We beg to differ.
It’s a he-said-she-said situation at the moment as mainstream media focuses its “news reporting” on the basis of soundbytes and snippets of statements made by boxing champ Manny Pacquiao and the Philippines’ chief tax collector Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) Commissioner Kim Henares. It all started with “reports” following the boxing match between Pacquiao and…
Super-typhoon Haiyan (Philippine code-named “Yolanda”) continues to barrel towards the Philippines threatening to wreak havoc across southern Luzon, the Visayas, and northern Mindanao as it plows through the Philippines… Haiyan is expected to reach central Philippines as a super typhoon by Friday noon local time, packing winds of 233-249 kilometres per hour, according to Michael…
Read More “Super-typhoon Haiyan (code name Yolanda) set to plow through central Philippines” »
One of the videos recently making waves among Filipino netizens is this one of two professional wake-skaters Brian Grubb and Dominik Preisner. Apparently, the location they used was that of the Banaue Rice Terraces in Ifugao. According to the video caption: Respect for the environment was a priority from the beginning of this project! The…
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What are we to make of Pinoy music legend Freddie Aguilar’s dating a 16-year-old girl? Not surprisingly, most netizens reacted with an Ewwww. At 16 the girl is 44 years younger than Mang Freddie. What might it be like for a girl of 16 to be dating a 60-year-old man? I’m sure a lot of…
Read More “If my religion teacher had behaved like Freddie Aguilar” »
I’ll get to the point: never assume that every issue posted on mainstream social media is true. Over the weekend, Baguio’s Facebook community went on alert when a picture of two documents was posted online by a certain popular provocateur. The photograph shows a letter of request to the Baguio government to allow a certain…
Even without external forces exerting much effort to do so, Filipinos can be easily distracted from whatever they are engaged in. When they manage to eke out some sort of civic responsibility or outrage against the ineptitude of their government is certainly no exception. Are they angry at the government? Just give them some feel-good…
The recent news of Filipino photographer Mark Joseph Solis plagiarizing his entries in international competitions has the social media chattering classes up in arms and in a state of “outrage”. Particularly noticeable is that since Rappler broke this story with the headline “UP student plagiarizes prize-winning photos”, the focus has been on the premier state…
Read More “Plagiarism: what goes on in the mind of the Filipino?” »
Now that paralyzing floods are an almost weekly occurrence in Metro Manila, I now view what were once considered “improvements” on the city differently. Often, some balikbayan friends visiting Manila would gaze in wonder at the gleaming highrises that tower above the city skyline and gush about how modern it all looks now. The presence…