Defamation Case: The $400K Payout Is Done But Why Is BaBoy Silent?

Volume 1, Issue No. 4 - OPINION/COMMENTARY

The News UpFront: (TOP STORY) as of Thursday, November 2, 2017 

~ The underground saboteurs known by their stinking alias BaBoy have uncharacteristically clammed up at a time when they should be screaming their heads off at the windfall that Tobias Enverga, a member of the Senate, received last week from the family of the editor and publisher of the community fortnightly Balita. Though the periodical is the largest Filipino newspaper in Greater Toronto Area, its financial standing does not compare with the mainstream. Balita lost fighting the defamation case Enverga filed and was ordered by the court to pay damages and costs amounting to a staggering $410,000. 

 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  

TOBIAS ENVERGA'S DEFAMATION CASE

The $400K Payout Is Done But Why Is BaBoy Silent?

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ

Editor, The Filipino Web Channel

"Silence is the most powerful scream". - Anonymous

TORONTO - Over the course of four years, from April 2013 to March 2017, the anonymous saboteurs behind BaBoy (for Balita Boycott) feasted on the bustling 39-year-old Balita, Toronto's largest Filipino newspaper, in hopes of taking it down for its firm commitment to exposing wrongdoing in the community.

BaBoy's drive is an utter failure - it was bound to founder anyway - mainly because those who patronize Balita believe its journalistic work is an eye-opener as it contributes to their awareness and knowledge of the goings-on, good and bad, in the community. (Background story at: http://www.balita.ca/about/the-editor/).

So far, BaBoy appears to have shut its foul mouth soon after the fortnightly periodical founded by the late journalist Ruben Cusipag in 1978 had been dealt a staggering blow for its resoluteness. For an ethnic newspaper, it's a whammy that hurts the pocket the most and has the potential to compromise our liberties.

BaBoy had been crowing about the issue leading to Balita's payoff. Its last post was almost five months ago, on July 4, 2017, where it stated that the paper's court costs have ballooned to over $400,000. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCAEhedA_hY).

It's a windfall by any measure. Ruben Cusipag's widow, Tess Cusipag, editor and publisher of Balita, had to cough up that much from multi sources to satisfy the judgment by the courts that ruled in favor of Tobias Enverga, a member of the Senate, who claimed he was defamed in a story Balita had published. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFNAMLr-qgc).

(Any mention of the circumstances of that story and the community organization involved is prohibited by Judge Sidney Lederman under pain of being cited for contempt. In fact, Ms. Cusipag was sent to a women's correctional in Milton, Ontario and served 13 days of the 21-day sentence for violating the injunction. However, a story independently written by Chicago-based Filipino American journalist Joseph Lariosa is available at: http://www.philamessenger.com/template-explore/design-and-features/layout/295-enverga-does-not-want-fil-can-publisher-jailed-says-aide).

Four-hundred-thousand-plus Canadian dollars (at this writing, the exchange rate is C$1=40.05 Philippine pesos) is a lot of money. Translated into pesos, the amount easily makes its holder a multi-millionaire. It can buy a life of luxury and convenience, enough to go into comfortable retirement.

While consistently chronicling the defamation story every now and then more to shame Balita than anything else, BaBoy has not been entirely truthful. Its factual lapses could also be defamatory, which means its secret organizers could be held legally liable. I believe this is the reason its principals would not dare come out and fight a war in the open.

I have strong suspicions who are behind BaBoy. Definitely, it's more than one individual, perhaps a mixed breed of crabs and crybabies hiding in the dark crevices of their master. They are motivated by a combination of hurt, revenge, and envy at the success of Balita as the lone community watchdog.

In March after heated email exchanges of profanities, the disbarred lawyer Joe Rivera, feeling alluded to as the man behind BaBoy, pointed to his fraternity brother Oswald Magno and his group.

"Stop hiding now," he told them, explaining he could not understand why they "won't claim ownership of Balita Boycott (BaBoy) campaign".

Rivera's article on community journalism published on his blogsite on May 23, 2012, has been re-published, apparently without his knowledge and consent, in BaBoy's website the very first time it came out in April 2013, raising suspicion that he had something to do with BaBoy.

"Publishing my blog article x x x without my permission," he chastised Magno, "has made me a suspect to (sic) the eyes of Romy Marquez that I was responsible for what you have been posting and writing all along." 

Magno has not officially and publicly denied Rivera's statement. He has not issued any challenge to this reporter. However, BaBoy took the cudgels for him, explaining in his defense that my earlier story quoting Rivera "is an outright lie".

According to BaBoy, "Magno did not start the boycott and neither did the various people (Tess) Cusipag recklessly bullied for speaking out against her and Balita". (Background story at: http://www.balita.ca/2013/02/15/war-by-deception-torontos-oswald-magno-the-bankrupt-lawyers-puppet/).

At the Taste of Manila festival on Aug. 20 in Bathurst-Wilson, I had a friendly chat offstage with Guy Camacho, one of the campaigners for Angely Pacis, the Conservative candidate for MPP in Mississauga Centre. His wife, Livvy Camacho, is also a Pacis endorser just as Oswald Magno and his wife Mila Magno - an IT professional, according to her LinkedIn profile - are.

The Magnos and the Camachos are like a boomers gang, most times seen together in community events and socials. Their presence in Pacis' political campaign is not surprising inasmuch as they are also supporters of the Conservative Party where Enverga also belongs.

In the early days of BaBoy's campaign against Balita, I had that gut feeling that Guy Camacho may be one of its initiators. A careful analysis of the possibilities strengthens that. I must emphasize here and now that I am not pointing an accusing finger on him. I am merely verbalizing what I feel period.

So when I caught his eyes, I teased him, telling in the Tagalog vernacular that BaBoy is already busted. "We know who you are," I said, "so there's no use concealing your identities".

Our informal talk drifted briefly to other topics. Previously, I learned that Camacho had some military background, in intelligence and psywar tactics, among others, having graduated from the Philippine Military Academy eons ago. 

I told him I held the rank of second lieutenant in the then Philippine Constabulary, and served briefly, after finishing advanced ROTC in college. I'm pretty much acquainted with investigative work, I informed him.

BaBoy's silence was totally unexpected, at least for me. I was already predicting that it would make a big splash of the payout to Enverga once the handover is done. Why it did not really surprises me.

I knew that BaBoy liked boasting anything that is against Balita. Why not this $400,000 bonanza that Enverga got?