Who is Franco Mabanta? Does the name ring a bell ?
It should. Only a few weeks ago, he was charged by the National Bureau of Investigation with extortion after attempting to allegedly collect a sum of money from Congressman Martin Romualdez, after threatening to expose him as the mastermind of the flood control scam.
The self-proclaimed kingmaker this time not only propped up someone but also appeared in the video himself, handcuffed and pensive, as if looking for a way out of the mess. Reports say he asked former Speaker Romualdez for 300 million pesos in exchange for not airing a video on DPWH flood-control corruption that Romualdez allegedly cooked up and benefited from.
He did it again recently (I mean the expose, minus the maletas of money), calling the former Speaker the mother of flood-control corruption.
But is he credible? That is the bothersome part of his exposés. Can we believe what he is saying? Every time he speaks, we will always entertain the thought that his motives are not well-intentioned. Podcaster CJ Hirro, the most-watched host of Peanut Gallery Media Network, makes a living by attacking the former Speaker and his family. The most popular videos by CJ Hirro (with several hundred thousand views on YouTube) target the former Speaker and his wife. They border on the libelous.
But such incisive reporting and deep research are marred by doubt about the one-sided nature of what they say.
In other words, their analysis of the situation may be correct, but they engage in a deception that looks at only one side, not both.
It is really a difficult situation when they tell us what seems to be true, but on closer inspection, is just a half-truth. Following a legal principle that he who comes to court must do so with clean hands, when they utter foul language against the former Speaker, do they do so with clean hands?
In this situation, their allegations may be true, but the idea that they are trying to extract money from the subject of their comments can turn off many of their viewers. Nevertheless, what they are saying makes for good viewing. They consider different angles and interpret data from a particular perspective, always against the former Speaker.
So, bottom line: listen to them, but take what they are saying “with a grain of salt” and not as gospel truth. They may not be coming to the court (of public opinion) with clean hands.
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