Breakfast at Mary Grace
JEERS TO VERA Files for publishing a puff piece disguised as a “commentary” on athlete James Yap last April 2, 2013.
| Also present at the breakfast was VERA Files’ Ellen Tordesillas, who re-posted the article on her blog. But the version in Tordesillas’ blog had photos not included in the version appearing on VERA Files’ website.One of the photos showed Yap with BusinessWorld publisher and CMFR Board of Trustees Chair Vergel Santos and his wife, Chit Roces-Santos, with the caption “James Yap with new friends/advisers”.Santos, in a text message to CMFR, objected to his and his wife’s being so categorized.
“How can two people meeting for the first time be friends?” Santos asked. “Or one adviser to the other? If anything like advice was given at all, it was something asked (and) given on the course of the exchange, but surely it was a casual breakfast, one in which Yap, who lives around, came invited by JB (JB Baylon, the writer of the piece), nothing intended as any occasion for editorial inquiry. Poor (and) misleading context.” Santos said he and his wife were having breakfast at Mary Grace when the writer of the VERA Files piece, whom he knew, asked them over. It was the first time he had ever met Yap. (CMFR asked Ellen Tordesillas for her reaction. She had no comment.) |
The article “One of Us” presented Yap, former husband of movie and TV actress Kris Aquino, as a “leader” in professional basketball who is “reserved (and) shy” in real life; and someone of humble beginnings, who has also been made to feel “the burden … of not being part of the “ruling class””.
Yap deserves the “loyalty” of his fans, according to the writer, “For he is, first and foremost, one of them: born not with a silver spoon in his mouth but with dreams of making it big in his chosen profession. Like them, he has suffered the burden of a society that is full of opportunities, most of which are beyond the reach of the “common man.””
This came in the heels of a custody battle between Yap and his ex-wife Kris Aquino, which made banner headlines in major national dailies and half-hour long interviews in the evening newscasts.
Aquino, a popular television personality often referred to as “the queen of all media”, is the sister of President Benigno Aquino III. On March 21, 2013, she went on a live interview on ABC-CBN Network’s TV Patrol denying allegations Yap had made in an earlier press conference and claiming that Yap abused her.
To its credit, VERA Files did disclose that the writer was a member of the PBA Board of Governors and was team manager of the Powerade Team Pilipinas in 2009 which included Yap. But that should have made VERA Files think twice about publishing the piece.
The article said Yap was having breakfast at the Mary Grace restaurant, a “public place”, with the writer and nine others, some of whom “were even bold enough to declare openly that they were members of “Team James.””
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