Volume 5, Issue No. 36
OPINION/COMMENTARY
/ News That Fears None, Views That Favor Nobody /
Our latest as of Tuesday, May 28, 2024
~ Though the authorities and their ethnic media partners would be hard-pressed to admit their inadequacy that had resulted in wrongs being committed to their faces a year ago, a move is underway to strengthen oversight on taxpayers' money being doled out to selected news outlets that include a left-leaning Filipino tabloid recently exposed for its corrupt practices.
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JOURNALIST v. PHILIPPINE REPORTER
Gov't Toughens on LJI Funds and Ethnic Media
Agency Demands Accountability for Federal Money
By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ
Editor, The Filipino Web Channel
“Honesty builds trust." ―
TORONTO - After months of inaction on a complaint by a Filipino-Canadian journalist against editors of a Filipino tabloid, the Department of Canadian Heritage appears to be strengthening control of federal money that funds its Local Journalism Initiative (LJI) and demanding more accountability from its administrator.
Absent any official acknowledgement, such heightened oversight must have been precipitated by the largely-ignored disclosure by writer Michelle Chermaine Ramos of the lies and deception foisted on her and on another writer in Edmonton, Alberta by husband-and-wife editors Hermie Garcia and Mila Garcia of the left-leaning The Philippine Reporter (TPR).
(Related story: https://www.balita.ca/mila-a-garcia-rumormonger-par-excellence-or-piddling-reporter/)
Since her exposé was published in a series of articles in this online magazine last year, the parties that seemed to have had unwittingly enabled the Garcia couple, namely, the Department of Canadian Heritage, the National Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada (NEPMCC) and their top officials, had practically shrugged off the fully-documented revelations.
Until now.
In a move that nearly escaped notice, Canadian Heritage demanded, and NEPMCC accepted and granted, the appointment of a "coordinator" to liaise with each other concerning the government-funded LJI where TPR is a participant under the direction of NEPMCC.
The LJI provides financial support to NEPMCC which then vets qualified members so they could expand news coverage in underserved communities.
"Miniter (sic) of Heritage demanded a coordinator to be liaison between the federally run LJI and Student Internship programs and NEPMCC," according to the minutes of the NEPMCC meeting on April 8, 2024 which was published on its website only last week.
During the online monthly meeting, a motion to effect the demand was "unanimously carried" by members who then named NEPMCC executive and managing director Maria Voutsinas as coordinator, according to the minutes,
Canadian Heritage's request appears to be a major change of its attitude towards NEPMCC. In mid-January, NEPMCC president Thomas Saras explained that the "LJI program was on hold due to the delay by the ministry of Canadian Heritage".
Mr. Saras' statement could be a euphemism for the scrutiny the federal agency was presumably conducting on LJI as an offshoot of the Garcias' attempt to stiff two writers that Ms. Ramos had uncovered while seeking redress for delays in salary.
The impact of the agency's heightened oversight has not been fully explained by officials of both Canadian Heritage and NEPMCC, the LJI implementor.
They also did not respond to repeated requests for comments soon after Ms. Ramos divulged last year how TPR and the Garcia couple made a mockery of LJI with their lies and deception about the LJI grant money.
Before that, Ms. Ramos, a staffmember; and an intern, a member of the youth group Anakbayan in Edmonton, Alberta, reported for TPR, filled news quotas required by LJI, and were to be compensated by TPR from funds provided by Canadian Heritage through NEPMCC.
Both writers worked diligently until Ms. Ramos, who has written 39 articles for LJI and published in TPR from April 2022 to November 2022, noticed persistent delays in her pay. (Related video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8FT2kEZfls)
Hermie Garcia laid the blame for the slow payments on Canadian Heritage and on NEPMCC.
(Full story: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2024/01/money-scandal-prods-ethnic-press-to.html)
He specifically pinpointed to a person supposedly managing the grant whom he called the "guy in charge of disbursements" as responsible for withholding the funds. The grant as he explained to Ms. Ramos come in "trickles of small amounts and most of the time delayed for months".
Finally fed up, she inquired from Ms. Voutsinas why her LJI salary was being held up for months. That's when everything came to light. (Full story: Lies, Deceptions by The Philippine Reporter Exposed)
Not only was Hermie Garcia lying to Ms. Ramos, he even created a "grant guy" - a phantom - to conceal his wrongdoing. It also turned out from that inquiry that the Edmonton-based intern was not being paid for many months.
Ms. Voutsinas, according to Ms. Ramos, told her there was no reason for her LJI pay to be delayed because the NEPMCC had already released the LJI grant money for one full year to Hermie Garcia in one lump sum.
Moreover, contrary to what Hermie Garcia was claiming, there was no "grant guy" to begin with, as it was her (Ms. Voutsinas) who handled the money on NEPMCC's behalf.
Despite the lies and deception by the Garcia couple, the NEPMCC has remained silent on the issues and complaints raised by Ms. Ramos.
It seems, however, that NEPMCC and the Department are working quietly to reform how LJI money is disbursed to members. Meanwhile, one big question persists: Were the Garcias disciplined, chastised, or anything? (Copyright 2024. All Rights Reserved).
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