Isang presscon ang ipinatawag ni Jo-Ann Maglipon, editor-in-chief ng PEP (Philippine Entertainment Portal), kahapon ng tanghali, March 31, sa 8 Spices restaurant sa Il Terrazo sa T. Morato Ave., Quezon City. Ito ay bilang pagtupad sa kasunduan nila ng talent manager na si Annabelle Rama na ihihingi niya ng paumanhin ang artikulo na inilabas ng PEP noong March 29.
May kinalaman ang artikulo sa diumano'y engkuwentro nina Richard Gutierrez at Michael Flores sa 40th birthday party ng direktor na si Mark Reyes na ginanap sa Oceana restaurant noong Sabado ng gabi, March 28.
Sa ginanap na presscon kahapon, ikinuwento ni Ms. Maglipon ang mga pangyayari na naging dahilan para agad na ipa-pullout niya ang artikulo sa website ng PEP at ang paghingi ng paumahin sa mga pangalan na nasangkot sa pamamagitan ng isang sulat mula sa editor. (Click here to read the statement.)
HOW IT STARTED. Inilahad ni Ms. Maglipon kung paano nagsimula ang pangyayari.
"In the morning of March 29, 2009, I received word from the staff that Richard Gutierrez lost his cool at the party of director Mark Reyes," panimula niya. "The two incidents were supposed to have been one inside the restaurant and the other in the parking lot on Richard 's way home. For both incidents, there's a witness. One for the inside, one for the outside.
"I said that this is a story considering that the persons involved are very well-known in the entertainment world. However, a real study, more facts to be checked, more interviews, more investigation, dates, figures, time, must be done in order to complete a story like this.
"So I said [to the staff], 'Just proceed with the investigation.' Hours later, many hours later, the staff called again and told me that Leo Martinez [who was a guest at the party] had been interviewed and he denied that any incident happened.
"Leo said in the parking lot, he was never there, so he could not have seen anything. In the inside, he said nothing happened and as more details came from the staff, I said the story's too thin, it's too ill-researched, it's very weak, it's still full of holes. There's no way that the story can be written at this stage. Therefore, no writing, no uploading."
PHONE CALL FROM ANNABELLE. Pagkatapos daw nito ay tumawag si Annabelle kay Ms. Maglipon.
"That said, I felt perfectly fine. But by around 7 in the evening, I got a call from Miss Annabelle Rama saying that there was something in PEP and that it was hurting Richard.
"I made a phone call to my managing editor and I said, 'Is there anything on the net?' She said no because she and I were talking and we both understood that nothing was supposed to be uploaded and then when I texted this to Ms Annabelle, because I could not get in touch with her, I said, 'Zero, kahit tingnan ninyo ang site, wala. Imposible.'
She called and said, 'Ano bang imposible, binabasa ni Chard! Galit na galit si Chard!' Sabi ko, 'Sa PEP, P-E-P, nasa PEP?' And she said, "Oo, sa PEP, sa PEP. Tingnan mo, tingnan mo!'
"So I said, 'Tita Annabelle, one more call.' So I made another call. This time, nagsalubong na ang tawagan namin ng managing editor ko. And when we got in touch with each other, she said, 'Madam, meron ngang na-upload.' Her voice was very stricken and I was very stunned. And then I said, 'Did you pull it out already?' And she said, 'Yeah, kanina pa. I pulled it out,' the moment she checked the site and it was there.
"Now, actually, what happened was essentially a failure in editorial procedure. While the top editors understood exactly what the site would not do, people at the bottom may not have understood the instruction very well. So an article was made and the editor-in-charge finished it and uploaded it without having checked with the top editors on what to do, considering it was a very sensitive article. This was really stunning."
APOLOGY MADE. Nang ma-realize daw ni Ms. Maglipon na nagkaroon ng problema, agad daw siyang humingi ng paumanhin.
"So right away, I told Tita Annabelle, 'I am really sorry. It seems like something was uploaded but it had been pulled out right away.' Then she said, 'Kailangan i-correction mo 'yan. I-correction mo 'yan kasi may mga taong nakabasa na at kailangan mag-apologize ka diyan. Public apology!'
"Tapos, sabi ko, 'O sige, yes, I agree. We will put out an apology, correction in PEP, saying this article should never have been uploaded.' 'Oo, ilagay mo yan, ilagay mo 'yan!'
"Everything was fine but as the night wore on, I think she's in conference with her lawyers, there were more demands. This time, there's a demand I should speak to the press...No, the reporter who wrote it should speak to the press.
"Eventually, over a two-day period when we were discussing this very quickly, back and forth, back and forth, we both agreed, at around 3 p.m. or 2 p.m. of Monday, March 30, that she would no longer sue any of the people in PEP and I would write a letter from the editor explaining and apologizing...and I would appear before the media—particularly television which was her request, in order to apologize to Richard, Michael, and Epy [Quizon] for having, in my mind, for having uploaded an article that was very incomplete."
INADVERTENT UPLOADING. Kaninang umaga, nakaharap muli ng writer na ito si Ms. Maglipon. Dito nilinaw ng PEP editor-in-chief kung ano ang inihingi niya ng paumanhin kay Annabelle. Sa mga inilabas kasi sa telebisyon, hindi gaanong naklaro ang rason kung bakit nagkaroon ng public apology ang PEP.
"I think we both see that the reports picked up by television in particular... Not all but some are very incomplete themselves. They keep saying that I apologized to these people, but they don't explain that the apology has to do with the upload, the premature and inadvertent uploading of the article in PEP.
"They don't say that and yet, Annabelle Rama's camp is making that, precisely, the issue. They want me to clear Richard Gutierrez and the rest of any culpability or knowledge or participation in the incident. In fact, they want me to say that the incident never happened.
"This I cannot do, precisely because the research was very incomplete. We still have a lot of interviews to make with so many personalities present. We have not cased the joint, so to speak. We have to get more data. We have to get the time alignment. We have to get the dialogue and the witnesses to say whether the story would hold or not.
"Because I don't know if the story would hold, I cannot say there is no a story. But the fact that I pulled out the story means that I really want a second look at this story that may hurt people, if proven untrue."
Hindi rin daw mapipilit si Jo-Ann kung ano ang sasabihin niya sa publiko.
"So nobody can bully me into fast-tracking what I can say in public. I cannot now say, at this point, there was no incident. I can also not say at this time that Richard Gutierrez and the rest were actually involved in something like this. I don't know.
"So If I proceed with researching this, investigating the story, I could come up with the conclusion that the incident really did not happen the way those witnesses said it happened. That there was nothing Richard and the rest had to explain to the public. I could conclude that. But I can also maybe conclude that there was an incident, maybe not written up the way it should have been in the first and original withdrawn article from PEP. But there, maybe, there was.
"But no one can bully a journalist into saying things that she has no full knowledge of," diin ng PEP editor-in-chief.
ANNABELLE STILL PLANS TO SUE. Hindi pa man tapos ang presscon ng PEP ay sinabi na ni Jun Lalin, ang publicist ng mga Gutierrez, na "hindi masaya" si Annabelle sa mga sinabi ni Ms. Maglipon. Hindi raw kasi direktang sinabi nito na walang nangyaring gulo o tutukan ng baril.
Sa one-on-one interview, heto ang reaksyon ni Ms. Maglipon: "Kung sinabi niya na magdedemanda pa rin siya despite the statement uploaded in PEP apologizing, and despite my appearance in a press conference before print and TV and radio, then I really have to say that Annabelle Rama does not keep her word.
"Si Miss Annabelle, may reputation siya na you can take her word to the bank. May isang salita siya, yun ang nalalaman ng industriya. Kapag ginawa niya ito, tingin ko naman, mare-reexamine yung reputation na'yon.
"Ngayon, hindi na siya mapapaniwalaan sa kung ano ang maipapangako niya. Dapat ngayon, lahat nakasulat. Dapat ngayon katabi mo lagi ang abogado..."
POSSIBLE ENDING. Saan niya nakikitang magtatapos ang isyung ito?
"I have done everything I can as a journalist," sabi ni Ms. Maglipon. "So on my side, I am done. Kung may mangyayari pang iba, that will be the move of Annabelle Rama, not mine. I will no longer be moved into doing more. This is it."
Willing ba siyang kausapin uli si Annabelle?
"Oo naman. Yes, as long as I am not threatened with a suit, then I will talk to her.
"You see, the reason I will not talk to her if there's a threat of a suit is this: the lawyers will always tell you, the less you say, the better, especially to the person who's going to sue you. Every text message, every announcement you make, and any interview you give can be used against you by the other lawyers.
"So if she doesn't have a suit hovering above my head, if she doesn't have her lawyers constantly dictating what she does, then I'm completely willing to go back to the old arrangement, where she calls me all the time and I call her back.
"It's always very freewheeling—she gets very emotional, I get very frank, I get very honest with her, very detailed... That can go back. But if I hear just one word from her of a threat of a suit, the conversation stops."
RUFFA'S ACCUSATION. Nagbigay rin ng pahayag si Ms. Maglipon tungkol sa naging tinuran ng isa pang anak ni Annabelle na si Ruffa Gutierrez. Nagsalita si Ruffa sa isang TV interview noong March 30 na bago isulat ang mga "fabricated" stories ay kailangang alamin muna kung sino ang source. (Click here to read related story.)
Sabi ng editor-in-chief, "She should specify, Ruffa should specify yung kuwentong barbero and then maybe if she does, I will go point for point, recap the story that she says is a kuwentong barbero and I will annotate.
"I will put it up in PEP and annotate and say why we did what we did. We will clearly justify for her benefit, exactly why we came up with what we did, why we have the interview we had, why we have the articles we had, why we have the assumptions that we made.
"If Ruffa wants to hit PEP, she must specify and I will answer specifically. Mahirap yung mga generic outburst na ganito. Yun ang paninira. Yun ang libelous. Yung sasabihin mo, 'Ay, wala 'yan. Nag-imbento lang 'yan. Ay, wala 'yan. Kuwento-kuwento lang 'yan. Hindi niya alam ang ginagawa niya...'
"Sabihin mo kung bakit, kasi I'm not thin-skinned and I don't like using the court as the venue for resolving media matters. Sa akin, I will face you if you like in your show, and then I put it up in PEP. I don't care where but be specific.
"But you have to be able to take what I say and the trouble is we have to write, sign an agreement beforehand that anything we say cannot be used for a lawsuit. You just give me that written statement, then we're done. I can give you the details of why we have the stories we have."
MESSAGE TO THE GUTIERREZ FAMILY. Nang hingan ng writer na ito si Ms. Maglipon ng mensahe niya para sa mga Gutierrezes, heto ang kanyang sinabi:
"Sinasabi nila na ang PEP ang gustong manira sa kanila, kasi nakikita nila sa PEP yung mga istorya na hindi nila nakikita sa iba. Mag-isip-isip din sila. Maaari kayang dahil sa ingay na nanggagaling sa kanila? The muscle that they flex whenever there's a story about the Gutierrezes?
"Wala nang gustong magsulat kasi vexation 'yon sa journalist, e. Kasi kung hindi naman matibay yung publisher at editor at hindi iba-back up yung reporter, hindi na lang gagawin ng reporter. Kasi mahabang awayan 'yan, e. Maaaring umabot pa sa korte kung wala kang back-up ng institution that you work for. Maaaring ayaw mo nang gawin.
"So, isipin din nila, saan pupunta yung klase ng reputation na malinis lang dahil takot ang lahat na magsulat ng kahit ano? Sana ang reputation mo, malinis dahil kahit anuman ang maisulat tungkol sa 'yo, lalabas at lumalabas pa rin na tama ka.
"Pero kung hindi, mag-isip-isip ka rin. Baka nga hindi ka tama. Baka meron kang mga knee-jerk reaction as a sister, as a mother, as a brother, na tuwing mababanggit ang pangalan ninyo, automatic 'yan, mali ang iba, tama kayo.
"Kailan ninyo malalaman ang totoo? Paano ninyo makikita kung saan nanggagaling yung ginagawa ng reporters?
"Kasi willing ako doon sa mga katanungan nina Tita Annabelle na, 'Saan nanggaling yan? Ano 'yan. Utos 'yan. Inutos yan!' Hindi ko man ma-reveal ang sources ko or kahit sinong journalist, hindi puwedeng mag-reveal ng source. Pupunta ka nga sa preso para lang i-protect ang source mo. Ganoon pa man, maipapaliwanag ko nang mahusay kung saan nanggagaling ang mga reports, kung ano ang proseso na dinaanan ng reports na 'yon, kung nakikita ko na makikinig sila, kung may kasulatan kami na wala 'yang mga abogado na 'yan, at kung talagang magkakaroon sila ng isang salita," ani Ms. Maglipon.
POSTSCRIPT. Habang isinusulat ang artikulong ito ay nakatanggap kami ng report na itutuloy ni Annabelle Rama at ng kanyang anak na si Richard ang demanda laban sa PEP.