Nakatanggap ang BISTADO ng kopya ng official statement na inilabas ni Fr. Carmelo “Tito” Caluag, kaugnay ng hindi pagpapalabas sa free TV at online platform ng episode kung saan naging guest si Christian Esguerra.
Sa nag-viral na reaksyon ng mga nagtatanong tungkol sa nasabing episode ay may kontrobersyal na portion si Esguerra na naglarawan ng ilang mga public officials na “iskandaloso” para sa marami.
Ilan nga rito ang mga one-liner na ibinigay niya para sa mga sumusunod:
“Evil” para kay VP sara Duterte, “Tsinadora,” kay Sen. Marcoleta, “character arc” para kay Ombudsman Jesus Crispin “Boying” Remulla, dahil mula raw sa “kasamaan” ay papunta na raw ito sa “good side.”
“Madaldal” naman ang ikinabit na salita ni Esguerra kay Presidential Communications Office (PCO) Undersecretary at Palace Press Officer Atty. Claire Castro, habang tinawag niyang “Matapang” si Antonio “Sonny” Trillanes IV.
Kapwa naman niya tinatanong kung bakit at paanong naging mga Senador sina Sen. Bato dela Rosa at Robin Padilla.
Pagdating sa picture ni Pasig City Mayor Vico Sotto, “promising” ang salitang binitiwan ni Esguerra.
“Decent” naman ang salitang inugnay ni Esguerra kay Senador Risa Hontiveros.
Hindi nga napanood ng netizen ang naturang panayam kay Esguerra kaya’t bunsod nito ay nagkaroon ng mga tanong ang sambayanan kung naduwag daw ba o nagpi-play safe lang ang programa.
At para mas malinawan tayo dito sa BISTADO, naririto ang kabuuan ng official statement na inilabas:
“A MESSAGE ON THE TAKING DOWN OF THE THIRD EPISODE OF YSPEAK 2.0 AND CEASING TO AIR OVER FREE TV”
31 May 2026
Dear YSpeak Community and Friends,
Blessings of peace, joy, hope and love.
Many of you have shared your concerns about the removal of our third episode of YSpeak 2.0 aired last May 23. Thank you for your concern and honest expression of your thoughts and feelings, which I respect.
I wish to clarify that I, as the representative of Caritas Philippines, the producer of the show, was the one who asked that the episode be taken down. It was a difficult decision to make, but there are internal editorial guidelines and basic values of Caritas Philippines I needed to consider. Furthermore, there were other factors I had to take into consideration. I had discussed these with the people concerned.
Today people were inquiring why the fourth episode was not aired on ALLTV2 on 30 May. Again, this was my decision in part due to the other considerations I referred to in the previous paragraph. The other consideration was to focus on and strengthen our online presence where most of the youth are.
YSpeak and YSpeak 2.0 were created to always be a safe space for the Filipino youth and will continue to strive to be such. Yes, we want our youth to have the platform to speak the truth with courage, but also to take all things into consideration. We are primarily a civics formation and education program and hope to be as inclusive as possible.
I spent time discussing these developments with our hosts and have given them a great part of the responsibility to discern and decide how to move forward learning from this experience. Two of the six could not attend the meeting and I was hoping to talk to them first before issuing a statement. We have been trying to catch each other the past days, but our schedules could not match. They were both advised though of the discussions in the meeting with the four other hosts.
Again, thank you for your concern and honest expression. Please keep us in your prayers.
With gratitude and hope,
Sgd. Fr. Tito Caluag
Executive Director, Caritas Philippines