(Eagle News) — Columnist Ramon Tulfo came to the defense of his sister Wanda Teo, who resigned as tourism secretary over the P60-million advertisement placement controversy, blaming their other brother for her fate instead.
In his column in the Philippine Daily Inquirer published on Thursday, May 10, Tulfo said Teo “was only following President (Rodrigo Duterte’s) injunction for all Cabinet members to support PTV 4 which is a government network.”
“Wanda’s fault is that she did not get intelligent people as her staff. They would have advised her against signing a contract with PTV 4 where Ben was a blocktimer,” he said, noting that the former tourism chief was “clueless Ben would get the lion’s share, so to speak, of the P60 million advertising contract.”
He was referring to Ben Tulfo, the chief executive officer of PTV-4 blocktimer Bitag Media Unlimited, Incorporated (BMUI), which runs the program “Kilos Pronto” where the tourism advertisements were placed under the contract.
According to Tulfo, since Teo was older than Ben, she “wanted to save him even if it would put her in hot water, resulting in her eventually losing her job.”
In the first place, he said Ben, who he said suffered from “middle-child syndrome,” “should have known better than to touch the multi-million peso advertising contract with PTV 4 since that would constitute conflict of interest on his sister’s part.”
He said that “no amount of pleading from me when the uproar broke out could persuade Ben to admit it was his fault and not Wanda’s,” though.
“F**k you! Don’t treat me like a child,” Tulfo said his brother Ben told him.
“President Digong should be commended for sacking Wanda. Loyalty to country and people should take precedence over loyalty to friends and family. Meanwhile, I am supporting Wanda’s fight to clear her name, but not Ben’s,” Tulfo said.