Complaint filed vs ‘harassment’ by local media
Complaint filed vs ‘harassment’ by local media
Media bullying or legitimate journalism?
By Dyan Ruiz
A scathing complaint about “harassment” towards three prominent Filipino-Cañadians in articles and videos published in 2012 has been sent to an Ontario association of Filipino journalists.
A letter signed by 64 people about coverage by local newspaper Balita and YouTube channels the Filipino Web Channel and PhilVoiceNews was sent to the Philippine Press Club-Ontario (PPCO). The letter dated Dec. 17, 2012 heavily criticizes coverage by these publications about Senator Tobias “Jun” Enverga, his wife Rosemer Enverga and artist Lilac Caña.
Rosemer Enverga
The letter refers generally to coverage by the publications throughout 2012 and also lists specific articles published from June 2012 to Nov. 2012. Journalists Romeo Marquez and Tenny Soriano and the publisher and editor of the newspaper Teresita Cusipag wrote the listed articles published in Balita. Marquez created the videos for the YouTube channels.
“People are concerned that this kind of media reporting, which essentially harasses individuals– respected members of our community, is not good for our community,” says one of the signatories of the complaint, Oswald Magno in an interview.
Magno is the president of Pamana Cultural Foundation.
Oswald Magno
The letter refers to a “spate of abrasive articles” that implicate the Envergas for the financial management of the Philippine Independence Day Council. The PIDC is a non-profit umbrella over various Filipino-Canadian organizations, which hosts events such as pageants, balls, picnics and the annual Mabuhay Festival.
The letter says the articles “repeatedly targeting the same individuals on essentially the same issues, when taken together, may constitute unethical, if not criminal, harassment by the media organizations involved.”
A major catalyst in the negative coverage of the Envergas in Balita was a March 14, 2012 press conference in which the former President of the PIDC, Minda Neri, reported PIDC’s poor financial position. She said the organization’s poor financial position was in part due to the insufficient financial statements from Rosemer Enverga, who was in charge of the beauty pageants.
In April 2012, Rosemer Enverga held a press conference where she stated she did provide financial documents to PIDC and denied any wrongdoing. Jun Enverga was the President of PIDC at the time his wife managed the pageants.
Following the press conference, the PIDC performed an audit released in December 2012. The Philippine Reporter has repeatedly requested copies of the audit, but has not received it at press time.
Marquez wrote about the audit on Dec. 23 2012 continuing to implicate the Envergas for the poor financial state of the PIDC.
The letter also complains about Marquez’s coverage on the Envergas’ involvement in charities and Enverga’s appointment to the Canadian Senate.
Lilac Caña
The letter to PPCO takes issue with coverage of another prominent Filipino-Canadian, the singer and artist Lilac Caña. In one listed article, Marquez criticizes a payment Caña received for her position as artistic director in PIDC’s Mabuhay Festival.
In an email and interview with The Philippine Reporter, Caña says the PIDC agreed to a $3,000 honorarium when she was appointed to be the artistic director in the winter of 2011. This was months before there were any concerns raised about a possible conflict of interest considering Caña was also a member of the PIDC board.
In May she resigned from the PIDC board and continued as an independent contractor for the Mabuhay Festival.
Caña says in an email to The Philippine Reporter that she was aware of the letter to PPCO and told Magno that her name could be listed “as an example of one targeted.” She agreed to have her name listed in the letter “in order to address the concerns of misrepresentation, harassment, and shoddy journalism that have been practiced by Balita newspaper, and in particular, the writer Romy Marquez, and publisher Teresita Cusipag,” Caña says.
The letter says that because of the coverage “the community’s trust in the press has eroded.”
In an email to The Philippine Reporter, Magno says the petitioners “respect the right of the media to get to the truth but not in ways that demean and hold people up to ridicule.”
In an email responding to questions by The Philippine Reporter, Marquez says, “I am pursuing a valid, legitimate story that impacts the Filipino community.” He says that the signatories of the letter are entitled to their opinion and the petition will not stop him from writing his stories.
Similarly, Soriano said in an email to this reporter, “Since this is a democracy, I would welcome all and every criticisms of whatever I write in my column or news report but I stand by my story and sources.”
As the journalists defend their articles and the petitioners defend their letter, the war of words spreads not only in publications, but also in well-circulated emails and personal blogs. Each side is said to be “bullying” the other.
In the April 2012 press conference and since, community members and journalists have pointed to rivalries between competing beauty pageants, and alleged personal animosity between the Envergas and Cusipag as reasons for the coverage in Balita.
The only response The Philippine Reporter received from Cusipag was an email stating, “I have a very pressing matter to attend to so I am sending your email to my colleague Romy Marquez to answer your queries.”
Marquez responded on behalf of Cusipag in his “capacity as associate editor of Balita,” as stated in his email response.
When reached by The Philippine Reporter, Rosemer Enverga declined to comment. Senator Enverga was not available for comment when The Philippine Reporter called his office.
It is not known at this time what the PPCO plans to do with the complaint. The letter was addressed to Ricardo Caluen, who was President of PPCO until last month. In an email to The Philippine Reporter, he says he received the letter and has passed it on to the now acting President of PPCO, Ruby Talavera.
In response to questions by this reporter, Talavera says in an email, “I have referred your emails to our PPCO membership committee which is mandated to look into these issues.”
The letter asks for the PPCO to “initiate a formal investigation and take whatever action deemed necessary, desirable or appropriate in the circumstances.” It states that the coverage violates the Code of Ethics adopted by this journalism association, whose membership includes Cusipag, but not Marquez and Soriano.
enny Soriano (File Photo)
Meanwhile, Soriano says in an email to The Philippine Reporter the “PPCO is only a social club, hence it has no sanctioning power when it comes to what is written by its members.” He goes on to raise questions about whether all the signatories of the petition truly support it.
Magno says he was not the initiator of the petition, but he says in an interview that the idea of the petition was first tabled at a meeting at his house attended by about a dozen people. The attendees then gathered support for the petition, although few people were shown draft copies of it for fear of it being leaked to the journalists named. Magno stands by the names on the petition.
He said far as he knows, the Envergas were not involved in this letter to PPCO.
In an interview Magno says that the Filipino-Canadian community is being held back by “the petty rivalries and crab mentality” exhibited in these articles, like crabs clawing at each other as they try to get out of a bucket. He continues to say one way to fight this is to “stand up for socially responsible journalism.”
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