Fariñas and Velez were a high-profile couple during Fariñas's time in law school at Ateneo de Manila University
When Vivian Velez took a more active role in politics as a supporter of Rodrigo Duterte in 2016, and later in 2022, her past, including the "Betamax scandal," was frequently brought up by online critics.
Vivian looked into the lens. For a moment, she was twenty-nine again. The lights were hot. The teleprompter was dark. And for the first time in thirty-seven years, she told the truth.
Vivian had been approached by an editor two days earlier. "There’s a tape," he’d said, voice low, "people are already talking about it. We need someone who can tell what it is, what it means, and what it will do to Farinas." She had thought of the ethics: the line between exposing truth and feeding the rumor mill. But there was another pull—duty to the public that had always pulled at her since her early reporting days. This wasn’t tabloid sleaze; it smelled like influence peddling.
Despite its limited distribution, the tape became a whispered legend. For Velez, it became a lifelong scar—an invasion of privacy that she has had to defend against for nearly four decades. For Fariñas, the scandal added a layer of notoriety that he would later try to overcome as he rose through the political ranks.
