Yes, I am having a war with our governor. I’ve said my piece on her FB page and everone knows that I think she’s stooooopid.

I asked her if she has consulted Phivolcs or any scientist, the NRRMC…

What’s the scientific basis for this? Do we have emergency tents, mobile kitchens, emergency provisions for evacuation centers so that we don’t have to rely on civil society donations? Will there be building inspections and retrofitting of public buildings while classes are suspended?

And there I had arguments with narrow-minded individuals who do not understand that we already lost 30 days of schooling.

And that the way this announcement was framed was very alarmist. Very ex-ABS-CBN reporter of her.

Then I got bashed for allegedly not watching her stupid “anchoring” of her own announcement. She must have fulfilled her dream of being a news anchor. 🙄 And I said:

Yes, (name of the basher) I watched it and she said her basis of her decision are the comments of the parents on social media. She said she consulted the map of West Valley Fault, but she never said she consulted Phivolcs. We cannot predict earthquakes so we cannot have class suspensions ad infinitum. She never mentioned contingency plans, no mobile kitchens, tents, mobilization of emergency response teams—concrete plans. Pasig has Go bags, mobile kitchens and concrete plans. Governance shouldn’t just be reactionary. Vico (Sotto) just doesn’t suspend classes without consulting scientists at PAGASA and Phivolcs.

But of course, the bashing became ad hominem. So I said:

It’s not wrong to expect ng highest level of governance. I shouldn’t have debt of gratitude because that’s her job, she is receiving her salary from us citzens. The argument here is not whether there shouldn’t be classes or not, it’s the kind of governance that I’m questioning.

And I really can’t contain myself, because we came from the same college and we have the same base science courses (albeit I have more advanced ones because I was in SciComm) but here she comes with a very uneducated decision, just pandered to public opinion and fanned the fears of parents to gain attention through emotional manipulation. VERY, VERY TV culture.

I said:

When you lay down rational and logical arguments, they would slap you with ad hominem like, “If you are so perfect, why don’t you run for office?!” If you ask for accountability, they will throw you, “Ok, then you go transfer to xxx!”

This is the reason why we are not progressing as a nation, our standards are so low, from education to kind of government officials. And no matter how hard you try to lift it from the mud, you will be just down again and be the one shoved on it.

And you say you want change?

Our governor was a reporter at ABS-CBN. Being a student of media studies and as a practitioner myself, I know the culture and values that TV broadcasting has inculcated into shallow people like her.

And I said on my own wall:

Our local government units and DILG just value optics.

It’s so hard when education, health, and other social services are hostaged by politics.

The trouble is, we Filipinos value optics. We were raised by mass media as kingmaker.

Read PCIJ’s ooooold books, especially From Loren to Marimar. I will slap the governor’s and the DILG secretary’s faces with copies of these.

Maybe our college library didn’t have a copy of this that’s why our governor wasn’t able to read it?

P.S. (name of my bff who’s a faculty at our college) tell your student this is the answer to his question, the book Investigating Local Governments

The PS part, it was a reference to my lecture in my bff’s class a week ago. One student asked me how to go about public relations officers of the municipal government who slam the door on student journalists. I told him, if you can’t get to the supposedly primary source, then kill them with data. Know the other routes inside the LGU by talking to other people. Know the different functions and offices of your government, and one of those doors will be an access point.

The pull of academe is strong again.  But I don’t have time.

However, if I go back to part-time teaching, maybe all my frustrations with my work, especially that manager from the land of bubble gum pop, will be counterbalanced by imparting wisdom on the next generation of communicators?