Now, this is really interesting. The Manila Standard Today announces that the infamous columnist Malu Fernandez is back in their roster or writers. This, after an earlier report that she submitted her resignation letter to two publications — MST and People Asia.
In a recent copy of the Manila Standard Today, a section displays a picture of Malu with the headline — Divalicious will resume next Monday. See picture after the jump.
{ Photo from Bryanton, via Freedom Watch. Original story from Smoke. }
So, why is she back? What’s the real story about her alleged resignation and comeback?
Here are some possible theories:
Your guess is as good as mine. But one thing’s for sure, she’s making a bold statement — no amount of rambling on the blogosphere or by any sector for that matter will pull her down from her position.
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jamie says:
I’m going for Reason No. 3. She just went on hiatus, I think. And anyone could create a Geocities account.
Aiza says:
ayee! what can we do to shut this woman up? (or at least tame her down) i just hope that all this hullabaloo will make her think twice about penning down her thoughts, or would it?
otoy says:
she ate too much last 2 weeks and decided to hibernate heheheh
noemi says:
I wonder why. Maybe she wants to redeem herself by writing good things or something.
Jim says:
Down with Manila Standard! wehehe!
well, my guess is that this is just a PR stunt and it might be no. 4 as there’s no “irrevocable” word in the letter. ;)
People in the Philippines could go scott free despite “bad things” more so with this “simple” OFW bashing. Might be only in the Philippines!
delicado says:
I choose no. 4. well, shes just human naman, i guess she could learn from her “mistalk or miswrite” kaya nga lang the hard way. and I guess other should learn from her experience, the message is clear… “DONTMESSWITHOFW”.
lets just forgive her for being clueless(stupid) kasi kasalanan ang magmura.
jash says:
i guess her comeback is too soon for everybody that was offended. she could have hibernated longer, for her own sake.
Steel says:
Try these for reasons:
1) Nobody reads Manila Standard Today nor cares about Malu Fernandez anyway, so it doesn’t matter if she comes back or not. Her column exists to fill out blank spaces in the paper.
2) Malu Fernandez and Manila Standard Today exist to sink the quality of journalism in the Philippines much, much lower than it already is.
3) Malu Fernandez pays Manila Standard Today to print her column.
Aiza says:
[…]3) Malu Fernandez pays Manila Standard Today to print her column.[…]
Well if she is as rich as she claimed to be, pwede nga!
ralphot says:
steel’s #3 reason seems interesting.
maybe they’re just trying to perpetuate the issue. bloggers flame up again, then they’ll say she will resign… again.
it’ll be a vicious cycle.
Karlo.PinoyBlogero says:
I think I should go with the first possibility. Lol.Just kidding.
Annalyn Jusay at Annalyn.net had a confirmed response from Manila Standard about her return. It says that Malu has indeed submitted her resignation letter but MST did not accept it.
Another chapter in the Malu Fernandez Issue.
JM says:
Wow, in that case it’s not Malu who’s to be condemned, but the goddamn editors and owners of MST who’re out to milk Malu of her popularity! A boycott now would be appropriate, if you read MST at all. LOL. =P
AnP says:
She wrote something offensive. She said sorry. Whether this was sincere or not, we will never know but she already apologized and I suppose has learned her lesson about it all — hence, will never write something like that again.
I cannot see why she cannot write again, especially if she and the editors in question will be more vigilant with what she comes up with.
So… what else do we want from her? Blood?
My two cents. Am sure many of you have other opinion. This is mine. And yes, you also have yours :-)
Nick says:
As I’ve said, it may be just a case of print before resignation, but as per insider information via Ajay, management has not accepted her resignation.
We can’t verify any of this of course, because Manila Standard Today remains silent to this day, an act which I can only call irresponsible at the least.
Your #4 is probably the most logical of all the reasons, her resignation letter was real, but I doubt the sincerity.
Benj will be on Media in Focus along with Connie, hope everyone can watch and give their two cents after the airing of the show.
BrianB says:
The number 4 reason is an insult to the Filipino public. I really hope people aren’t this stupid. People who think that the public are stupider than they are are usually very stupid people, or sociopaths.
Raina says:
#3
We can’t rely on a random Geocities page. If she resigned indeed, I think they would publish it on the paper.
sparks says:
A simple response from the newspaper would’ve mollified the people. But they choose to remain silent, apart from columnists Austero and Veneracion. Maybe they think this will all blow over soon and everyone will forget about it. Kasi nga naman ang Pinoy daw madaling makalimot. But this media unfolds in real-time, available for all and sundry to read 24/7 non-stop…in theory, until kingdom come. Or until US servers are nuked. That is the difference between old media – newspapers and TV spots. The messages they give are fleeting, once delivered they are gone. But our blogs? They deliver the message and the message is there to stay ’til we decide to close shop. Ah well. Sagutin ang hamon ng Manila Standard Today.
arpeelazaro says:
if this is a publicity stunt, it sure worked! the increased traffic surely translated to money for everyone behind Malu. i guess you can say they all got what they wanted.
totoy_bibo says:
down with Manila subStandard
Steel says:
Oh, and one more thing:
Reason #4: Malu Fernandez is a drama queen, that in order for her to get attention from anyone, she has to create a racket by insulting OFWs and bloggers. when she gets the attention she craves, she resigns to further achieve notoriety.
MST’s decision to retain her reflects that way the paper and the writer would sink to ever so much lower levels to gain attention from the PDI, BusinessWorld, Manila Bulleting, and [INSERT NAME OF BETTER-KNOWN PAPERS HERE]-reading public.
MST management is either desperate or they really love Pugnacious…I mean, divalicious
joseph says:
I think number 4 would be the reason. I watched Media in Focus yesterday. Cheche invited bloggers and print media personalities. Manila Standard Today declined the resignation of Fernandez. I forgot the reason they gave.
Connie says:
@Nick, I wasn’t able to go to the taping. Sore eyes.
XpressMusic says:
It’s just a matter of publicity.She’s a socialite as you know..
Kevin Yapjoco says:
Divalicious all right. She could use one of those treatments Marie France is offering. Honestly, it doesn’t really matter whether it was some publicity stunt. This will really turn out in two areas here and abroad.
1) No one will purchase Manila Standard because of people like her. It is no wonder Manila Standard isn’t up there with the Philippine Daily Inquirer or Philippine Star. If they keep on having people like her around writing columns, the Manila Standard will remain at the bottom of the ranks when it comes to Philippine newspapers.
2) Everywhere this ***hole goes she’ll get lambasted. She’d dare not step anywhere in the Middle East where Filipino presence is by far and wide, large.
Unforunately the old skool media like the Manila Standard does not understand how the new media works. The negative PR generated on the internet will not be erased EVER. Even Google will cache all those pages in blogs ever written about her article.
Kevin Yapjoco says:
I just had to comment again after I remembered that Digg.com submission wherein this guy claims that his former female roommate stole his digital camera. http://digg.com/tech_news/Woman_harassed_via_Digg_com_post
People from all over the world harassed this woman even from as far as Ireland. I’m glad there aren’t so much crazy people in the Philippines or Divalicious’ article would’ve been her last. **HINT** **HINT**
kyle james says:
regardless of what reason there is,…. the apology that was given said she would resign…
first she makes a sarcastic apology, then now backtracks on her word, …doesn’t she have delicedeza? this proves she did not grew up with a good family.. her action lacks breeding…
robbie tan says:
well a lot of pinoys out there got ‘suckered’ by the ‘apology’ this mf was said to have made. interesting to note: an apology after a defense of what she did? looks like there is definitely something fishy going on.
well maybe the mst staff/owners likes to sit with a ticking time bomb in their midst. whatever the reason for the ‘comeback’, it was a very good show, perfect for a pinoy telenovela. storyline – write something nasty, dont apologize and insult the critic then apologize then take a vacation then back to normal. probably good for 600 episodes
Mr Nice Guy says:
Malu Fernandez and the MST publication is maybe making a buzz to get more attention.
Mr Nice Guy says:
…and MST did as plan if they got such attention from Google and Yahoo. Success!
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