Category Archive for: pangyayari

komentaryo

Asec #Mocha is correct …

There ARE many, more important, things to talk about, other than her award from the UST Alumni Association Inc. I couldn’t care less about the fact that she was given it, in fact, and it must be said that it is absolutely offensive that the photos of Asec Mocha’s past life are being reposted on social media just to point out that she is undeserving of this award. Seriously: since when did this kind of shaming, as bound to an unapologetic conservatism, cloaked in Catholic righteousness, been acceptable?  (more…)

komentaryo

Putting out fires

If there’s anything this government, this President, is good at, it’s putting out fires. And it’s not by actually ensuring that we get to the bottom of the cause(s) of these fires, or even count the victims properly (hello, HTI), and certainly it is never about calling out those who are so obviously responsible for these fires, whether oligarchs or factory owners or the leadership of the Philippine Export Processing Zone (PEZA), and certainly not the family that owns NCCC Mall, now found to have violated building safety requirements, which led to the death of 37 in the December 23 fire. (more…)

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A Duterte debut: thoughtlessness and excess

There is little reason to think that there is — has to be — anything wrong with a Presidential granddaughter doing a photoshoot for her debut in Malacañang. After all, it is the Presidential home, even as President Duterte has made a big deal about not living there. After all, granddaughter Isabelle could just as well live there, and maybe then a photoshoot in her “home” wouldn’t be such a big deal?

But too many things were wrong about that photoshoot that has nothing to do with whether or not she had a right to do it, or whether or not we could all do the same thing in Malacañang. And it has everything to do with knowing to respect the symbols of this country and its leadership, the symbols of faith, the painful vestiges of our history. (more…)

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Why say #NoToMartialLaw in Mindanao

It is beyond me how Congress can turn a blind eye to the human rights violations that have happened, and which continue happening, in Mindanao, even as Martial Law has been declared over the region the past eight months.

As with Duterte’s Drug War, there is very little rationale here, and even less reason to continue it for all of 2018. In fact, all we’ve got is a flattened Marawi, a rehabilitation process that will cradle corruption, and communities militarized, thousands displaced, and thousands of dead bodies.

Here, culled from the mapping of impunity of Karapatan. State violence in Mindanao DURING Martial Law.  (more…)

komentaryo

This Mocha catastrophe #StandWithMedia

Just as the last piece on Harry Roque being victimized by the arrogance and self-proclaimed infallibility of the President’s unofficial communications team on social media, Asec Mocha Uson published a video purportedly apologizing to mainstream media.

But of course the notion of an “apology” could only really be smoke and mirrors for what was nothing more than multiple statements that reflect the Asec’s misplaced notions about, and thoughtless skewed opinions on, the function of media, the fact of freedom of the press, and her responsibility as government official for social media.

Mocha’s strategy is clear: in a little more than five minutes, she sought to conquer the media by dividing the sector between those she considers as allies, and those that remain as enemies. It’s classic divide and conquer: make media organizations (and the public, and Duterte supporters) believe that she is not generalizing her hate against mainstream media. Never mind that in the course of 17 months she has consistently called them “fake news” or “fake news media,” and has (with violent rhetoric) discredited the work of journalists, photographers, media practitioners, and columnists for their biases, while using big words she doesn’t understand (credibility, responsibility, biases, freedom). (more…)