Ethnic Media Nixes 'Fairy Tale' by The Philippine Reporter

Volume 6, Issue No. 55

OPINION/COMMENTARY

/ News That Fears None, Views That Favor Nobody /

. . . . . A community service of 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 Friday, June 20, 2025 

~  What amounted to a denial by an ethnic media manager of a well-documented complaint against editors of a Filipino tabloid is contradicted by the swift action of its top official compelling immediate payment of grant money to two reporters working under the federal government-funded Local Journalism Initiative. 

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EXPOSE BY MICHELLE CHERMAINE RAMOS

NEPMCC Validates Claim v. Hermie Garcia, Wife

Complaint Unearths the Couple's Lies and Deceptions

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ 

Editor, The Filipino Web Channel

"Some lies should be left to wither and die. Others demand a response." - Billy Ball

TORONTO - One crucial detail I had missed while writing the story has become material to the broader issues that were inadvertently sidestepped because of overwhelming evidence.

I refer to the prompt action by the National Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada (NEPMCC) compelling the conjugal editors at The Philippine Reporter (TPR), namely, Hermie Garcia and Mila A. Garcia, to pay two writers their salaries as reporters for the government-funded Local Journalism Initiative (LJI).

In the initial articles I wrote and published in the online Filipino Web Magazine (https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/), I unintentionally skipped the NEPMCC move contained in a blow-by-blow complaint filed by journalist and artist Michelle Chermaine Ramos against the Garcia couple.

Ms. Ramos and another writer based in Edmonton, Alberta were the unknowing victims in an elaborate hoax concocted by the Garcias that had defrauded them for months of hard-earned money working under the LJI program.

Following my unpleasant encounter in April with Maria Saras Voutsinas, managing director and vice president of NEPMCC, the spotlight is on again on the lies and deceptions by the Garcias uncovered by Ms. Ramos.

"What Michelle told you is not true!" Ms. Voutsinas said to me on the day I went to cover the group's World Press Freedom Day celebration at Toronto City Hall. (Full story: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2025/05/a-not-so-welcoming-world-press-freedom.html).

If that is the case as Ms. Voutsinas has averred, why did the NEPMCC pressure the Garcia couple to pay up what they owed to Ms. Ramos and the Edmonton writer who, by the way, is a member of Anakbayan? Why did her father, Thomas Saras, NEPMCC president and CEO, order the Ombudsman to investigate?

"It was beyond ridiculous," explains Ms. Ramos in her complaint, "that the council (meaning NEPMCC) had to intervene on more than one occasion to hammer them (the Garcias) to do the right thing by forcing them to pay us our grant funds that the council had entrusted them with - and had given them in one lump sum in advance."

The phrase " . . . by forcing them to pay us our grant funds . . . " clearly shows the NEPMCC recognizes and affirms the validity of Ms. Ramos' complaint. And without so much as saying it, it makes a lie of Ms. Voutsinas' unequivocal outburst.

I can only speculate why Ms. Voutsinas tried to cover up for the Garcias and their misdeeds. She admitted that her father, Thomas Saras, has long been friends with the couple. (Full story: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2025/05/forsaking-truth-for-friendship-at.html ).

The Garcias had claimed they were "sitting down to meet with" the "grant guy" but after waiting months to get paid and learning from Ms. Voutsinas that the guy is nonexistent, Ms. Ramos officially emailed her complaint - on Ms. Voutsinas' advice - to the Garcias, confronting them with what she was told was the truth. 

Copies of the complaint were also sent to Canadian Heritage, Mr. Saras, Ms. Voutsinas, and the NEPMCC Ombudsman on January 2, 2023.

Mr. Saras then immediately called the Garcias and asked the NEPMCC Ombudsman to investigate, which forced the Garcias to finally pay Ms. Ramos within days.

A similar situation happened with the Edmonton writer who had also expressed her grievance against the Garcias over undue delays in her salary. The quick intervention by Mr. Saras and Ms. Voutsinas prompted the Garcias to recompense her the following day.

Why did Hermie Garcia and Mila A. Garcia resort to this labyrinthine sham which dragged down Canadian Heritage, the NEPMCC and its top officials to cheat Ms. Ramos and the Edmonton writer? (Related story: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2024/12/lying-breaching-law-and-ethics-are-not.html).

"They probably assumed we'd never talk since we never collaborated on anything on the job," Ms. Ramos volunteered to say. (Related story: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2024/08/left-leaning-filipino-tabloid-tumbles.html).

Earlier on, she said she was annoyed by an alleged requirement she had to comply with supposedly demanded by a "grant guy" at Canadian Heritage before her salary could be released. 

But what infuriated her was when the Garcias kept pressing her to continue working while claiming they were in talks with the "grant guy" even after she repeatedly told them she was taking a break starting November 2022 until the "grant guy" would release the months of backpay.

"At that point," Ms. Ramos said, "I was really furious with this grant guy they (the Garcias) claimed they were dealing with . . . "

She wrote to the Garcias: "I'm no longer just frustrated but frankly absolutely furious that they're (meaning Canadian Heritage and the grant guy) obviously using us but taking us for granted . . . They must think we're stupid . . . It makes me question the government's announcements of funding for other industries since our allocated funds haven't reached us."

(Related story: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2024/07/govt-officials-meet-ethnic-media-amidst.html).

If Ms. Ramos only knew. If only she had known that all this time Hermie Garcia was deliberately lying to her and to the Edmonton writer. 

At that point, she couldn't understand why the Garcias - who she thought were supposedly brave outspoken activists - could not say "no" or set boundaries with this "grant guy" because they kept contacting her and trying to convince her to keep writing for LJI despite not being paid.

"I seriously wondered why their backbones apparently disappeared when it came to this grant guy," she said.

After months of waiting for nothing, Ms. Ramos felt she wasn't getting the full picture and suspected the Garcias did not have the guts to be assertive with this "grant guy." 

So she eventually decided to find out and follow up with the "grant guy" herself, which led her to inquire with Ms. Voutsinas who told her he never existed.

That means Ms. Ramos' impulsive flare-up against Canadian Heritage and the "grant guy" so-called had no basis in fact. But she's not to be blamed either because she was misled.

For the truth as it emerged later is that this federal agency had, ahead of time, released the grant money to NEPMCC for disbursement, and from there, to the hands of the Garcias in one lump sum.

As she did her own inquiries, it became evident the Garcias had deceived her and the Edmonton writer. What came out was that the "grant guy" was invented by Hermie Garcia and did not exist. His story that Ms. Ramos had believed was a fairy tale. (Copyright 2025. All Rights Reserved).