Kuya Mon defends Wanda, berates Ben over P60-M ad deal

Columnist Ramon "Mon" Tulfo on Thursday broke his silence regarding the controversial multi-million-peso government TV ad deal involving his siblings, resigned Tourism secretary Wanda Teo and broadcaster Ben Tulfo.

In his column "On Target" on the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Ramon, the eldest in the brood of 10, defended Wanda, saying her fault was "she did not get intelligent people as her staff," but castigated Ben and lawyer Ferdinand Topacio, Wanda's legal counsel.

"Ben, who suffers from the 'middle child' syndrome — he's the fifth child after me, Wanda is the fourth — 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," Ramon wrote.

He was referring to  P60 million worth of Department of Tourism ads on state-run PTV, where Ben, owner of Bitag Multimedia Network, was a blocktimer or someone who pays for airtime.

"She was clueless that Ben would get the lion's share, so to speak, of the P60 million advertising contract," Ramon said, referring to Wanda, who resigned from the DOT amid the controversy.

"Don't treat me like a child"

Ben, according to Ramon, never admitted to committing any wrongdoing.

"No amount of pleading from me when the uproar broke out could persuade Ben to admit it was his fault and not Wanda's," the eldest Tulfo said.

Ramon said Ben even told him, "F**k you! Don't treat me like a child."

He described Ben as "the renegade among us, the black sheep."

"I am supporting Wanda's fight to clear her name, but not Ben's," said Ramon, the self-described "Tulfo patriarch."

Nepotism

In defending Wanda, Ramon also tackled her other "booboos," including not telling her husband, Bobby, to resign from the board of the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA) when she accepted the DOT portfolio in 2016.

TIEZA is an attached agency of the DOT.

"When she was appointed tourism secretary, she overlooked the fact that her husband, Roberto Teo, was still on the board of the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority," Ramon said of Wanda.

He added, "Bobby should have taken the initiative to resign since his wife was too busy with myriad things to realize that she was, in effect, practicing nepotism in her own backyard."

Topacio

Ramon also faulted Wanda for hiring Topacio as her lawyer.

"The guy is all talk. He doesn’t care about his client; he only cares about getting publicity from a controversy," he said.

Ramon also belied Topacio's claim that the Tulfo brothers agreed in a meeting to return the P60 million.

"I was never consulted. Nor were Ben, Erwin or Raffy," he said. "And why would I return the money that I never got in the first place?"

At the tail-end of his column, Ramon said President Rodrigo Duterte should be commended for "sacking" Wanda. —KBK, GMA News