TV5 boss: Willie is not evil incarnate
MANILA, Philippines—When all this blows over, TV5 is inclined to keep both “Willing Willie,” the game show, and Willie Revillame, the talent.
“People are being unfair to him. You’d think he was evil incarnate, but he’s not. [All the] hate campaign and name-calling is not helping [anyone].” Network president and chief executive officer Ray Espinosa thus defended the controversial TV host during a dialogue with Inquirer editors Wednesday last week. Revillame is under fire from various sectors, including government agencies and nongovernment organizations, for alleged “acts of child abuse” resulting from the show’s March 12 episode.
“Willing Willie,” co-produced by the station, went off the air on April 11 and will be back after two weeks—the result of a massive protest against the “exploitation” of a young contestant who performed a macho dance. Six-year-old Jan-Jan Suan was among six contestants, aged 6 to 11, in the show’s “Willtime Bigtime” segment. The host gave him P10,000 in cash for the dance.
On the April 9 episode, following the earliest uproar on the Internet, Revillame fired back at his detractors and former home network, ABS-CBN, in an emotional 25-minute outburst. “There was a stimulus for that,” Espinosa pointed out. “And since he isn’t [computer-savvy]—he’s not on Facebook; he doesn’t have a Twitter account—he … felt persecuted, vilified, demonized … so he became very emotional.” The network executive added: “He just wanted to give his side … he’s just human. Is there anyone who can say he never had an outburst in his whole life, when he really lost it? I can’t.”
Espinosa remained tight-lipped about specific plans for the program’s return. However, he hinted at the possibility of a “different look and feel” for “Willing Willie.” He said the show could be improved with “more entertainment … new games and a new set.”
He said TV5 was merely standing up for Revillame against what he believed was “an overkill.” Since the flare-up two weeks after the episode in question, when a 10-minute clip of the dance in question was uploaded on YouTube, Espinosa said Revillame had “probably decided to just be alone for a while. He’s down. I think he’s [in his home] in Tagaytay. He’s certainly not jumping for joy.”
Speaking of the uploaded footage, Espinosa insisted that the public had likely been misled by the way it had been “spliced” together from the boy’s actual exposure on the show.
Enraged televiewers and several organizations advocating children’s rights urged advertisers to withdraw support from “Willing Willie.” Hate campaigns versus the show and its host were launched in the social networking sites Facebook and Twitter.
Said Espinosa: “There are those who intelligently tackled the issue, but there are also those who sowed only hate. I have never seen this much hatred and vile.”
Ad boycott
At press time, six major advertisers—Jollibee Foods Corp., Procter & Gamble Philippines, Unilever Philippines, Del Monte Pacific Ltd., CDO Foodsphere and Cebuana Lhuiller Pawnshop—have pulled out. This was not the sort of publicity that TV5 liked, Espinosa said, admitting that losing “Willing Willie” would “hurt” the network.
Asked what would happen if other advertisers followed suit, Espinosa said: “That becomes a commercial matter versus simply a decision whether we want this talent (Revillame) or not. The bridge is not yet there, so there’s nothing to cross at this stage.”
Even so, Espinosa said, TV5 was “taking the issue seriously because of the attention it has received.” The network recently appointed network legal counsel Christine Ona as ombudsman, to make a “thorough investigation” of the incident “and similar matters.” He elaborated: “It’s not as if we didn’t previously monitor our programs, but when this broke out … we knew we should institute certain changes immediately.”
Ona told the Inquirer at the Wednesday dialogue that she had submitted her initial findings on the “Willing Willie” issue to the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB), which launched a probe on the incident.
“We want to improve our services; we are drafting standards,” Ona added. Two standards compliance groups within the station were formed as well: An advisory group headed by TV5 chief operating officer Roberto Barreiro and a monitoring group “to make sure that the standards, once set, will be complied with.”
TV5 has thrice conferred with the Philippine Association of National Advertisers (Pana) since the onset of protests. Espinosa related: “I told Pana members, if people only paused and checked if there were similar shows in other channels, we’d tell them yes. If we were to be serious about [reforms], we should take a look at all those other shows where children are featured.”
Did he think the station would consider letting go of “Willing” or Willie over this issue? Espinosa replied: “There’s no reason.”
