On May 7, the Tulfos and Department of Tourism Secretary Wanda Tulfo Teo announced through Teo’s lawyer Ferdinand Topacio that the Tulfo brothers’ Bitag Media is returning the P60 million pesos they received as payment for DOT ad placements on the show Kilos Pronto — a Tulfo show that is blocktimer on PTV4.
This, after Teo insisted that there was no conflict-of-interest since the DOT’s deal was with PTV4, not Bitag Media. This, after the Tulfo brothers went ballistic online, calling out other media personalities who put into question their sister, and the brothers themselves — because this is basic: if YOU are blocktiming with a network, that network is NOT supposed to give you ads. In fact Bitag Media has to find its own ads in order to pay for whatever blocktiming amount they are paying the network. This set-up, no matter how they spin it? Is highly irregular.
Topacio yesterday “insisted that Teo and her brothers are innocent,” and here I’m going to tell you how that is impossible.
According to Teo’s lawyer: “Kung nalaman <ni Sec Teo> na ‘yong Kilos Pronto pala ay production ng mga Bitag at hosted by her two brothers, eh hindi niya na po itinuloy ‘yan. So someone made a boo-boo somewhere na hindi po siya na-inform.”
Neither of the two versions of this story actually allow Teo to be innocent. The COA report on the PTV (People’s Television Network Inc.) transaction with Bitag Media states that the DOT required PTV to air the 6-minute segment on Kilos Pronto.
Is it possible that Teo did not know WHO hosts and produces that show? Maybe. But that would make nothing more than an irresponsible government official, who signs off on contracts without actually looking at what it says, and without ensuring that she doesn’t commit nepotism or acts that are prejudicial to her position.
The other version of the story is one that we’ve gotten from Teo’s lawyer himself: according to Topacio, it was PTV that proposed to DOT that it place ads on the network’s top-rating shows. The proposal, dated February 2017, — a document released by Teo’s side — reveals that Kilos Pronto is written down in block letters as the show where DOT’s ads will be aired.
So how is it possible now that Teo had no idea that Kilos Pronto would be the show where DOT ads would be placed? If we are basing it on the PTV proposal to DOT — which I repeat, Teo’s own side released — then what we are looking at is Teo signing off on a contract knowing full well it would go to a show produced by and hosted by her brothers.
In April 2017, two months after that proposal (granting that Teo’s story is true), DOT itself launched its travel show iTravelPinas. When it did so, its press releases also announced that other than its 30-minute timeslot every Sunday on PTV4, “snippets” of it would also be shown on Kilos Pronto on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. At that launch for iTravelPinas, Teo herself was present. Certainly the DOT Secretary cannot deny knowing at this point that DOT’s advertising funds would go to Kilos Pronto.
Neither is there reason to believe the Tulfo brothers to be innocent here, because not only does Kilos Pronto carry iTravelPinas as introduced on the show, at a panel that even usually has a Tulfo brother sitting on it, it also has two other shows from the DOT. One is called Travel Pass, with voice over by Kilos Pronto co-host Alex Santos, and the other — and this one is interesting — is called Wonderful Pinas, hosted by DOT Secretary Teo herself.
This means that Wanda’s Tulfo Teo’s face appears as part of her brothers’ blocktimer-TV show on government station PTV4.
Teo cannot claim she was oblivious to this fact without highlighting her own incompetence: how can you not care where your face appears, when you are a government official? And once she admits she knew that this was happening — which documents kind of prove — how can she even pretend to be credible? There’s just no way out for her here, not even if the P60 million pesos will be returned by her brothers.
The whiff of corruption is so strong on this one, it’s a stench. ***