Daven Tamayo

Broadcasters deny Vico Sotto claim they were paid 'P10M' to interview Discayas

Article (news)

Ched Rick Gatchalian

ABS-CBN News

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/17558546232491755854627344.jpeg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left"><em>Courtesy: Facebook/Julis Babao | George Calvelo, ABS-CBN News | Facebook/Rated Korina</em></span></span></span></div><p>MANILA <strong>(UPDATED)</strong> — Broadcasters Korina Sanchez and Julius Babao have denied allegations from Pasig City Mayor Vico Sotto that they were paid &quot;P10 million&quot; to interview Sarah and Curlee Discaya, the mayor&#x27;s political rivals in the May elections.</p><p>Sotto called the two out on Thursday, saying in a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/VicoSotto/posts/pfbid0qwfK6qCUQrfsGGAeGrHwryL1coSBgN1x3LmaTDWzXuqESLgSen3gLKsCXADe74Evl">Facebook pos<strong></strong>t</a> post that many &quot;good, honest people in media&quot; are either disappointed or angered by unethical practices like that.</p><p>&quot;Bago tanggapin ng mga kilalang journalists ang alok para mag-interview ng Contractor na Pumapasok sa Politika, hindi ba nila naisip na, &#x27;Uy teka, ba’t kaya handa ’to magbigay ng 10 million para lang magpa-interview sa akin?&#x27;&quot; he asked.</p><p>(Before these two famous journalists accepted the invitation to interview a contractor joining politics, did they not ask themselves why they were willing to pay P10 million just to be interviewed?)</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/regions/2025/8/19/local-officials-residents-unaware-of-p77-million-flood-control-structure-in-hagonoy-0941"><strong>&#x27;Where is it?&#x27; Local officials, residents unaware of P77-million flood control structure in Hagonoy, Bulacan</strong></a></div><p>He clarified in the same post that the P10 million is &quot;not an exact figure&quot;.</p><p>Sotto said that while the two can argue they were doing &quot;lifestyle&quot; content, they &quot;rose to national prominence as broadcast journalists/news personalities&quot; and were lending their credibility to the Discayas.</p><p>&quot;In this case, maybe they didn’t do anything technically &#x27;illegal&#x27;, but at the very least it should be considered shameful and violative of the spirit of their code of ethics,&quot; he said, referring to the Journalist&#x27;s Code of Ethics that press groups in the Philippines adopted in 1988.</p><p>Under that code, journalists should not &quot;accept or offer any present, gift or other consideration of a nature which may cast doubt on [their] professional integrity.&quot;</p><div> </div><div><strong>&#x27;NO SUCH THING AS P10M FOR INTERVIEW&#x27;</strong></div><p>The management of the programs “Rated Korina” and “Korina Interviews&quot; released an open letter on Friday, saying they chose to interview the Discaya couple because of &quot;public interest&quot; and denying Sotto&#x27;s claim they were paid to feature the couple.</p><p>&quot;There is no such thing as P10 million placement for an interview. This is simply not true,&quot; they said as they also hinted Sotto may have committed cyber libel.</p><p>An earlier statement from the producers, since taken down and replaced had acknowledged payments but did not specify amounts.</p><p>UP Journalism professor Danilo Arao, speaking on ANC&#x27;s &quot;Dateline&quot;, said this would &quot;[violate] the principle in journalism that there should be no paid segments or no paid items in pieces that are meant for information dissemination.&quot;</p><p>He said that &quot;sponsored posts or sponsored content have no room in trying to shape public opinion.&quot;</p><p>He acknowledged that platforms and formats of content creation have evolved, &quot;but let me be clear here: The standards remain the same.&quot;</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>&#x27;COUPLE ARE OF PUBLIC INTEREST&#x27;</strong></div><p>The executive producers of the two programs said they decided to interview the couple because they are relevant to their audience.</p><p>&quot;Their sudden prominence in the public eye makes for public interest.... Their rags-to-riches life story is their story to tell,&quot; the producers said, saying they do not make presumptions about their subjects’ moral character and that their interviews are aired without cuts or additions.</p><p>They also said they let guests tell their own story and that they prohibit slander of other personalities or businesses.</p><p>They stressed they also reached out to Sotto about the Discayas&#x27; interview but that he declined to be interviewed himself.</p><p>The producers said the interview with the Discayas was &quot;transparent and meets the strict standards of the airing stations&quot;.</p><p>Babao also denied being paid P10 million for the interview.</p><p>He stressed that his interview with the couple is not a news report but a lifestyle feature for his YouTube channel for inspiring success stories.</p><p>The broadcasters&#x27; camps said the two interviews happened long before the 2025 midterm elections.</p><p>Sanchez&#x27; interview with the couple was aired on NET 25&#x27;s &quot;Korina Interviews&quot; on January 2, 2025, while Babao&#x27;s content with them was posted on his YouTube channel &quot;Julius Babao UNPLUGGED&quot; in September 2024.</p><p>The Discayas have gained traction on social media recently after Sotto linked them to St. Timothy Construction, one of the top contractors involved in flood control projects that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. mentioned in his State of the Nation Address last month.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/8/11/15-contractors-cornered-p100-b-worth-of-flood-control-projects-since-2022-marcos-1053"><strong>15 contractors cornered P100-B worth of flood control projects since 2022: Marcos</strong></a></div><p>Sarah Discaya lost to Sotto in the <a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/5/13/halalan-2025-vico-sotto-wins-by-a-landslide-in-pasig-0827">May 2025 mayoral race in Pasig City.</a></p><div><br/></div><div><strong>RELATED VIDEO</strong></div><div><strong><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JyIPLRLVA7o?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span></strong><br/></div>

<p>Broadcasters Korina Sanchez and Julius Babao have denied allegations from Pasig City Mayor Vico Sotto that they were paid "P10 million" to interview Sarah and Curlee Discaya, the mayor's political rivals in the May elections.</p>

Broadcasters Korina Sanchez and Julius Babao have denied allegations from Pasig City Mayor Vico Sotto that they were paid "P10 million" to interview Sarah and Curlee Discaya, the mayor's political rivals in the May elections.