Is Balita, a Filipino Community Tabloid, Bowing Out?

Volume 8, Issue No. 3

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@aol.com) for the information and understanding of Filipinos and the diverse communities in North America . . . . 

Our latest as of Thursday, July 30, 2026 

~ The string of defamation suits against Tess Cusipag that resulted in substantial losses must be too much of a humiliation to bear for someone lacking the bona fides of a journalist. Then came the ultimate debasement provided by the Court of Appeal upholding a Superior Court decision ordering her to pay nearly half-a-million dollars to a plaintiff she was found to have defamed. That's a huge financial strain which now appears to force her to slow down and cut the number of pages of her fortnightly periodical.

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MIRANDA v. CUSIPAG DEFAMATION SUIT

Balita's $0.5-Million Loss

Impacts Its Publisher

 By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ 

Editor, The Filipino Web Channel

"Words are free. It's how you use them, that may cost you." — Kushandwizdom

TORONTO - Days after my widely read article about the Ontario appeal court upholding the victory of businesswoman Liwayway Miranda in her defamation suit against Balita publisher Tess Cusipag, the latter announced a cutback in the number of pages of the tabloid.

Not that it matter much, the reduction is slight anyway, but it indicates the fortnightly paper is in the throes of bowing out, not for the reason she stated but for the successive losses in court that have cost her nearly $1.5-million and a 13-day jail time.

"We had to reduce the pages from eighty down to seventy-two to keep up with the work, rather than stop all together . . . " she says in her Facebook post. " . . . at my age and living alone, I am having problem keeping up with the work needed."

That may be a plausible excuse, an admission that stress is catching up and wearing her down. Age and one's state of mind at that point are reasonable justification to de-escalate.

But in the next breath, she misleads, stating that, to quote her, "Balita is now the only remaining newspaper in the community, out of 24 before the pandemic and after, Balita was the only one left and that also forces me to still try."

I don't know if she's trying to hype herself as some kind of a superwoman in late age doing all the work for a tabloid that has lost much of its credibility, or she's trying to win understanding and sympathy from patrons.

Right now she's propagating a lie. Unless the community is completely blind and mute, her assertion that "out of 24 . . . Balita was the only one left . . . " would pass unnoticed. It's just not true.

At my last count, the monthly Atin Ito, the pioneer Filipino paper, is very much alive; in fact, it's celebrating its 50th year in October. (Related story: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2019/08/eddie-lee-non-journalist-publishing.html).

There's also LM Confidential, a lean version of Balita in terms of photos (mostly of adolescent girls) and gossipy stories published by a clownish photographer.

In 2010, the year of my arrival in Toronto, the number of Filipino newspapers stood between 10 and 15, inexact because some of them just popped out and vanished after a few issues. (Related story: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2022/03/media-uproar-in-toronto-over-word-moron.html).

Cutting Balita's pages by eight is quite insignificant in terms of printing costs. Even if it's reduced by half, from 80 pages, would not be as impactful as when its contents and design are drastically improved.

What I see happening is that the three successful defamation lawsuits against Ms. Cusipag and Balita are taking their toll on her vaunted "millionaire" status and on her family who put up the money to pay litigation costs and damages.

(Related story: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2022/01/good-lawyering-won-libel-cases.html).

The decision on Ms. Miranda's suit, ruled in her favour by Superior Court Justice R. Lee Akazaki and upheld by the Court of Appeal for Ontario, orders Ms. Cusipag to pay damages and cost approximating half-a-million dollars.

That's the price of an arm and a leg if it were to apply to everyday Filipinos hacking a living in Toronto. Multiply the amount three times and one would see why Balita is slowing down to extinction.

(Full story: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2026/07/balita-loses-appeal-ordered-to-pay.html).

Ms. Miranda's win maybe the final nail in the coffin. It's also the ultimate humiliation for both Balita, the newspaper, and Ms. Cusipag, its publisher and self-appointed editor. (Copyright 2026. All Rights Reserved).