Volume 4, Issue No. 63
OPINION/COMMENTARY
/ News That Fears None, Views That Favor Nobody /
Our latest as of Tuesday, June 13, 2023
~ The conjugal editors at The Philippine Reporter are the subject of a complaint filed with Canadian Heritage and National Ethnic Press and Media Council (NEPMCC) over a dubious scheme that delayed payment of salaries to reporters even though the tabloid had earlier received lump-sum budgets for a federal initiative to support local journalism. The editors blamed a phantom "grants guy" for the unwarranted deferral. An official at NEPMCC said there was no such person.
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SCANDAL AT NATIONAL ETHNIC PRESS AND MEDIA COUNCIL
'Philippine Reporter' Editors Caught Red-Handed
Two Journalists Duped with Lies and Deceptions
Part 1
By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ
Editor, The Filipino Web Channel
"It is better that the truth be known than that scandal be covered up".
- St. Augustine
TORONTO - The week went past with nary a squeak from the conjugal editors of the left-leaning community tabloid The Philippine Reporter (TPR), namely Hermie Garcia alias Ka Herz, and wife Mila A. Garcia.
Equally mum was Thomas Saras who calls the shots across the broad spectrum of 1,200 members he leads as president of the National Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada (NEPMCC), known in media circles as "the other voices".
Similarly snared in the web of silence are the underlings in the federal Department of Canadian Heritage (or Canadian Heritage) who seemed to favour playing ball with each other rather than confronting serious issues before them head-on.
As of this writing, Saras has not replied to questions I emailed to him in April, just a few weeks after I got wind of this story. Authorities in Canadian Heritage were not responsive to my questions either, even tossing responsibility from one to the other. (Related video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFgYaFvRz8I).
The Garcias whom I contacted last for comment the previous week after I completed collecting the facts chose to say nothing. (Related story at: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2023/05/hermie-and-mila-garcia-freedom-fighters.html).
By not speaking, they probably thought the story would just go away and die. Ever heard of the adage "no talk, no mistake" exemplified by the Three Wise Monkeys of yore? That's the situation I was faced with.
Well, they are wrong. It may look like a simple story, but it has the makings of a scandal involving huge public funds, and thus, Canadian taxpayers, and officials in high places.
Trust in public institutions like Canadian Heritage might erode. The integrity of ethnic media would be in question. Honesty among community journalists would be held in doubt. The government would lose confidence in media because of corrupt practices.
These are the potential effects if allegations bordering on fraud against a member of the ethnic press victimizing its staff would be allowed to pass without punishment or condemnation.
Unbeknownst to Saras, the NEPMCC, the Canadian Heritage, and the complainant who triggered the tempest - writer Michelle Ramos -, they were being played by Hermie Garcia from way back in 2022. That much is clear in the complaint.
Ms. Ramos wrote for TPR covering culture, the arts, and non-political events. In addition to her regular gig, she was hired in April 2022 as a reporter for the Local Journalism Initiative (LJI), which the NEPMCC administers on behalf of Canadian Heritage for its member media outlets.
LJI is one of two (the other is the Canada Periodical Fund) budget commitments launched by Canadian Heritage in 2022 to support local journalism in underserved communities with an investment of $40 million over three years starting 2022-23. For the same period, an additional $10 million was allocated for LJI alone.
TPR became beneficiaries of both the Canada Periodical Fund (CPF) to the tune of $32,038 in 2021, and the LJI for an undisclosed amount, which enabled the newspaper to hire reporters, among them Michelle Ramos, and an intern who did not wish to be identified for now.
Ms. Ramos delivered the required articles regularly. Several issues later, she noticed a slowdown in her pay. For example, for work done in June, she would be paid in August; for July, the pay came in September with a large chunk missing.
"I felt really bad for TPR assuming that they couldn't afford to pay me in full at that time," she said. "I thought nothing of it since I fully trusted Tito Hermie".
The slack, she explained, was being attributed by Hermie Garcia to the grant coming in "trickles of small amounts and most of the time delayed for months".
The lag gradually developed into long, unanticipated delays while her bills piled up. Despite that, she continued to write, not losing faith in them as friends.
"By the end of October," Ms. Ramos recalled, "I followed up on my pay for September, August and the amount that was missing from July."
"I feel like a bloody idiot for trusting them whenever I remember this," she blared, a rare outburst from the self-effacing writer.
"Seniors their age should know right from wrong. We never imagined our own mentors would actually lie to us repeatedly and abuse our trust," she added.
She continued to follow up, curious to find out what was happening. Hermie Garcia then explained the funds for LJI were being withheld by the guy managing the grant who he referred to as the "guy in charge of disbursements", presumably in the Canadian Heritage office, pending submission, allegedly, of some paperwork.
"Those explanations turned out to be lies," according to Ms. Ramos.
"I didn't realize there was a separate grant for publishing expenses and specific grants for the LJI reporter's and intern's salaries," she averred.
That revelation came from Maria Voutsinas, a member of NEPMCC's executive board and its managing director, whom Ms. Ramos contacted to ask how she could follow up with the "guy in charge of disbursements" who they referred to the "grants guy" for convenience.
This was when Ms. Voutsinas revealed to her that the "grants guy" Hermie Garcia repeatedly blamed for the delays did not exist.
Further, she explained that the NEPMCC had given TPR the grants in lump sum in April 2022 to cover her and the intern's pay for the entire year.
She confirmed that there were no supposed slow disbursements as Hermie Garcia repeatedly claimed in his emails.
"Maria explained everything to me," Ms. Ramos said.
According to her, Ms. Voutsinas' and Saras' quick intervention prompted the Garcia couple to rush payment of the outstanding money they owed Ms. Ramos and the intern.
Even then, Hermie Garcia's deception had begun to unravel. (See Part 2 next). (Copyright 2023. All Rights Reserved).
Thank you for keeping us posted. - Tony San Juan, Toronto
ReplyDeleteGrabe naman si manong kalbo, kinatalo pa ang mga writers niya. Walanghiya!
ReplyDelete