We beg to differ.
The Philippine province of Pangasinan continues to reel from the aftermath of a fatal scoop propagated by giant media conglomerate ABS-CBN through its tele-tabloid Bandila. The “scoop” involved reports that victims of a “terrible flesh-eating disease” were found in Pangasinan and that the disease as “prophesied” would engulf the rest of the planet and cause…
So the story goes like this: Sometime in April of last year, a self-styled “prophet” — an Indian man whose name is either “Sadhu Sundar Selvaraj” or “Vincent” — of a hiterto unheard-of religious organization called Jesus Ministries delivered a fire-and-brimstone sermon to a gathering in the Cuneta Astrodome, in which he prophesied, among other…
Read More “ABS-CBN’s “Flesh-Eating Disease” Hoax Takes a Sadly Predictable Turn” »
Outrage in the citizenry continues erupting over the recent ruling of the Supreme Court regarding the online libel clause in Republic Act 10175, A.K.A. the Cybercrime Law. Due to the online libel clause not being declared unconstitutional, social media is abuzz with discussion that the end of “freedom of speech” and “freedom of expression” draws…
Read More “Online libel, freedom of information, and what Filipinos have done with their freedom” »
It used to be that when it comes to what will be on the television on any given Sunday afternoon, the voting that goes on around my house has me beaten by three (the wife and two housemaids) in favor of watching a showbiz oriented and one (my kid) in favor of Baby TV or…
Read More “Absolute MUST READ: Can We Survive A Kris Aquino Vice Presidency?” »
It’s that time of the year again when we celebrate that supposedly seminal event in Philippine history when, according to the local lore, the forces of evil (porportedly the regime of former President Ferdinand E. Marcos) were vanquished by the forces of good (supposedly the Aquino-Cojuangco feudal clan). Marcos removed. Game over. The 1986 “People…
It is not surprising that Philippine President Benigno Simeon “BS” Aquino III wholeheartedly supports criminal libel in the Philippines. Luis Teodoro, BusinessWorld columnist and former dean of the College of Mass Communications of the University of the Philippines, wrote in a 2003 article about how the spectre of harassment-by-libel emerged in the Philippine scene so…
The Philippine Supreme Court reportedly upheld the libel provisions of Republic Act 10175 or the “Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012” which Philippine President Benigno Simeon “BS” Aquino III signed into law in 2012. As expected, online hysterics have erupted over Philippine social media space with many online “activists” expressing loud indignation over what they perceive…
So it’s been 100 days since the disaster wrought by super-typhoon Haiyan (a.k.a. Yolanda). A one-hundred day anniversary is an arbitrary point following a seminal event where the average talking head observes the tradition of dipping into that fountain of useless wisdom called hindsight to tell a story. Here we go, then. First, the facts….
