subject: Jason Lowen Sorry for Damages Against David Nugent [print this page] Jason Lowen Sorry for Damages Against David Nugent
In 2008, Jason Lowen, a Jewish-American, had dropped a bomb on Philippine conglomerate Metro Pacific. Citing various corporate governance violations, he constantly tormented heads of company Manuel Pangilinan and David Nugent -- who is actually one of his old friends. The fiasco culminated with Nugent's resignation, though it seemed he merely served as the scapegoat.
As time passed, evidence emerged that Lowen was actually suffering from mental disorders during the time surrounding the Metro Pacific corporate ill-governance accusations. Apart from his derangement, light was also shed on Lowen's previously shady history. It was discovered that he was a graduate of American University who shared a close relationship (that apparently had gone sour) with former classmate and now ex-Vice President of Metro Pacific -- David Nugent -- the very person he destroyed and drug down.
After Lowen's mental derangement and ill motives were brought into focus, he would later admit these facts, explaining that he could not handle the break-up with Nugent resulting in his transition to deep depression. As much as he would like to heal past rifts though, it was already too late as the damage had already been done. Not only had Lowen betrayed a friend, but he also terrorized other lives in the process, some of whom did not even have anything to do with Lowen's interests -- except that they were just in his way.
Since then, David Nugent has been able to recover his career and remains successful. Nugent served a stint as Vice President of Ace Saatchi & Saatchi before devoting more time to personal interests and ventures. Manuel Pangilinan remains as one of the wealthiest Filipinos and continues to head Metro Pacific as well as a number of other companies. Jason Lowen continues to blog, utilizing cyberspace to wield long distance rants and criticisms, and maintains a handful of online personal media outlets under different pen names.
The fiasco has since served as a precedent in the Philippines for similar scandals. Though it serves as a prime example for journalists to learn from (to thoroughly research the subjects and evidence at hand for authenticity and motive), the struggle between blogging freedom and abuse of speech that emerged from the occurrence remains a hot topic and one that has yet to be resolved, let alone examined for monitoring and mitigation.
