IN journalist Ed Lingao’s Facebook reply last Sunday to columnist and broadcaster Erwin Tulfo’s rant against Sen. Risa Hontiveros and Lingao, the subject of corruption surfaced.
Lingao in effect said that Tulfo might not wish to go into that, pointing out, “sa maliit na industriya natin, alam ng lahat ang mga ACDC (attack and collect, defend and collect) at sino ang hindi.”
Tulfo, Lingao said, might not want to discuss who’d run “exclusib!” stories of contractors who lost in the biddings and who in media have interests in the Customs and other sources of income.
Not a direct accusation but clear enough to the listener and reader whom Lingao was referring to.
Except to say that the reply hurt his “whole being,” Tulfo didn’t pursue Lingao’s hint that he was ready to talk with Tulfo about corruption.
Tulfo & fake news
Erwin Tulfo apparently was a victim of fake news. On the basis of a false story that Sen. Risa Hontiveros praised Mautes for being the “epitome of courage and resilience,” Tulfo went into an attack binge in his radio program for more than 30 minutes, slowing down only in his assault against Hontiveros when he was told by a staffer that the story was bogus. He claimed that he apologized but he didn’t. Instead, he said that Risa retracted her statement about the Mautes.
Lingao on Facebook called public attention to the error. And Erwin Tulfo, later joined by his brother Ben, turned on Lingao.
Bullet-proof vest
Teased by Tulfo that he wore a bullet-proof vest and helmet, Lingao said that he wore a BP vest only once in Iraq, and a helmet once in Basilan and in Iraq, where battles were going on. “Ikaw, Erwin, were you there?”
As to the reported challenge of Tulfo to a fistfight, Lingao said that Tulfo knows where he can be found. In effect, the challenge was accepted.
Lingao, who used to work mostly with Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ), has signed up for a lot of work at TV 5 where Tulfo also hosts a radio program “Punto Asintado” on Radyo 5, 92.3. We don’t know if they work in the same building and who doesn’t pack a gun.
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