My Take on the "Appear Disappear" Dispute

Things have been heating up on the dispute between CATZ Entertainment, producer of the “yet to be aired” game show entitled, “Game Show Mo ‘To”, and Mr. Lito de Guzman, manager of the Baywalk Bodies. This concerns a composition of mine entitled, “APPEAR DISAPPEAR”, which is now being played over the AM and FM airwaves.

Some of you may have heard about this already… some of you may not have yet.

For the benefit of those who aren’t privy to the controversy, let me begin with how it all started:

A good few months back, CATZ Entertainment, asked me to compose a theme song for their upcoming game show entitled, “Game Show Mo ‘To”… they explained the mechanics of the game to me, which actually involved a play on words taken from an old pinoy children’s game called, “Appear Disappear”… how many of you grown-ups still remember this fun past time? “Appear, Disappear, One-Half, One-Fourth, One-Fourth, One-Half, Disappear, Appear!”, so the game goes.

So, with that in mind, I hastily put pen to paper and created the semi-novelty song aptly entitled, “Appear Disappear”.

I was informed by CATZ Entertainment that the Baywalk Bodies are co-hosts of the show and that they too will be the ones who will sing my composition. I speedily completed the musical arrangement of the song in anticipation of the scheduled airing of their pilot episode.

Before we even commenced recording of the song, Mr. Lito de Guzman phoned me asking if he could include my composition in the Baywalk Bodies’ upcoming record album as well. I remember this phone conversation vividly… I expressly told Lito that, in principle, I was agreeable to it… provided that he advised CATZ Entertainment of his intentions out of courtesy and “delikadesa” (tama ba spelling? Hehe).

He promised to inform CATZ, which I believe he actually did because during one of my phone conversations with people over at CATZ Entertainment, they were aware of Lito’s plans to release the Baywalk Bodies album with my musical work as their carrier single, which will coincide with “Game Show Mo ‘To”’s 1st season run. In essence, their plan was to create media support which will benefit both projects.

We recorded the song and made two versions during recording: One version with the tag line, “Game Show Mo ‘To”, at the chorus, which was intended as the game show’s theme song… and another version wherein we changed the tag line into, “Game natin ‘to”, which was purposely done to serve as the record album version. Soon after, I delivered the theme song version to CATZ’s office in Quezon City… in fact I even recall all of us in the office talking about the song being included in Baywalk’s album. They seemed to have no problem whatsoever with the plan. 

Likewise, I signed a memorandum of agreement authorizing Mr. Lito de Guzman to use my composition for that particular Baywalk Bodies album. It was “non-exclusive” and in no way was I surrendering my publishing rights as well. I was NOT bound by any other agreement nor between me and CATZ Entertainment with regards to the composition. I retain ownership and absolute rights to the song.

This is where things get a little blurry…

CATZ Entertainment and the television network they were currently negotiating with fell through leaving the game show practically in limbo. This was also during the time that the Baywalk Bodies upcoming album was already getting prepped for release. Remember, the agreement of both disgruntled parties was to have a simultaneous launch. Months passed and still no news about when or IF the game show was still pushing through (considering that they had something like 3 episodes in the can already).

Then months after, I was surprised to find out that the Baywalk Bodies’ album had finally come out… with “Appear Disappear” as their carrier single. I thought to myself, “Oh well, baka nga hindi na tuloy ang game show.”.

Weeks after the album’s release, I got a call from CATZ Entertainment (this was about a week ago)… they were furious! They were asking if I was aware that the Baywalk Bodies’ album has already been released, which in answer to their query I replied, yes.

They further went on elaborating that they were not made privy by Mr. Lito de Guzman on his plans of pushing through with the album’s release considering that the game show was still in negotiations with other television networks. According to CATZ, they were never informed nor advised by the Baywalk Bodies manager that the album wasn’t going to wait for the game show’s airing anymore. They felt pre-empted… and deceived. “Ginago niya kami!”, was their cry.

Mr. de Guzman contests that, after months of holding the album back and waiting for the game show to finally come out, he decided to push through with it before the project even becomes stale, considering that he invested a substantial amount of money to complete the record.

I tried really hard for both parties to come together and resolve the issue in a proper manner… but when they ultimately got together to talk, they ended up shouting at each other. I wasn’t there during the incident, I only created the means for them to meet. Both parties informed me of what happened afterwards.

CATZ Entertainment is demanding that Mr. Lito de Guzman cease the playing of “Appear Disappear” on all AM and FM stations… which to my knowledge, is legally quite impossible… UNLESS they had a written agreement long before to only release the song (and album) in time with the game show’s airing.

Mr. Lito de Guzman on the other hand is holding on to our agreement as protection… claiming that he has every right to release the album since he has the consent and authorization of the songwriter in black and white. True as well.

Mr. de Guzman went on to tell CATZ Entertainment to take their beef up with me instead since it was I who gave permission to have the song included in Baywalk’s album. Considering everything that has been presented, I am legally “in the clear” of any violation whatsoever and that other than the fact that I am indeed the songwriter, I have nothing to do with any agreement, verbal or written, between Mr. Lito de Guzman and CATZ Entertainment.

Personally, I think this is a case of misunderstanding. Also, a lack of communication. But either way, had they decided to put their agreement on paper, they would’ve been able to avoid this word war which is already starting to escalate.

TV Patrol has already been contacting me requesting a video interview… so has GMA’7’s “Unang Hirit” and People’s Tonight… all in a span of 2 days… barely actually. Who knows who else will be calling after the long holiday…?

Both have valid arguments… but only they can resolve this themselves… not I.

Some write-ups regarding the controversy can be found online already (to my surprise!)… You can read them here: PHILIPPINE STAR and PEOPLE’S JOUNAL ONLINE.

I pray to the Lord for the reconciliation of both parties and the speedy resolution concerning this controversy.

Tags: appear disappear, baywalk, bodies, cats, catz, chuckie, composition, controversy, copyright, demand, dispute, dreyfus, Entertainment, Filipino, game, novelty, OPM, philippiines, Pinoy, production, qtv, show, song, tv patrol, unag hirit