Sections Literature and Fourth Estate Firing of Philippine News' Editor Is Poetic Justice
| Firing of Philippine News' Editor Is Poetic Justice |
The dismissal of Lito Gutierrez as editor-in-chief of the Philippines News (PN) is not "death of Fil-Am Press Freedom." It is just a case of Mr. Gutierrez' receiving his own dose of medicine. During the five-year tenure of Mr. Gutierrez as editor-in-chief, he refused to publish my letters of protests sent to the PN about the one-sided articles that presented only the black propaganda of its columnists, Mrs. Lourdes Ongkeko and Rodel Rodis, about the Ongkeko vs. Reyes libel case in the Superior Court of Los Angeles. The PN refused even to receive the BCCs of e-mails that I sent to the different Filipino-American publications about the libel case and Mr. Rodis-led financial scandals in the National Federation of Filipino-American Associations (NaFFAA). At one time, Mr. Gutierrez sent me an e-mail that "requested" that I delete from my mailing list all the PN screen names, including his own e-mail address.
The PN refused also to publish our commentaries about the NaFFAAgate scandals of San Jose and our demand to its columnist Rodis to publish the financial statements about the NaFFAA global Filipino networking conferences and San Jose annual convention that Rodis, et al, orchestrated. The PN refused to print any detail of the civil and criminal cases filed against Ben Menor, Rodis' cochair of the San Jose NaFFAA convention, where city funds were diverted from the Northside Community Center to the NaFFAA. The PN's censorship of the Ongkenkoygate, the NaFFAAgate, the Menorgate and the other scandals of the Rodis-led NaFFAA Gang of Crooks proved that the newspaper never followed the tenets of press freedom.
The PN news refused also to publish the press releases of the 2006 Kalayaan (Philippine Independence) Steering Committee, even those sent by its organizer, the Philippine Consulate General of Los Angeles. Why? Because I happened to be the elected overall Kalayaan chairman. The PN would not run any story that contained any reference to me or a photo that included my face.
And now, Mr. Gutierrez cries foul because "he refused to spike a story?" He has been doing it to me all the years he was working for the PN. What happened to Mr. Gutierrez is just the dramatization of "poetic justice."
Our media group has campaigned since 2002 against the PN. We asked and continue to ask people and advertisers to stop subscribing to, and advertising in, it. Now, it is being distributed for free in Southern CA. Why? Nobody now subscribes to it. And lately a former advertiser (a lawyer) said that he received a letter from the IRS where he was instructed that if he had any payable to the PN, that the payment be remitted instead to the IRS.
Just like the NaFFAA, the PN has lost its credibility. Unless it follows strictly the tenets of journalism and fair play, the PN will just be one of the many Fil-Am publications that have become irrelevant to the needs of Filipino Americans. Sooner or later, its publishers will realize that they cannot throw good money after bad and continue to lose money in publishing it. It is like pouring funds into a bottomless pit.
Press freedom? We do not think that its founder, present owners and editorial staff, including Mr. Gutierrez, really know what it means.
Readers may like to read the current brouhaha on the Internet about the firing of Mr. Gutierrez.
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Global Filipinos3 <
> wrote: THE DEATH OF FIL-AM PRESS FREEDOM. Philippine News, the oldest-and-largest (sic)Filipino-American newspaper fires Mr. Lito Gutierrez, its editor-in-chief. The letter of the newspaper President and the statement of the editor-in-chief are reprinted below in full.
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From: "
" <
>
To:
;
Cc:
;
Sent: Saturday, June 23, 2007 5:18:46 PM
Subject: termination
June 23, 2007
Mr. Lito Gutierrez
Dear Mr. Gutierrez,
FedEx is trying to deliver your letter and checks but nobody would receive it.
You are hereby advised that your employment with Philippine News is terminated effective immediately.
Your final check, including any accrued vacation is attached with the FedEx package.
You are required to immediately surrender all corporate property in your possession including but not limited to the keys and ID.
You are no longer authorized to access any corporate information in any medium.
You are further advised that any malicious attempts to injure the corporation as a result of this termination will be met by vigorous legal action.
Very truly yours,
Francis Espiritu
President
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STATEMENT OF MR. LITO GUTIERREZ:
PHILIPPINE NEWS has fired its editor in chief after he refused to spike a story as instructed by the paper's management.
Lito Gutierrez, 55, who has been with the oldest and the only nationally circulated Filipino American newspaper for five years, received a call June 22 from the paper's advertising manager who told him he had been terminated.
The story involved the case of Carlos Araneta, head of the San Francisco-based cargo and money remittance facility LBC, who had lost his appeal to have a court ruling against him reversed. He had been ordered to pay $25 million to his partners who accused him of depleting the assets of their partnership in a bank.
LBC is a major advertiser in Philippine News and other Filipino American media.
"The management of Philippine News must have forgotten that we are not in some banana republic, that we are in the United States of America where freedom of the press is a fundamental right," said Gutierrez.
"Can you imagine," he asked, "if it had been the White House or some powerful politician who called?" Gutierrez said this was not the first time he had been asked to kill a story. Last year, he said PN president Francis Espiritu asked him not to use any story on businessman Rene Medina who had been charged by the Internal Revenue Service of failing to pay taxes.
Medina is the owner of Lucky Chances, a gaming facility in Colma, Calif., which, like LBC, is major advertiser. He said he was able to avoid a confrontation with Espiritu and use the story on page one after Loida Nicolas Lewis, who then headed the National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NaFFAA), issued a statement in support of Medina, saying that the IRS case was politically motivated.
In an e-mail message to Gutierrez, the writer who had been assigned to do the Araneta story, Felix Ilagan said, Espiritu merely put a "hold" on the story so the paper's lawyers could go over the documents.
"I think the guy just wants to smoothen things over," Gutierrez said in response. "But that's just being disingenuous. Given the propensity of Philippine News's management to suck up to advertisers at the expense of serious, honest journalism, that 'hold' order was effectively a 'kill' order. Let's not kid ourselves here."
The public has this perception that media sing to the tune of advertisers, he continued. "Well, not under my watch." # # #
In other words, "what goes around, comes around." Or is it "what comes around, goes around"?
Hindi ka lang naka-ganti, na-insulto mo pa sa Internet.
He, he, he...
Your Friend in the Midwest
Actually, Lito Gutierrez e-mailed today Bobby Reyes his reply to the original posting. Bobby Reyes told Mr. Gutierrez that he would give professional journalist, Romy P. Marquez, of San Diego, CA, an exclusive to his side of this developing story. He provided, therefore, Mr. Marquez with a CC of Mr. Gutierrez' e-mail to him and his (Reyes') retort. This brouhaha between Mr. Gutierrez and the Philippines News and Reyes' butting in (on behalf of the true practice of journalism) might make a tremendous impact in the Filipino-American Fourth Estate. At least for posterity's sake, Mr. Reyes urged Mr. Gutierrez to join him in this dialogue. From hereon, the www.mabuhayradio.com will publish only the reports of Mr. Marquez insofar as this instant controversy is concerned. Because what Reyes would write about it might be interpreted by critics and even the reading public as "self-serving." So, it may be best to let a third party (like Mr. Marquez) do the writing.
There are always two sides to a story and until we know all the facts, then it is prudent not to jump to any one-sided conclusion, especially, something so dramatic as death of FilAm Press freedom ........because of Philippine News Editor-in-Chief, Lito Gutierrez' termination. There is a purpose to life's events and we have to consider what it means.
Thank you for your being fair and objective.
Malou Mariano
I don't know if you can call it "infamy". You are being dramatic. I think they have just small brains. As we in U.P. used to say: "Utak ipis." But it is even unfair to the "ipis" because they have been able to survive on earth, much older than some humanoids, like Lito's former friends.
And to think that I was beginning to be proud again of Philippine News because of its reelevance, focus and format. I was even reading Rodel Rodis' column and making comments. As proud Filipino, I was telling the World Wide Web to pick up the free copies of the Philippine News, not just to wrap their garbage with it or the rotting fish they buy from Chinatown here in the San Francisco Bay Area.
I was telling them to Google Philippine News also for those connected to the Net. I was even telling friends to get ads to help the periodical because it was becoming an important communication medium among the 10-million Filipinos
in Diaspora which had become different from the Alex Esclamado-NaFFAA network that Bobby Reyes loves to editorialize and to needle.
Between Freedom of the Press, Good Taste, and Lito on one hand, and the delicate situation of that rich family in Pilipinas who might be friends of the owners of the Philippine News, on the other hand, I think it would not require a UP or Ateneo summa cum laude to make the right decision. No brainer iyon. I cannot understand for instance why Henni Espinosa's bosses would hire a Nicaraguense and pay oodles of dollars while thousands of Filipinos are scrimping to send dollars to their love ones in Pilipinas using LBC. Reminds me of Somoza
before he was driven out by the Frente Sandinista Liberacion Nacional from his fish tank in Nicaragua.
Well, Lito Gutierrez Sir, as an Outstanding Alumnus of the UP, and one of the best writers that the U.P. has ever produced next to Gemma Nemenzo and the author of U.G, this could be a blessing in disguise, if you are a believer.
Perhaps HE/She/It has more cosmic and divine plans for you. To paraphase Aristotle: "A lovely rosebush can still grow out of the dung heap." Of course, he said this in the language of Yanni. But you don't have to be a UP or Ateneo summa to discern which is the dung heap in this case. And don't assume that you are the flower in the rosebush either. Baka hanapin ka sa Castro District dito sa San Francisco.
I have included the news item about your firing below. Hahahahahahaha.
Now let us see what the more conscientious, not utak ipis, and better off and first rate organizers of the 10-million Filipinos in Diaspora can do about your talents.
Cesar Torres
A Former Reader and Tagahanga of Philippine News
Re: Firing of Philippine News' Editor Is Poetic Justice
Dear Professor Torres and Friends:
Bobby Reyes is laughing out loud. Why? Please read his first-person article about the above-captioned topic in this link
_
http://www.mabuhayradio.com/content/view/274/51/_
http://www.mabuhayradio.com/content/view/274/51/)
Happy reading,
Mabuhay,
Webmaster
_www.mabuhayradio.com_ (
http://www.mabuhayradio.com/)
In a message dated 6/24/2007 9:26:25 AM Pacific Daylight Time, writes:
To Chairman Victor Barrios of Global Filipinos:
I don't know if you can call it "infamy". You are being dramatic. I think they have just small brains. As we in U.P. used to say: "Utak ipis." But it is even unfair to the "ipis" because they have been able to survive on earth, much older than some humanoids, like Lito's former friends.
And to think that I was beginning to be proud again of Philippine News because of its relevance, focus and format. I was even reading Rodel Rodis' column and making comments. As (a) proud Filipino, I was telling the World Wide Web to
pick up the free copies of the Philippine News, not just to wrap their garbage with it or the rotting fish they buy from Chinatown here in the San Francisco Bay Area.
I was telling them to Google Philippine News also for those connected to the Net. I was even telling friends to get ads to help the periodical because it was becoming an important communication medium among the 10 million Filipinos
in Diaspora which had become different from the Alex Esclamado-NaFFAA network that Bobby Reyes loves to editorialize and to needle.
Between Freedom of the Press, Good Taste, and Lito on one hand, and the delicate situation of that rich family in Pilipinas who might be friends of the owners of the Philippine News, on the other hand, I think it would not require a UP or Ateneo summa cum laude to make the right decision. No brainer iyon. I
cannot understand for instance why Henni Espinosa's bosses would hire a Nicaraguense and pay oodles of dollars while thousands of Filipinos are scrimping to send dollars to their love ones in Pilipinas using LBC. Reminds me of Somoza
before he was driven out by the Frente Sandinista Liberacion Nacional from his fish tank in Nicaragua.
Well, Lito Gutierrez Sir, as an Outstanding Alumnus of the UP, and one of the best writers that the U.P. has ever produced next to Gemma Nemenzo and the author of U.G, this could be a blessing in disguise, if you are a believer.
Perhaps HE/She/It has more cosmic and divine plans for you. To paraphase Aristotle: "A lovely rosebush can still grow out of the dung heap." Of course, he said this in the language of Yanni. But you don't have to be a UP or Ateneo summa to discern which is the dung heap in this case. And don't assume that you are the flower in the rosebush either. Baka hanapin ka sa Castro District dito sa San Francisco.
I have included the news item about your firing below. Hahahahahahaha.
Now let us see what the more conscientious, not utak ipis, and better off and first-rate organizers of the 10-million Filipinos in Diaspora can do about your talents.
Cesar Torres
A Former Reader and Tagahanga of Philippine News
**************************************
Posted by:
Jose G. Caedo
President
Filipino-American Democratic Empowerment Council
( 415) 585-0234
As to question of "poetic justice"? Tama si Bobby Reyes. What goes around, comes around, parang tsubibo ... merry go around.
Looking forward to reading more of Romy Marquez exclusive report on this.
Jesse (Seattle)
Let us be "We, The People" show that the power is in us in diaspora.
Let us be the symbol of change and real progress for the suffering Malay blood populace in the Homeland to emulate - Today, Tomorrow, and Evermore.
Da Apo Satur
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