In February, food heritage advocate John Sherwin Felix found himself the recipient of a lawsuit for cyberlibel lodged by Chef Jam Melchor after Felix criticized his government-published cookbook for “cultural and scientific inaccuracies.” And for writer and critic Katrina Stuart Santiago, the suit is symptomatic of a larger cultural problem: “We don’t know how to deal with criticism, how and when to respond, [and] how to hold space despite disagreement and come to a resolution.”
Funded and published by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in April 2025 for Filipino Food Month, Kayumanggi: A Kaleidoscope of Filipino Flavors and Food Traditions showcases 150 recipes from all over the Philippines. Melchor, a private sector representative in DTI’s Malikhaing Pinoy Creative Council, told Rolling Stone Philippines a month ahead of its release that it took him more than a decade to put the cookbook together.
After receiving a copy of the book in September 2025, Felix reached out to the DTI through email, raising concerns regarding errors in the book, but did not receive a response, according to Bulatlat. Felix then took to social media to discuss the book’s inaccuracies through posts on his cultural heritage and biodiversity platform Lokalpedia. In response, Melchor sued Felix for “malicious imputations” against him.
Felix, however, asserts that his criticism of the book was made “in good faith,” and that he meant no malice in calling out the errors in Kayumanggi. “It’s our right to scrutinize the project as an expert, as a researcher, and of course as a taxpayer,” he told Inquirer.
Felix’s posts raised concerns about the DTI and Melchor’s inability to fact-check the contents of Kayumanggi. And with news of the cyberlibel suit, critics and other Filipinos now look to the author once more with scrutinizing eyes.
For Santiago, the libel case raises questions about what it indicates in the country’s relationship with cultural production and criticism. She tells Rolling Stone Philippines, “Libel as something that will silence critics is a foregone conclusion naman. The more important question is what conditions have led us here.”
Firstly, the libel case indicates a government agency’s inability to take responsibility for the work it produces. Santiago says, “A government agency refusing to be held accountable for a decision it made to print a work that is factually incorrect, this is the first layer. Why is the DTI silent, when it is through this office that public funds were used to print this book?”
The second layer? “To begin with, [Melchor] could totally ignore the review, hindi ba? As many authors do. But instead, he sought redress, not for the corrections that were being made on his work, but on what he says are attacks on his character in the comments sections of the critic’s [Felix’s] posts, and given the critic’s presumed intent of gaining some mileage or power for himself.”
She goes on to explain that there is “little respect” for the work that writers and critics do, because our understanding of the creative industries and cultural sectors is primarily bound to patronage politics. It’s not how well you do your work, but who you know and how you use your connections to gain more power.”
“In a cultural landscape that is more critical, we would all be talking about [Kayumanggi] as text, and all that it stands for, given what it sought to do, and for whom it is,” Santiago says. “We would be arguing about the book, and we would be demanding accountability for public funds used. It wouldn’t be as petty as an author suing for libel because he felt offended by all the things said against him in the comment section of the critic.”
Rolling Stone Philippines has reached out to John Sherwin Felix for comment, but has not responded as of writing. As for Melchor, the author told Inquirer, “At this time, I will be refraining from issuing any statements or participating in interviews.”
