When news broke that Wanda Teo’s Department of Tourism had placed advertisements with her own brothers’ TV show which is aired on PTV4, it was no surprise. After all, there is an existing complaint against Teo from the concerned employees of the DoT, about alleged unethical, corrupt, questionable practices that has been languishing in Malacañang since June 2017, which also sheds light on the blind item (which turned out to be about her, as she herself responded to it) about a government official asking for free shoes and theater tickets from a hotel in Manila.

Teo has also NOT been forthright or upfront about the expenses of government for the Miss Universe pageant in early 2017, which she says happened without any amount coming from public funds, even as it is obvious that money was spent by government to hold the pageant here. A request via the Freedom of Information portal for a breakdown of expenses has yet to be responded to by the DoT; it’s been there for 100 days.

Which is to say that it’s no surprise that the Commission on Audit’s report on PTV4 has surfaced this obviously highly irregular (to put it kindly), and absolutely questionable and unethical (again, kindly), transfer of cash between Teo’s office and her brothers’ production outfit, which produces her other brother’s TV show. 

Teo, as she has done in the past given the string of issues of corruption and unethical practices against her, has come out on TV, declaring that the allegations against her are false. According to her:

Hindi po totoo ‘yan. This is between PTV4 and DoT. The contract was between DoT and PTV4, it was a government to government contract. It went through a bidding <sic> and it was reviewed by our legal. all cheques were made payable to PTV4, walang cheque na napunta sa ibang production house. We issued the cheques once the deliverables were met. Wala po kaming problema sa COA namin dito, it’s probably the COA of PTV4. Do’n kayo dapat magtanong, with our COA okay po ang kontrata namin with PTV4.

First of all, the COA report on the DoT is not on the Department of Tourism website. Why is that exactly? I mean if Teo’s tourism department has no fear of transparency, why isn’t it … uh … transparent? (Also see: the lack of response to a valid request for Miss Universe expenses.)

Second of all, the news reports about the P60.1 million pesos in ad placements that went to the TV show of Teo’s brothers do not say that these cheques were made out by the DoT to her brother’s production outfit. In fact, Teo is correct that her office wrote out those cheques for PTV4. She is also correct that the transaction that’s being put into question is that one between PTV4 and the Tulfo production behind her brothers’ show. Specifically:

Payments made to Producer/Blocktimer (Bitag Media Unlimited Inc. (BMUI) in the total amount of P60,010 million, representing segment buy and spot placement in airing the Department of Tourism’s (DOT’s) commercial advertisements were not supported with proper documents such as the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) and the Certificate of Performance (COP) contrary to Section 4 of PD1445 and COA Circular No.2012-001 dated June 14 2012. (Page 27 of Part 2 of COA report on PTVI)

Right now, Teo is in the clear, yes?

Except that no, she is not.

Section 9.5 of the same COA report states:

The MOA on file was between PTNI and COT, specifically requiring PTNI to air a 6-minute segment buy in PTVs Daily News-type magazine segment, Kilos Pronto, plus a 3-minute DOT spot within the program. There were no provisions for the airtime rates per segment/spot and such other terms and conditions of the commercial advertisement specifically as regards the manner of payment. (Page 29)

FACT according to the COA report: Wanda Tulfo Teo’s Department of Tourism put out P60 million pesos in ad placements on PTV 4, requiring PTV4 to put those ads on the show of her brother, which is produced by her brother.

At the press con, Teo insisted: “The contract was between PTV4 and DoT. Wala na po akong pakialam kung ilalagay nila sa show ng brother ko, because the contract was between PTV4 at DoT.”

There lies the problem. Let’s say Teo didn’t see that contract that specified that the ads be placed on her brothers’ TV show, why did she sign off on it? Here’s another question: knowing full well that her brothers are blocktimers with PTV4, why could she not specifically say that those ads cannot be placed on her brothers’ show? After all, conflict of interest is conflict of interest, no matter how you spin it.

Teo says she’s very busy and has no time to keep track of where the advertising budget goes. But we are talking P60 million pesos of taxpayers’ money. That’s P60 million pesos that’s transferring hands from her DOT, to her brothers’ business. How could she not care enough?

And contrary to what Teo thinks, she is not kidding anybody when she comes out on television defending herself. The documents — from the seven page complaint dated June 2017, to the blind item about shoes, to a document that alleges SHE signed a P10-million-peso request from Chavit Singson’s company to mount Miss Universe 2016 in the country, to this COA report that details the Tourism Department requiring PTV4 to place its ads on the Tulfo brothers’ show — prove how Teo is deeply embroiled in what the President would classify as a whiff of corruption.

In fact with Teo, it’s a stench. ***