The Brian Gorrell Story

Many of the Filipino bloggers decided not to talk about the story of this Australian blogger because of the legal implications that they would be facing in doing an article about his blog. I will be as careful as those who have tackled this news by not mentioning the names involved in his story because just like the other known blogger like Abe Olandres, we are just protecting the blogging profession (I consider it as one), because some pro bloggers earns their "main" income in this medium. I guess this is the main reason why Filipino bloggers they shy away from the story.

Now that it has been featured in one of the biggest TV station here in the Philippines, ABS-CBN, I think its about time to publish my opinion about all that Brian is talking about. I've been reading closely to all his entries because of the fact that he is a good writer, I said a good writer, and he can prove that if you would just read closely to his blog and another proof of that is his daily visitors which reach more than 50, 000 and is estimated to be more than 2 million in just a month of exposing the story. No blogger has ever done that in a very short span of time in the blogosphere.

Before I share my opinion, let me start off with the story of this famous blogger. Brian Gorrell is an Australian who was originally from Canada but raised in the country down under. He decided to have a vacation in our country and met his ex-boyfriend who is a writer (former) of a big newspaper and is said to be a part of the high class society or shall we say a socialite. Yes, Brian Gorrell is a gay as well as his lover. They had a whirlwind romance and Gorrell and his ex-lover talked about setting up a restaurant business to be put up in Greenbelt Makati. His ex-lover when he went back to Australia asked him to send the former the money which would be used for the said business. As he came back to the Philippines he discovered that there was no business being set up and all of it was just a make believe for him. The story was sensationalized because of the stories behind it which he told in his blog and the people involved are the what we so call the "socialites" whose names are really well known in this country. He said that this people allegedly are addicted to "coccaine" or Coke (street name). A few of the people involved in this story are also writers of the big paper which his ex-lover wrote before and allegedly do exchange positive write-ups for freebbies in Boracay and Hotels in Makati.

Gorrell started his blog to get the money which his ex-lover owed him which amounted to $70, 000 according to him. Doing my math, it is close to 3 million pesos. From what I've read in other blogs, Gorrell's site is already a case study of libel laws on the net. From what I understand on his blog, he doesn't want to pursue a case against his ex-lover here in the Philippines because of the loopholes of our justice system. I don't blame him for that. He believes that his ex-lover can get away with what he did. In my opinion, our officials should look into what he is saying and if it is true that selling of drugs is rampant in public gatherings and is patronized by this high society then is just reflects that our fight against prohibited drugs is not that good. Our officials should do something to correct this even if the people involved are those in high society. This is not a story of gossip anymore but becomes a national issue as it tackles the use of prohibited drugs. These high society people should be the role model to every one of us and not the ones who violates the law. This also affects our tourism because of the bad experiences that a tourists encountered in our country and I think we should help him out if he is really telling the truth. Who would want to go to our country if someone who loves our country had a bad experience and our government is not helping out. No one would ever come back if they will not feel secure in this country. Right? Some would say, it should be laid out in the proper forum but the proper forum is not proper for Gorrell for he cannot be represented by his Australian lawyer as far as I understand it. Therefore it is stalemate when it comes to that. So I guess the Philippine Government should intervene in this one. Settle all the issues and move forward. Lastly everybody who owes something to someone should pay.