“I’m not dissing the network or its artists. I even said in my tweets, ‘Don’t get mad at the GMA staff. They probably had their own reasons. I’m just saying this so Thomasians will know what really happened that night, why I suddenly disappeared’,” ayon sa actress na kinowt ang kanyang mga tweets na nai-post last November 11.
Ang pinatutungkulan ni Anne ay ang USTv Students’ Choice Awards Kick-Off Party noong November 10 sa UST campus sa España, Manila. Ang USTv Awards ay taunang event kung saan pinararangalan ang mga entertainment personalities na sa tingin ng mga estudyante ay nagpo-promote ng “positive values in pop culture on television.”
“I was made to go (to UST) between 7 and 7:30 p.m.,” sey ni Anne. “They (organizers) told my road manager that as soon as I get there, it would be my turn [to go onstage]. So I waited … They told me that since TV5 people were already performing, I would appear after them and before the GMA 7 artists.”
Hinarang ala-GMA (Gloria Macapagal Arroyo) Ayon kay Anne, pinigilan siyang umakyat ng isang staff member ng GMA 7 para makapag-perform. “I said to her, ‘Ate, two minutes lang na hi and hello.’ I didn’t even understand what her reply to me was. She just left me,” ani Anne. “I felt hurt. I simply wanted to say hello to the people. How bad could that be? I even said it’s okay if I don’t get to sing, but they really didn’t allow me.”
Noong November 11 ay inilabas ni Angel Javier, GMA 7 AVP for corporate communications, ang sagot ng network sa umano’y pambabastos kay Anne.
Sinabi ni Javier na na-brief sila ng organizers hinggil sa program sequencing bago ang event, at base sa kanilang schedule, dapat mag-perform ang mga GMA 7 artists alas-7 ng gabi.
“Our talents were at the venue as early as 5 p.m.,” ayon sa statement ng GMA . “Last-minute insertion of the cast of ABS-CBN’s ‘Banana Split’ in the program, however, further pushed back the schedule.”
GMA DI NASABIHAN?
Iginiit pa ni Javier na hindi raw sila nasabihan tungkol sa usapan ng mga organizers at ni Anne. Hindi rin umano nila alam na kasali ang aktres sa programa. Inamin naman niya papanhik na sa stage ang mga artista ng Siyete nang makiusap si Anne na mauna muna.
“However, GMA staff declined and instructed the floor director and production staff to please proceed with the program sequence, as the Kapuso stars also had other schedules to go to, and by this time were already waiting for nearly three hours,” dagdag pa ni Javier. “GMA later found out that Ms Curtis had left the venue and had tweeted about the incident … which elicited a lot of negative reaction toward GMA.”
Idinagdag pa ni Javier: “We are hoping that the organizers could come forward and clarify matters to avoid blowing things out of proportion.”
ORGANIZER: MAG-MOVE ON NA KAYO!
Sa press statement naman ni ABS-CBN’s corporate communications head Bong Osorio noong November 12, sinabi niya na “the organizers of the event, who should be the ones making the decisions for the program, failed to control the incident.”
Makaraan ang dalawang araw ay humirit naman ang UST office of the secretary general, na nag-organize ng event, at sinabing nanghihi-ngi ito ng pasensya sa “any misunderstanding or confusion that may have occurred unintentionally and caused inconvenience to some.”
Sa isang statement, nakiusap din ito sa dalawang TV station na “(to) move on and continue with our common commitment of promoting positive values in mass media. After all, it is for this that the USTv Students’ Choice Awards came into being.”
Inamin naman ng organizer na “(it) featured a program with a predetermined sequence aimed at giving all the celebrities in attendance ample time to meet and perform before the Thomasian audience. Since the TV networks normally cannot declare the exact number of talents who would be able to come, last-minute adjustments were inevitable, subject, however, to mutual agreement of the concerned parties.”
Dinipensahan naman ang kanyang mga tweets. “It’s only proper that I explain to them (audience) the reason why I left. I owe that to the Thomasians who tweeted and waited for me. Ngayon, sana tumigil na ang issue.” –Inqui-rer