Words matter

“And now you do what they told ya, now you’re under control.” – Killing in the Name, Rage Against the Machine

WORDS can have consequences especially when a hate-laden speech is spoken by an influential public figure. Words matter. These can rouse an apathetic crowd to action or an angry mob. These can even spur a solitary loon to action.

These can validate deep-seated biases and bigotry. Our freedom of expression is not absolute because along with that freedom comes the responsibility with what we espouse publicly. One cannot just spew hate rhetoric and wash their hands once their avid audience takes action on what they said.

As I was watching the news over the weekend, one particular item caught my attention. It was about the Pittsburgh Synagogue shooting. On Sunday morning, Robert Bowers opened fire at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburg, USA. He killed at least 11 people.

He was single-minded in purpose. Prior to the shooting, he wrote on a right-wing social network: “I can’t sit by and watch my people get slaughtered.” Apparently, Bowers is under the impression that a Jewish nonprofit organization that supports refugees have been smuggling in “invaders in that kill our people.”

World history taught us that toxic politics, along with the hate rhetoric and black propaganda that goes with it, never ends well. A hate speech told over and over again can escalate and, as we’ve seen in the past, result in mass murders.

Benjamin Wallace-Wells of The New Yorker hit the nail in the head when he wrote: “They are the toxic politics of the President (Donald Trump), and the racist, nationalist fervor that has been inflamed by his rise, and the success and the militancy of the gun lobby…”

“The moral inadequacy is vast. Murderous acts of hate have occurred, on a national scale, several times this week. It is a tragedy that the President is not able to see them for what they are,” Wallace-Wells concluded.

Here in the Philippines, also on Sunday, we witnessed a less dramatic but nevertheless equally reprehensible behavior from people who have sworn to protect us.

National Capital Region Police Office’s Director Guillermo Eleazar “reprimanded” Police Officer 1 Eduardo Valencia for allegedly raping a 15-year-old daughter of a couple arrested in an anti-drug operation.

Valencia responded by saying: “Sir, may pamilya po ako. Sir, hindi na po bago sa ‘ting mga operatiba ‘yung gano’n kapag may nahuhuli po tayong drug pusher, sir.”

When our President beams on stage saying: “Dapat mayor ang mauna” as a quip  to a jail rape of a foreigner in a hostage incident and the audience laugh at the morally corrupt joke (if you call it that), you can pretty much expect the police officer thought he could do it and get away with it.

What’s worse is that from Valencia’s response, raping minor children of drug suspects have been going on now since Oplan Tokhang started.

Hate speech fuels the culture of impunity. We should know better. Make no doubt about it but our President’s toxic politics will escalate into a full-on national rift between those who are in power and those whose rights have been trampled on. Sooner than later, this will happen. History has shown us that.

Game of trolls

I ADMIT I was overwhelmed by how troll farms and their handlers took social media platforms in the 2016 national elections by storm. It was anything short of “shock and awe.” They dominated discussion boards, bullied thought leaders and mainstream news media into virtual silence, at least for a while.

But like my friends and colleagues, I was unprepared then. I didn’t know that there were people who would go to any lengths just so their principal would win. I didn’t know they would co-opt and sully free speech on the Internet. I admit I was naive.

With the mid-term elections just around the corner, we can be sure trolls will come out of the woodwork and go into hyperdrive again as they are wont to do. Even though its main handler has yet to come out (pun intended), we need to be ready for the expected coming onslaught of trolls in our social media accounts.

So, for those of you who have been hiding under a rock, this is how these vile creatures operate on social media platforms.

Trolls and their handlers employ a two-pronged approach against critical discussions — stifling dissent through fear and scripted messaging through fake news and black propaganda.

They stifle dissent through fear and intimidation. It got to a point where people were afraid to register their critical observations lest they would be the subject of a coordinated troll attack and be branded “delawan,” “adik” or terrorist protector. Obviously, there are people who have been exempt of this fear. Some of my colleague-friends fought toe-to-toe with these trolls. Still, a significant number of them just resigned not to engage the trolls.

They drown out public discussions with their slew of ad hominems, non-sequiturs, and other fallacious arguments that don’t have Latin names.

You may be tempted to dismiss these trolls as a bunch of uncouth and unloved creatures, most of them may well be but that’s not the point. Never make the mistake of underestimating these trolls. If there’s anything these trolls have been doing, it is anything but disorganized and uncalibrated.

My friend BenCyrus Ellorin has encapsulated their modus operandi on his wall quite brilliantly.

Step 1. Trolls would populate Cagayan de Oro social media groups–they have already begun. A case in point was when a Facebook user suddenly engaged my sarcastic comment on a thread at Bantay Kagay-an Facebook group.

I got this troll’s panty in a twist because I like the critical thinking La Viña brother over its principal. For context, this troll asked me to prove that I’m a real “real” Kagay-anon because it took my sarcastic quip as questioning the lineage of its principal in Cagayan de Oro.

I replied that I didn’t have to validate my lineage to something that is called a “Flick-g Spot.” It has since changed its handle to “Taga CDO Ka.”

When I first checked out the troll’s account, I found that it joined Facebook on Oct. 7, 2018. However, when I checked it again yesterday, it somehow turned the social media clock and now appears to have joined Facebook in July of 2015. It has 119 friends, all of whom (I should say “which”) have dubious names and equally suspicious profile photos.

Of the 12 pages it “liked,” eight were Cagayan de Oro-based and one page of a government official, Pompee La Viña.

Although I have responded to his attacks about me being an “impostor Kagay-anon,” it has nevertheless used my account as click-bait to create online noise.

Step 2. These trolls will create “click-bait” posts to generate traffic. This will then lead to the propagation of fake news.

So, despite my knowledge of trolls, I admit I fell right into its trap. I am now its click-bait to generate traffic since I am a legit netizen of Facebook with real people as friends. As my friends react to his ridiculous post on my thread in the group, this legitimizes its account, and by extension its dubious network of friends.

This troll can then start propagating fake news on the different Facebook groups of Cagayan de Oro City. Aside from Bantay Kagay-an, Taga CDO Ka has now joined Ang Baruganan Region 10, Ang Baruganan Philippines, and Iligan City “a walk to be remembered” v1.

According to Freedom House, the Philippines is among the other 30 countries across the globe that has deployed “manipulation to distort online information” (read: fake news).

These trolls don’t operate out of loyalty or dedication to their principals. Troll farms are big business.

A study by Chay Hofileña entitled “Fake accounts and manufactured reality on social media” shows these trolls are getting paid.

“In one page for commercial purposes, for example, repeated call-outs were made for ‘business partners’ who were required in 2015 to spend three to five hours daily on Facebook. Payment was supposed to range conservatively from P1,000 a day to P10,000 a month, with training provided,” Hofileña’s study reads in part.

There are even reports that some trolls even get paid as much as P2,000 to P3,000 a day just to copy-paste content. As Rappler has uncovered recently, trolls have uniform posts or comments on social media platforms.

“Different versions of what is supposed to be the one true fact can be manufactured, creating confusion and deep-seated schisms among groups who get to believe that their version of the truth is what is real and correct,” Hofileña’s study further reads.

So, how do we combat these trolls and their brand of twisted reality?

• Be critical with every post on social media. Use Google to vet, validate, and corroborate what is being asserted in a post or comment.
• Expose and oppose fake accounts, trolls, and bots. Bots are bits of code designed to mimic human users. They sound high-tech but believe me when I say these have been deployed in the country’s social media platforms as early as 2014.
• Actively reclaim your social media space by using apps that automatically label fake news and fake news websites as such. Let me plug the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines’ award-winning “fakeblok.”

Fakeblok is an extension app for Google Chrome web browsers and calls your attention when links from websites that tend to post fake news appear on your Facebook newsfeed. The app uses the database by the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility.

Again, let us not fall for fake news and reclaim our social media space. Good day and good luck, Kagay-an.

Making October red

“This is not about terrorism. Terrorism is the excuse. This is about economic and social control.” – Edward Snowden on government eavesdropping

AUTHORITARIAN governments around the globe almost always have insecure yet narcissistic, not to mention megalomaniac, leaders at its helm and people scared into submission under the bow.

Here in the Philippines, you’re either a fanatical follower of this administration or a “delawan,” drug addict, or worse, a terrorist. For despotic rulers, there can be no tolerance for dissent no matter how legitimate these may be. The fanatics would say they have nothing to fear because they have not done anything illegal. Well, what do you say when you’re tagged as a terrorist even if you are not? What will you do then?

I’m sharing My Wit’s End space today with an important message from a church that has been vilified recently — the Iglesia Filipina Independiente. Please, read on.

A Message of The Most Revd Rhee M. Timbang, Obispo Maximo, Iglesia Filipina Independiente

To all IFI clergy and faithful and all people of goodwill:

I am furnished here at Kuching, Malaysia (while attending a consecration event with a sister Church) with a very disgusting if not revolting report about the labeling and tagging of the IFI and its clergy, specifically, Bp Antonio Ablon as NPA. The Incident Report documented deliberate acts which (1) vandalized the church fence in our Gatub Chapel in Zamboanga del Sur located along the national highway towards Zamboanga City with markings tagging the IFI as NPA; and (2) serialized the red-tagging of the IFI and Bp Antonio Ablon, together with UCCP and other legal sectoral organizations as NPA through markings along the various points in the national highway of Zamboanga del Sur particularly at Brgy Lacupayan in the Municipality of Tigbao and at the Municipality of Kumalarang. Zamboanga del Sur is part of the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the IFI Diocese of Pagadian shepherded by Bp Antonio Ablon as being its diocesan bishop.

This incidence is highly alarming considering that this tagging and labeling do not only grossly malign and vilify the IFI and its ministry, they likewise irresponsibly place the life and security of Bp Antonio Ablon and other IFI bishops and clergy in danger. Red-tagging and labeling serve to harass, intimidate and threaten persons who are considered as enemies of the state, but worst these serve as license for their liquidation or neutralization, to borrow military terms, as state security officers (or the organized rogue military/police elements under their command) are given the open permission to shoot and kill those who listed in their order of battle. This is frightening because the red-tagging and labeling justify the killings since church people like Bp Antonio Ablon and many others in and outside the IFI are unjustly grouped and lumped up together as one and same with the NPA which the government through the AFP and PNP is waging war for almost a half-century now!

This is terribly fearsome because the government and the AFP and PNP since from the very beginning of the insurgency campaign have always demonstrated their incapability to know and determine who are their real enemies in this long protracted war on-going in the country. The government and state security officers only see red, and their temerity to vanquish the NPA includes eliminating or silencing the church and church people and other legal organizations which are only advocating in behalf of the struggling Filipino people. Instead, the government’s insurgency campaign has been littered by the waste of innocent lives way-laid due to red-tagging and labeling.

This incidence strikes as highly unjust and uncalled for the IFI and for Bp Antonio Ablon. These red-tagging and labeling discredit and undermine our precious sacred ministry as a Church – a ministry that serves only to be faithful to the mission entrusted by our Lord Jesus and articulated in his liberating gospel, a ministry that serves only to be consistent with our history following the examples and witnesses of Bp Gregorio Aglipay and Isabelo de los Reyes Sr. and their likes in the nationalist and revolutionary tradition of the Filipino people. Our mission and history as IFI predated the NPA and our ministry and prophetic witness is sourced up in the loving, life-giving and liberating gospel of our Lord Jesus, a ministry which tries to live out the faith and heritage of the “patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and martyrs, and those of every generation who have looked to God in hope.” These red-tagging and labeling are therefore misplaced and ridiculous in one sense and baseless and preposterous in another.

These red-tagging and labeling of the IFI started to become obvious during the time of President Gloria Arroyo when the AFP/PNP classified the IFI among many others as “Enemy of the State” and cause its popularization in the countryside and urban poor. The practice continued in President Noynoy Aquino’s time and obviously, this malicious propaganda has been intensified in President Duterte’s regime. Today, several IFI clergy and lay from the north down to the south are harassed, intimidated and threaten; a number of them are being placed under military and police surveillance or tailed upon by unidentified armed persons. Today has become a full season of red-tagging and labelling, and of harassment, intimidation and threat just because the IFI and its bishops, clergy and lay leaders are firmed in their vocation and witness and prophetic advocacy to criticize the government against its anti-life, anti-poor and anti-people policies, to promote people’s rights and defend civil liberties, to protect national sovereignty and patrimony, to seek for a just and lasting peace and to struggle with workers, farmers, urban poor and the lumads for their self-determination and defense of ancestral lands. These incidences of red tagging and labeling and of harassment, intimidation are threats against the IFI and its ministers do need to be exposed and opposed and denounced! These acts are highly atrocious and condemnable! We suspect that these acts do only originate from those who are in power in the government, in the AFP and PNP. They have all the manpower, the funds and the technology to launch deliberate and serial efforts. These acts are perpetrated by those who are anti-peace and those who refuse to let justice reign in our land.

We ask IFI members to pray for the safety and well being of Bp Antonio Ablon, and other clergies whom we know who are in similar situation, and together with other Filipinos of good-will condemn these acts. We ask everyone to be vigilant and exercise militancy on their own rights as well as of other people by holding prayer and discernment groups and by speaking up loudly against abuses. We ask everyone to support the continuing appeal for the GRP and NDFP to resume the peace talks and end the armed conflict by addressing the root causes that spawned insurgency in our midst.

We task every IFI members and people of faith to reflect upon and take a lesson on the words of our Lord Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5). These words are calling us for a life of faithfulness and blessedness. As his followers in today’s time, the Lord has called us to walk on his way:

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for, in the same way, they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

In these critical times in our national life, this call requires a bold, faithful and courageous witness from among us. But this also demands vigilance and militancy in us so that forces which are anathema to justice and peace cannot deceive and cower us to walk on the other way.

May God guide, protect and embolden us as we persevere walking faithfully and vigilantly on his way.