Volume 4, Issue No. 52
OPINION/COMMENTARY
/ News That Fears None, Views That Favor Nobody /
Our latest as of Saturday, March 4, 2023
~ Bereft of a leg to stand on, a local EINO (pronounced eye-no, meaning editor in name only) has resorted to cusswords to show indignation at yesterday's article outlining a defense to a libel suit filed against the community tabloid and its publisher who happens to be the EINO (my coinage) in this story. Surely it's another attempt to immobilize me from my reporting. All the bad words are coming out now like hot air to be vented.
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CUSSWORDS GALORE
Libel Suit Triggers Local EINO
At a Loss for Words, She Hurls Invectives
By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ
Editor, The Filipino Web Channel
“The discontent and frustration that you feel is entirely your own creation.”
- Stephen Richards
TORONTO - When Teresita "Tess" Cusipag is in a foul mood, she often goes out of control, and unleashes the repressed beast in her. What follows is an avalanche of the most demeaning cusswords in Tagalog and English.
I'm not to be outdone either so I coined a more pleasant word for her: EINO (pronounced eye-no) or editor in name only to mean a person who assumes the title of editor without knowing what journalism is all about; or somebody with no journalistic background and takes the title editor for decorative purposes.
Tess is the publisher of Balita. She's also its editor, actually, the dyed-in-the-wool EINO of that entertainment tabloid.
I was again at the receiving end of her latest tantrum minutes after I posted my Breaking News online on Friday afternoon. It took some time to digest the contents of her "statement of defense" to be able to come up with an easily understood, less-technical article for my thousands of readers.
Quite obviously, she was spoiling for a fight. Out of deference to her advancing age, the wise choice would be to just let her off even as the steam coming out of her mouth is as stinky as that seeping out of her posterior end.
Tess is the widow of renowned journalist Ruben Cusipag, the late founder and editor of Balita, and foremost for his opposition to the martial law regime of President Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr.
After he passed in July 2013, Tess proclaimed herself publisher and editor, the latter post unsuitable for her because of a lack of basic grounding in the intricacies of journalism work.
Two years prior, Ruben had invited me to join, which I accepted for a pittance of a pay. I didn't mind even as the full weight of covering events and writing articles fell on my shoulders. I was averaging three to four stories per issue.
Meanwhile, the EINO continued pirating and posting articles from the wellspring of gossip and wild claims such as Facebook, her default lifeline for stories in the paper, and from solicited sources in the community.
At 80 pages per fortnightly issue, Balita has an abundance of space - valuable column inches that would otherwise be filled with news, but are crammed with pictures of whoever, and whatever occasion, and press releases from questionable individuals seeking fame.
As the main writer with the fancy title of associate editor, I tried hard but failed to change the paper's image. The unknowing EINO had to cater to friends, friends of friends, scammers, advertisers, and what have you.
It's almost as sure as the sun rises from the east that Balita would publish them all, notwithstanding my objections, and suggestion to be more selective in giving in to requests for publicity.
The EINO moonlights as a press agent - a conflict of interest - for a dance ensemble and a beauty pageant, the latter is actually a rich hunting ground for oversexed men looking for adventure with the opposite sex.
Without meaning to infer anything bad, just to make myself clear, a son of the EINO usually emcees the contest, at least during those times I covered the event year after year.
In her reaction to my article (https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2023/03/balita-fights-back-asks-court-to-throw.html), Tess draws from her stinking dumpster the most humiliating cussword she could find like her favorite - "pataygutom".
The literal translation is dead hungry, or starving. She applies it to me in addition to some adjectives that very well fit her too, like "penniless", "demon", "snake", "money hungry", etc.
Tess is correct that I had been rendered "penniless" toiling for her paper during those seven years with Balita when I could have been more productive. You see, the pennies from her millionaire's vault find their way into my pocket as salary.
She's penny-wise and pound-foolish. In case she doesn't understand this idiom, it means, according to the dictionary, "careful about small amounts of money but not about large amounts — used especially to describe something that is done to save a small amount of money now but that will cost a large amount of money in the future".
Well, that's exactly what happened to the two defamation suits we (I was a defendant too) lost and she paid for in money and jail time. Our two lawyers just didn't deliver against the robust lawyering of our opponents.
It hurts her deeply to see me unpunished personally and financially, well, thanks for being, in her own words, "pataygutom". One of our lawyers told me a few times over lunch: "Romy, you're the perfect defendant". He meant there's nothing to be taken from me if we lost, and lost we did.
The costs to her, I believe, are justified. Her bluster (millionaire daw siya) and misplaced bravado (posting a nonsensical attack on a judge on Facebook) are what doomed her. "Mayabang kasi, buti nga," says a commenter.
Sometimes it pays to be humble, to be understanding, tolerant, and to be more respectful of people whose station in life does not match hers. I might be poorish in looks but I'm not destitute nor a homeless mendicant. Her put-on glitter does not amaze me at all, it's offensive.
Imagine writing articles, interviewing people, seeking answers to questions from government, and being asked to be a stenographer for her lawyer, and then being paid for a pittance.
It was a sacrifice in support of honest journalism. Does EINO even know that? (Copyright 2023. All Rights Reserved).
EINO (EDITOR IN NAME ONLY)...
ReplyDeleteor...I know!...arrrayyyy - Ores Ting, Scarborough