DOT: Tulfo’s Bitag Media has not yet returned P60M in ad payments

More than a month after Bitag Media Unlimited Inc. (BMUI) said it would return the P60 million in payments in received from the government, the Department of Tourism (DOT) on Tuesday said that it has not yet received the promised funds.

"As of today, it has not been returned," Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat told reporters on the sidelines of the Makati Business Club (MBC) Annual Meeting in Makati City.

The last update Puyat made on the matter was on May 29, when she also said that the funds had not yet been returned to the government.

According to a report of the Commission on Audit (COA) released in April, state-run PTV paid P60.010 million to blocktimer BMUI for the airing of DOT advertisements on one of its programs.

BMUI is owned by Ben Tulfo, brother of then-Tourism Secretary Wanda Teo.

Following this, Teo's counsel on May 7 said Bitag Media would return the P60 million to the government.

Teo quit her post a day later, on May 8.

On May 31, Malacañang said that it was counting on Tulfo's "word of honor" that the money would be returned.

Once the money is returned to the government, Puyat said, it will be up to the Commission on Audit (COA) to decide what it will be used for. — BM, GMA News