Forsaking the Truth for Friendship at Ethnic Press

Volume 6, Issue No. 51

OPINION/COMMENTARY

/ News That Fears None, Views That Favor Nobody /

. . . . . A community service of Romar Media Canada, The Filipino Web Channel (TheFilipinoWebChannel@gmail.com) and the Philippine Village Voice (PhilVoiceNews@gmail.com) for the information and understanding of Filipinos and the diverse communities in North America . . . . . .

 

Our latest as of Wednesday, May 21, 2025 

~ There are challenges worth fighting for. The sacrifice one has to face as a result of these challenges is not insurmountable. Not until recently has community journalism faced challenges that threaten its exercise. From practitioners and advocates of press freedom, it is incomprehensible that intimation of suppressing it would be verbalized like a warning of imminent consequence. 

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

"TO SEEK AND PUBLISH THE TRUTH"

Mocking a Code of Ethics

Sacrificing the Truth for Friendship

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ 

Editor, The Filipino Web Channel

"If journalism is good, it is controversial, by its nature." - Julian Assange

TORONTO - The scene that unfolded at the lobby of Toronto City Hall two weeks ago has bothered me to this day: a top official of the National Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada fiercely defending two of its members in the face of incontrovertible evidence.

Right now, I recall the first few lines of NEPMCC's Code of Ethics which state: "Our privilege and duty is to seek and publish the truth, defend free speech and the right to equal treatment under law . . . "

Which side of the truth am I on? Because I rely on documented proof and honest facts, my confidence is unshakable in what journalist and artist Michelle Chermaine Ramos has articulated from the get-go.

(Related video: FEATURE: 'Spirits of Sacrifice Nurturing Nations' by Michelle Chermaine Ramos).

Her credibility is unassailable. And that goes a lot in fighting for her and believing the complaint she has filed against her former editors at The Philippine Reporter, namely, Hermie Garcia and Mila A. Garcia, who had duped her and another writer for months into believing their many manufactured lies about their salaries.

(Related stories: 1.https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2023/05/hermie-and-mila-garcia-freedom-fighters.html 2. Lies, Deceptions by The Philippine Reporter Exposed

Comes Maria S. Voutsinas, NEPMCC managing director and vice president, telling me during a face-to-face meeting at the City Hall foyer, and I quote her: "What Michelle told you is not true!"

Undoubtedly she was defending the couple and mocking Ms. Ramos. In fact, she predicated her statement that her father - Thomas Saras, NEPMCC president and CEO - and the Garcia couple are friends for many years.

That was revealing. I knew they're comrades (the preferred term of leftists), having been there myself for a number of years until I stopped paying membership dues. But to invoke it as some kind of defense is really untenable.

I can now infer that between upholding the truth (Ms. Ramos' complaint) and affirming friendship, Ms. Voutsinas would rather be on the side of the latter.

(Related story: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2022/04/friendships-in-filipino-community.html).

Her remark runs counter with NEPMCC's ethics "to seek and publish the truth." Has she gone rogue to cover up the published misdeeds of the Garcia couple as they would impact the yearly money grants by the federal government on the NEPMCC and its members?

Perhaps to emphasize her support for them amidst the scandal, Ms. Voutsinas menacingly commented that she would cause the issuance of a cease and desist order if my inquiries about the Local Journalism Initiative (LJI) that NEPMCC is implementing would persist.

The LJI was the root of it all. The Garcias had been handed the grant money in full ahead of time for the salaries of staff reporting for LJI, in this instance Ms. Ramos and another writer in Edmonton, Alberta.

Not only were the two reporters lied to about their salaries, they were also led to believe that Canadian Heritage was responsible for delays and non-payment. That was the gist of Ms. Ramos' complaint. Why did the Garcias resort to these egregious lies?

I've had several interactions with the Garcias from the time I joined NEPMCC in 2010 or 2011. They're expert at undermining people like myself through whispering campaigns and rumour-mongering.

(Related story and video: A Black Propagandist in Our Midst) and (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAVsCjSm1q0)

And they have blind followers too in so-called cause-oriented groups, including a disbarred lawyer, a computer thief, and fake journalists. 

So, between Ms. Ramos and the Edmonton writer, on the one hand, and the Garcias and Ms. Voutsinas, on the other, I would cast my lot with the former, hands down. (Copyright 2025. All Rights Reserved).