I was chatting with a friend about what to bring on Sunday. I thought about effigies to burn. But then it’s hard to make effigies. 💀

Then I thought about the new symbol of protest: The One Piece flag.

However, it’s too late to order now from Shopee or Lazada.

All UP units will be staging their own walkouts starting today. Maybe I will join the one on Friday.

This, my friends, is how big media can fuck journalists over.

@everythingmediaph

FILIPINO LOST MEDIA: Bernadette Sembrano Saksi Walkout #filipino #lostmedia #mystery #gmanetwork #probe #bernadettesembrano #nostalgia

♬ original sound – everythingmediaph – everythingmediaph

GMA censored Probe Team’s investigative report on Ephraim Genuino’s corruption at Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. Two decades later, Probe was proven right because Genuino is now convicted but GMA is still…

Probe could not have been careless by airing an alleged libelous story, which was GMA’s excuse then. Probe was founded and headed by Cheche Lazaro—one of the best broadcasters, trainors, and teachers this country has produced. She lectured in my ethics class in grad school and one session with her is already equivalent to an entire semester spent in that class. She knew her stuff. The Probe Team story would have been airtight. If I were in Bernadette Sembrano’s shoes, I would have also walked out of that studio after when Arnold Clavio read the official statement of GMA for doing what they did.

Even if your integrity as a journo is intact, your network can screw you over.

Idiot local govt of ours cancelled classes on Monday even though the sun shone. I highly doubted if our town mayor consulted PDRRMC or PAGASA.

Then provincial govt tonight cancelled classes tomorrow in preparation for oncoming Typhoon Mirasol. Ok, this one is warranted since our fucking flood control projects are nowhere to be found due to corruption, so ordinary thunderstorms could already cause massive flooding.

Fuck those politicians. Fuck those contractors.

I will be joining the protest rally on the 21st at Luneta, to commemorate the anniversary of Martial Law/PD 1081 and all those who died fighting the Marcoses, and to protest against the massive corruption in government. Filipinos are following the Indonesian and Nepalese examples. It may turn violent so I’m thinking twice about bringing my girls with me.

I learned from other journos that the Luneta contingent will meet up with the Edsa contingent and the rally will terminate at the Edsa Shrine. I’m thinking that instead of booking a hotel along Manila Bay, I will just book a hotel in Ortigas, leave my car and stuff there and just take the MRT and LRT to Luneta.

I might also pitch a story to one of the friendly newspapers. As I told Kr, I missed covering and writing stories about events like this. The last time we had this kind of mass protest was in 2013, at the height of the pork barrel scam. I was part of the special investigative team of our network, writing series of stories about the web of deceit and corruption involving many senators and congressmen. I spent evenings meeting with witnesses and lawyers, digging through documents, attending court hearings…

And when we had the Million People March, my editor told me to hold the fort/desk and catch/help edit the stories from the field because most of my colleagues were out there. This is the reason why I wasn’t able to cover this event on the ground. I can’t remember if my EIC gave me that order because she cannot put me in danger since my twins were only 2 years old at that time. Or maybe she was giving me a break. 🤔

Then I joined series of anti-Duterte rallies in 2016 and the following years. I was there at Edsa Shrine when people protested against the Supreme Court decision to allow the burial of Ferdinand Marcos Sr at the Libingan ng mga Bayani (Heroes’ Cemetery). The evening of the SC decision, we learned that Marcos’ body was secretly buried at the Libingan because they knew many Filipinos will bar the entry of any Marcos on hallowed grounds.

Now I’m itching to throw eggs at politicians or light up a fire at the Senate building. 💀

For some reason, I slept very well last night. I didn’t wake up at 5am, as usual, but rather 7+ am.

I just wanted to savor the cosiness of being at home, without any agenda.

This is what weekends are for.

(ALMOST) BUDOL 1:

After attending a boring press conference and interviewing a Japanese company president, I went straight to SM Mall of Asia to meet my sister in law who wanted to check out the Manila International Book Fair (MIBF) at SMX.

While waiting for her, I tried to have my old Lenovo laptop that I handed down to Twin I repaired at some random shop at SM Cyberzone. Its battery (even if I just had it replaced) was shot and some keys on the keyboard were not functioning. I was quoted at least PHP 7k for it. It’s about 3.5k for the battery that must fetched from their warehouse, 3k – 3.5k for the keyboard, and 1.5k for the reinstallation of Win 11 because the guy said it needs a fresh install since the OS is a upgrade from Win 10. He also said that he needs to check if the hard drive needs replacing because it’s booting up really slowly.

Right there — that part about replacing the hard drive made me think twice about this guy. First off, the HD is SSD and it’s not like the old HDD technology with spinning disk, which tends to slow down as it ages.

I said it’s too much, might as well buy my daughter a tablet that can be a laptop substitute (kinda like my Samsung Tab S8.

I checked out Samsung, Honor, and Lenovo tablets and they were all viable alternatives. But my girl decided against buying a tablet because “it’s too much money” and said she’ll ask her dad for a hand-me-down laptop.

Knowing that their dad is kinda slow when it comes to such things, I decided to do the repairs myself.

I took out the battery and did a fresh reinstallation of Win 11. The guy at the repair shop was BS. I was able to reinstall without reverting to Win 10. I’m currently waiting for the updates to finish and see if the laptop still lags. If not, I will install the latest Ubuntu on this thing.

I just checked Lazada and Shopee, the replacement battery is only 1k while the keyboard is less than 1k.

BUDOL 2:

I parked at Ikea parking area, so to cross to SMX, I must use the bridgeway at the second level. That meant that I would land at the second level of MIBF, where most of the stationery vendors were.

And that’s where the budol began and ended.

I bought all those pens and markers and all other art materials that I could haul.

I’ve already spent so much money and I haven’t even gone down to the ground floor where all the major publishers were. 🫠

I just stayed at home yesterday and was still surprisingly productive. I just got tired from all that driving plus it was raining. Better reserve my energy for Thursday and Friday…

So here I am, back in the city. I spent 15 mins looking for parking space 🤦🏻‍♀️. Good thing that the forum I covered this morning started late.

After drafting my 3rd story for the week, I dumped my laptop in my car and window-shopped in Glorietta.

I wasn’t looking for anything in particular; I was just waiting for traffic to ease up.

I will not be tempted by Nitori. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope.

But I somehow ended up here.

Nope. Nope. Nope. I need to sock away money because the US is headed (if not already in) for a recession. Yield curves are getting steeper while growth is tanking. Tough times ahead for the rest of the world.

I decided to book a hotel because I don’t want to wake up at 5 am just to be at a presscon in Makati at 9 am on a Friday. 🫠

I’ll take it easy tomorrow.

USD 160 (PHP 9,000+) for a tube of beeswax and coloring?! Come on, LVMH, you gotta be kidding me!

I have a million lip products in my bags and drawers and there are only a few times that I managed to finish a tube (shout out to Happy Skin!) and those things cost less than USD 20. I already grumble if a lipstick costs me USD 20.

Pat McGrath, NARS, Urban Decay or Clinique don’t even cost USD 40 per tube and they’re some of the nicer ones in the market. Just because you have Louis Vuitton stamped on the tube, you already have the audacity to charge USD 160 for that?!

Ah but this is the brand that makes Neverfull in China and charges USD 3000 for it. It’s not even made of leather—stamped canvas for thousands of USD.

I literally rub elbows with the richest people in this country (can’t avoid it if I regularly do ambush interviews with them) and I casually check out their accessories because I’m nosey like that. I seldom or never see them toting LV-stamped bags. They may be carrying inconspicuous brands like Loro Piana, Berluti, or Moynat so that’s why I couldn’t decipher them.

Or they’re more practical people than those who buy screaming logos.