WHY POPS LEFT ABS-CBN

Quezon City, May 1, 2003 -- Thinking that ABS-CBN was partial to Martin Nievera, Pops Fernandez reportedly decided to cut her ties with the network.
The issue started because of the duet they had last December 14. Martin and Pops staged separate concerts on that same day in different venues. Martin had his at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC), while Pops' was at the ULTRA. But they were seen performing a duet together, courtesy of microwave technology. It was a first in the local concert scene, so their respective audiences were overwhelmed.

Maxi-Media and Channel 2 agreed to have both concerts shown on ABS-CBN. And it did not matter, according to Martin, whose concert was shown first.

As it turned out, his concert was televised ahead of Pops'.

Martin remembered that Pops (because he was with her then) raised a howl when she learned that ABS-CBN would include their duet in the broadcast of his concert. So he suggested that, to avert a possible conflict between Pops and ABS-CBN, their duet be scrapped from his concert's special airing.

Now, here lies the rub. When it was the time for Pops' concert to be aired on Channel 2, it was Martin's turn to complain when he found out that the contested duet would be shown during her concert's airing.

To calm his down, ABS-CBN decided not to show the duet altogether. Obviously Pops was offended, especially since she opted not to be present in the "A.S.A.P." special for Martin's birthday.

Martin swore that he has no idea of Pops' decision to transfer to GMA-7 but he wishes her well.

"We are okay," he said.