Sidebar | When is a columnist too partisan?

Some of the columnists who exposed the truth behind Villar’s once-poor claims, such as the Inquirer’s Winnie Monsod, Business Insight/Malaya’s Lito Banayo (now National Food Authority administrator) and The Philippine Star’s William Esposo had links with the first as well as current Aquino administration, Newsbreak said May 1 (see Carmela Fonbuena’s “Lucky streak keeps Noynoy on top”).

“The three columnists… worked with the Cojuangcos before. Monsod was economic planning secretary during Pres. (Corazon) Aquino’s time. Banayo was involved in the Aquino-Laurel snap elections campaign in 1986 and was a postal official during the Aquino administration. Esposo is with Noynoy’s uncle, Peping Cojuangco, in the political group Council on Philippine Affairs (COPA).” Esposo’s online profile says he headed Cory Aquino’s media operations bureau in 1985.

Esposo’s sister Carol held media relations seminars for Pres. Aquino III’s cabinet members in early July. Esposo did not conceal his part in Aquino III’s campaign (“I feel secure knowing what I’ve contributed to engineer this leadership change in our country. I feel secure knowing that it was my August 9, 2009 column that started this Aquino Phenomenon, as it is now called,” Esposo said in his July 13 Star column). Banayo is still with COPA, and kept writing his column during the election campaign. COPA was one of the organizations that spearheaded the campaign for a “Noy-Bi” (Aquino-Binay) tandem.