Finally responding to the queries from viewers of the program.
On Monday, June 1, Caritas Philippines Executive Director Fr. Tito Caluag issued a statement regarding the recent controversies involving the youth-oriented talk and current affairs show Y Speak 2.0.
On behalf of the organization, which produces the program that airs over ABS-CBN platforms, he addressed the takedown of the third episode that was broadcast on May 23 and comtained the viral appearance of journalist Christian Esguerra, who played a word association game where he described certain politicians and government officials.
“Many of you have shared your concerns about the removal of our third episode of YSpeak 2.0 aired last May 23. Thank you for your concern and honest expression of your thoughts and feelings, which I respect,” read Fr. Caluag’s statement.
He continued, “I wish to clarify that I, as the representative of Caritas Philippines, the producer of the show, was the one who asked that the episode be taken down.“
Fr. Tito said it was a difficult decision to make, “but there are internal editorial guidelines and basic values of Caritas Philippines I needed to consider,” as well as “other factors I had to take into consideration. I had discussed these with the people concerned.“
He then responded to the queries on the sudden exit of Y Speak 2.0 from free-to-air television, as last Saturday, May 30, its supposed timeslot on ABS-CBN sa ALLTV2 was taken over by the Super Kapamilya Blockbusters horror movie block on the channel.
Although, the show remains on the air via the pay TV exclusive Kapamilya Channel and its digital counterpart Kapamilya Online Live and streaming platform iWant.
“Today, people were inquiring why the fourth episode was not aired in ALLTV2 on 30 May. Again, this was my decision in part due to the other considerations I referred to in the previous paragraph,” Fr. Caluag explained.
He added, “The other consideration was to focus on and strengthen our online presence where most of the youth are.”
The showrunner also emphasized that the original iteration Y Speak, which ran from 2004 to 2010, and Y Speak 2.0 were both created to “always be a safe space for the Filipino youth and will continue to strive to be such.”
“Yes, we want our youth to have the platform to speak the truth with courage, but also to take all things into consideration. We are primarily a civics formation and education program and hope to be as inclusive as possible,” he continued.
Fr. Caluag also noted that he spent time discussing these developments with the hosts — comprising of Elijah Canlas, KD Estrada, Ralph de Leon, River Joseph, Aya Fernandez, and Robbie Jaworski —and said he had given them a “great part of the responsibility to discern and decide how to move forward learning from this experience.”
“Two of the six could not attend the meeting and I was hoping to talk to them first before issuing a statement,” he disclosed. “We have been trying catch each other the past days, but our schedules could not match. They were both advised though of the discussions in the meeting with the four other hosts.“
In the end, Fr. Tito thanked viewers for their “concern and honest expression” and wished to keep the show and its team in their prayers.