A month or so ago, I had the most distinct displeasure of dealing with the Web editor of ABS-CBN who wanted to know if they could use my food blog’s content for free. I said no, naturally. I wrote a column about it, relating similar experiences with big corporate media companies who are forever asking to use my work for free.

Not to be derailed, a few days ago, I had the displeasure of receiving an e-mail from the editor of a Makati-based travel magazine asking if they could use my photos of Balay Indang which I took for an article that was published in this paper last summer. The magazine editor wanted them for free, of course, with the usual song-and-dance about giving me credit. By credit, meaning, my name in some miniscule print. Again, I said no—very politely although I was itching to ask why they were in the publication business, a travel magazine at that, if they didn’t have the budget nor the manpower to produce high-resolution travel photos.

It’s a no-brainer, really, and it’s a question that the ABS-CBN Web editor should be asked, too. The gall of some people can be so astonishing. How can they approach a total stranger and ask for the free use of her professional work? Even friends and relatives draw the line when it comes to professional work. What kind of culture has pervaded the business sector of this country? Oh, but I digress. I was going to tell you about something even worse.

Between those two inquiries came a phone call from GMA-7. The communication was coursed through this paper’s office. Having previously written, in the same column I mentioned earlier, that I would no longer entertain invitations to guest in TV shows unless the network is willing to make transportation arrangements and pay for my time, I thought I wouldn’t have to spell it out when I took the call from the GMA-7 production assistant (let’s call her PA, for short). I have an expired driver’s license and I do not look forward to the displeasure of queueing up to have it renewed.

To my pleasant surprise, the PA informed me that transportation would be provided (“We take care of our guests naman po”) and, without any mention of compensation originating from me, she said, “mayroon din pong honorarium.” Great, I thought. All that I needed to do was to make sure that it wasn’t some practical joke. Time to check the girl’s identity. I asked for her e-mail address, was given an official gmanetwork.com address, tried it and found it valid so the rest of the arrangements were done over the phone.

The invitation was not for a talk show. I was being invited as a cook and they were asking for four budget noche buena dishes. I’m a home cook, not a professionally trained chef. You can’t transport me to some strange kitchen and expect me to deliver. A huge part of being able to cook good meals is having the right tools. Make me cook in a kitchen with all the wrong tools and it’s possible that even the dog won’t look twice at the dishes I’ll come up with.

Neither is it my style to allow someone else to buy the ingredients for me. At home, although my husband buys the meat, we have already worked out a system such that he knows what kind of meat I prefer to cook. The rest of the ingredients, from the cooking oil to the seasonings to the herbs, I buy myself. So when PA volunteered to buy the ingredients and have them ready for me, I made a counter proposal. I’ll buy, they reimburse and they shoot the segment right in my own kitchen. If I was going to do it, I was going to do it right. It’s my reputation, after all.

Having been shown such graciousness, PA asked if I would do a second segment to be shot in nearby Angono where I would “teach” a live audience of viewer housewives how to cook a good but inexpensive noche buena. She touched a weakness in me. My almost five-year-old food blog is anchored on that philosophy—great but inexpensive home cooked meals. If I could get the same message across to an audience who do not form part of my Web log readership, I’d do it. I agreed.

Thing is, I had to rearrange my schedule for the entire week to accommodate the tapings. Originally, there were supposed to be three. The one to be shot in my house, another to be shot in the studio and the Angono episode.

When the segment was shot in my kitchen, I had to do the preparations hours before the crew arrived. I didn’t expect them to be interested in onion slicing and garlic mincing so all that I did beforehand. When the crew arrived, I checked IDs (naturally) and the shoot began almost immediately. The taping took about four hours. Including grocery shopping, preparations and the actual shoot, I was on my feet for over eight hours. But the crew was a jolly group and it was an enjoyable experience. I gave the receipt to the PA (not the one I talked to on the phone) and, on the way out, she left an envelope for me.

I’m not in the habit of counting money in front of the person who handed it to me unless I were in the bank or unless the person is paying a long overdue debt and the payment had to be pried out of him. I took the envelope, saw them to the door, changed my clothes and lit a cigarette. When I opened the envelope, it was P50 more than the amount of the grocery items I bought for the shoot. If the P50 was meant as an honorarium, I would have felt insulted. But if that was really all that GMA-7 could afford, at least they could have placed the P50 bill in an official envelope with a little thank you note instead of a used and soiled envelope with the logo and name of some company I never heard of. I started sending text messages to PA (the original one). To my utter astonishment, she said that was all they were authorized to give. She was sure I misunderstood the honorarium part until I pointed out blankly that we both knew there was a world of difference between “reimbursement” and “honorarium.” Long and short of it was that she finally offered to send the honorarium. It wasn’t much, she said, but they would send it.

These people just didn’t get it. I told her it wasn’t the amount and it made little difference to me if it were P5,000 or P10,000. I turned it down and told her they could keep it. At the back of my mind, I felt that the girl might have just been too eager to get me to agree to do the segment and she made a lot of embellishing. Taking a hard-line stand might get her fired and I didn’t want that on my conscience although she definitely deserved it. I turned down the money but I still feel the same way about everything. I hate gratis arrangements when the proponent can more than afford to pay—it’s lopsided. TV networks are engaged in a business and getting people to create the content for their shows is a huge part of the overall business expense. So, let’s bring this to a professional level—not this text and TY culture.

If that wasn’t bad enough, the Angono episode was shot on the same day (“sabi po kasi ng producer ko, okay na ’yung isang cook na lang”) and I wouldn’t have been told had I not asked directly. There’s nothing left to be shot in the studio either. I wasn’t dying for a second or a third segment BUT had already rearranged my schedule for up to the end of that week and I felt that I deserved, at the very least, the simple courtesy of being informed, without my having to ask, of any change of plans. I was dealing with a huge broadcast network, after all, and I did have some expectations about the level of courtesy and professionalism that its people can show.

But that’s not really the worst part. The episode was scheduled to air last Saturday, Dec. 15. Around 3 p.m. of Saturday, PA was on my cell phone. They ran into editing problems and wasn’t sure if the episode could be aired as scheduled. Yeah, right. And I was in the mall doing my Christmas shopping. They messed up and I was left to explain to thousands of Pinoycook.net readers why I made the wrong announcement days before. Not that there was anything definite to announce because up until 7.30 p.m., they were still “working on it” and no one was really sure about anything. The crappiest part was that I even asked for a re-confirmation of the air date AFTER the shoot and was told it would be the 15th. The shoot was completed 10 days earlier and on the date the episode is scheduled to air, they ran into editing problems. You’d think that the editing and run through would have long been over by then. How very professional. How very efficient. Whether it was aired or not, I have no idea. I went to sleep soon after we got home.

Fast forward to Monday morning. When I turned on my computer, there was a comment in Pinoy Cook, in the very same article where I announced the GMA-7 guesting, from a Kayelyn of ABS-CBN inviting me to guest in the noche buena episode of ANC’s Shoptalk. I declined. Excuse me. Dalang-dala na ako makipag-usap sa mga PA.

The author blogs at http://houseonahill.net, http://pinoycook.net and http://www.sassylawyer.com