Niko Baua revealed this striking experience as a journalist
ABS-CBN journalist Niko Baua shared a story about journalists who were being bribed in order to control the information presented to the public.
This came after the recent issue raised by Pasig City Mayor Vico Sotto about the supposed “paid interview” conducted by veteran journalists Korina Sanchez and Julius Babao. Because of this, the conversation about the credibility of journalists was prompted.
Amid this issue, Niko shared a series of posts on his Instagram Stories. His story focused on the pork barrel scam in 2013, which was a big frustration for him.
The journalist said that before the story broke, only a few journalists knew that Janet Napoles abducted Benhur Luy. They were asked by the National Bureau of Investigation not to release the story yet, as they were getting enough information.
Niko Baua shared that major news outlets unified on this, and they waited for NBI to complete the investigation. He said that this was the largest scam that the agency had investigated that involved old political clans.
Even though the media companies agreed to wait for NBI’s go signal, reporters behind the scenes were trying to get access to the sworn statements and to have an interview with Benhur Luy.
However, the NBI chief said that Luy did not want to have an interview with Niko because he is from ABS-CBN. “I knew that the agents vouched for me e, kasi naki-usap ako haha. Hindi ako Henry Omaga Diaz level syempre. Pero matino akong reporter, at maayos record ko,” Niko shared.
With this, he was wondering why Luy did not want to be interviewed by him. Niko was not disheartened, and he really begged to have a short interview with Luy.
When Niko finally had the chance to talk to the whistleblower, he tried to convince him. However, he was just told to talk to their “chief.”
This made him angry. Then, in one instance, Niko saw a certain anchor walking across the hallway. “I taunted him and said, ‘Hi ___, baka matulungan mo ako. ayaw magpainterview sa aking nung whistleblowers. Sabi nila kausapin daw kita, close daw kayo ni Janet,” Niko shared his encounter with that anchor he did not name.
Niko shared that the anchor froze and stammered after he said that, and just said that he only knew Janet. Eventually, it was explained to Niko Baua that some whistleblowers personally knew certain reporters and anchors were in a payola funded by the scam.
The journalist also shared that there were a lot of media personalities in the list, and one of them was an anchorman he had worked with before, and because of that, he lost that story.
“Bribery in the industry, much like in government, is hard to prove,” he said, but stressed that there were red flags. He said that just like the anchor he was referring to, there had been speculations before, but he was able to prove that it was true because of what happened.
Niko Baua also shared that he would always tell this story to the young reporters to warn them about the negative side of the industry and show them that this is not worth it.
