Why do smart people support vice presidential candidate Leni Robredo and proclaim her as “my VP”? Indeed, it is a mystery. Robredo’s only value-proposition to the Filipino voter is her being a widow and being an overall nice woman. Other than that, there seems to be no other basis to substantiate any conclusion that she would make a better VP than the other candidates. In short, the choice of Robredo as “my VP” is a purely emotional choice. There is no science behind it.
This makes the whole “Data Science” War surrounding the mounting evidence of electoral fraud surrounding this year’s election a bit ironic. A while back, University of the Philippines statistician David Yap and a certain Benjamin Vallejo independently stumbled upon a disturbing pattern in the way election results were reported by the media. The details of those findings are set out in my article, 1.37 million ‘registered voters’ discrepancy observed in Unofficial Results reporting operations!
More whistleblowers were emboldened by these acts of courage and a resulting torrent of evidence of electoral fraud that cast ever darkening shadows of doubt on the integrity of this year’s and previous years’ elections have come to light. Foremost of these is revelations surrounding the unauthorised tampering of election equipment by Marlon Garcia of Smartmatic (supplier of election voting, transmission, and counting systems) in the midst of the count, which dealt a fatal blow to the credibility of the COMELEC.
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Since then, one or the other two-bit “data scientist” and academician has emerged from the woodwork in the Liberal Party camp of Robredo initiating quaint attempts to quash any further inquiry into the soundness of the elections and the way the Philippines’ Commission on Elections have managed. The irony in how these “data scientists” are going about suppressing calls to investigate electoral fraud is in how they now presume to employ “science” to their arguments.
The trouble with these “data scientists” is that they lack the credibility to back their position.
A recent example is the debacle surrounding a statement issued by 100-plus self-styled “data scientists” and “academicians” that was published on the Facebook page of a certain Reinabelle Reyes (refer here for details). Reyes is a self-avowed Leni Robredo supporter who also happens to be an “astrophysicist”. On her Facebook page is an image (at the time of this writing publicly-accessible) of her posed beside a graphic proclaiming “Leni is my VP” (shown below).
Recently too, De La Salle University (DLSU) professor Antonio Contreras (who joined Yap in the push to attract more awareness to electoral fraud) had decided to sue University of the Philippines physics professor Ian Vega for libel following the appearance of slanderous statements against him posted by Vega on Facebook. Like Reyes, Vega is an avowed Robredo supporter and anti-Marcos activist.
This leaves us with a chicken-and-egg question surrounding what is really a blatantly anti-science stand being taken by these two eminent physicists from the Ateneo and UP:
Which came first, the “data science” surrounding their dismissal of fraud allegations, or their Robredo support?
In contrast, Yap, Contreras, and even Anonymous Philippines (who are conducting their own investigations) have categorically stated that their efforts are not motivated by partisan positions. For them the effort is in the spirit of true transparency and scientific inquiry. More interesting, in fact, is how many others have come forward, stated up-front how they are not supporters of Robredo rival Bongbong Marcos, but fully support efforts to reveal the truth about electoral fraud in this year’s elections and those in the past (specifically those in which Smartmatic have been involved in). The mystery deepens. Apparently, academic intelligence does not seem to be a strong contributing factor to the soundness of one’s political choices and positions. Worse, in the wrong combination, such as in the case of these “100+ data scientists and academicians”, a lot of damage to society could be wrought — in terms of irresponsible behaviour fuelled by a beholdenness to one’s own perceived academic superiority.
My theory is that the higher up you go in society, and the further into the circle of “polite” society you immerse yourself in, the less you talk about politics. Thus in the spirit of keeping things “polite”, some of us actually do ourselves and our immediate circles a whole heap of disservice by avoiding real conversations — often ones that necessarily involve impolite talk.
This is a plausible explanation to the mystery of why chi-chi Atenistas and a whole bevy of high-horsed “data scientists” and “astrophysicists” support Leni Robredo. Robredo is the polite choice. For that matter, the Liberal Party, as they’ve in the last couple of years branded themselves around the now-discredited Yellow political persona that characterised the last 30 years, is regarded as the only polite political choice. As such, it is the easy choice for those who are too lazy to think. And, as is evident now, academic intelligence does not make one immune to the strong temptation to succumb to lazy thinking.
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
Well, it’s the same question why smart people support Bong Bong Marcos and his father, and Imelda. Beats the shit out of me 🙂
That’s because they have a second look at these people? That’s because they voted BongBong due to his performance and achievements and not because of his last name?
But accoding to GRP residential commenter Add:
There’s your answer.
We voted for him because he stopped the BBL from happening, he stood on the side of justice in acquitting Corona, we’ve heard nice things about his governorship of Ilocos Norte and because the choice of the intelligentsia, Miriam Defensor Santiago, endorsed and chose him to run as her VP. She claimed that he’s intelligent, just, hardworking and “ready” to be president.
I agree 101%. The reasons you enumerated above were also the same reasons I voted BBM.
Exactly!
we voted for BBM because he is intelligent. We are not pro marcos nor aquino. We vote for public servants who are effective.
Do you want know why Marcos Sr. is ousted? Check flippinflips page on FB and his site: flippinflips.org
Search for toto bee in youtube as well.
Votes made not for someone, but against the other. That’s the way voters think these days.
True. It has always been like that for many people.
People vote for BBM because “Leni is a Yellow puppet and SHOULD NOT TAKE OFFICE.”
People vote for Leni because “BBM is the son of the dictator and SHOULD NOT TAKE OFFICE.”
Of course, some people beg to differ. People voted for BBM and Leni are impressed by their respective portfolios.
It’s probably institutionalized in Ateneo schools (and others) the horrors of martial law, the excesses of the Marcoses. Post EDSA and they’re still stuck to it. It does not matter the goodness of BBM, it does not matter if it is a Marcos being cheated on as long as he does not get in Malacanang. They love their own hence they are blind to (say for example) Mar’s inadequacies.
I was born in 1971. I hated ML/Marcos then. I was in awe of Cory. Fast forward i had to leave the country because i couldn’t stand my poverty. It didn’t get better post EDSA. Don’t blame me if from afar i saw/see who were/are really those who are doing good for the country. I know some of these young “elites, intellectuals” will be enlightened in time. Some may not.
As someone who studied there during grade school, I could not agree more wih your statement. Even in grade school we were taught that this the “darkest time” in philippine history, even “worse” than WWII. They would even further their propaganda by showing us images which are a bit too much to handle for our age.
And yes, talagang sila-sila lang with regards to loving their own kind. Halatang halata sa facebook posts ng mga friends ko na galing sa ateneo that they really have their own little world like making their own memes that are totally irrelevant to the rest of the filipino people.
I second what you said there. After I moved out of Ateneo did I realize that whatever what was taught to them about Marcos seemed quite exaggerated, and neither did they even bother to give the students a good reason why Martial Law happened in the first place, lazily assuming that Marcos has “gone mad with power”.
And yes, I also realized that many of the atenistas live in a bubble, detached from the rest of the Philippines. Not even these so-called “Immersion” program seem to help many them realize the situation of the masses, perhaps due to the fact that the hosts were hosting students from a well-known school and would not simply go on with their lives normally with them around.
Back to the topic at hand, not even intellectuals like me are incapable of making impulsive, emotional decisions. We’re just human, but there are times that emotions will only get in the way of our thinking, especially if the matter is of national level.
Hooo my god! You hit the nail on the head. Kung sino ka man Sir Benigno, kudos to you. There are still few who can think kahit papano at nabubuhayan ako ng loob. Salamat sa iyo at sana ay ipamahagi mo ang iyong kaalaman doon sa mang mang.
Walter Mondale: “You knew Marcos. Was a hero or a crook? How does Suharto compare to Marcos?”
Lee Kuan Yew: “Marcos might have started off as a hero but ended up as a CROOK. Suharto saw himself as a patriot. I will not classify him as a crook.”
So, is Lee Kuan Yew a Yellowtard?
**GRP…nothing but a Marcos-era propaganda machine.
It seems you let your EMOTIONS get the better of you.
hahacienda… nothing but an EMO-inducing angry crybaby mobster.
I would actually say that Leni Robredo is the “Feel-good choice”. But “Polite choice” seems appropriate too 😉
I’d like know how Bong Bong’s academic accomplishments stack up against that of Leni Robredo; and let’s talk of diplomas, transcripts and credits here.. not of certificates of attendandance or plaques for auditing certain exhotic courses in some exclusive foreign institution. This is a serious question.
Well even that one(?) guy in the senate is dumb and stupid.
BBM stated: the election equipment was tampered during the elections. Let us see if it had any effect on the results.
Stupid senator: prove first that there has been cheating otherwise you are on a witch hunt.
What a stoopid argument.
Benign0, Reina Reyes is a renowned astrophysicist prodigy who, in a rappler article years ago, “proved Einstein right”.
I have to agree with your sentiments regarding emotional voting, she herself posted that there are “serious repurcussions to professional reputations” of I’m assuming she’s referring to Yap and contreras but the same statement apply to her as well. All those “100” and all their technical and theoretical arguments based on one assumption, the so-called “baliwick theory” which has been debunked by Contreras.
As to the stupid question above asking why smart people vote for BBM? It’s because we think is is the best qualified candidate for the job based on merit and performance and not based on personality and bias.
Punyeta, leave it to the emo scientists to insult science itself.
These fuckers may know the scientific method word-for-word, but do not apply it. The first step is to always start with a null hypothesis, eg, there is no cheating in the election, and then start blind testing/experimentation from there, trying to flush out a correct hypothesis from consistent results. The output is not expected to be the truth, but merely a theory of what is. what happened with reyes (she is a friend of a friend, and im assuming she’s just another of those kiddos whose perception of history have been yellow-washed, having the same alma matter as she does) is that she took a preconceived hypothesis, and cherry-picked results to support that. It’s called fucking confirmation bias! And that’s not good science. One more thing is that having a doctorate in astrophysics doesnt make you a brilliant data scientist capable of analyzing raw statistical data, no sir. That’s argumentum ad verecundiam at work. Its the same reason why i never go to einstein quotes when i want to make a philospohical point – its not his forte.
Simply put. We vited for Leni just to make BBM run in the corner and Cry.
That was so petty of you. You’re no different than PNoy: personal vendetta.
Stop this angry mobster nonsense, fag.
You and your ilk really think this is just about BBM? Idiots, this is about the credibility of COMELEC and consequentially the Pnoy government.
If I was Leni, I would not take the VP position without clearing all doubts about the election. But knowing how she sold her soul to LP….
the credibility of the comelec (or what’s left of it) has been shot to shit since the data breach.
the pnoy admin, hahaha, waaaaaaaaaaay longer than that.
You always enjoy beating the dead horse do you yellowturd whore?
in democracy we can agree to dis agree but let me check…
first the problem with some is that they bifurcate election as against this group and that group often forgetting that there are a lot that do not follow political parties in grouping. many would say that Marcos is good and even assuming that his father was responsible for many alleged atrocities it would not follow that the sin of the father is the sin of the son, then assuming that the statement is correct then would it not follow that the sin of Pnoy is not the sin of Leni?
in terms of emotional choice, all choices are the product of collective result coming from your ego, experiences, logic, ethics, assumptions and presumptions. there is no such thing as purely emotional choice and purely logical choice. Your choice as well as all other choices are product of cognitive dissonance partly affective by ego perception.
if we follow science then you start with a null hypothesis, if we follow the law then we start with asking where is the proof… attacking the person (ad hominem) is not evidence, Assumptions are not evidence.
Now we come to those who say that in their place the winning candidate is this person and the other was not voted but what is true to you may be false in another place and to follow an idea based solely on your beliefs is a fallacy since every belief is absolute…
if we say that there is electoral fraud then you need to give evidence of electoral fraud (and do not site me those meme and satire sites whose evidence are already discovered as edited and faked)
attacking others is not even a valid argument
There is no NASA in the Philippines. We have never launch any Rocket in space… So, there are no “Astrophysicists”…your education, much more, your higher education does not guarantee you to become smart always.
I know a NASA female astronaut; who drove 14 hours, just to frighten the wife of her lover, with a toy pistol. Her lover is a fellow NASA astronaut. These are highly educated and intelligent people.
Sometimes, money and political patronage, can overrule your ability to make a good decision. Sometimes, your prejudice; your emotions ;your personal attachments. Sometimes your sanity…
Many factors are in play, of why intelligent people, make stupid decisions.
NASA counterparts or launching rockets are not requirements for being an astrophysicist.
Most intelligent comment i read so far.
Why do we defer too often to “smarter” people for reasoning especially outside their actual expertise? They have insight for sure, but hey, just because she/he has the title “astrophysicist” or “atty.” or “MD” or what have you does not mean they consistently apply sound logic in their likelier than not emotional preferences just like everyone else’s.
Pepe Rep,
“Why do we defer too often to “smarter” people for reasoning especially outside their actual expertise?”
It’s because we don’t try to get smarter ourselves. “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.”—Sun Tzu.
Aeta
Very true, Aeta! Too much work for some. I guess the case of people sharing Dr. Reyes’ meme does two things for them: (1) Someone smart resonates with my own feelings for a VP candidate, I feel smart too, and (2) I will be considered smart by my friends too when I share Dr. Reyes’ *feelings* similar to mine. :/
Einstein said ” everybody is a genius, until you judge a fish ability to climb a tree, then all your life you will think that you are stupid”. Smartmatic is designed to cheat regardless its proven or not. In simple terms if you are made to be a Microwave you can’t be use as a toaster.
Dear T,
I love this: “Punyeta, leave it to the emo scientists to insult science itself.”
Appeal to the emotions. Thats what the anti-Marcos people do.
Kahit sino ang manalo, basta ba masigurado na ang nakaraang election ay credible, na walang dayaang nangyari–lalo na kung ang COMELEC mismo o involved ang COMELEC.. sayang nagkaroon ng pagduda sa election.. kung meron man, dapat merong managot; maayos at di na mangyari uli..
I wonder if pinoy scientists or local IT geniuses could connect the hashtag manipulation of Venezuelan Garcia to the over 3 million undervote as of last night 10pm official Comelec canvass.
George Soros’s men are the real geniuses.
Hashes started to “mismatch” at May 9, 2016 7:30pm, and the last hash mismatch at May 10, 2016 7:45 pm
Between these times, all the zip packages published hashes do match the calculated MD5sum. But the containing txt file’s published hash no longer matched the calculated MD5sum
It is easy to tamper these “raw” VCM data then produce a valid MD5 signature. No password/key needed.
They vote stupid, because they grew up while being brain washed with anti Marcos propaganda.
THATS ALL they base their decision on.
Robredo being an overall nice woman?
I doubt that very much! She is a conniving, fake, ambitious bitch.
XWhat is discomforting is noting that some academe people are engrossed heavily with awesome formulas of science that really endowed them with dumbness perhaps?
Lol.
Being busy is a form of laziness – lazy thinking and indiscriminate action. Being busy is most often used as a guise for avoiding the few critically important but uncomfortable actions.
Lazy thinking is not creative or productive.
So what do you do? Stand there like a stiff and don’t think?
No brother. I use critical thinking first and foremost, before I decide. I’m not the kind of person who believes in flattery or giving sunshine-in-your-face approach.
Critical thinking is thinking about your thinking while you’re thinking in order to make your thinking better.
Common sense thinking is enough for me, with regards to who and what I will affect with the decisions I make in my life. The problem with most of us Fliptards is not so much as having the lack of aptitude for critical thinking, but the lack of compassion for our planet, our country, and each other.
Yap and Contreras are both pro-BBM. That came first before their analysis came out. And that probably is the reason why their analysis is emotionally-triggered and flawed.
“In contrast, Yap, Contreras, and even Anonymous Philippines (who are conducting their own investigations) have categorically stated that their efforts are not motivated by partisan positions. For them the effort is in the spirit of true transparency and scientific inquiry.”
i will never forget what ferdinand marcos says to his notes on the new society of the philippines:
its a reality he highlighted that still exists today but times have changed. we do not have any rights. its like yakov smirnov once says:
but in the philippines you dont have the right to express and you are not free of movement. i remember the video when atty gary bonifacio (indirect descendant of gat andres bonifacio) talked about freedom. search his name on youtube and you shall witness on how kuya andres discussed freedom, liberty, social justice by going deeper to the kartilya ng katipunan. i hope the my professor from ateneo roxy roxas-lim (southeast asian studies) will be mad if these so called “intellects” would not know the kartilya, a stepping stone to nobility, honor, respect.
it rings a bell when daniel radcliffe acted as harry potter says:
just like bongbong on martial law and apo lakay:
but the situation is this, our history has been manipulated, controlled, written by people who were riding this elitist bandwagon favoring the satanhood of cory by demonizing marcos. this was according to some ateneo history professors. the fight against marcosian lies and imeldific illusions. wow marcosian and imeldific. but at what narrative this lying by demonizing and whitewashing by brainwashing children 24/7 costs? as long as the poor has no cash, they shall use such tools to demonize someone and venerate their saint.
to give you a good look here at my narrative, i would like to share a view by a jesuit priest named john n schummacher. he expressed a point where this kind of mentality or attitude towards true nationalists being demonized and those who were pacified or whose views are not so nationalistic shall be venerated. he said:
remember mabini and tandang sora when they were dumped to guam? exile or asylum or containment?
schummacher himself judged marcos in a rizalian point of view where his new society applied teachings of rizal by being benevolent to change the course of filipino lives. (read rebellion of the poor on the notes on the new society of the philippines)
this somewhat recalls when teddy boy locsin jr. talks about marcos compared to napoleon. he quoted:
you know if i have a blog, i can tell you this “reset” button fundamentals and solution or comment and i shall discuss you this on how a “reset” button works.
but teddy boy supports leni despite he viewed marcos with justice.
the only problem here is pride. we need to swallow our pride. we cannot accept the reality that marcos contributed a lot to our living like watching cinemalaya films on ccp, riding the lrt to moa, driving in nlex or slex, having a forum on picc, benefiting from power made by angat dam or watching these “intellects” children in martial law days eating nutribun until they gamble in solaire or city of dreams standing beneath a reclaimed area build by marcos.
its still pride that powers them that they dont want to accept anything that is from marcos traced by this crab mentality of ours. they cannot accept the fact that they benefited from marcos. its not utang na loob but its a matter on how shall history be viewed by two sides. after all history must be viewed not only on the winning side but also on the losing side. but the problem here is, we blame the sins of the father to the son. thats also a reason why we dont have a strong juvenile justice system in our country. the parents must be blamed if the child made mistakes, the sin of the father will be passed on to the son. this is the reason why japan never reveal its war crimes to its children. for they do not want to carry the burden of being ashamed for where they come from.
if these people are smart asses, do they have the conscience or the guts to hit sandro or simon marcos for being a marcos? isko moreno once said:
watch the karen davila incident on isko.
so there we have it. they support leni just because of that same rhetoric when democracy was gone. define democracy… its not freedoms or rights but abraham lincoln says: “the government of the people, by the people and for the people”. thats democracy. my professor from teatro pabrika bobet mendoza told us that these freedoms we have is not democracy. they are liberties and rights, only the effects of democracy.
now lets go back on pride. i thought ateneo de manila is a catholic school. dont they have bible study? oh yes i forgot, filipino catholics dont read the bible and only live to the sermons and homilies. wow a big blast from an elitist school.
ateneo bears its name from athena, goddess of wisdom. athena bears the name of athens, the first democracy. but democracy was challenged by sparta. in the end just like john adams says: “democracy never lasts long.”
so supporting leni makes us dumber and dumber and dumber. we are not in an eternal battle between good and evil. we are in a battle of who is bad and who is worse. besides the 1987 constitution made revisions for future presidents cannot declare martial law that easy. (its not going to work if there is war especially now with china) leni now lives in the shadow and illusions of the yellow plague devoured by greed and hatred. how can we heal the nation if hatred centers our lives? will a nonkilling philippines be possible if pride remains to our center of intellect? are we ever to be a failed state by living in this kind of bandwagon? when will we learn?
to end this comment, i recommend you to read ezekiel 18:20 and proverbs 14:12. maganda yung proverbs pag tagalog. plus to view marcos, view it with an ilocano persona. negosyo o kalayaan? bayan o sarili? pumili ka.
Why these intelligent people make stupid political judgments? Because they were sheltered. They never experienced hardships in their entire life – hardships encountered by the masa and poor Filipinos. Anybody can win and it won’t have much effect on them. They’ll just go on with their perfect lives, travel here and there, eat to their heart’s content, pursue whatever they want to study. In short, empathy for the masa & poor is lacking with these intelligent creatures. That’s why.
And that’s the problem. The widening gap between the rich and poor is causing more damage to our society than we’d care to admit.
True. I think we have a fake democracy, it’s more like a plutocracy that we have.
Some of these “intelligent” people voted not considering the merits of the candidates but based on who best represents their own selves. They voted not considering what the candidates can do for the country but who can protect their self interests.
PAALALA PO SA MGA DILAWAN AT MGA OTSO DIRETSO CANDIDATES MAGSURRENDER NA PO KAYO DAHIL NASA AMIN NA PCOS MACHINE GAGAYAHIN NAMIN KUNG PAANO NAPANALO NINYO SI VP LENI LUGAW… KAYA TAPOS NA PO ANG HALALAN…HUWAG NA PO KAYO MANGAMPANYA SAYANG LANG PERA NYONG GAGASTUSIN . MARAMING SALAMAT PO.