Information overload

Jeers to the Philippine Daily Inquirer for publishing on its front page the racy details of a high-society domestic controversy.

In a complaint affidavit last December, Susana Madrigal Bayot-Ortigas of the wealthy Madrigal Clan accused her equally well-off husband, former Philippine ambassador to Mexico Francisco Ortigas III, of concubinage. In her affidavit, Bayot-Ortigas accused Ortigas, her husband for more than forty years, of having affairs with a household helper and her friend.

The Inquirer did not only report the controversy in full detail, it also put the story on its front page. (“‘Abused’ wife sues husband; rocks Madrigal, Ortigas clans”, Jan. 8, p. A1). The story quoted Bayot-Ortigas’ affidavit, which shefiled with the Pasig prosecutor’s office.

The Jan. 8 article said the paper tried to get the side of the respondents in the case but had not received any response as of press time. Four days later, the Inquirer published Ortigas’ short reaction on the front page (“Francisco Ortigas III ‘trying to find peace’”). According to the report, his lawyers had prevailed on Ortigas not to comment.