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“Funky Call” irks RP Consulate
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Posted on Feb 09 1999
The caller inquired on how to become a Filipino citizen. The recipient of the call took the question seriously.
“Are you a resident here, are you working here?” he inquired back.
“I love to eat lumpia (spring rolls) and I just want to become a Filipino citizen,” he replied.
As the telephone conversation went. The caller later identified himself as Monty, one of the disc jockeys of Power 99. The person who took his call was Philippine Vice Consul Ronell Santos.
“By the way, this is funky call,” he told Santos. The Vice Consul promptly ended the talk.
Little did he know that the entire conversation on how to become a Filipino citizen was put on air.
A few minutes after the “funky call”, some Filipino listeners called the Consulate objecting to the high-handedness and arrogance of “Monty”, as the letter from the Consulate would describe it.
“The prank call was obviously done in poor taste, disrespectful, arrogant and blatantly offensive to the Philippine government at large and the Filipino community in the CNMI,” it added.
It is a flagrant violation of Article 40 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.
According to Consul Julia Heidemann, nobody has the right to make a mockery of Philippine government policies and procedures, “much more so make a mockery of the officials representative of the Philippine government in the CNMI.”
Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio was provided with a copy of the letter addressed to the station manager.
In an interview with Power 99 Station Manager Curtis Dancoe, he refused to comment or make a public apology.
“I don’t even know what is this all about. I don’t know what he did wrong,” he said. “There is no comment from me.”
