Jasmine VS Faye - A True Story

**jolog1** · November 10th, 2004 01:42 AM

P200 BILLION pesos per year ang nawawala dahil sa corruption sabi sa dyaryo kahapon. Hindi P200 million.

Hindi lang yan, baon pa ang pinas sa utang. Mahigit na 30% daw ng budget natin ginagamit natin bambayad lang ng INTEREST ng utang natin.

**ILuvDetailing** · November 10th, 2004 02:16 AM

hehe billions pala, inaatok na ako nung pinost ko yun.

**Monseratto** · November 14th, 2004 09:53 AM

We lied because no one loved us, says 'whiz' kid ma

Updated 04:43am (Mla time) Nov 14, 2004
By Blanche Rivera
Inquirer News Service

"YOU CAN withdraw the scholarship. I only have my mom," Faye Nicole B. San Juan told her school principal in a text message five days ago.

And so Faye, the 12-year-old girl whose tall tale of winning an international competition was proven to be a fabrication, did everything she could to keep one parent by her side.

Faye lost her father recently when her mother, Cathy San Juan, discovered that her husband had been married all along to another woman. Faye's parents separated last year.

Cathy, in a separate "confession," told her pastors that she came up with the incredible story of her daughter winning an international competition in Brisbane, Australia, because she felt that nobody loved them.

Before her church, youth group, classmates, teachers, the government and the media, Faye supported her mother's delusion that she, a Grade 6 pupil from Quezon City, had bested the representatives of 56 other countries in an international science quiz.

Now, on the brink of losing her scholarship and future, Faye has begged the leaders of her church, the Bread of Life Ministries (BOLM)-Valenzuela, and her school, St. James College, not to hurt her mom.

Faye's and Cathy's accounts of how they made up the story were revealed to the Inquirer by officials of the church group and Faye's school.

BOLM, which had originally supported their story, said later that it had found the San Juans' claim to be not true and issued an apology.

"It was the two of us who thought of this. But please do not hurt my mother," BOLM pastor Titus Varona quoted Faye as saying after he and other pastors extracted what they said was a confession from them.

Leaders of the BOLM questioned Faye and Cathy for almost three hours last Wednesday at the BOLM-Valenzuela office when doubts on the truth of their story persisted.

After hours of questioning, Faye, sobbing, told Varona that she and her mother had concocted the whole story of her triumph in Brisbane, Australia, and in Indonesia, where she also claimed to have won a Math competition in February, according to church officials.

Faye had opened up to Varona after the pastor related his own sad experience of coming from a broken family.

"She just started crying and was crying the whole time," Varona told the Inquirer in a phone interview yesterday.

Faye said her mom had been detached and depressed, often staring into space since her father left, according to the pastor. Cathy would frequently spank her for little mistakes, Faye said.

"And then she said they thought of the story. They planned it to somehow get back at Faye's father," Varona said.

How this would work against Faye's dad, the girl did not explain.

"Faye has not shown any signs of problematic behavior. It's her mother who seems to be suffering from depression and psychological turmoil because of the separation with Faye's dad," Arnel Salgado, principal of St. James College of Quezon City said in a phone interview, recalling previous talks with Faye's mom.

Mga kulang sa pansin!

**empy** · November 14th, 2004 10:33 AM

Originally posted by Benji_DCP
We must not pit Faye against Jasmine or vice versa...each has their own respective skill or talent.

i don't think "talent" doesn't belong in the same sentence as Jasmine, unless preceded by the word "no"

**pissword** · November 14th, 2004 10:46 AM

"And then she said they thought of the story. They planned it to somehow get back at Faye's father," Varona said.

tatay ba niya yung congressman na tinira nila?

**luckytruck** · November 14th, 2004 11:36 AM

no one loves me, can you guys fake a story for me?

i read the article last night sa inquirer, hay naku, mga pinoy talaga, akala nila ang buhay ay isang soap opera na pwedeng imbento na lang.

**glntVR** · November 14th, 2004 05:24 PM

grabe toh! sobrang hindi maintindihan mga tao ngayon!

**niky** · November 14th, 2004 06:03 PM

Grabe... nakita ko nga yan sa newspaper nung isang araw...

Just goes to show... the media really is full of it... you will notice... NOBODY RESEARCHED THE DAMN STORY BEFORE IT WAS PUT OUT!

Maniniwala pa ba tayo sa media?

**jolog1** · November 14th, 2004 07:27 PM

Grabe talaga no? Si Jasmine pa ang pinagiinitan natin yun pala etong si Faye ang fake.

**mazdamazda** · November 15th, 2004 12:05 AM

Finally, yesterday, the High World Team of the Bread of Life Ministries, Faye’s handlers who were the first to retail the saga of Faye and her mother (Ma. Catherine San Juan), wrote me a letter of apology.

I quote below the letter in full – signed by Rev. Jesmael M. Montaña, associate pastor – so its essence is not lost in paraphrase:

"I am Rev. Jesmael M. Montaña, an associate pastor of Bread of Life Ministries. I’m part of the team in charge of the ‘Kingdom of a Higher World’ write-ups. In the light of your articles in connection with Faye Nicole B. San Juan, we were prompted to investigate the veracity of her story. It took sometime before we were able to gather data and conclude our inquiry regarding this matter.

"As a result, we were aghast to discover that Faye and her mother have never been issued passports according to the Consular Records Division of the Department of Foreign Affairs, thus invalidating their stories. Because of this oversight, I would like to apologize, on behalf of Team Higher World for the negligence on the part of Rev. Rito ‘Bong’ Saquing for not thoroughly clearing the facts. Faye and her mother are members of our branch church in Valenzuela, where Rev. Saquing is the head pastor.

"In line with this, we are coming out in the dailies with a public apology. Pastor Bong will also undergo ‘Censure Program and Spiritual Retraining.’ He has also been removed from his ministries during this period. We would also like to thank you for prompting us to conduct a deeper query.

"On the other hand, we would also like to clarify some matters raised. First, in regard to ‘using Faye to score political points against the government,’ you may not be aware that we vocally stood against religious leaders running for political office. We came out on TV and print media several times. In fact Michael Tan picked up our article. You may want to check our pre-election articles at crossroad77.com. More so, we have been involved in seminars on the Biblical principle of separation of church and state. We would like to make it clear that the information given by one of your readers, Bill Stone (energas77) about our church inviting then Vice President Gloria Arroyo is incorrect. We have never invited any political persona in our church-related activities. We firmly believe that our part is to keep focus on our mandate on helping people become better human beings for God, country and humanity.

"We take exception to the implication that we had some hidden agenda for the funds to be raised for Faye. We fully agree that any contribution should be directly given to Faye. Just for additional information, for years we have been supporting House of Refuge (an orphanage), Turning Point (a drug rehabilitation center), Lydia’s Helping Hand (ministry towards the indigent in Tondo), Support Your Police Program (ministry of values and help), Global Doors (reach out program towards our OFWs), ZKK (UN-awarded recycling and waste management program) and various others.

"Rev. Saquing’s oversight in not verifying the facts has caused a lot of pain to many people. We also agree that he should not have singled out Jasmine Trias. You were right in citing this uncouth liberty on his part.

"As I have mentioned earlier, we are coming out with a public apology from Team Higher World and a personal letter of apology from Rev. Saquing in the national news. Maybe Winston Churchill speaks to us that we should not sweep this under the rug when he said ‘Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing has happened.’ Hopefully our team hopes to learn from this and not hurry off as if nothing happened.

"Our Ministerial Board has decided to deal with this matter thoroughly. Faye and her mother have confessed to this fraudulent deed. We have come to realize the mother may have deep psychological problems needing professional attention. Our heart goes out to Faye and we will continue to help her in whatever way we can. As William Wordsworth said, ‘Wisdom is oftentimes nearer when we stoop than when we soar.’

"Obviously our editorial management needs re-evaluation. We deeply regret the trouble that was caused.

"We are sending a hard copy of this e-mail to your office at Philippine STAR.

"Thank you very much."