In defense of Erwin Tulfo and Melo del Prado

Call Erwin Tulfo with whatever you could dish out but I will stake my reputation and say that Erwin Tulfo is no thief of public funds and definitely not a push-over.

Same goes to my good old friend, Melo del Prado of DZBB. These people are being villified in public for allegedly receiving "payoffs" or "payolas" by no less than these two alleged whistleblowers of Nabcor.

Broadcasters like Melo and Erwin are given by their respective radio stations what we in the industry call " premiums". Premiums are actually advertising spots, usually worth about 2 minutes (meaning, 4 30 seconders). This is either part of their monthly salary or on top of a monthly pay. This is an accepted practice in the industry.

Radio stations give these broadcasters some leeway in looking out for potential advertisers. Fact is, radio stations are very strict when it comes to premiums. Broadcasters are not allowed to go to advertisers who already place their ads directly with the station. Hence, in most instances, these broadcasters content themselves with very small accounts just to fill in their premiums.

I know how difficult life is for Melo del Prado, an honest guy since he began his career over at DZMM as a radyo patrol. Del Prado is a self-made man. He got his spurs covering every single beat out there. He distinguished himself by dishing out incisive news reports and views which made him one of our country's top broadcast journalists.

I don't know how Melo takes this all in but the guy has a family. I have known him for two decades already and he is not the type of guy who will do what we in the industry call "ac-dc" or attack-collect, defend-collect. No.

Melo is honest in his dealings with people, especially PR men. He does not take any money. He relishes though the company of people, especially those who give him exclusive insights on the way government deals with private companies or when he is given information about graft and corruption in government.

It is totally unthinkable for Melo to accept bribe money. I think the Inquirer should have triple checked their facts and exercised due diligence before they even wrote the story against  Tulfo and del Prado.

For one, isn't obvious that both guys received the same amount of alleged "advertising expenses"? This just shows that these two guys received advertising money based on their respective ad rates. The sum of "200,000" is a pittance really and why would a person receive an amount as exact as "235,000plus"? And if that is bribe money, then, why was it processed using checks? Bribes are supposed to be "below the radar" and not as "above board" as these facts alleged by the Inquirer.

Justice secretary Leila de Lima should not dignify such allegations since, it is quite obvious that the facts being given here by these two alleged whistleblowers is an obvious attempt at diverting attention.

The one being grilled here is Allan Javellana. Allan Javellana ordered his staff to process papers for the diversion of public funds from the senator's PDAF to Janet Lim-Napoles' bogus NGOs. This Allan Javellana should be exposed and he should be the target of Inquirer's hunt for big-time Napoles clones, and not those who sweat it out for a mere "200,000".

And in the spirit of fairness, why did the Inquirer and the DOJ stopped themselves from naming an alleged "third broadcaster" who allegedly received two million pesos? Whoever that was, two million pesos is obviously bribe money because it was not as transparent a transaction like what Tulfo and del Prado obviously had with Nabcor.

Tulfo and Melo should file libel charges against those who villified them. This is a clear case of libel.

It seems to me that there is an obvious attempt to frighten members of the media, for reasons still unknown to me. I think people behind this caper realized that public interest has now waned considerably regarding this long-running pork barrel teledrama, that they fear that graft charges against certain members of the Aquino family would now surface anytime soon, what with the Inekon scandal just waiting in the wings.

And to avert that, they are now trying to make a mountain out of an ant's hill just so to protect the very names of the true thieves in barong who still lurks out there and some are even serving the very administration who portrays itself as a reformist.