Erwin Tulfo

Born in Tacloban,^[4] Tulfo is the son of Colonel Ramon Silvestre Tulfo Sr. (1915–1985),^[5] who was a member of Philippine Constabulary, and Caridad Teshiba-Tulfo (c. 1927–2024), a housewife. His siblings include Tuchi, Bong, Joseph, Edelle, Ramon, Ben, and Raffy Tulfo, who are all his fellow journalists with Raffy also being an incumbent senator.^[6] His sister, Wanda Corazon Teo, was a tourism secretary during the Duterte administration.^[7]

 

He served in the United States Army from 1988 to 1992. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of the East in 2005. He is the host of his public service brand Mission X, which eventually evolved into the Erwin Tulfo Action Center.^[8]

In 2022, Tulfo was appointed Secretary of Social Welfare and Development by then-President-elect Bongbong Marcos in May 2022.^[9] However, on December 27, 2022, his appointment was blocked and bypassed by the Commission on Appointments due to citizenship issues.

On May 30, 2023, Tulfo took oath as a representative of ACT-CIS Partylist, a week after a disqualification case against him was junked by the Commission on Elections.^[10] On July 20, 2023, Comelec issued a certificate of proclamation to Tulfo, naming him as the third nominee of ACT-CIS, replacing Jeffrey Soriano, who had resigned in February 2024.^[11] Tulfo took oath once again as a partylist representative on July 31, 2023, and was named as a House Deputy Majority Leader on August 9, 2023.^[12][13]

On September 26, 2024, Tulfo was officially named to the Alyansa para sa Bagong Pilipinas senatorial slate for the 2025 Senate election.^[14] Tulfo later filed his candidacy to run for senator on October 6, 2024.^[4]

In 2008, Tulfo was found guilty by the Supreme Court of the Philippines of four counts of libel and was sentenced to pay a fine of ₱6,000 for each count and, along with his co-accused, ₱1,000,000 to the complainant as moral damages. The cases stemmed from multiple articles he wrote and published in the tabloid Remate which accused a Bureau of Customs official of being "an extortionist, a corrupt public official, smuggler and having illegally acquired wealth".^[15][16]

During the aftermath of the 2010 Manila hostage crisis, Tulfo was severely criticized for his on-air phone interview with hostage-taker Rolando Mendoza which was said to have escalated the incident leading to the deaths of eight hostages.^[17][18][19]

 

In 2018, it was revealed by the Commission on Audit that the Department of Tourism (DOT), then headed by Tulfo's sister Wanda, paid around ₱60 million to Bitag Media Unlimited Inc., a media outfit headed by their brother Ben, to place tourism ads on Kilos Pronto, a blocktimer show on PTV hosted by Tulfo.^[20] The transactions were not supported with proper documents such as a memorandum of agreement or contract. On May 8, Wanda Tulfo Teo resigned from her post.^[20][21][22] She stressed that she did not know that her brothers were running the television show^[23] and that it was a government-to-government contract between the tourism department and People's Television Network.^[20] The Tulfo brothers afterwards promised that they will return the ₱60 million.^[24][25] However, on June 17, 2018, it was revealed that they have not yet returned the money they received from the DOT.^[26] In August 2018, then-Senator Antonio Trillanes IV declared that he will press plunder charges against the Tulfo siblings.^[27]

On May 31, 2019, Tulfo made an on-air tirade against Social Welfare Secretary and retired Army Commanding General Rolando Bautista for refusing to interview with him.^[28] A few days later, thousands signed a petition demanding Tulfo to apologize.^[29] The Philippine Military Academy Alumni Association condemned Tulfo's remarks against the former Philippine Army chief.^[30] Tulfo has apologized to Bautista for his remarks.^[31]

In 2022, Tulfo's citizenship was disputed when he was appointed Secretary of Social Welfare and Development by then-President-elect Bongbong Marcos in May 2022.^[9][32] In December, the Commission on Appointments bypassed his appointment for the second time due to his American citizenship, which he had admitted to have from 1986 to renouncing it in early 2022,^[32] and his conviction on four counts of libel.^[33]

In 2024, the Court of Appeals dismissed GMA Network's petition for review on the alleged 'stolen video' libel case against Tulfo, involving the 2004 Kidnapping of Angelo dela Cruz case.^[34]

Tulfo is also a franchisee and endorser of Siomai King, a food cart business selling Philippine siomai.^[35]

PMPC Star Awards for Television

• Best Male Newscaster (2014,^[37] 2015^[38] and 2016)

Inding-Indie Short Film Festival

• Asian Best Broadcasters Award (2015)^[39]
• Most Trusted Media Personalities for Radio and Television Award (2016)

•   Media related to Erwin Tulfo at Wikimedia Commons