Newsbreak: We never get paid to kill any story

In The Philippine STAR issue of June 15, 2008, in the story “Ombudsman findings unfair — lawmakers” written by Delon Porcalla (page 4), Rep. Teodoro “Teddyboy” Locsin was quoted as saying that Newsbreak didn’t carry the story on the fertilizer scam when he “exposed it.” He said, “Maybe they were paid to kill the story.”

It is very disappointing to hear such irresponsible remarks from Mr. Locsin. First, we never “killed” the fertilizer scam story. And second, we never get “paid” to “kill” any story.

Ever since Newsbreak was founded in 2001, we have worked hard to build our credibility. We will not allow the likes of Mr. Locsin to trifle with our reputation.

We started to follow the fertilizer scam in early 2006. Recently, we ran a series of stories based on the Ombudsman’s investigations, including the liability of some members of the House of Representatives as well as local officials.

In all these, only one line was devoted to Mr. Locsin, saying that he was one of those who “quickly denied receiving any amount from the fertilizer fund.”

By the way, our research shows that it wasn’t Mr. Locsin who “exposed” the fertilizer fund mess. In March 2004, news reports quoted Sen. Panfilo Lacson as saying that President Arroyo was “buying votes by authorizing the release of the P728-million fund, supposedly for fertilizers, to local officials.” — Marites Danguilan Vitug, Editor-in-Chief, Abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak