Category: Media

Raymond Fortun resignation as Cedric Lee mouthpiece highlights Pinoy dysfunction

February 17, 2014 benign0 32 Comments

Law practice in the Philippines quite simply is not that straightforward. Ask lawyer Raymond Fortun who recently resigned as spookesman for alleged Chinese mafiosi Cedric Lee who, together with starlet Deniece Cornejo, are accused of viciously mauling variety show host Vhong Navarro and framing him for rape. But Fortun has apparently been increasingly frustrated over…

Crime, Glitz and Glamour, Media, Politics, Society

Why pork barrel whistleblowers Benhur Luy and Ruby Tuason should go to jail

February 16, 2014 benign0 9 Comments

The fact that there are many whistleblowers and that the entire case the Department of Justice is mounting against several Philippine senators accused of plundering their pork barrel funds rests on these whistleblowers highlights the profound dysfunction of the country’s criminal investigation and criminal justice system. How many whistleblowers are needed to support the case?…

Crime, Media, Politics

Social media uproar over Willie Revillame claim on Tado Jimenez remains!

February 11, 2014 benign0 17 Comments

An uproar erupted amongst the friends of deceased comedian and activist Tado Jimenez after reports came out that star game show host Willie Revillame “took care” of moving his remains from the scene of the accident back to Manila. According to an Interaksyon report singer Dong Abay and radio personality Gang Badoy-Capati took to Facebook…

Glitz and Glamour, Media

‘The Philippines says Thank You’ video: missing the bigger point #PHthankyou

February 9, 2014February 9, 2014 FallenAngel 47 Comments

So apparently, three months after Tropical Storm Haiyan (local name Yolanda) hits the Philippines, the Department of Tourism (DOT) comes out with a short video called “The Philippines says Thank You”, with the accompanying hashtag #PHthankyou. Ok. So what then? Frankly, the video just fails to move me. I’m probably only a handful of Filipinos…

Culture, Development, Government, Lifestyle, Media, Politics, Society

The Philippines’ non-stop requests for foreign aid, support, and investments is becoming tiring and embarrassing

February 7, 2014December 20, 2021 benign0 62 Comments

The thing with the precarious position the Philippines finds itself in its dealings with China and the handling of the two big diplomatic crises surrounding it — the dispute over various territories within the West Philippine Sea and the row over the Philippine government’s unsatisfactory resolution of the 2010 hostage crisis in which nine Hong…

Civics, Crime, Culture, Development, Economy, Government, Media

Vhong Navarro and Tent Cities as Top Stories? I guess not.

February 6, 2014January 29, 2015 Ms. Mike Portes 12 Comments

Surely, the Philippines hasn’t rebounded from the ravage of the Zamboanga stand off and the calamities that came, one after the other, but why is it, that the Vhong Navarro argumentum ad misericordiam hogging all forms of media while minimal attention is given to those in the South of the Philippines who are still living in…

Culture, Media, Society, The South

Coca Cola desperately needs to get the world hooked on Coke

February 5, 2014August 18, 2022 benign0 9 Comments

So there is this Coke ad aired during the Superbowl that features some Tagalog words in a rendition of the American nationalist song “America the Beautiful”, specifically the words “Sa ibabaw ng mga prutas” (which translates to “Above the fruited plain” for those who speak American). Speaking of fruity plains, the ad also touted Coke…

Glitz and Glamour, Lifestyle, Media, Religion, Society

What Vhong and Deniece teach us about religion and the news

February 3, 2014 benign0 22 Comments

A lot of people remain baffled by the attention that the Vhong Navarro and Deniece Cornejo show attracts. They cite that there are more important things going on — the Disbursement Acceleration Program imbroglio that President Benigno Simeon “BS” Aquino III is entangled in, the plight of Leytenians still reeling from the carnage wrought by…

Civics, Crime, Culture, Glitz and Glamour, Media, Religion, Society