University of the Philippines Los Baños issued a statement to ABS-CBN’s Maala-ala Mo Kaya regarding the drama series’ Blusa episode air last February 28.

The Maala-ala Mo Kaya episode starred by Angel Locsin tells the story of supposed UPLB summa cum laude graduate who could not find a job and ended up a stripper and then finally a “taong grasa.” The episode, according to UPLB tarnished the reputation of the education institution.

Below is the official statement of UPLB:

Our attention has been called by constituents and alumni to an episode featured in Maala-ala Mo Kaya entitled “Blusa,” which was aired on ABS-CBN on Feb. 28 and on TFC recently. Our constituents and alumni were concerned whether the episode was based on truth.

The story was of a woman who allegedly graduated BS AgriBusiness, summa cum laude, from the University of the Philippines Los Baños or UPLB, who could not find a job, and ended up a stripper. We tried to find out who the subject was by tracking all 27 of our summa cum laude graduates from the time the University was established in 1909. We could not find anyone matching the subject as portrayed in “Blusa.”

Whether or not the subject was a UPLB graduate, we deeply sympathize with her and her family. However, in the interest of maintaining its reputation as a truthful storyteller, the MMK should have a mechanism to validate claims by letter senders especially those that require a stretch of imagination as to be believed.

While indeed touching and a perfect example of a human-interest story, “Blusa” regrettably affected the reputation of UPLB as an educational institution and its constituents and alumni. We therefore request ABS-CBN to set the record straight and correct the wrong impression that it created among its viewers. We also make an appeal to producers of similar programs to be more prudent in reporting stories with claims that would affect the reputation not only of a school but also of its alumni in the Philippines and abroad.

Thank you.

This Philippine News entitled UPLB Wants ABS-CBN’s MMK to Correct Its Mistake | UPLB vs ABS-CBN MMK and is labeled with the following Tags: ABS-CBN, angel locsin, MMK, university of the philippines, uplb and was published on Mar 8, 2009 in Entertainment