Johnny Manahan recently talked about his exit from ABS-CBN, the company he worked for almost four decades of his life.
The seasoned star builder and director related in an article published on PEP.Ph that among reasons why he left is the problem between Star Magic and what he described as "shadow talent center."
"There's a shadow talent center in ABS-CBN, and they have their own managers and they manage their own stars. (For example) the people from 'Pinoy Big Brother,' we expected to manage these people after they come out of the house. (But) no, they set up their own organization. It was like a counter organization," he said.
"Dati kasi 'yung 'PBB,' pumupunta sa Star Magic. After a while, ever since they got the idea na maybe they should put up their own, they started picking people who they wanted to pick. In other words, 'yung latak papunta sa amin," he continued.
Johnny admitted the move didn't sit well with Star Magic people.
"It's not like I was whining and complaining. My people were complaining to me, 'Mr. M, papaano ba iyan? They have their own talent center and their own talents.' I said, 'Yeah, that's not too nice. That makes us irrelevant.' Maybe they're trying to make us irrelevant," he related.
He took the issue to higher management but nothing happened.
"I miss the days when FMG (Freddie Garcia, former ABS-CBN President) and Charo (Santos-Concio, former CEO of ABS-CBN) were around. Because of their high ethical standards, they would have done something about it," he said
"As FMG used to say 'kanya-kanyang raket yan!' Raket namin yan, the discovery and training of artists, not anyone else's!"