This does not merit any column inch. The swaying of his helicopter and “near-death” experience is obviously a pre-campaign propaganda. It has been done by presidential aspirants through the years. So sue me! I had been in media for too long to know a skunk when I smell one. The TV5 news desk can argue that the order to publish this kind of inane news item came from the principals because the franchise of Maynilad Water Services (a sister company) has already been granted by Congress so they need to put grease on it to make sure everything runs smooth.
The political economy of media at play. Or the desk is just stupid (as sometimes is the case).
This. This is the type of news that we should not let go of. Eyes on the ball, people!
Meanwhile, I count myself lucky that we could still eat well despite the widespread hardships across the globe. Sometimes I feel guilty. That’s why I do my best to help and teach my children the same. I have yet to send the packs of powdered milk I bought to the orphanage in Manila. Because the capacity to collect donations by the nuns has been diminished by this pandemic. They’re taking care of abandoned elderly and orphans.
To alleviate the anxiety and anger building within me, my daughters and I had a cheeseboard. But I don’t have the actual cheeseboard, just the cheese and charcuterie. And Italian red wine. Because it’s Monday. And it sucks normally.
And there are food items that should be treated with respect. Like this steak. I didn’t have the heart to grill this on the gas-fired grill last weekend. I had to use the charcoal grill because I want the smokiness. My daughter, Twin I, and I made mashed potatoes from scratch to go with the steak.
Photo by CallMeCreation.com
My emotions are running high. Anger, anxiety, pain, what-have-you. I no longer know. I’m just limited to Twitter; I cannot write what I want to write to expose all that is wrong with the world right now. I no longer have a platform.
But then, that’s the reason why I walked away from local media in the first place. Because I cared too much that it drained me. I think this internal conflict will stay with me until I fade away.
Delta is just getting started. Then here comes Lambda, which researchers say is more worrisome as this seems to be more resistant to existing vaccines right now. The DOH today announced that it’s finally here and the fact that the UP-Philippine Genome Center’s tests are late, that variant could be anywhere now attacking everyone. Even Israel, the most vaccinated country in the world, has acknowledged that their preferred vaccines, BioNT/Pfizer could not hold up against Delta so now they’re having people vaccinated with boosters. How can we even face off Delta and Lambda with Sinovac when most of us only had that choice? Then people are not even rallying, crying foul over the PHP 67bn “lost” by DOH. Most of the vaccines that we have here are donated; we could still not account for the loans that were supposed to buy vaccines.
Everything is so messed up right now.
Last year, I was exaggerating to friends and co-workers that I will only be able to go back to our office in Singapore in 2023. It seems like it’s coming true. I don’t see any ending to this yet.
My kids, meanwhile, are so bored out of their skulls and I can’t blame them for trying out new stunts. The books I ordered from Big Bad Wolf are still stuck at Customs, while the Nancy Drew book I just bought from Carousell would still have to be shipped.
So here’s my daughter, Twin I, sleeping a la Harry Potter in that “secret reading room” (a big closet that seems to have no real purpose). Just because.
Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I’m suffering from abdominal cramps and body aches because of my period but I had to get out of the house because we ran out of vegetables. I was half-afraid that I wouldn’t be allowed to go inside UP to buy from the vegetable stall inside the campus. Good thing I was wrong. Being able to get inside the campus and being around trees felt good.
Then I went to buy tea for me and the girls near Bahay ng Alumni, as a treat for being able to go out after 10 days.
Photo by CallMeCreation.com
And since I was already up and about, I took the opportunity to have my car washed after weeks, if not months, of letting it get dirty because it was raining non-stop.
Photo by CallMeCreation.com
If the lockdown is lifted by the time I am on leave from work, then I need to attend to the under chassis again and have it checked (just for safety, 16-year-old cars have a looooootttt of wear-and-tear issues). Then have its aircon cleaned. Gee, it sounds exactly like what I did last year when I went on leave, the same month.
Elections
I would also have to reactivate my voter’s ID with the Commission on Elections (Comelec) during my leave because I have skipped several elections as I was working on election days. I probably got delisted.
But this is one election where every single vote would count so I would exert extra effort. Gotta vote out Duterte and his minions.
Speaking of elections, I was invited by the chair of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) to join them at their headquarters on election week. Well, she volunteered me to join them (LOL!). That’s why I have to move my voting precinct from my hometown to QC so it would be feasible for me. PPCRV and the National Citizens Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) have worked with Comelec in the past as the citizen’s arm–as watchdogs–every elections. However, the two of them have become toothless last elections because–I don’t know… They get drowned out by the DDS on social media. I don’t know what happened there–no protests or batting of eyelash when the 7-hour glitch happened that allowed the nincompoop senators to enter the magic 12 and none from the opposition got a place.
Anyway, I had always volunteered for the PPCRV ever since I was legally allowed to vote. I remember then that it was PPCRV-Namfrel, but then somewhere along the way the two groups had a falling out.
Anyway, it was just PPCRV that was left working with the Catholic Church. Why was I working with the Catholic Church? Well our house is literally spitting distance from our parish. It was convenient. On election day, I would be assigned to one remote precinct to oversee the literal counting of votes because I had a car and I can drive. I had with me a physical spreadsheet to record the votes and sent the numbers via text messages (analog phones, yes) to the command center, usually at the parish office next to our house and that’s where my mom was stationed. She usually also volunteered for PPCRV (both of us were given PPCRV shirts to wear on election day so that Comelec officials would allow us to witness vote counting). These are then recorded in the lone computer at the center and then the data are sent to the national command center in Metro Manila. If I remember it right, they had at one time stationed themselves at La Salle Greenhills. Yes, this was pre-automation, when every ballot box could physically be stolen. In rural areas, there were many instances of politicians’ private armies stealing the ballot boxes or ambushing the vehicles that were carrying the ballot boxes to the Comelec center of a province.
I wasn’t able to volunteer during the 2016 presidential elections because I was already working for my current company, which doesn’t care for our national elections, so it was supposed to be business as usual for me. Ditto during the 2019 elections, plus I couldn’t leave J stranded at home so that is that.
Now let’s see how next year’s elections would be. Myla told me I would be stationed at the national HQ because she needs journalists there. Or so her pitch to me was that. I can’t remember now what she said.
Come to think of it, I had always volunteered for so many causes that I don’t remember how I am able to accomplish other things. I’m all over the place.
When I was still teaching in UP, I always introduce my students to the concept of political economy of media in real world settings. Not the kind that you read in textbooks or essays of academics. I tell them how the day-to-day decisions in the newsroom are affected by this. It’s about what story gets killed because the newspaper/TV network’s sacred cows would be offended. Or a real estate company would threaten the advertising department with an ad pullout if the article written by a supposedly independent-minded journalist is slanted differently. You have your ideals as a reporter and an editor but then the powers that be have a different view. As my ex-boss said before, it’s an everyday battle. You keep pushing the envelope; testing how far your sense of justice and fairness can get you.
The Philippine Daily Inquirer was the first newspaper I wrote for. I had been writing for them when I was still in college, which spilled over to my first few months as a fresh grad research assistant. It was born when the country was about to mount an uprising against dictator Ferdinand Marcos. It was founded by Eugenia “Eggie” Apostol, who led Mr and Ms, an innocent-looking magazine that contained anti-dictatorship articles, subversive stories that people like my parents were consuming like mad during the time all media outfits not under Marcos’ thumb are shut down (we had mountains of those magazines at the back of our house, together with Malaya).
It was a newspaper that defied the government when it was wrong. It fought for what was right. It was THE newspaper after Manila Times never recovered its footing after Chino Roces got imprisoned by Marcos and had to sell his newspaper. After some years, Eggie Apostol stepped down and Letty Jimenez-Magsanoc took the reins. She was an equally tough lady who faced a threat of closure by Joseph Estrada when his own presidency was threatened after scandal after scandal was uncovered (which led to another revolt against a sitting president). Manila Times under Lisa Gokongwei did not survive the economic pressures from Estrada after my friend wrote that famous “unwitting ninong” article about the insider trading involving BW Resources and the president. Gokongwei had to sell the Times to an Estrada crony.
Inquirer was the first newspaper that stumbled upon one of the biggest corruption stories of the decade, if not decades, which started with a simple kidnapping case filed with the National Bureau of Investigation around 2012-2013. (I also picked up this “pork barrel” scandal and was part of the investigative team for my own news organization that focused on this and our stories competed and complemented the stories produced by the Inquirer). That newspaper was instrumental for sending three senators ALMOST to prison (the courts have overturned whatever progress we had, after Duterte came into power because crooks gotta band together).
Now I feel that the Inquirer is already a puppet newspaper. It has folded under the pressure from some bit players in that pork barrel scam. The pressure though may not just be coming from one Melo del Prado but from some more sinister quarters of Duterte’s world. I don’t know; it normally wouldn’t succumb to such small fry. But then Duterte has already crippled the owners, the Prietos, when he came into power and there was a point that Ramon Ang, the president and CEO of San Miguel Corp, was about to take over the newspaper because financially they couldn’t cope anymore.
And here is Prof. La Vina’s take on the whole thing:
During Aquino’s term, I’ve never heard of anybody being sacked for doing the right thing. Even if one is being critical of government. I also wrote some analysis pieces and spot reports that had been critical of Aquino’s administration but I’ve never felt I was in danger.
This Duterte administration is so insecure, so afraid of a dead man that social media trolls are working doubly hard these days. Mainstream media like GMA is killing its own.
PNoy is a contraction of President Noynoy (Benigno Aquino III) which made life easier for us editors when writing headlines.
I did not vote for him. I didn’t like that he was out of touch with the masses. I was leaning towards Gilbert Teodoro (who is now showing his true ugly color)…
BUT
Maybe he was made to be insensitive (they say he is on the spectrum) so he can have the ability to tune out the criticisms without literally killing the critics. Maybe his being obstinate was good so he would not be as super butt-hurt as this demon in Malacañang now and just go about his business.
I told my colleagues before that he would earn my respect if he is able to pass the Sin Tax Law (decades-old battle vs big tobacco money) despite being a very heavy smoker himself. Because he knew the country needed it.
I’ve written about CODE NGO, pork barrel and that thingamajig which was the same as PDAF (was that DAP?) which traveled all the way to the Supreme Court, criticisms regarding the slow progress of PPPs, and other things to counterbalance the rabid yellow supporters. I muted some of them in my timeline.
His biggest sin in my book is the Corona trial because this became a precedent. Does quo warranto sound familiar to you?
BUT
He had sound economic policies that resulted in: low inflation, 6%-7% GDP growth, low interest rates, etc. I saw T-bills drop to near-zero levels when I occasionally covered Treasury auctions. He did what he needed to do. Our PPP scheme is way better than other systems I see now that I cover infra sector of other markets in SEAsia. We were the darling of investors. From junk status to investment grade. The international community respected him. He did not have the workaholic nature of GMA (who rises early to start working) but he was not corrupt. He prioritized his friends (hello Pagcor!) but his cabinet was sane.
He fought against China and was vindicated in the end. David vs Goliath.
He was “Noynoying” in office but this current president is a lot worse.
He is a lame duck president but he made things work somehow. I did not fear for my life that much when I was doing my job as a journalist. Unlike now.
A lot of poor people who lined up early morning today are heartbroken. Jervis Manahan has been tweeting his conversations with them. This is truly heartbreaking. I was supposed to be there today to give rice packs but I waited until this got cleared up. The organizer of this community pantry called out the police for red-tagging her and the volunteerism that has been rising all around as people responded to the failures of this government. As you know, red-tagging means you can be shot anytime by the police and the military.
I don’t think I cried to my mother when my marriage was failing. But this morning I called up my mother and cried to her and said this is breaking my heart so much. A lot of hungry people out there who are left empty-handed. I told her this is like Marcos’ martial law all over again, when you can be killed by the government anytime. She said this is worse compared to the 1970s; Marcos was not as brazen as the demon in Malacañang right now…This is coming from a former activist who joined the Kabataang Makabayan in her youth.
This government wants to kill the little people.
It’s all concerned about its propaganda. When the propaganda is ruined, the government goes into offensive. This is the foundation of this government–no governance, all propaganda.
#OustDuterte #DutertePalpak
Scars are souvenirs you never lose The past is never far Did you lose yourself somewhere out there? Did you get to be a star? And don’t it make you sad to know that life Is more than who we are?
When sadness envelopes you, you get overwhelmed by all other things such as the things you try hard to suppress. It comes up, gurgling, then explodes like a geyser.
