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THE
primary witness to the alleged anomaly in the gathering
of ratings for television in Bacolod and Iloilo alleged
at a press meeting that representatives of GMA Network,
Inc. and AGB-Nielsen had manipulated the ratings.
Mark
Dumago, a 23-year-old employee at a radio station in
Bacolod, was presented to media by ABS-CBN Broadcasting
Corp. Tuesday.
He also
claimed the alleged ratings manipulation was authorized
by an official of GMA Network, whose identify was
withheld.
“We know
that they will deny engaging our services since our stay
there was on a sideline basis and we were not given
official documents like identification cards to serve as
proof that we really worked for them,” said Dumago.
He said
he came out not because he was mistreated or not
compensated by the sideline job but, he claimed, his
conscience bothered him so that he decided to approach a
certain Lailani of ABS-CBN Bacolod to tell his story.
Dumago’s
testimony served as the basis of ABS-CBN’s civil case
versus AGB-Nielsen filed in December, which the Quezon
City Regional Trial Court ruled as premature and
dismissed without prejudice on that basis.
It was
deemed premature because under AGB’s contract with the
network, disputes such as the alleged panel manipulation
should be sorted out within 90 days. By the time the
lawsuit was filed, AGB’s 90 days had not yet run out.
He first
met the GMA executive in Time Out Restaurant in Bacolod
in April 2006. Together with three other colleagues, he
was assigned to survey what TV shows were watched by
local residents and which station had the highest
ratings.
Dumago
said they were tapped to do the job because of their
experience in doing surveys for some radio stations as
field coordinators. Two months after, he said they were
given a new assignment and that was to locate households
with installed AGB- Nielsen TV Meters.
GMA-7
had filed a libel civil case for damages against ABS-CBN
and some of its personnel on January 3 in
Quezon City
for the alleged erroneous and malicious news reports and
commentaries aired in its various TV and radio programs.
It also
categorically denied it hired people to conduct the
alleged ratings and tampering operations in Bacolod City
or anywhere else in the country.
“GMA
Network and its employees and talents have worked hard
for the success it has achieved as the number one
network in
Luzon, Mega Manila, and Metro Manila. It has never conducted any
house-to- house operations in
Bacolod
City nor does it engage in dirty tactics in its campaign
to win over viewers in the Visayas and Mindanao,” GMA
said in a statement. |
