Aussie blogger skewering RP socialites now on radio
By Bayani San Diego Jr.
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 10:14:00 04/07/2008
MANILA, Philippines—It’s now officially a multimedia “mystery.”
From newspaper to TV interviews, Brian Gorrell, the Australian florist who became an Internet sensation by skewering Filipino society personalities on his blog, is crossing over to radio.
Starting Wednesday, Gorrell is co-hosting “Good Times with Mo, Mojo and Grace” on Magic 89.9. His weekly gig on the morning program is part of his ongoing quest to retrieve the $70,000 investment that he had allegedly lost to his Filipino ex-boyfriend.
“I’m happy and looking forward to it,” Gorrell told the Philippine Daily Inquirer in an e-mail on Saturday.
Still, the controversial blog remains to be his main platform, on which he posts his daily musings on the country’s rich and famous.
Yesterday, however, Gorrell said on his blog that Google might shut it down soon, quoting a tip from a reliable source. He promised that he would proceed with his Philippine radio debut on Wednesday.
On April 4, Gorrell wrote about a “tragic death” in Philippine high society, an incident that he described as “fishy.”
In an interview with ABS-CBN.com that was posted on April 1, Gorrell said he had “damaging information involving the recent death of a socialite who was heir to a multimillion-peso retail empire.” True to his promise, he gave his readers a sampling of the so-called “damaging information” in a post titled “Tough Questions Indeed.”
2M visits
And he’s just getting started, Gorrell said in a phone interview with the Inquirer on Wednesday. His first Philippine interview came out in this paper on March 17.
Observers may think that Gorrell has already spilled quite a mouthful in his TV and radio interviews and on his tell-all blog which has generated almost two million visits as of last count. But he has yet to reveal everything that he claims to know.
Gorrell’s blog has portrayed several “high” society personalities—whom he dubbed the “Gucci Gang”—as cokeheads and freeloaders. Throughout the fuss and frenzy, Gorrell never tired of repeating that he started the blog to retrieve the $70,000 that was purportedly taken by a Filipino ex-boyfriend, a “society fixture and member of the Gucci Gang.”
Murder mystery
From social commentary, the blog has taken yet another sharp turn. Apparently, drug abuse, promiscuous sex and social climbing are the least of his subjects’ supposed crimes.
The “killer” blog has become a “murder” mystery.
Gorrell wasn’t keen on actually using the word “murder” in his past interviews, though. Speaking to the Inquirer, however, he felt strongly that the “socialites” responsible for the “untimely death” of a young person should be held accountable for their actions—or inaction.
“The Gucci Gang will forever be haunted by [this young person’s] ghost,” he said.
In the interview, Gorrell said he was “reluctant to open a can of worms” and that he was consulting his lawyer on what he could divulge on the matter. “My solicitor and I are concerned that I may get extradited to the Philippines as a witness,” he pointed out.
Gorrell said he was hesitant to return to Manila where he could be vulnerable “to all sorts of attacks.” He claimed to have received several death threats and was now “weighing things carefully.”
He stressed, however, that he was willing to cooperate with local authorities. “I’ll be obligated to do so, especially if there’s an official investigation to be spearheaded by an objective body.”
Reinvestigation
Gorrell acknowledged that a reinvestigation of the case could very well hit a brick wall. “The cover-up was intense. I’m afraid it would be very difficult to get to the truth. The wall that conceals the truth is thick and high.”
He alleged that a cover-up was initiated by the Gucci Gang’s families who are perceived to wield a certain amount of political power. “All it takes is a phone call from one of them and the world would come crashing down on you,” he said.
He alleged that evidence had been “tampered” with and that a web of lies was woven. “But the Gucci Gang didn’t control the information. They couldn’t keep their stories straight. In the end, too many people eventually found out the real story,” he related.
Gorrell, who was in Australia at the time of the “mysterious” death, said he learned of the “real story” from close friends of the deceased. He said he had met them on Boracay, where the issue was being discussed in whispers.
When he later confronted his ex-boyfriend about it, the latter “turned pale,” Gorrell said. “Every time I would ask about it, he would shake and stutter.”
Drug overdose
Eventually, Gorrell said, his ex-boyfriend admitted that the deceased had overdosed on drugs.
On his blog, he raised a series of “tough” questions: “Whose drugs were those? Who gave the alleged drugs? How much [of the substance] was in the system (of the deceased)?”
During the Inquirer interview, however, Gorrell posed what he thought to be the more crucial question: “Were people partying while the deceased was fighting for his life on the sofa?”
He admitted, though: “I have no proof and I don’t want to open myself to doubt. I don’t want to add fuel to a fire that cannot be extinguished.”
He expressed concern for the loved ones of the deceased. “I don’t want to cause the family additional pain and anguish. It’s a big dilemma for me.”
On his blog, Gorrell said the friends of the deceased, as well as one family member, had made contact with him. He recalled that when he first mentioned the issue on his blog, “it created quite a stir that I had to pull back from it. I am sensitive to my readers’ feedback.”
Still, he feels passionately that “pressure should be placed” on the Gucci Gang, specifically on his ex-boyfriend. “He knows the whole truth,” he said.
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