A WANTON DISREGARD for PRESS FREEDOM?

October 4, 2006


To the Officers and Members of the National Union of Journalists in the Philippines
nujphil@gmail.com



Ladies and Gentlemen:

During the past three decades, I have met many media professionals. While I find most of them above average in industry, initiative and resourcefulness, many of them are as Bobos as Super, Super Liar, Intimidator and Extortionists Ramon Tulfo and Raffy Tulfo.

If the people controlling Mass Media in the Philippines do not exhibit some Boboness themselves, how come we have a Super Bobo Super Liar Raffy Tulfo and a Super Bobo Super Liar Ramon Tulfo lording it over in print, radio and TV?.

The first chapter of my book, “Liars, Intimidators and Extortionists in Philippine Media” had as its First Chapter this title: “Raffy Tulfo, Sinungaling Na, Bobo Pa” meaning Raffy Tulfo, aside from being a Liar is also Super Stupid. The second sentence of the book runs like this: “Lies come out continuously from his writings, as often also revealed in the same writings are his stupidities.” Somewhere in the book I also wrote: Because he does not know he is stupid, he truly is stupid.

Buy a copy of my second book “The PRESIDENT and Her MEN KISS the ASS of RAMON TULFO” to find out why I wrote there this sentence: “Ramon Tulfo is more stupid than Raffy Tulfo.”

In Philippine media, just because a man is able to insert the phrases “separation of powers” and “checks and balances “ in his sentences, he thinks he is already equipped to dish out opinions on “Constitutional Democracy” (whatever that means) which he strongly believes he can impose on his readers as the last wise words on the subject matter.

BUT at NO TIME EXCEPT NOW, do I see a PROLIFERATION (hundreds of them, in fact) of BOBOS in MEDIA.

Over three hundred local media men and women and many international media organizations and foreign writers lined up and wanted to be counted among those who support the stand and statement of the National Union of Journalists in the Philippines (NUJP) in connection with the filing of libel charges by the First Gentleman against 43 journalists and people connected with media organizations, including one circulation manager.

The NUJP Statement is itself a statement full of “non sequiturs” a very clear evidence/proof of WIDESPREAD BOBONESS in MEDIA and in NUJP!!!

Since his bachelor days, I knew Joey Nolasco, managing editor of the Philippine Daily Inquirer one of those accused of libel by the FG.. I know him to be a first class intellectual of the mold of Joy de los Reyes, a top editor of another paper. I am very confident that both Joey and Joy will fully agree with my analysis that the NUJP Statement is full of “non sequiturs.”

FIRST NON SEQUITUR: There is absolutely nothing in the fact that the First Gentleman filed libel cases against 43 people that one could make the apodictic conclusion that the FG has the “propensity to sue journalists as to muzzle those he does not agree with and sending out a clear signal to others that they risk the same ordeal should they dare cross him.” This is a gratuitous conclusion of the NUJP. It is a non sequitur from the premises. For this statement alone, NUJP would get a grade of zero in elementary logic.

SECOND NON SEQUITUR: There is also nothing in the fact that the First Gentleman listed his address as Malacanang Palace when he filed the case against the Liars, Bobos, Intimidators and Extortionists Ramon, Raffy and Erwin Tulfo that “he is aware of his status AND HAS NO QUALMS OF WIELDING IT”. That he is aware of his status is not to be debated. I once heard him identify himself as “this is FG” to the person he was talking with on the other end of the phone. But to conclude that he has “no qualms of wielding it” (with pejorative connotations) cannot be a valid conclusion from the fact that he gave his address “ Malacanang Palace .” He can still “wield it” even if he gives a P.O. Box as an address, the address my late father gave to his relatives when he was in U.S.A. because he did not want to be traced there by my snooping late mother who threatened to bring him to court for multiple bigamy.

THIRD NON SEQUITUR: The phrase “regularly abuse libel laws to curtail the democratic right of the press to delve into the truth…” was used in the statement to convey the idea that the FG is guilty of curtailing “the democratic right of the press….” Nowhere in the NUJP statements can one find to justify linking the act of FG filing the libel cases that he is out “to curtail the democratic right of the press to delve into the truth.”

I will no longer analyze the other non sequiturs. Suffice it to say that in the school where I studied elementary logic, if one gets three non sequiturs one after another in a philosophical joust, that one is a failure as far as the pursuit of philosophy is concerned. Better for him to forget philosophy, pack up his things and go home.

I would join the NUJP’s call for support (despite the non-sequiturs above) if the First Gentleman but attempt to do to one of those he accused with what the TULFO Brothers did to me in 2004 and 2005.

If the First Gentleman filed any of the case against the 43 journalists in FAR AWAY ISABELA (as the TULFO Brothers did against me in 2004 and in 2005) or in SIMILAR REMOTE PLACES, then the NUJP is right in their fears. But IF the FG gave everybody a level playing field by filing the cases in places where the accused need not travel 500 kilometers to attend court hearings as what the TULFO Brothers did to me, then THEY HAVE NOTHING TO FEAR!!!

In fact they should be happy that they are CHARGED TOGETHER AT THE SAME TIME.

Their media organizations can avail of the best legal minds in the country. With their legal luminaries combined and arrayed against the one or two unknown lawyers of the FG, they have a more than equal chance of acquitting themselves, unless they are like the TULFO Brothers who exhibit Stupidities even when they Invent Lies against those whom they malign in Mass Media.

These 43 media personnel should not be cry babies simply because the First Gentleman sued them for libel.

Allow me to let you in a case of “My Family Suing a President Occupying Malacanang” which is a hundred times more difficult than 43 VERY POWERFUL PEOPLE (I am sure these 43 media men and women consider themselves VERY POWERFUL---just look at the title of my second book :The PRESIDNT and Her MEN KISS the ASS of RAMON TULFO) being sued together by the First Gentleman. He is ONLY a First Gentleman, NOT the President..

I am relating to you this very personal experience to allay the fears of the 43 people, as pictured by NUJP, that the First Gentleman is out to crash them like cockroaches!!!

(So as not to give a chance to some stupid NUJP to remind me that one cannot sue the President, let me say here, yes, in the case filed by my wife against President Estrada, the respondent listed was Executive Secretary Ronaldo Zamora although it was one of the official acts of President Estrada that resulted in grave injustice against my wife).


When President Estrada took over Malacanang, and when he did not yet know which way was to the small boys’ comfort room, his first official act was to issue an order that resulted in my wife (who has been with Government service for about three decades) being dismissed from her “director” position at the Bureau of Customs.

Although he did not know me from Adam, Senator Rene Saguisag listened to my plea for help. Barely had we exchanged ten sentences each in our conversation about the plight of my wife, Saguisag told me in plain, clear language “Kahit na hindi mo ako bigyan ng isang perang duling, Ning, I will help you and take the case pro bono!!! (Even if you do not give me a cross-eyed penny, Ning, I will help you and take the case pro bono).

To cut a long story short, after about two years of litigation, and reams and reams of legal arguments, Senator Saguisag wrote me a short note: “It seems our winning could not be prevented!!!”

Saguisag is truly a “rarissima avis” because while he fought President Estrada with all his might to restore the rights of my wife during her darkest days and months, he now is the lead counsel of President Estrada in the President’s most important fight in his life.,

Those charged should welcome this rare opportunity to prove that they have been faithful in their duties to disseminate truth (and not lies) to the public, unlike the TULFO Brothers who invent scores of lies and use media power for intimidation and extortion.

I wonder if many of those over 40 charged by the FG view the TULFOS as abusers of press freedom. They see FG going to court to seek redress for what he thinks are abuses of press freedom, but they do not see the TULFOS ABUSING their MEDIA POSITION and POWER to spread their invented lies like against the late Presidential Candidate Raul Roco depicting him as a WIFE BEATER, or Panfilo Lacson accusing him as a MURDERER, or Mrs Panfilo Lacson propagating to the whole country that she is an ADULTERES, or the late movie idol Fernando Poe Jr. picturing him as a VIOLENT MAN and publicly ridiculing him as one with a SMALL PENIS.

What do these 43 media men and women think of REY LANGIT (who describes himself to his adoring fans as God’s Gift to them from LANGIT—Heaven) who was CAUGHT RED HANDED TWICE by BUREAU OF CUSTOMS authorities ENGAGED in SMUGGLING?

For many years, REY LANGIT ABUSED HIS MEDIA POWER to ENGAGE in SMUGGLING, with Jimmy Salgado as his agent at Customs. This is the same Jimmy Salgado who fronted for Ramon Tulfo, Raffy Tulfo and Erwin Tulfo in their MASSIVE EXTORTION, victimizing high Customs officials..

Where are those so-called GUARDIANS OF MORALITY COLUMNISTS who are all silent even if about ten dailies carried the news that the TULFO Brothers (Ramon, Raffy and Erwin) were charged by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) with ROBBERY and MASSIVE EXTORTION?

O Tempora! O Mores! Ubinam Gentium Sumus? In Qua Urbe Vivimus? Quam Rem Publicam Habemus?





Ning Santos