BACOLOD CITY – As the controversy over a complaint for alleged non-payment of Manila actors drags on to its first week, DNX has gathered enough data based on documents and interviews with private individuals and officials involved to construct a timeline that will detail how the event “Ang Probinsyano vs. Artistahing Bacolodnon” was planned and implemented.
With this timeline, DNX hopes to shed light as to who were involved at every stage, how much was the total amount involved, who owes how much to who, and who should be held accountable at the end of the day.
It is important to point out at this point that DNX only gathered the facts, verify as best we could the authenticity of documents from people involved – from the complainant to the public officials she has named.
In the interest of fairness and accuracy, we have observed several guidelines based on existing laws like the Data Privacy Law, and the Anti-Wiretapping Law.
We have taken care to verify the involvement of private individuals named by alias Norma, exercising caution in ascertaining if these people are indeed involved, and if their identities should be revealed.
The public officials named thus far to have taken part in varying degrees with the event are Councilor Al Victor Espino, police officers Col. Henry Binas, and Lt. Col. Levy Pangue. They are the officials who were named by Norma as having taken part in preparations for the event.
Others, like Cong. Greg Gasataya, was a sponsor while Mayor Evelio Leonardia got involved only after Ben Tulfo called him about the issue.
The private individuals who have been named so far by alias Norma is someone identified in her phonebook as “BACOLOD PPO-Ma’am Charlotte” who she coordinated with since September after Norma met with Pangue and agreed to hold the event in time for the MassKara Festival.
SERIES OF SMS
On 12 December 2019, 10:51pm, a Facebook account with the name “Franz Quiambao” sent a private message to the DNX inbox.
Quiambao asked for contact details of DNX. She claimed alias Norma, whom she called a friend wanted to contact the paper.
Our managing editor sent Quiambao my mobile phone number.
11:34pm, an unregistered number rang my number. When I answered it, a voice that sounded like that of a woman was at the other end.
“This is alias Norma,” she said. “Franz Quiambao is the other name I use,” she said.
She then went on to tell me that her other names are Rory Lumba Aquino and her “real name,” she said is Maria Aurora L. Aquino.
She said, as Franz Quiambao that she wants to send documents and evidences that will prove “(Councilor) Espino and Col. Pangue are lying about what happened during the basketball game there…”
The first question I wanted to ask her was: why the different names?
Even before I could ask her, Norma sent a message explaining why she did it: “Unang una po, pinagamit sa akin ni Sir Ben sa live interview nya kasi po nagbabanta na si Coun Al na may araw din daw po ako sa kanya kaya for safety and protection ay ginawa po ni Sir Ben yun dahil mga delikado tao po mga inexposed ko.”
“First of all, Sir Ben made me use it for his live interview because of the threat from Councilor Espino that is why for my safety and protection, Sir Ben had to do it because I exposed dangerous people.”
It must be pointed out that Franz Quiambao/Rory Lumba/Maria Aurora L. Aquino had refused to do a Skype interview with us so we can ascertain if she was, indeed, the person who Councilor Espino and other officials talked to here.
She said she is waiting for permission from Ben Tulfo.
Nevertheless, we will be coming out with stories based on the documents alias Norma has sent us. We will also present the reactions and refutations of those persons she has implicated.
