preposterous to pay any attention, particularly because all the cases against Lily have been dismissed for lack of evidence.
"Yo (sic) should have some principle. Very disappointing," she adds. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QprwiFQiLjs).
Tess' "pabente bente" is deeply insulting. And so was her other assertion that I took delight in receiving proffered Christmas gifts from Balita on the prodding of her late husband Ruben Cusipag.
"Think of all the help Ruben and I have given you, Ruben said give him the new TV, I did, give him a new camera, dress him up, I did. just to help you out," she says. (Related story at: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2022/03/have-pen-and-notebook-will-travel.html).
Those were exaggerations, of course, none of which is true. The camera she claims to have given was actually a poor replacement for my own high-end camera that fell into ruin after I used it extensively in my coverage of her social-climbing activities like the Miss Manila pageant and the Fiesta Filipina events. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAj4Fza_cQc).
I am not wealthy nor have I pretended to be one, but I'm no homeless mendicant either, to deserve their fucking charity. However, it's quite good to know she could be rational in not claiming that the brief and boxing shorts I'm wearing were not from their almsgiving.
I had to remind her that compared to the pittance I received working for seven years at Balita, I earned a generous amount as a foreign correspondent for two international news agencies for nearly 20 years before I settled in North America in the mid-90s. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik0AXXyPXaE).
Balita is nowhere near my previous employers. To be frank, Balita is a booger (kulangot in Tagalog) by any measure. It's a rag sheet, a fish wrapper, and a head cover in rainy weather.
When I was there with the pompous but empty title of associate editor, I tried to uplift it to a higher intellectual level. I was tired of her gossip and the senseless chitchat that gets published on many of its pages.
My explanations were not sufficient to convince Tess that her advocacy so-called for Migrante and elite scammers is wicked. She threatens to do many things, saying "I can also have a heart of stone and I will prove it".
" . . . so get ready. my revenge will come," she vows. (Copyright 2023. All Rights Reserved).
"Balita is a booger (kulangot)"... ....aaaruuuuuuu!!!! - Ores Ting, Scarborough
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