Volume 6, Issue No. 20
OPINION/COMMENTARY
/ News That Fears None, Views That Favor Nobody /
Our latest as of Friday, December 6, 2024
~ As I write this article, I am reminded of the French novelist Andre Malraux who said "Man is not what he thinks he is, he is what he hides." Media colleagues may not feel comfortable hearing that, but it's true. Shall I say it's descriptive of some of the men and women who populate our small media landscape. I reach that observation after reading a published interview about some media players in the Greater Toronto Area.
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HERMIE AND MILA GARCIA'S IMPRESSIVE SOUNDBITES
'We Strive to Uphold the Truth'
'We'll Be Mindful of Laws Governing Journalism'
By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ
Editor, The Filipino Web Channel
“There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn't true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” - Soren Kierkegaard
TORONTO - The media couple Hermie and Mila Garcia were clearly proud of the cherished fruit of their everyday struggle and sacrifice - their 35-year-old baby named The Philippine Reporter (TPR), a tabloid that hews more to the left side of the political spectrum and mirrors their radical views.
I purposely use the past tense plural were than the present tense plural are because of what they had stated months or years ago in an interview published by the PASSOC (Philippine Arts and Social Studies in the Ontario Curriculum) Project, a collaboration between the Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) and York University.
Besides, TPR might already be a thing of the past, its frequency having gone from fortnightly to monthly to no more(?) during the year. The last issue in my possession right now is a yellowed print copy dated July 2024 which I retrieved from a pile of old papers headed to the dumpster in Little Manila.
I pick up some passages from that PASSOC interview relevant to this article, e.g. "the paper (TPR) not only survived but thrived," according to the couple, "as it consistently maintained the kind of relevant, professional and ethical journalism that it had been practising from its inception."
That's quite a mouthful, but hardly convincing. Not enough to persuade me to believe, and you'll find out why as you read on.
Here are some more: "We strive to always uphold truth, fairness and integrity." x x x "We strive to see professional and ethical journalism upheld in principle and practice." x x x "We will be mindful of the laws and ethics governing journalism."
Whew! Really difficult to digest those sentences in one sitting.
For the unknowing, the declarations are impressive. And if you happened to believe those are mere soundbites, you are absolutely correct.
The words are, to borrow a line from Shakespeare's Hamlet: "more honoured in the breach than in the observance."
Why do I say that? Well, let's look back.
In May last year during the observance of World Press Freedom Day, the National Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada (NEPMCC) recognized the Garcia couple with "certificates of awards."
The citation read by NEPMCC president Thomas Saras said in part: "Hermie Garcia spent 12 years in jail under (Ferdinand E.) Marcos for criticizing the Marcos dictatorship and his wife Mila also for a number of years for criticizing the dictatorship of Marcos."
I also lived and worked through those years in Manila, and reported as a foreign correspondent for an international news agency, but nowhere did I find "criticizing" a crime that could land one in prison.
The point is, it's a brazen mischaracterization of who they are and what they did during those turbulent times in the Philippines when the specter of communism was looming.
Apparent in the recognition by NEPMCC, of which the Garcias are officers, is the attempt to portray them as some kind of heroes. No, please, they're basically duds, if I may say so.
The truth is that when they were arrested and thrown in jail, they were "political activists" advocating the overthrow of the government in Manila. And NOT, repeat NOT, "for criticizing the Marcos dictatorship" as Saras would make us believe.
A month after that NEPMCC event at Toronto City Hall, the real, contemptible part of their personal and professional persona got to be unraveled by a TPR insider no less - staff reporter Michelle Chermaine Ramos who has since resigned.
All this talk by the Garcias about observing the laws and ethics of journalism, its professional and ethical practice, upholding the truth, etc. are hollow buzzwords as Ms. Ramos, firm and resolute in her stance, laid bare their deceit and chicanery in a trove of documents.
(Full story at: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2023/06/lies-deceptions-by-philippine-reporter.html).
For months starting in late 2022, the salary she had been waiting for as reporter for the Local Journalism Initiative, a joint project of Canadian Heritage and NEPMCC, had not materialized on time. Hermie Garcia explained the money was being withheld by a "grant guy" at Canadian Heritage.
In truth the "grant guy" did not exist; it was a phantom creation of Hermie Garcia to either keep (or pocket?) Ms. Ramos' money or delay its release for reasons, for example, that he had personally used it all up.
Ms. Ramos didn't know. Because she trusted him, she believed what he was telling her. She continued reporting under LJI without pay, until her impatience grew thin and inquired with NEPMCC.
That's when she found she was being victimized by her principals at TPR. Maria Saras Voutsinas, the Executive Director of the NEPMCC, revealed to Ms. Ramos that:
1. Hermie Garcia and Mila Garcia had been given Ms. Ramos' salary in advance for a year in one lump sum so there should have been no problem being compensated on time.
2. After reading the emails that Hermie Garcia sent Ms. Ramos blaming the "grant guy" for the delays, Ms. Voutsinas disclosed that this "grant guy" never existed. Ms. Voutsinas was, in fact, the person in charge of the grant.
3. The Garcias never informed the NEPMCC that Ms. Ramos had stopped reporting by the end of October 2022. This was when she insisted on taking a break starting November 2022 until the "grant guy" Hermie Garcia claimed he was meeting with that month would release the funds.
Per their agreement with NEPMCC, the Garcias are required to inform the NEPMCC if an LJI reporter stops working for any reason. However, the Garcias concealed that fact from the NEPMCC to prevent them from discovering that Ms. Ramos and the intern had stopped working due to nonpayment.
To cover up Ms. Ramos' absence, in November 2022, TPR submitted to the NEPMCC an article she had written earlier and had been published already in October, as if it had been written for her November quota.
The same situation was also happening to another TPR writer based in Edmonton, Alberta. She got tired reporting from that province and the lengthy delays in receiving her pay as LJI reporter had forced her to quit.
"We strive to see professional and ethical journalism upheld in principle and practice," the Garcia couple said in the PASSOC interview.
How much of it is true is anybody's guess. Concerned readers say if the Garcias really believe what they say, why couldn't they admit committing a wrong and apologize publicly to Ms. Ramos and the Edmonton writer, as well as to NEPMCC and Canadian Heritage?
One reader wrote: "They (Hermie and Mila Garcia) supposedly had the balls to stand up to a dictator on pain of imprisonment and death but they didn't have the balls to apologize and tell the truth to everyone they lied to."
"Does that mean Ms. Ramos and the intern are worse or scarier than a dictator?" It's hilarious!
If they practiced what they preach, why did they pick on Ms. Ramos and the Edmonton writer for their egregious lies? What was their motive? Was the money so substantial they were tempted to pocket them knowing the two writers were vulnerable? (Copyright 2024. All Rights Reserved).
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