There is an open letter going around social media, specifically Facebook, about a certain talent whose talent fee has been delayed by 3 to 4 months now by ABS-CBN Acquisitions.
A freelance talent , who goes by the name of Avery Isaac, expressed his complaint and addressed the open letter to ABS-CBN Acquisitions, which is part of ABS-CBN that handles mostly foreign TV programs like Koreanovelas and others.
Avery said that talents also have obligations, bills to pay and that having their salary delayed for 3 to 4 months should be a cause of concern. Avery said that he did not complain anymore when the management became stingy with their talent fees, but having their salary delayed is too much. Because of this, Avery said he is “hating the entire company and all of the shows and everyone affiliated with ABSCBN”.
He added that they worked hard for whatever job they did and demanded that the company pay them whatever is due them, though he wrote it in a sarcastic manner (“UTANG NA LOOB, BAYARAN NIYO NA KAMI KUNG HINDI NAMAN MASYADONG NAKAKAHIYA SA INYO. PLEASE LANG”).
Although Avery’s letter is unclear on whether he is speaking for a lot of others or only for himself, the letter have elicited some responses from others who claim to have undergone the same experience either with ABS-CBN Acquisitions or other departments of the network.
According to Alwin Ignacio of Abante-Tonite, Avery is a scriptwriter whose first script was submitted in July, but his work was still apparently unpaid as of November.
Avery’s letter has been shared by a lot of netizens and has in fact been the subject of discussion, especially among GMA Network and ABS-CBN fans.
In one discussion thread on Facebook, Avery said, “Excuse me, guys…Sa acquisitions lang ito, hindi sa TV Productions. Actually nun nasa TV Prod ako, sumasahod ako on time. Just clearing out any confusion whatsoever”. (Excuse me, guys… This only pertains to acquisitions, not to the TV Productions. Actually, when I was with TV Prod, I was paid my salary on time.)
Despite the clarification from Avery, some commenters bashed ABS-CBN just the same. In defense of the ABS-CBN, some Facebook users bashed GMA Network, in return.
As of this writing, ABS-CBN Acquisitions nor ABS-CBN has not issued any statement regarding the alleged delayed payment of talent fees.
UPDATE: As of November 16, 2015 exactly 9:06PM
We have learned from Avery Isaac that the matter with ABS-CBN Acquisitions has been resolved. He said that he is very happy because he can get his talent fee now.
UPDATED: As of November 18, 9:00pm
A screencap of a status posted on Facebook by Teng Masilungan was sent to our email as a clarification on Avery’s open letter.
