Friday, June 06, 2008 Groups call for boycott of Juday's films
AFTER appearing in an informative commercial of the Manila Electric Company (Meralco), various organizations criticized and called for a boycott of all Judy Ann "Juday" Santos's films and television projects.
Earlier this week, an advertisement done by Juday was aired on television defending Meralco as she explained and justified the controversial issue on systems loss charges.
She said the electric company's action of handing its system loss to the consumers is valid as this action is the same with all distributors.
Another point that Juday stressed is system losses are unavoidable expenses as she gives as analogy buying a bag of tube ice, of which some melts. She said one should pay for the entire bag even if some parts melt, similar to system losses.
However, last Tuesday, the infomercial caught the attention of some non-government organizations (NGOs) and immediately called for the public's rejection of all shows of the actress.
The plea was led by Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (Vacc) chairman Dante Jimenez together with 28 NGOs saying Juday's testimony is a "lie" and "an elaborate attempt by the Lopezes to save face," quoted in a Philippine Entertainment Portal (PEP) report.
In addition, Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) spokesperson Estrella Elamparo also chided Meralco's advertisement, calling it "a desperate attempt to shore up Meralco's sagging reputation."
For Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan), they believed that the advertisement of Meralco is partially truthful.
"With due respect to Ms. Judy Ann Santos, Meralco ad is not entirely truthful. The analogy between electricity and melting ice is not precise and does not speak the whole truth about system losses," said Bayan secretary general Renato Reyes Jr.
"For one, the analogy about melting ice is simplistic and does not account for system losses brought about by pilferage and company use. If we were to follow the melting ice analogy, it's like saying we should also pay for ice that was stolen and for ice that we did not consume," Reyes added in his statement.
All has been said about Juday's infomercial but her manager Alfie Lorenzo appealed in a radio interview to the people to wait for the actress' reaction on the issue when she gets back from her trip abroad.
For his part, Lorenzo feared for his ward's public image saying the commercial is allegedly "a part of a bigger plan to discredit Juday" as he recently had an argument with some executives in Judy Ann's mother network.
"I think it's part of a demolition job against Judy Ann Santos," he stressed.
Meralco and ABS-CBN are both owned by the Lopezes. (JRDB/Sunnex)
