sandy daza tours

Sandy Daza to go on Japan food tour this year

• January 10, 2023

JTB has collaborated with Chef and television personality Sandy Daza to stage Japan food tours this year.

Dates in February will cover Hokkaido while March will go multi-city with Fukuoka, Hiroshima, and Osaka.

There will also be dates for April through July where the chef will take travelers on a unique adventure through the streets of Japan.

From ramen, sushi, steaks, seafood, and desserts, foodies will enjoy visiting the haunts frequented and approved by the chef.

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DAZA FOOD TOURS

Join Celebrity Chef Sandy Daza in a gastronomic journey to Japan, South Korea, and Europe!

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Blissful Tokyo Tour

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6D5N Group Tour Package April 25 - 30, 2024 May 23 - 28, 2024 June 20 - 25, 2024 July 25 - 30, 2024 August 22 - 27, 2024 September 19 - 24, 2024 October 24 - 29, 2024

Amazing Osaka Tour

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DAZA Japan Food Tour (Fukuoka-Hiroshima-Osaka)

Get ready to feast your eyes, and your taste buds, on the most authentic flavors Japan has to offer! We're taking you on a culinary adventure through the bustling food scenes of Fukuoka, Hiroshima, and Osaka. Indulge in mouthwatering ramen, premium beef courses, and fresh oysters as you've never experienced before. Don't miss out on this delicious journey.

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DAZA Japan Food Tour (Hokkaido Route)

TOUR HIGHLIGHTS Looking for a taste of Japan that's as real as it gets? Get ready to experience an authentic food adventure in Hokkaido! From hearty ramen to fresh seafood, delve into the diverse flavors of this northern paradise. Don't keep your taste buds waiting.

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DAZA Japan Food Tour (Tokyo-Yokohama-Kamakura Route)

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DAZA Korea Food Tour

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Colors of Hokkaido Tour

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COOKING WITH SANDY DAZA

• Jul 21, 2020

Lolo Farm's Baked Chicken Spaghetti

• Jul 20, 2020

Korean Beef Stew

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News Releases

Savor the best of angeles city with chefs claude tayag and sandy daza in "the crawl".

March 18, 2022 AT 04:24 PM

"The Crawl Angeles City" premieres on Metro Channel this Sunday (March 20) at 7:30 pm!

A full-day affair of good food in Pampanga!

What happens when two foodies meet up at the Culinary Capital of the Philippines? Long-time friends and renowned chefs Claude Tayag and Sandy Daza take Metro Channel viewers on an exciting food journey in Angeles City, Pampanga in the latest edition of “The Crawl,” premiering this Sunday (March 20) at 7:30 pm.   

The two culinary masters start their all-day affair in the Philippines’ ‘City of Angels’ with breakfast at Chef Claude’s very own private dining restaurant, Bale Dutung or House of Wood, his love letter to Filipino cuisine. They follow it up with brunch at Perfect Loaf, which features mouthwatering delicacies including its signature pandan-macapuno cake, dinuguan, pancit luglug, and sotanghon.

For lunch, they head on to 52stone, a boutique-themed family restaurant known for its vast selection of Asian and Western food from pizza to Korean Bingsu.

At sundown, Chef Claude and Chef Sandy drive to Pineapple Coast for cocktails and LA-style tacos. Then, they visit The Quad at Nepo Center to enjoy Spanish cuisine at El Español with a tender cochinillo as the main attraction.

Before making its stop in Angeles City, Metro Channel’s “ The Crawl ” has visited some of the best restaurants and watering holes in different parts of the world, including Japan, Italy, France, and New York. 

Find out Angeles City’s must-try food destinations in “The Crawl Angeles City,” airing for the first time this Sunday (March 20) at 7:30 pm on Metro Channel, available on Sky Cable channel 52 (SD) and channel 174 (HD), Cignal channel 69, and GSAT channel 70. “The Crawl Angeles City” will also be available on Metro.Style YouTube channel.

For updates, follow @abscbnpr on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok or visit www.abs-cbn.com/newsroom .

DOWNLOAD ALL 6 PHOTOS FROM THIS ARTICLE

• The Crawl Angeles City
• Claude Tayag

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The Pampanga day tour for foodies

There was zero attention to healthy cooking—just the way i like it..

Every time I get a request for a day tour for foodies, no miss, it’ll have to be in Pampanga. For a foodie like me and those asking for the gastronomic food trip, the distance of the drive is acceptable. Plus, they really have name forgetting and food that’ll make one faint.

Pampanga has so much good food that I’m sure each restaurant is known for a particular if not a few dishes. Poch Jarolan of Everybody’s Cafe is known for his kare kare, tidtad, morcon, longanisa, and more. Mila’s is known for her sisig, pako salad, chicharon bulaklak, tocino barbecue, and tokwa’t baboy. Susie’s Cuisine is known for her tibok-tibok, sapin-sapin, and chichiria.

How has Kapampangan food become so good and popular? I learned that in early Spanish times, the ships the conquistadors rode were repaired in the docks of Pampanga. It is for this reason the cuisine in Pampanga is heavily influenced by Spain. Spanish influence brought about dishes like morcon, afritada, caldereta, leche flan, and bringhe. Sisig, on the other hand, is an Angeles original without a trace of Spanish influence.

Every time I visit Pampanga—Angeles to be more specific—I make it a point to visit a restaurant. Over two months ago, I got an invite for a birthday lunch for the siblings Vic Batungbacal and Maricris Encarnacion. The joint party was marked on my calendar because these siblings, who love to eat and are well travelled, always enjoy serving good food. “Patay na naman diet ko.” 

Two weeks ago, that lunch happened. No dinner, no breakfast, my buddies Gina and Joy drove to Angeles to pig out at the siblings’ lunch party. We had no idea what kind of food to expect but I was certain it was going to be memorable.

I was so hungry when I walked in I zeroed in on what looked like kropek on a table. To my surprise, it wasn’t kropek but caprice, the blush-pink blooms of amaryllis. I must have been hallucinating.

After mass, we sat next to the buffet table and I started investigating what was to be served.

“Kare-kare ba ‘to?” I asked.

“Hindi po,” said the server.

“Caldereta? Lengua?

“Hindi po (No, sir),”

“Roast beef?

“Hindi po. Isda (it’s fish).”

After that, I just shut up and waited.

Before anything landed on the table, I had already grabbed two pieces of fried lumpiang gulay. Yummy! There was roast chicken, lechon, caldereta, paco salad with shrimp and chicharon, pancit bihon loaded with toppings, a soupy orange fish dish, and a buffet of desserts. The spread was beyond description. Each item was carefully screened. Some of the dishes were swimming in their own fat and juices. There was zero attention to healthy cooking—just the way I like it. I was doing quite well not eating rice and all then Vic brought out some toasted crusty bread topped with aged gouda and some other cheese he stashed for a day like this, melted the combination in a toaster, and put the result in front of us. I should have just eaten rice. It was so so good I ate so much. I wanted to kiss Vic.

Dessert was an outstanding pandan sansrival and a variety of sweets. Oh my. What a memorable lunch spread! The food was rich and extremely fattening. The best ingredients were put in each dish. I can’t wait for next year. 

Pampanga indeed has great food and the Kapampangans do know how to throw an outstanding spread. I went home promising myself I’d diet. Tip: Plan a diet when you’re full and you’re sure to think you’ll succeed. 

Happy eating!

Living his dream and not working a day in his life

Sandy Daza hosts three food shows on TV and writes a column, making him one of the most recognizable chefs in the Philippines. 

He co-owns kiosks bearing his name that sell empanada and siopao in malls across Metro Manila. And he wears another hat: as a guide of culinary tours in Japan that he considers a “sideline” and a “dream come true.”

Sandy reached this stage in his life by traversing, not a straight path to success, but a winding road of hits and misses.  

It’s a journey that included involvement in student activism at the University of the Philippines (UP), running a family restaurant that went under, producing music shows, and publishing an entertainment magazine that did not pan out. In addition, he toiled at his food business in North America, to no avail. 

His foray into guiding food tours began in 2013 when representatives of the Japanese government visited the TV station where he hosts “Food Prints’’ and asked him to feature the cuisine in the cities of Fukuoka and Hiroshima, which were then not popular with Filipino tourists. Osaka, a city known to many Filipinos, was added to the list.

The invitation was for him to do six hourlong shows on the food in the three cities.

Sandy flew to Japan with a daughter for the first three shows, and then with his sister Nina, who is also a chef, for the rest of the shows. He and his team were escorted by guides who told them to eat at fine-dining places, a lot of which were hole-in-the-wall restaurants.

The shows perked his viewers’ interest, Sandy said in an interview with this writer last month on a Shinkansen bullet train from Fukuoka to Hiroshima. “Oh, Chef, we want to try the places you ate at,” he quoted them as saying.

“By some blessing from above,” he said, Pia Alfonso of the Philippine office of Japan Travel Bureau (JTB) saw the food shows and asked him if he could lead a culinary tour in Japan. His reply: “Of course! That’s my dream come true.” 

His first food tour was Fukuoka-Hiroshima-Osaka in 2015. “I had about 30 participants and we had a really grand time. You know, the food in Japan is very, very good,” he said. 

But now he chooses the eateries he features and replaces those that do not meet his exacting standards. “I’m not happy with just good. [The food] has to be exceptional,” he said. 

Pent-up demand

Sandy led his biggest food tour in Japan in 2022, just after pandemic-imposed travel restrictions were lifted worldwide. The 69 participants on one tour reflected the pent-up demand for travel.

“Suddenly, everybody wanted to travel. So I brought my son. We had two buses. My son was on one bus, I was on the other. I told him what to say. The next day I transferred to the other bus. We were happy,” Sandy recalled.

By JTB’s count, he has led “between 30 and 40” food tours, including 10 in a span of just three months in 2022—all in Japan—and seven this year as of October, including one in South Korea.

Of some 550 participants so far, the youngest was three years old, who came with his parents and a grandfather, and the oldest was a woman of 90 who joined the Sapporo, Hokkaido leg before the pandemic.

JTB introduced a food tour in Hokkaido also in 2015 and in South Korea in 2017. Both tours are led by Sandy.

Some participants have joined his tour twice, attesting to its attractions.

How is a food tour different from a garden-variety guided tour? Said Sandy: “A food tour is comfortable because we don’t wake up too early. You’re relaxed, and there’s not a lot of walking. There’s shopping, too.”

He introduced fruit-picking—strawberries, pears, melon, or persimmon—some three years after the tour began.

In the Oct. 20-25 tour in Fukuoka, Hiroshima and Osaka, there was time for handpicking persimmon on a farm, shopping at outlets for global brands, visits to fish markets, a stop at a peace memorial museum, and a boat ride to a world heritage Shinto shrine.

“Everybody is happy as long as they are comfortable when they wake up and they enjoy the food and shopping,” Sandy said. “The first day, [there is still some shyness to interact with others]. The second day, we really make a whole family.”

Denim jeans, T-shirt

Sporting his “uniform”—T-shirt, Levi’s 501 and rubber shoes—Sandy sits at the front of a bus full of foodies when moving to and from the assigned hotels. The bus has a “Chef Daza Food Tour” sign plastered on the windshield.

Occasionally he holds the microphone to explain something, not the scenic spots, but the food soon to be enjoyed. For the tour in October, the dishes were ramen, sukiyaki, sashimi, tonkatsu and tempura , and Hokkaido crabs, followed by dry ramen, yakiniku , oysters, unagi , grilled Kobe beef and shabu-shabu .

A dinner at a restaurant in Hiroshima betrayed Sandy’s background in basketball and affinity to UP, where he spent two years each in high school and in college.

As we participants were enjoying yakiniku (grilled wagyu and vegetables), Sandy, a smartphone in his left hand and chopsticks in his right, did a live report on the men’s basketball game between UP and Ateneo de Manila University. 

“UP lost, OMG!” he exclaimed at the end of the game that went into overtime.

Standing at 5’10” and a half, Sandy was a member of the UP High School basketball team. He had a half-court concreted at the family home in Area 1 of the UP campus where he practiced his shots and hung out with friends.

Still seared in his mind after more than five decades is a televised basketball game in which he bungled a shot: “I was nervous and took a shot. Butiki patay (The ball hit the edge of the backboard). `Daza out,’ said the coach.”

Before he became a basketball player, Sandy was into tennis, swimming and badminton. He takes pride in once holding the Philippine swimming record for 13-14-year-olds.

He eventually shifted to basketball because, he said, “girls don’t watch swimming competitions.”

His stint with the UP High basketball team ended when he was kicked out for flunking his English and math subjects. He was also caught copying from a classmate during an exam.

But he suspects that there might be another reason for his getting kicked out: He might have earned a teacher’s ire for being an escort of Maricris Llamas, who won the “Lakambini” beauty contest.

From UP High he transferred to St. Martin Technical Institute, the precursor of University of Life, which accepted kickouts from schools such as Ateneo, Aquinas and De La Salle. The sections were based on height, he said.

Diliman Commune

Sandy returned to the State University in 1971, enrolling at UP Manila and taking courses in UP Diliman, where he got involved in a fraternity and in student activism.

He recalled being part of the Diliman Commune, in which students, faculty members and residents erected barricades on campus in February 1971 in solidarity with striking jeepney drivers protesting a fuel-price increase. 

“I was there when the Metrocom (Philippine Constabulary Metropolitan Command) could not gain entry because of the barricades. I was going around the campus,” Sandy said. 

The Metrocom pursued a group that included Sandy when the police finally broke through the barricades.

Sandy recalled a close friend, Dodie Tan, a member of the Chosen Few band and a brother of Jimmy Tan, who was president of the UP Student Council in 1972-73. “We prepared ‘subversive materials’ for Jimmy. We went around the campus to a vacant lot where we dumped the materials, which others would pick up,” he said.

Before martial law was imposed nationwide in September 1972, he joined the Beta Sigma fraternity. “Our final initiation was on a Sunday, and the day before that martial law was declared,” he said.

The Daza residence at the back of UP Infirmary became a waystation for some activists and frat brothers, a few of whom went underground to elude arrest. 

The imposition of martial law marked the end of his stay at UP and dashed his hopes of joining the collegiate basketball team.

Sandy’s involvement in student activism so alarmed his mother, the culinary icon Nora Daza, that she sent him to France:  “ Natakot ang ermat ko doon sa activism. So she had me study at the American College of Paris, while I worked as a waiter and cashier at the family’s restaurant.”

Nora Daza, considered “the Julia Child of the Philippines,” was a restaurateur, cohost of a radio program, host of TV cooking shows, columnist, and best-selling cookbook author. 

She earned a bachelor’s degree in home economics from UP and a master’s in restaurant and institutional management from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. 

She established restaurants not only in Manila (Au Bon Vivant and Galing-Galing) but also in Paris (Aux Iles Philippines) and, upon the invitation of the Philippine government, in New York (Maharlika). 

In Paris, Sandy rose early each day to buy supplies at a market that, he said, was similar to Tsukiji, Tokyo’s wholesale fish and seafood market. 

At the restaurant he was unconsciously absorbing what the cook was doing: “While waiting for the dishes, you watch the cook work without noticing it.” 

But one day the cook left, seized by a whim, Sandy said.  “ Sinumpong at lumayas na lang.” 

He was forced to man the kitchen. He prepared appetizers and, to his surprise, the customers didn’t notice any change in taste. His confidence in his ability to cook boosted, he went on to take some courses at Le Cordon Bleu school of culinary arts.

After two years in Paris, he enrolled at Cornell University. In 1977, he earned a bachelor’s degree in hotel and restaurant management. His sister Nina is also a Cornell graduate.

Arrogant and humbled

Sandy went back to Manila and was assigned to manage Au Bon Vivant. 

“I was arrogant as a fresh graduate from Cornell,” he said. The restaurant lost money and closed down in 1979—a “very humbling experience,” he said.

He realized that school did not prepare him for running a restaurant: “It was totally different” from what was taught in school.

His next move was to form an entertainment company called Interbros, while his brother Bong set up Intertrading. Success eluded both ventures.

Moving on, they came up with an “artista” magazine and produced the shows of the Music and Magic band. These, too, did not catch on.

Sandy had to move on yet again. In 1983-84, he was involved in setting up Northern Foods Corp. that produced tomato paste in Ilocos Norte province. He was president of the company that he deemed “successful.” 

But the People Power Revolution in February 1986 led to the “sequestration” of the company. 

The change would fling him into the world of cooking shows. In 1987, he and Nina were informed by their mother’s secretary that, on her instructions, they should take over her TV show “Cooking with Nora” because she had left for Paris. 

“Wow! We were terrified,” Sandy said. “Nina and I talked about our fears on the show. Interestingly, it became natural, and I enjoyed the show. Later I realized that ‘there’s money to be made here.’”

But the allure of Canada proved irresistible. In 2001 Sandy and his family migrated to Canada; they stayed in Vancouver, where he worked as a courier. 

Eventually, he put up a cooking show that ran for eight years and gave him the idea that a restaurant should be his next project as he was already known in the area.

So he established a restaurant, which flopped. Its location was bad, and it had a staff of one or two. On weekdays he was the cashier and waiter. “I handled everything, including going to the market. I was having a hard time,” he said. 

By 2010 Sandy had had enough. He weighed the words of a friend—that he was not someone special abroad but had cachet in Manila. He told his family: “Let’s have a look in Manila. If you like it, we’ll stay. If not, we’ll come back.”

His children found Manila to their liking. But questions about his ability to run a restaurant after the failure in Vancouver troubled him. “I asked myself, `Can I still hack it?’”

In 2011 Sandy and a business partner opened a restaurant, Wooden Spoon, on Katipunan Avenue, Quezon City.  It was named Restaurant of the Year for 2013. (An image of him holding a wooden spoon is now his trademark in his cooking shows.)

Encouraged, he and his business partner opened a branch in Rockwell Makati in September 2013. It became a roaring success, he said: “It was always full. We were running out of food.” 

He and his business partner parted ways in 2017-2018.

Sandy then put up a restaurant in Kapitolyo, Pasig City, but it turned out unsuccessful.

Kiosks, etc.

It was at this point that he joined forces with his cousins and established the “Casa Daza by Chef Sandy” restaurant in UP Town Center. Sales were anemic. 

It paused operations during the coronavirus pandemic and reopened when restrictions were eased as a downsized and nimble “Casa Daza Specials by Chef Sandy” that sells empanada and siopao from kiosks. The business has grown to 16 branches and counting.

Besides the kiosks, he has three food shows: “FoodPrints” and “Casa Daza “ on Metro Channel and “Lutong Daza” on Net 25, where he teaches a guest how to cook a dish. 

He also writes a column for Manila Bulletin.

Despite the many food tours he has led, Sandy, now 71, stays slim and fit. He inevitably puts on weight while on tour, but he sheds the extra pounds by reducing his meals back in the Philippines to just one a day.

Over the years, the tours have expanded his circle of friends that he now considers family. He still meets with members of his first tour.

And Sandy has not lost his mojo in leading food tours. Just three days after the five-day tour in Japan last month, he led another one in South Korea.

He best describes his vocation through this adage: “If you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.”

See: Food, friendship and more on a tour with a chef

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Sampling the best of japan in a one-night fukuoka food trip, metro channel team.

Love Japanese? Bring your friends and family, and experience a whole new level of Japanese cuisine in this one-night food trip around Fukuoka Japan with Sandy Daza .

Food trip tip: Fukuoka is best experienced on foot at night, when the food stalls start to open shop. Make sure to wear comfortable clothing and bring walking shoes.

There is nothing more Japanese-y than a bowl of good, piping hot ramen. And when in Fukuoka, there is only one place to go to satisfy all your ramen cravings.

Ramen Stadium is a food hall of sorts that’s home to all kinds of ramen. It serves to highlight different kinds of ramen since each prefecture in Japan has a specific ramen specialty, from the kind of broth to the noodles that they use.

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For the season 6 of Food Prints, Sandy brings his foodie group to Shodai Hide-chan , one of the most popular places inside Ramen Stadium. Shodai Hide-chan is home to what Sandy calls the “Best Ramen in Town,” which has a tonkotsu broth and a nice big slice of Kurobota pork.

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The Kurobota pork is a great choice for ramen since it has a lot of marbling, which means there are layers of fat hidden inside the meat strands. This makes every bite tender and melting in your mouth. Complementing the juicy pork neck is the rich pork tonkotsu broth and Hakata noodles, which are straight and thin-cut noodles.

Add to your ramen experience their unique ordering system, where you can choose your order via a vendo-like machine. Sandy says that when in doubt, always choose the item in the top most left corner of the screen, because that’s usually the best-seller of that restaurant.

READ:  Aichi-Nagoya Is A Secret Waiting To Be Discovered In The Heart Of Japan

Five minutes from the best ramen in town is the best gyoza in town—and it’s located at at the Nakasu food strip along the Naka river in downtown Fukuoka. This strip has always been an entertainment district since Japan’s Edo era, and the vibrant atmosphere has been preserved until today.

A number of food stalls line the Nakasu food strip, but for the best gyoza in town, head to Takechan, a stall that has been making and serving gyoza for 50 years now.

Their gyoza are bite-sized and made-to-order, so you’re sure that they’re fresh and hot. The gyoza features a perfect play of textures—from the bite from the steamed wrap, crunch from the toasted sides, and the nice rich ground pork filling. Pair it with the acidic vinegar and you’re in gyoza heaven.

Take note that the lines can be long—but Sandy assures that the long wait is worth it.

Chicken hot pot

End your night win an eye-popping multi-course meal that culminates with a hearty and traditional chicken hot pot at Hakata Hanamidori.

Hakata Hanamidori is the more formal destination of the night, encouraging guests to take off their shoes before they enter the dining area filled with chabudai, or short-legged tables used in traditional Japanese homes, and tatami mats instead of chairs.

The meal starts with a colorful and beautiful appetizer set that’s composed of green pea tofu, stewed chicken with apples, Brussel sprouts and grape seed blossoms with sesame sauce, boiled prawn and cauliflower, and uri and smoked salmon with vinegar jelly.

There’s also Chicken Sashimi, although don’t be scared to try it because it’s not really raw chicken. The chicken is cured and smoked, then cut into thin slices, which Sandy notes tastes like smoked salmon.

The star of the night, of course, is the Mizutaki or the chicken hot pot. The broth is made from kelp and water, before the chicken, tofu, and various vegetables are added.

Eat it with ponzu vinegar for a hearty soup experience that warms the tummy and the soul.

READ:  Love Japanese? Try These Delicious Japanese Seafood Recipes Easy Enough To Cook At Home

Watch Sandy Daza’s food tour of Japan on the Season 6 of Food Prints, returning to Metro Channel, channel 52 on Sky Cable and channel 174 on HD. Catch fresh episodes on Mondays, 7 p.m., and replays throughout the week.

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Judge rejects call to immediately shut down Alex Jones' Infowars in bankruptcy dispute

Dave Collins

Associated Press

After a weekend in which conspiracy theorist Alex Jones warned that his media company faced an imminent shutdown by the federal government because of his bankruptcy cases, a judge on Monday allowed Jones to keep operating for the next two weeks while it is decided whether his assets should be liquidated.

Both Jones and his company, Free Speech Systems, filed for bankruptcy reorganization after he lost two lawsuits and was ordered to pay $1.5 billion to relatives of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting . They sued Jones for calling the shooting that killed 20 first graders and six educators in Newtown, Connecticut, a hoax, claiming defamation and infliction of emotional distress.

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The families have opposed Jones' reorganization plans. On Sunday, they filed an emergency motion to convert Free Speech Systems' bankruptcy reorganization into a liquidation, saying Jones has not made progress in showing how he will pay the lawsuit judgments.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez in Houston said Monday that he will address the motion on June 14, when a decision on whether to liquidate Jones and his company's assets is expected.

Jones went on his web and radio show over the weekend with “emergency broadcasts” claiming Free Speech Systems, including his Infowars broadcasts, were going to be shut down at any minute by the federal government and bankruptcy system. That did not happen. At one point, he urged his followers to form a human chain around his studio in Austin, Texas, to protect it.

Some of Jones' comments came in profanity-laden rants, and Jones appeared to cry at points.

“There’s really no avenue out of this,” Jones said on his show Sunday. “I’m kind of in the bunker here. And don’t worry. I’ll come back. The enemy can’t help but do this attack.”

On Saturday, Jones was defiant, saying “At the end of the day, we’re going to beat these people. I’m not trying to be dramatic here, but it’s been a hard fight. These people hate our children.”

The broadcasts were in response to apparent disputes between Jones, a chief restructuring officer appointed by the bankruptcy court to oversee Jones' company and another company that supplies the nutritional supplements Jones sells on his shows, according to lawyers in the bankruptcy cases. Jones made disparaging comments about the restructuring officer over the weekend, one of the lawyers said.

The other company that supplies the supplements, PQPR Holdings Limited, is actually mostly owned by Jones. A lawyer for PQPR said in court Monday that the company opposed allowing Free Speech Systems and Infowars to continue operating until June 14, alleging Jones was being uncooperative in the bankruptcy discussions and calling for an immediate closure of Free Speech Systems.

The PQPR attorney, Stephen Lemmon, told the judge that there was no agreement to allow Free Speech Systems to continue operating after Monday.

“We think that everybody is better off if this just gets shut down right now," Lemmon said.

Annie Catmull, a lawyer for Free Speech Systems, asked the judge to continue allowing the company to operate.

Lopez, the judge, ruled that the company can continue to pay employee wages and other expenses until June 14, after asking the lawyers to “take the temperature down" in their arguments.

Christopher Mattei, a lawyer for the Sandy Hook families, claimed Jones was “manufacturing a crisis” about the threat of being shut down imminently, noting that the dispute was between two Jones-owned companies. PQPR also claims Free Speech Systems owes it millions of dollars in unpaid bills for the nutritional supplements, a debt called bogus by the families' attorneys.

Jones’ lawyers have been unable to reach an agreement over the past several months with the families' lawyers on how to resolve the bankruptcy cases. Jones’ lawyer recently said in court that the cases appear headed to liquidation or may be withdrawn.

Liquidation could mean that Jones would have to sell most of what he owns, including his company and its assets, but could keep his home and other personal belongings that are exempt from bankruptcy liquidation. Proceeds would go to his creditors, including the Sandy Hook families.

If the cases are withdrawn, it would put Jones back in the same position he was in after the $1.5 billion was awarded in the lawsuits and it would send efforts to collect the damages back to the state courts where the verdicts were reached.

The families of many, but not all, of the Sandy Hook victims sued Jones and won the two trials in Connecticut and Texas.

The relatives said they were traumatized by Jones' comments and the actions of his followers. They testified at the trials about being harassed and threatened by Jones’ believers, some of whom confronted the grieving families in person saying the shooting never happened and their children never existed.

According to the most recent financial statements filed in the bankruptcy court, Jones personally has about $9 million in assets including his $2.6 million Austin-area home and other real estate. He also listed his living expenses at about $69,000 for April alone, including about $16,500 for expenses on his home including maintenance, housekeeping and insurance.

Infowars' parent company, Free Speech Systems, which employs 44 people, had nearly $4 million in cash on hand at the end of April. The business made nearly $3.2 million in April, including from selling the dietary supplements, clothing and other items that Jones promotes on his show, while listing $1.9 million in expenses.

Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Judge rejects call to immediately shut down Alex Jones’ Infowars in bankruptcy dispute

(AP) - After a weekend in which conspiracy theorist Alex Jones warned that his media company faced an imminent shutdown by the federal government because of his bankruptcy cases, a judge on Monday allowed Jones to keep operating for the next two weeks while it is decided whether his assets should be liquidated.

Both Jones and his company, Free Speech Systems, filed for bankruptcy reorganization after he lost two lawsuits and was ordered to pay $1.5 billion to relatives of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. They sued Jones for calling the shooting that killed 20 first graders and six educators in Newtown, Connecticut, a hoax, claiming defamation and infliction of emotional distress.

The families have opposed Jones’ reorganization plans. On Sunday, they filed an emergency motion to convert Free Speech Systems’ bankruptcy reorganization into a liquidation, saying Jones has not made progress in showing how he will pay the lawsuit judgments.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez in Houston said Monday that he will address the motion on June 14, when a decision on whether to liquidate Jones and his company’s assets is expected.

Jones went on his web and radio show over the weekend with “emergency broadcasts” claiming Free Speech Systems, including his Infowars broadcasts, were going to be shut down at any minute by the federal government and bankruptcy system. That did not happen. At one point, he urged his followers to form a human chain around his studio in Austin, Texas, to protect it.

Some of Jones’ comments came in profanity-laden rants, and Jones appeared to cry at points.

“There’s really no avenue out of this,” Jones said on his show Sunday. “I’m kind of in the bunker here. And don’t worry. I’ll come back. The enemy can’t help but do this attack.”

On Saturday, Jones was defiant, saying “At the end of the day, we’re going to beat these people. I’m not trying to be dramatic here, but it’s been a hard fight. These people hate our children.”

The broadcasts were in response to apparent disputes between Jones, a chief restructuring officer appointed by the bankruptcy court to oversee Jones’ company and another company that supplies the nutritional supplements Jones sells on his shows, according to lawyers in the bankruptcy cases. Jones made disparaging comments about the restructuring officer over the weekend, one of the lawyers said.

The other company that supplies the supplements, PQPR Holdings Limited, is actually mostly owned by Jones. A lawyer for PQPR said in court Monday that the company opposed allowing Free Speech Systems and Infowars to continue operating until June 14, alleging Jones was being uncooperative in the bankruptcy discussions and calling for an immediate closure of Free Speech Systems.

The PQPR attorney, Stephen Lemmon, told the judge that there was no agreement to allow Free Speech Systems to continue operating after Monday.

“We think that everybody is better off if this just gets shut down right now,” Lemmon said.

Annie Catmull, a lawyer for Free Speech Systems, asked the judge to continue allowing the company to operate.

Lopez, the judge, ruled that the company can continue to pay employee wages and other expenses until June 14, after asking the lawyers to “take the temperature down” in their arguments.

Christopher Mattei, a lawyer for the Sandy Hook families, claimed Jones was “manufacturing a crisis” about the threat of being shut down imminently, noting that the dispute was between two Jones-owned companies. PQPR also claims Free Speech Systems owes it millions of dollars in unpaid bills for the nutritional supplements, a debt called bogus by the families’ attorneys.

Jones’ lawyers have been unable to reach an agreement over the past several months with the families’ lawyers on how to resolve the bankruptcy cases. Jones’ lawyer recently said in court that the cases appear headed to liquidation or may be withdrawn.

Liquidation could mean that Jones would have to sell most of what he owns, including his company and its assets, but could keep his home and other personal belongings that are exempt from bankruptcy liquidation. Proceeds would go to his creditors, including the Sandy Hook families.

If the cases are withdrawn, it would put Jones back in the same position he was in after the $1.5 billion was awarded in the lawsuits and it would send efforts to collect the damages back to the state courts where the verdicts were reached.

The families of many, but not all, of the Sandy Hook victims sued Jones and won the two trials in Connecticut and Texas.

The relatives said they were traumatized by Jones’ comments and the actions of his followers. They testified at the trials about being harassed and threatened by Jones’ believers, some of whom confronted the grieving families in person saying the shooting never happened and their children never existed.

According to the most recent financial statements filed in the bankruptcy court, Jones personally has about $9 million in assets including his $2.6 million Austin-area home and other real estate. He also listed his living expenses at about $69,000 for April alone, including about $16,500 for expenses on his home including maintenance, housekeeping and insurance.

Infowars’ parent company, Free Speech Systems, which employs 44 people, had nearly $4 million in cash on hand at the end of April. The business made nearly $3.2 million in April, including from selling the dietary supplements, clothing and other items that Jones promotes on his show, while listing $1.9 million in expenses.

Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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