Katrina Stuart Santiago

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…)

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…)

Without a doubt, there is power to be had in having social media, through which we can articulate our grievances, question our leaders, call out oppressors, demand accountability. Here is a medium that cradles our voice, and depending on what it is we’re talking about, we find allies in other voices, named and anonymous, supporting what we say, adding onto our narratives. It’s a sense of community, sure. It’s a sense of belonging, absolutely. It is power, undeniably.

This is at the heart of the Twitter thread of Adrienne Onday that wanted to talk about “misogyny, sexism, and predatory / manipulative behavior in the local independent music scene in my experience.” I myself had read the first set of tweets, which was her speaking in broad strokes — nothing specific, no names, and heavily contextualized when she was doing the gig scene regularly enough to become friends with the bands she idolized.

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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…)

One of the more interesting things to come out of this short period of having Harry Roque as Presidential Spokesperson: it has revealed that the frontline informal communications team of the President cannot be told that they are doing something wrong.

They will not be reprimanded. Their faults will not be pointed out. And anyone who even so much as dares call them out will be considered an enemy. These Duterte social media leaders will turn their followers against you, allowing people to call you names and bully you. They will then call on the President to reverse his decision to hire you. They will watch as this happens, throwing their weight around because how dare you — how dare anyone! — tell them that they need an education? That they need to (gasp!) change?

This is what has happened to Harry Roque.

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