OK, I will be getting my car on Thursday because I need it to drive to the concert venue on Friday (at SM MOA Arena in Pasay) as my best friend and the girls will be watching that Kpop concert while I wait for them in some coffee shop. But I would have to return the car on August 4 for the finishing touches on my car.
I should be returning it on the 31st but I received an email from my undergrad college that I am being invited to be their keynote speaker for their Testimonial and Recognition Rites a.k.a. College-wide rites on 3 August. Therefore I need my car.
Photo by Philippine Star
I was floored.
Hello…only famous people get invited to be keynote speakers in UP graduation rites.
I’m not famous. I don’t have anything of significance. I don’t know…
Anyway, it is an honor to speak before them. I’m scared at the same time.
I drafted my speech and sent copies to my mom, my best friend, and the chair of the graduate school who is also my sister in my Greek-letter organization in college. Both my sis and my bff said my speech is strongly worded. My mom already wanted it to share to other people. I told my mom, hold your horses, just share it after my actual speech since it will still evolve.
It will be live streamed. I wonder how this will fare as whatever I will say will ruffle some feathers. Many feathers.
I sent a message to my car guy to ask when can I go and pick up my car. He hasn’t replied yet. And it’s not a good sign.
Meanwhile, I’m so mentally exhausted today after spending hours trying to come across as intelligent and knowledgeable about the industries of my interviewees. Good thing I seemed to have passed and the discussions were good; I was able to extract enough for a 1,000-word article for each interview today.
I’m also struggling to finish an article, which was based on an interview by my newest reporter. From the transcript, it shows that she had trouble pivoting or taking control of the interview. The interviewee refused to budge and does not answer the questions directly or is beating around the bush. This reporter sent an SOS to help her write the story. Now that I’m deep into it, it took me a while to figure out how to structure the story. Interviewing difficult people requires great skill and unfortunately I wasn’t there to help my reporter go around the interviewee to grill him more.
You see, being a journalist involves a lot of mind games and interviews are like a football game. You need to always have the ball in your control and you call the shots, which information you need or don’t need. If they give you more motherhood statements than real information, flip the court and have the ball back under your feet. You juggle the ball around your interviewee until you get what you need and move to strike a goal.
The sooner reporters know about how cerebral this work is, the better they are in interviewing/data gathering.
However, there are instances that you just have to walk away because talking to a stonewalling interviewee is more trouble than his company/story is worth. Know when to walk away.
Because this day has left me mentally drained, I am just going to indulge in brainless activity—watching Youtube videos of creative people.
Expect more market routs from hereon. Hello my portfolio…are you still ok? My paper losses have been mounting.
“The odds of a recession have gone up, but the markets have not fully priced in the recession case yet,” Ms. Hoxha said. “Not only is the Fed having to correct being too dovish last year, it has to unwind its balance sheet” by selling the bonds and other securities it bought to support the economy and markets.
These idiots on WallStreet are in denial. People on Main Street have been hurting a lot with the increase in basic goods and services–that is already an indication that the economy is spiraling down since people are no longer willing to shell out more money and are now focused on just buying the basic stuff–if they have the cash to buy in the first place.
People have yet to price in this double whammy that China may fall due to mortgage-fueled credit crunch. Many China-funded projects abroad have stalled and expansion plans have been shelved.
Large banks in China are in trouble as well. They have lent tens of billions to poor countries as part of China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative. A significant portion of their credit portfolio is likely to become nonperforming as their borrowers are unable to service the debt due to the global economic downturn.
The most recent economic implosion and the collapse of the government of Sri Lanka will likely force their Chinese lenders to write off a large portion of the loans. If big Chinese banks themselves face rising nonperforming loans abroad, they will be less able to help bail out insolvent small or medium-sized banks at home.
Locally, the likes of Dennis Uy of Undenna had depended too much on China backing that none of his new companies/ventures took off. He had to sell his huge assets/liabilities to Enrique Razon, including his stake in the Malampaya gas fields. As for infrastructure projects that the Duterte admin had been depending on like the Southrail project, it’s already dead as China rejected the proposal to finance it. Now the government under Marcos Jr is scrambling where/how to procure financing for this.
Stupid.
It’s no longer a question of whether the world will go into a recession. It’s a question of how deep is it going to be and how long will it take before we can bounce back.
Meanwhile, another catfisher is on to me again on IG today. My daughters and I were reverse-searching the photos that we are sure 100% stolen. Again from another Thai guy (THEY’RE EVEN NOT CUTE, just ordinary). There seems to be a trend: At first the ones that were bothering me were Caucasian guys who I keep on blocking. Then Chinese guys–blocked. Then for the entire year last year until early this year, almost all are Koreans. Blocked. Now Thais. Blocked. But I wanted to play a revenge game with them, but my daughters said, Mommy, don’t bother. It may just backfire on you. Ok, my daughters have more sense than me. Blocked.
Do I look desperate??? Geez. I just wanted to show the world, especially my stupid exes, that I am well and they’re not a loss, hence, my decent photo. Maybe I should just change my photo into that of my cats.
I would have wanted to drive somewhere today but I couldn’t. I still don’t have a car.
My brain is not functioning today—you know it’s like a deflated balloon right now after the Adrenalin rush of yesterday. Imagine, I did not allow myself to cry yesterday and absorb the fact that I lost 300k because I needed presence of mind. I needed to engage with the scammer/s while I am working with the authorities. Whatever info I extracted from the criminals, I passed on to authorities.
After my Nancy Drew-esque adventure, I disengaged, as advised by the lawyer of the anti-fraud team because my identity will be stolen if I lingered long enough. The case is now with the investigators. I already gave him the ID of the point person from the syndicate that they can engage with so they can do a sting operation.
After I recovered my funds, I slept for 9 hours. All the stresses of the previous day were released today and my brain is barely functioning now.
My friend from the media relations of AEV said she was in awe of my presence of mind and guts. I said, maybe because I am a reporter so I’m used to masking stress and can still function under duress (I received a lot of threats from the scammer’s side when I refused to do what they wanted to me to do).
This is an organized crime syndicate. I did a lot of research and discovered the same modus operandi had been going on since 2019 or probably earlier. I passed on my research to the anti-fraud teams and the NBI; I think they need Interpol for this one. As my friend-colleague told me, they have scam farms (akin to boiler rooms) in Southeast Asia, scamming people from China to Venezeula. I’m not entirely sure if these boiler rooms do the same phising as what was done to me (and at some point my mom, but then my mom has an excuse that she is not internet savvy while I don’t; i blame my lack of sleep).
Image from Mothership.sg
It’s like being on the investigative journalism circuit again, doing covert info gathering. After being fueled by Adrednalin for 24 hours (forgetting to eat and sleep), my body gave up and gave in to exhaustion.
I’ve been pretending to edit a story from Vietnam the whole day today but I haven’t progressed to the fourth paragraph.
The best I could do today was to clean my keyboard, which was full of cat hair.
Cleaning my mechanical keyboard that has brown switches. Photo by CallMeCreation.comCat hair and dust bunnies from my keyboard. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I can’t complain. After the extreme stress I went through yesterday, maybe I deserve this break. Besides, Southeast Asia is dead today because of Eid al-adha.
And oh, I thank God that I also have the foresight to keep majority of my funds in trust accounts that cannot be withdrawn that easily as these require a visit to the bank branch. I also have split my ready-to-use funds into different bank accounts. Aside from *** (where I have like 6 accounts), I have *** and ***. I now have *** and ***, which I’m testing as a financial reporter for future reference. In case of fuck ups like this, I still have funds I could use.
This story from The New York Times struck a chord somewhere, not because I have a similar story, but because the pain indirectly expressed here is universal. Pain just comes in different degrees and forms.
“What is true? The note I wrote on a slip of paper and put in the drawer of my bedside table after we broke it off that final time: ‘Long after you are gone, my stones will hold your warmth.'”
Awww, journalists are really masochists. Why is she doing this to herself?
Nope, don’t try to answer. I already answered my own question.
Some literal positive news today
And I really love how people are responding to this. 😂
St Peter Memorial 😂
These past few weeks were very challenging for Philippine media, with the revocation of Rappler’s registration statement at the SEC, the red tagging of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines and Bulatlat.com (where my first investigative piece about juvenile justice was published). This Marcos administration 2.0 is hell-bent on shutting free media down.
Anything that publishes the truth is being persecuted by this government.
My fellow journalists are now having drinks in Cubao X and as much as I want to join them, I can’t because 1) I don’t have a car; 2) I feel like staying in bed more; and 3) my doctor hasn’t given me the clearance to have alcohol. The last time I was with them, I had to exercise great self-control because beer was free-flowing and Johnnie Walker was table-hopping.
I just sent them a bottle of wine via Grab as a goodwill gesture and in solidarity. We all had tough weeks. Will probably join them next time.
Printed exercise sheets for Twin I. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
My kids have atrocious handwriting that was not corrected in school because they had been at home for 2 years. I was too busy to pay attention to their handwriting and I didn’t know how to help them. My mother and their dad have bad handwriting so I thought it could be just that.
However, it was already Twin I who asked me for help so I had to sit up and pay attention. I remember when I was in third and fourth grade we had handwriting classes where we were taught cursive handwriting. We had writing exercises in which we shadowed the handwriting of our teacher or what was in our exercise book. So I downloaded some exercise sheets for my daughter to practice on. Hopefully this would help.
I had tried to imitate the neat handwriting of some of my artistic classmates but eventually I developed my own form/style. My father had beautiful handwriting, so did my older sister and brother. My brother’s handwriting is similar to my father’s.
I could say my handwriting is ok and oftentimes my notes are neat, even when I’m doing interviews or listening to conferences/seminars/lectures. I remember my high school and college classmates borrowing my notes because 1) they’re comprehensive; and 2) they’re neat. This skill helped me now in my note-taking as a reporter, especially when there are disputes with those complaining about my reportage. My editors in London or HK ask me to send my notes to them for defense. If my notes are unintelligible, I would have a bigger problem. So I have kept all my reporter’s notebooks from 15 years ago as they stand in court, in case someone sues me. That’s the power of good note-taking—and alongside that is good handwriting.
So I need to train my children how to take notes and improve their handwriting.
Meanwhile, my other children…
Sushi lounging on my bed while I’m working my ass off. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
So far they haven’t destroyed anything this week and last week. But they chewed on Twin I’s school exercise lying around so that’s her fault for being untidy. 🙄
Oh yeah, I have to trim their claws and give them a bath. And shop for supplies again. Ah, the things you do for your pets. 😶
My post about Radiowealth had really gone viral. 7k likes and 5.6k shares. My neighbor sent me a screenshot of my post that has been passed around in Ateneo. One of my sources also sent me a screenshot of it that is being passed around in his Rotary Club.
Of course, the BBM camp is not remiss in their duty in bashing me. So I posted this today, translated in English:
BBM people have been sharing my post about Radiowealth and attacking it, saying the site I shared (blogspot has no SSL certificate etc). The main questions remain, is it true that Marcos grabbed businesses he, his family and his cronies benefited from it? Is it true that we began to sink with the debts we incurred because of his graft and corruption? There was a BBM supporter who sent me a private FB message disputing my statements, that the closure of Radiowealth was not politically motivated but it was about the radioactivity posed by the TVs. I had watched on our Radiowealth TV for long hours and until now I’m still alive. I haven’t transformed into an X-men. There were so many requesting FB friendship but NO, I don’t care about them. I’ve had so much experience with internet trolls. I just delete and delete friend requests and PMs. For fact-checking purposes here are links:
There was one fact checker from Tsek.ph (group of volunteer Philippine journalists) who messaged me on Twitter and said they went through my post and marked it True. I wanted him and the world to know that I am a journalist and I do my research well. I don’t make claims lightly. Plus, I clearly remember interviewing one lolo who mentioned this to me, it was also discussed in one of my broadcasting classes, plus my father told me about this. <<< well this last one doesn’t count as an empirical evidence but this was the one that prompted me to research about Radiowealth.
As I said before, media literacy must be taught in elementary and high school so people can be taught critical thinking and not just be brainless consumers of mass media information. It’s my advocacy. However, it’s hard now that I’m no longer in the academe. The lectures and media trainings have stopped during the lockdowns and that TV interview I had earlier this month was one of the few I did in the last two years.
I have a feeling I will have my other foot back again in academe soon…🤔
Duterte and his administration are really afraid of women. For all his misogynistic attitude towards women, deep down he is really scared of us. Look at those who rose up against him: VP Leni Robredo, Sen. Leila de Lima (jailed), Hidilyn Diaz (harassed by government), and Maria Ressa, Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
He loves to harass and belittle female journalists. It is a scary time to be a journalist in this country. We had been a hotspot for journalist killings for years now (we were the most dangerous place for a journalist next to Iraq for quite some time now) but it has heightened during the reign of Duterte. I am glad I no longer have to report national news and suffer through his Q&A, press conferences with Harry Roque, or even monitor Duterte’s late night ramblings.
“Many Philippine presidents have attacked the press, but only Rodrigo Duterte, of all the presidents, have publicly subscribed to the idea that journalists are fair game for murder,” Varona says.
Because of the dangers we are facing with Duterte’s rise to power, some veterans in the industry like Howie Severino, Glenda Gloria, and Sheila Coronel, called us to a meeting in a secluded restaurant in Quezon City just to talk about forming a guild so that we can protect ourselves and fight back. Sadly, nothing happened after that initial meeting because we were just too damn busy trying to survive our day-to-day work of churning out stories. This was the week I got brutally attacked by government-backed online trolls that even harassed my office in Hong Kong.
I had issues with Maria Ressa and I won’t list them down here and those who had been in the industry long enough know what those are. But I admire her grit and determination to fight this tyrant single-handedly. I had marched alongside them wearing black when they had the march for press freedom in UP.
Since day one of becoming a journalist–since I co-wrote that series on juvenile justice–I knew that every time I publish a story, I have one foot on my grave. I had been threatened with lawsuits before and I had been scared but I pushed on. Being a journalist during the time of Duterte, even if you are not covering him, is a doubly dangerous job. I was told that a powerful government official does not like me because I am vocal about my anti-Duterte stance. And he scolded me and lost his cool on national TV when I was hosting a forum where he was a guest. I was asking a fair question that everyone needed to ask. It was scary but I had to keep my composure. I was told he and other officials boycotted the forum the following year because of me.
I had friends in Reuters publicly lynched by the mob, having their IDs, photos and personal information posted on the Internet, with trolls encouraging the public to inflict physical harm on them and their families. (Upon investigation by some of my other journo friends, my Reuters friends’ personal information was leaked from their records with the National Bureau of Investigation–information that they got whenever we needed clearance to apply for visas or passports). In a country where life is very cheap (you can have somebody killed for only PHP 5,000), those are not empty threats. Their employer had to take them and their families to safehouses until the storm died down. I was so distraught that time that I had to take a break from the Philippines and went to a place where no one spoke English–Taiwan–and took a breather to collect myself for a week. I just didn’t want news from the Philippines and I just had to be away immediately.
But Maria Ressa had to endure conviction, harassment, bankruptcy, and daily mental torture and yet she plodded on. She had to wear bullet-proof vests whenever she goes out. Because it’s no secret Duterte wants her dead.
This administration has demonized us. It’s in every dictator’s playbook–demonize every journalist and create your own propaganda machine and feed your shit to the public that has lost trust on the media. Now you all have this revisionism going on and conspiracy theories that make the maleducated poor believe the lies.
Journalists in South America face drug cartels and the corrupt government officials in cahoots with them, we in Southeast Asia battle despots like Duterte and the Marcoses. Journalists in Russia, China (in HK, that is), and the Philippines face the same thing.
My daughter expressed her interest in becoming a journalist. I told her, anak, you can become whatever you want but I hope you don’t follow my footsteps. You will be penniless and you will get killed.
I had watched on our Radiowealth TV for long hours and until now I’m still alive. I haven’t transformed into an X-men. There were so many requesting FB friendship but NO, I don’t care about them. I’ve had so much experience with internet trolls. I just delete and delete friend requests and PMs. For fact-checking purposes here are links: