PEP EXCLUSIVE: Johnny Manahan speaks up for Willie Revillame
Jo-Ann Q. Maglipon
Sunday, August 9, 2009
12:19 PM
On August 3, the Monday when the body of former president Corazon Aquino was moved in an emotional procession from La Salle Greenhills to the Manila Cathedral, an unexpected tempest was brewing in ABS-CBN. The station had been airing its coverage of the death of Tita Coryâ€â€Âthe name given to the former president by a grateful nationâ€â€Âsince August 1, the day she died from complications wrought by colon cancer. Two days later, the network's coverage rose to fever pitch as throngs lined the streets where the flat-bed truck carrying her flag-draped coffin was to pass.
Throughout its coverage, the station would decide when to preempt its regular shows for its news coverage to take over and again decide when to revert to regular programming. The same held true for its popular lunchtime show, Wowowee, hosted by Willie Revillame, who is quietly considered within the network as its prize entertainer and host.
But what transpired for a few quick moments during the show has since caused a firestorm. There is now an online signature campaign to ban Willie from television, initiated by a private citizen, which a national daily says has reached "11,978 supporters since going online on Wednesday [August 5]." Even PEPsters have been weighing in with their comments, nearly all of them negative for Willie.
To explain this fast-growing and emotional issue, PEP asked for an exclusive interview with Johnny Manahan, a.k.a. Mr. M, who heads Star Magic, the country's most successful talent management company and ABS-CBN's talent management arm. More pertinent to the issue, Mr. M is the Wowowee director. He thus speaks from his first-hand knowledge of the incident, although it must be said that he speaks here not as part of the network officialdom but as Mr. Revillame's personal friend and ally.
What is striking about this interview is the fact that Mr. M is also known in the entertainment industry as a man who grants interviews very rarely and always with a heavy heart, being naturally wary of the entertainment press that has not always captured his views accurately in the past. He is also known to industry insiders as saying only what he believes in, and what he cannot support in public he has a record of simply keeping mum about.
Here is Mr. M's narration of this latest issue in the life of the beleaguered Mr. Willie Revillame.
PEP: What really happened? How did all this brouhaha start?
Mr. M: "Early Saturday morning [August 1], Joyce Liquicia, Business Unit Head of ASAP, informed us of Cory's passing. Kailangan raw ma-bump off three portions of ASAP to give way sa isang tribute na naihanda nila for over a week.
"Tinawagan ko agad si Willie and asked, 'Alam mo na ba?' Willie answered, 'Ang ano?' I replied, 'Namatay na si Cory. Ano ang gagawin natin para sa show mamaya?' Nagulat si Willie. Pagkatapos ng ilang sandali, Willie said, 'Wala muna ang opening na sayahan, Direk. Lalabas ako at hihingi ako ng one minute of silence bilang respeto kay Cory. Pagkatapos kakanta ako ng 'Munting Hiling.' Makabagbag-damdamin 'yon at tama lang para sa isang parangal kay Cory.'
"Sanay naman kami sa live show at marunong naman kami mag-improvise. Maganda ang kinalabasan at nakakaiyak ang ginawa naming five minutes tribute para kay Cory. Willie spoke, in-adlib lang niya ang isang munting eulogy in plain words and in his own inimitable way, then kumanta siya. Nilapat namin ang ilang video materials ni Cory at pagkatapos ng kanta balik kami sa regular show.
"Sabado ito at sinalaysay ko ito para malaman ng lahat na ramdam ni Willie ang paglisan ni Pangulong Cory.
"Willie had a very deep respect not only for Kris Aquino na kasama niya sa industriya but also for President Cory. When she was alive, ilang beses na ipinaabot ni Pangulong Cory ang pasasalamat niya kay Willie for mentioning her name in the show and for always being gallant in praising her.
"Willie has been respectful about major personages. I never heard him disparage any personality in public or private. And among the artists I have known in 35 years, there is none more gracious than Willie in his treatment of guest performers or personalities on his show.
"Once in a while, because of snafus created by the staff and crew, he blows up on air. Because he is perfectionist, he rehearses more than anyone I know. He expects everyone to know the plan because he goes into a trance doing the show and any slight divergence from the plan breaks his trance and affects the performance.
"Monday morning [August 3], I arrived at the studio after following the live telecast of the wake in Greenhills. They were about to move Pres. Cory's remains to Manila Cathedral and I was closely monitoring events at about 11:30 a.m. We were advised that the show was going to be late that morning. We were told we could be on air by 1 p.m or 1:30 p.m. However, I doubted this and suggested that we go ahead and TAPE the show and air it at whatever time they turn it over to us.
"We had an audience waiting for us and couldn't let them wait forever. Willie went even further. He suggested PRE-EMPTING the whole show for Monday to give way to the President's wake. He suggested this to Linggit Tan, ABS-CBN Head of TV Production, who was in Willie's dressing room. Linggit made a phone call and said 'Go ahead, we are pre-empting the show. Go ahead tape the show to be aired the next day, Tuesday.'
"We went ahead and started taping the show. Thirty minutes into recording, we were advised that higher management decided to air us live again. So we stopped taping and waited until we could go on live. Meanwhile, the station was already airing what we had taped. Willie was in his dressing room watching the portion of the show that we had taped which was now being played back on air.
"He noticed at this time that master control was inserting on one side of the screen the live video events at the Cathedral. Willie reacted to this and called Linggit Tan and asked the insert window be removed. He said it was not appropriate for News to insert video of the wake while we had 'Giling Giling' with the studio audience. This, he said, would be disrespecting the solemn event.
"After a while, the insert window areas were taken off the air and the airing of the taped portion proceeded without further inserts. After a few minutes, we now had to go on air live, as we were through airing the taped portion.
"A few minutes into the portion of 'Willie of Fortune,' I heard my technical director say, 'Switcher, bakit ganyan ang audio namin, humiwalay?' I looked up on the On-air monitor and noticed that the audio was off synch with the live video. I asked what was happening and he said that TV News and Current Affairs had inserted once again a video window of events at the Manila Cathedral, and by doing this, they had screwed up our live audio-video synch.
"It was only then that I noticed that they had indeed inserted the videos of the wake at the Cathedral. At that point, I said, 'Bakit ganyan, dapat nag-permiso muna sila sa atin?. Walang abiso 'yan. Patanggal mo sa switcher.' While we were trying to get it off the air, Willie noticed what was happening from the floor and blew up on air.
"He protested the side-by-side video of the wake at the Cathedral with the games at Wowowee. I do not remember the exact words but they went something like this, 'O ano ba ganyan? Kung gusto ninyo pakita yan, 'yan na lang. Kung ako, ako lang! Nagsasaya kami dito sa show na ito. Ayusin ninyo yan!'
"All he wanted to do was to get the video of the wake off the air: either you air the wake or air Wowowee, not both, because it would be disrespectful... what with girls dancing, enjoying ourselves here while the wake of a beloved President and a national icon was being held.
"We would be disrespecting the departed President and her family. This is what he meant to say. Unfortunately, Willie, in his disappointment, did not choose his words too well. Instead of saying, 'Nagluluksa sila doon, nagkakasayahan kami dito! Maganda ba 'yon? Parang binabastos namin yung mga nagluluksa. Please tanggalin ninyo na lang kami. Kaya ituloy ninyo na lang ang coverage ng luksa. But do not do both at mababastos ang mga nagluluksa.'
"The words that came out sadly delighted, to no end, the professional enemies and detractors of Willie for they found a breach in a wall from which to disparage and attack him because of the ambiguity of his statement."
PEP: As a director of the show, where do you think things became confusing? How can this whole thing have been avoided?
Mr. M: "To begin with, perhaps the Monday show should have been entirely scrapped and preempted to give way to the coverage at the Cathedral. If higher management felt that the show should begin because nothing much was happening at the Cathedral, they should have seen the folley of inserting or juxtaposing images of the coverage with the frivolity of Wowowee. They should never mix.
"It would be disrespectful for the family. This is what Willie and I wanted in the first placeâ€â€Âpreemption. Or if TV News and Current Affairs had wanted to insert the events at Wowowee, they should follow standard operating procedures. They should advise our control booth that they would like to do inserts of the wake.
"At which point, we would probably have told them to 'Go to hell, no way!' and that would have been the end of that. Or if pressured by higher management, we would have had the opportunity to debate the proposal. Instead, TV News went ahead, routed the Cathedral video through their studio and inserted the cathedral video which precipitated events to Willie's blow up. NO INSERT, NO BLOW UP.
"It was failure of the systemâ€â€Âthe way an event like this was monitored and managed on air, deciding what to put on air and what to hold back. TV news made a call and it was a wrong call."
PEP: Where is Willie to be faulted? Can his penchant for showing irritation visibly on the show in the past be catching up with him? How could Willie have done things to get his point across and yet not start this firestorm?
Mr. M: "Willie should not have blown up on air. He should not have given in to his emotions which put him out of control, leaving him wide open for mistakes. This mistake led him to an emotional tirade against who ordered the insert and resulted in ambiguous statement which his detractors were only happy to perpetuate via text and blogs. Binabaligtad nila ang ibig sabihin ni Willie.
"I have often talked to him about blowing up on air. I told him that it is never good. This is perhaps his greatest fault as a performer. He hides displeasure poorly and likes to make corrections right away, even during live shows. He has to work on this because it has caught up with him but the incident was not caused by him alone.
"TV News still has not owned up anything. 'Deadma' sila, as is their wont. They have Willie out to dry to twist slowly in the wind, so I think someone has to speak out for Willie. They have to admit their error which led to Willie's air tirade.
"There is a text message going around distorting what Willie really meant to do, and that is to protect the Aquino family during the wake. They have turned things around and made him seem arrogant, self-absorbed and insensitive. Nothing could be further from the truth.
"His enemies could not be happier stoking the heat and fires on the airwaves. Willie may seem arrogant and insensitive sometimesâ€â€Âbut not this time. His enemies will have to wait for another time.
"He had nothing but respect and admiration for President Cory Aquino, Kris, and the rest of the dignified Aquino family. In this instance, Willie was right and they are wrong."
PEP: What will happen to him now? Is he being isolated? Suspended? Fired? Will he be on Monday's Wowowee?
Mr. M: "Right now, he is on leave. He has been asked to go on leave on Monday but he did not wait. He is in limbo right now. He feels isolated and beleaguered.
"Those of us who know Willie know that he is a paradoxâ€â€Âhe can be 'mayabang,' loud and arrogant but this is all façade, a Potemkim Village. Deep down, he is simple, compassionate, and a pushover.
"He would never disrespect anyone's wake or anyone's grieving family. I don't know when he will be back. Maybe he will soldier on and do the two-week leave, or, again, he may be back next week. Meanwhile, he has a real time to rest, be alone, and contemplate the future.
"Willie says he is ready to face whatever judgement the station levies on him. He is, in his own words, 'Handa akong makulong.' His conscience is clear. He meant best for the Aquino family. "
PEP: Will Kris speak? and when?
Mr. M: "I think Kris knows this and we should just wait for her to make her own statement."
PEP: Willie must be feeling bad. The station is not making any statements on his behalf.
Mr. M: "Lastly, I heard Kris saying that President Cory's last words were. 'Take care of each other.' I'm taking care of Willie."
