Volume 5, Issue No. 21
OPINION/COMMENTARY
/ News That Fears None, Views That Favor Nobody /
Our latest as of Wednesday, January 10, 2024
~ Recounting history and mixing it with contemporary events looks good in romanticizing the past and present developments in the Filipino community in the Greater Toronto Area. It seems, however, that the elephant in the room, i.e. the current scandal involving a former president of the local press association who lied and deceived two writers in his staff and then laid the blame on the federal Department of Canadian Heritage is being intentionally ignored.
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IGNORING A MEDIA COLLEAGUE'S SCATHING COMPLAINT
PPCO and the Damning Exposé of Lies and Wrongdoing
Wannabe Historian Disses Critic But Sings Praises for His Club
By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ
Editor, The Filipino Web Channel
"The world is full of bullshitters, liars, and triers and quitters, coulda-beens, wannabe's, thought-I-was, isn't-I-is's . . . and everybody in your business". - Aceyalone
TORONTO - A wannabe historian writing for one of the Filipino tabloids has mercifully concluded his series of articles about everything the community would rather forget for their absurdity.
The storyteller would be pleased to know that I conscientiously keep printed copies of what he has penned, less for their importance than for the sheer delight of knowing how he evaded seeing things beyond the superficial.
Record-keeping is a habit formed in the early days of practising journalism when computer or digital file was yet to be developed. It helped me a lot during my tenure as a foreign correspondent to two international news agencies.
Stored in the garage to this day are boxes and boxes of news clippings, photos, and copies of newspapers dating back to the early 90's in California where I transitioned to community journalism.
To be clear, I do not wish to elevate this wannabe to new heights of recognition, but I thought I needed to react to his recent broadsides even though he did not identify me by name, instead alluding to, in his words, "a naughty writer".
The obvious reference to me is unmistakable since I believe I'm the only one with the courage to critique the Philippine Press Club Ontario for its many failures to function as an objective and independent media organization.
In fact, it has become a willing tool for politicians and community leaders of questionable motives, and some of its members act like their stooges.
The wannabe historian disliked my calling PPCO Philippine Praise Club Ontario. His enmity lies apparently in the word "praise" which, for people with a tribal accent and those hard of hearing, sounds "press." I deliberately spelled it "praise" to mean applaud, compliment, flatter, glorify, hail, etc. for that's what it's good at.
Of course it's undeniably a dig at the Philippine Press Club Ontario, the social club of fun-loving, selfie-obsessed denizens captivated by the prestige and weight of being called a member of the fourth estate and authenticated by an ID card that says "PRESS" in bold letters.
To be fair, there are real journalists there, but they are outnumbered by what I'd like to call "the trying hards" - those who managed to secure membership without having to prove their legitimacy as active, practising media persons.
I believe that the bar is so low that any Tom, Dick & Harry could be a member even in the absence of a media organization to vouch for them. And the result?
Well, the proliferation of social climbers preoccupied with being photographed with federal, provincial, and city authorities, and top officials of public and private organizations, and posted to social media for their glorification.
True to the mockery that I pinned on the group, the wannabe historian had nothing but praises for PPressCO, its past leaders, and its purported contributions in shaping the Filipino community.
"I believe the Philippine Press Club-Ontario (PPC-O) is more relevant today than any time in the past because of the problems in the community and the global crises," he wrote in the August 2023 issue of Atin Ito tabloid.
He continued: "While being a social club for media people was one of the aims of the group, it was governed by a strong belief in human rights and freedom of expression that covered freedom of the press but with accountability and responsibility. It is not a freedom to disseminate lies, false or malicious accusations or fabrications. It is governed by rules of ethics. . . "
Its publication in August was a good two months past the damning exposé by artist Michelle Chermaine Ramos about the lies and deception by Hermie Garcia and Mila A. Garcia, the conjugal editors of the left-leaning The Philippine Reporter, in withholding her and an intern's salaries for months, blaming the federal Department of Canadian Heritage for it, and hiding the failed scam from the National Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada.
(Full stories and details at:
Yet the wannabe historian, if he deserved his status as a PPressCO director, made no mention of this story that should have been consistent with his writing about the club's adherence to the principles of accountability, responsibility and ethics. Hermie Garcia was a former PPressCO president.
Would PPressCO take up the cudgels for Ms. Ramos and the intern knowing these two writers are colleagues and Hermie Garcia its former president? Is he untouchable?
(Video of Ms. Ramos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8FT2kEZfls)
(Video of Hermie and Mila Garcia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLvaII3dtMw).
That's of particular importance to me because of his glowing tribute and repeated acknowledgment of the couple. What they did (as alleged but never challenged) was basically wrong and could be classified as classic deception by the Garcias of the ever-trusting Ms. Ramos and the intern.
I find it ironic that the wannabe took note of the community's failings in this wise: " . . . we don't trust each other with money. We would rather trust the banks and other people than our own. That is our greatest weakness as a people".
Well-spoken, isn't it? (Copyright 2024. All Rights Reserved).
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