The ‘Thrilla in NAIA’

T3’s May 7 episode

In T3’s May 7 episode, the Tulfo brothers Ben, Raffy, and Erwin did threaten the couple.

“Huwag lang sana tayong mag-panginabot sa mall, idasal mo hijo de-P.I. ka na wag sana tayong magkita sa mall. Ipagdasal mo. Tumirik ka ng kandila mula ngayon na huwag na huwag mag-krus ang landas natin. P.I. ka (You pray, you son of a bitch, that we don’t meet in the mall. You pray. Light a candle from now on that we don’t cross our paths. You son of a bitch),” Raffy warned Santiago.

Ben challenged Santiago to a fight. “Kung gusto mo malaking warehouse sarado, mag-aantay mga ambulansya, last man standing… magsasara tayo ng pinto. Titingnan ko ang galing mo. Tandaan mo ito. (If you want in a big warehouse locked from the inside, the ambulance vehicles are waiting outside, last man standing. I’ll see how good you are. Remember that.)

Erwin called Barretto and Santiago  liars, and told them to pray they won’t meet. Because if they do, the couple will get it from him (“tatamaan sa akin”). “‘Di pa tayo tapos Raymart, ‘di pa tapos, ‘di pa tapos. Antabayanan mo lang. Antabayanan mo lang ang lintik na ganti ng Tulfo (We’re not yet through, Santiago, we’re not yet through.You just wait for the revenge of the Tulfos).”

Too harsh a punishment?

“I find it very unfortunate that my brothers—Ben, Erwin and Raffy—were suspended from their work on account of me,” Tulfo wrote in his Philippine Daily Inquirer May 12 column (“How I raised the Tulfo brothers”) “What they said on Monday in their “T3” public service show on TV5 was an outburst of anger for the humiliation I suffered at the airport the day earlier.”

“Yes, I know as well as everybody else who watched that particular episode on Monday that they violated certain (sic) broadcast ethics,” Tulfo added. “But don’t you think suspending them and their program, “T3,” is too harsh a punishment?”

Tulfo argued that the MTRCB violated his brothers’ constitutional right to free expression. “Which is paramount, the constitutional right to self-expression or upholding broadcast ethics?” he asked, adding that the review board should have left to the TV5 management the power to suspend the three “for their indiscretion.”

TV5’s T3

Although the show debuted on air just eight months ago, T3 has become one of TV5’s most popular “public service” programs.

T3 was replaced by Metro Aksyon, which was originally a segment in Aksyon, the news program after T3. The anchors of Metro Aksyon, which carried T3’s public service format along with the news format of Aksyon, are Raffy and Ben. Erwin continues to be one of Aksyon’s main anchors. #

<<Previous Page || Next Page>>