Making the accusation was Marie Anne Bundalian of the marketing arm of The Inquirer (INQ7 Net) in Manila. In her email to the Manila Mail April 26, she expressed her “concern” about the similarity in the Mail story on Cardinal Rosales with that of the Inquirer. She said she was concerned that the paragraphs and sentences that were similar were published without permission or credit to the Inquirer.

But in her letter to Terry Kat of DC who originally reported the case, Bundalian said the Mail made an “illegal lifting” of the Inquirer story. She lumped up the Mail with other unscrupulous Filipino American publications which reprint Manila stories.

Ms Kat later distributed copies of her letter and the reply of Bundalian to Filipino Americans in DC and elsewhere. One recipient was a certain Leonor Noblejas, who in turn disseminated it to other friends in the area.

In her letter to the editor, Bundalian expressed her concern about the similarities and then asked the Mail to subscribe to the Inquirer’s syndication service. This was the second time in as many months that Ms. Bundalian made the offer to the Manila Mail. Several months ago, she emailed a proposal to the editor to subscribe to its service for a minimum fee. But the offer was ignored because the Mail was already subscribing for free to the PHNO daily news service which is edited by veteran journalist Sol Jose Vanzie in Manila. The contents of PHNO are reprints of news stories and columns from major Manila newspapers.

The Mail editor, in reply, told Bundalian that most stories from Manila published in the Mail are a compilation of facts published by most of the major publications in Manila. This is necessary because being a fortnightly, stories must be rewritten to bring them up to date. In the instant case, the editor said, the rewriteman might have, in the rush to catch the deadline, just copied some sentences and words in the Rosales story.

He apologized for the mistake of the copyeditor.

The Mail editor again explained why it was not necessary to subscribe to the Inquirer or any other newspapers in Manila.

The following is a chronology of events about this case:

Original report of Terry Kat terrykat1975@yahoo.com April 25 to the Inquirer. ded to us, including the distibution by a certain Leonor Noblejas of the Kat letter and Bundalian’s reply to her:

“Subject: FROM USA - Magkaibang Title ng news pero pareho ang laman?

“Sir/Madam,

“Lagi akong nagbabasa ng mga balita ninyo sa website PERO ang nakakapagtaka ay pareho kayo ng news ng isang newspaper dito sa Washington DC - “Manila Mail Newspaper” http://manilamaildc.net/ - iniiba lang ang title ng news pero parehong pareho ang laman nito at binago lang ang arrangement ng paragraph. Branch ba ninyo ang Manila Mail Newspaper sa washington dc? Kung hindi....bakit magkapareho?”

This was the response of Ms Bundalian to Terry (Kat) of Washington, DC:

“Thank you very much for sending us this email. Just for the record, Manila Mail newspaper is not a branch of the INQ7.net in the U.S nor are they (sic) authorized to reprint our articles. Given this, I would be calling their attention. They are not the only one practicing this illegal lifting of articles from our website, and this is unfair to those publishers who are paying us for our articles. That is why we appreciate people like you who help us track these kinds (sic) of newspapers, coz we don’t have all the powers and means to monitor all the newspapers in the U.S. If in the future you find similar case please feel free to let us know.

“Again, thank you and have a nice day!

“INQ7 INTERACTIVE INC.

9/F Rufino Building

Ayala Avenue cor V.A Rufino St.,

Makati City Philippines

website: www.inq7.net

This was followed by the letter of Ms Bundalian dated April 26 to the Manila Mail website.

“Good Day! I’m Mary Anne A. Bundalian, and I’m the Product Manager of INQ7.net, the website of the Philippine Daily Inquire and GMA7. As I was browsing your newspaper, I noticed an article on page 26 entitled “Cardinal Rosales says first Mass, thanks 2 ” fathers “ The content and the wording are very much the same. I would like to call your attention on this coz we were not acknowledged as the source nor were we asked for permission to use this article. If you are interested in getting articles from us I could offer you our syndication service. You just need to pay a minimal amount of subscription for reprinting of our articles. I hope to hear from you regarding this concern.

“I know we can come up with an arrangement that will be mutually beneficial for both our companies.

“Thank you and have a nice day!