Was ‘malignant spirits’ remark scripted or not?

In his Sept. 8 column, Ramon Tulfo posited that Vice President Jejomar Binay need not feel alluded to when ABS-CBN journalist Korina Sanchez spoke, in one of her radio broadcasts, of “dark, small malignant spirits” who were interested in taking over the post of interior secretary.

Given the underlying and widely known circumstances—Binay, though certainly not a spirit, is truly dark and small; and he originally aspired (as no one else did) for the position vacated by Jesse Robredo and now given to Mar Roxas, Korina’s husband—I wonder whom else Tulfo had in mind as being alluded to by the lady broadcaster. I mean, with all honesty and candor, Tulfo should probably be a bit more honest, at least to himself, if not to others, in this particular issue. That said, my hopes run high that Tulfo, one of the few writers I revere, will forgive me for saying that.

At any rate, no one will ever know who really Korina was referring to by “dark, small malignant spirits.” So be it. It is everybody’s right not to be a witness against himself or herself.  But then, the ABS-CBN network, previously reported as having written to Binay’s office about this matter being already under investigation, should be able to publicly answer in due course two very relevant questions. One, was the expression “dark, small malignant spirits” part of the script, or simply Korina’s own ad lib? And two, does the ABS-CBN management consider such expression “unethical,” or “just OK”?

I certainly do not wish to make mountains out of molehills by prolonging this issue. I just happen to believe that when, only when, the above questions shall have been satisfactorily answered in all good faith may the reading public practically charge this journalistic happenstance to sad experience and allow it to finally rest in peace.

Incidentally, I cannot help but call to mind another popular ABS-CBN journalist, Pinky Webb. Methinks everybody must have observed  that during all those times Hubert Webb  was being either maligned until hell, or defended to high heavens by different sectors in  the media on account of the much ballyhooed Vizconde massacre case, Webb was never heard  remarking a wee bit about her brother Hubert. As a matter of fact, I then found it amply reasonable to assume that Pinky had always made it a point to arrange for her temporary replacement in her daily noontime broadcast, “Dateline Philippines,” whenever some news about Hubert was scheduled to be aired.

Before anybody gets me wrong, this is neither a critique of Korina nor praise for Pinky; this is merely in articulation of what I sincerely feel about this issue—most certainly, with malice toward none.

—RUDY L. CORONEL,

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