Just thank the lord

“People, get ready. There’s a train a-coming. You don’t need no ticket. You just get on board.” –Curtis Mayfield, People get ready

I STILL can’t get the grip of how the number of “ingrates” in this country has grown in just two short years.

Imagine the gall of these fault-finders. Can’t they see that Digong Dada is hard at work? Can’t they see that now, because of the 16 million “enlightened” citizens, we are better off, as a country and as individuals?

Don’t you believe me? Let me enumerate at least three things this administration has been “astonishingly good” at the past two years.

This regime has been busy unclogging our swamped out court dockets. It has been busy helping the judicial branch. The Philippine National Police puts the number of drug personalities killed in legitimate operations at 3,451 as of July 26 last year.

This figure, the police say emphatically, does not include the vigilante killings. Other human rights advocacy groups have their own number of drug suspects killed but what do they know, right? It’s not like they can actually count how many people have been killed simply because they didn’t kill them. So, I’m sticking with the PNP figures. Now, that is reliable data.

Imagine how liberating this 3,451 deaths to the lower courts are? Judges can now schedule more important cases. They don’t have to settle cases regarding drug use. Kudos!

On another front, didn’t the President promise a train system for Mindanao? Well, he did one “better”. He gave us the Train (Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion) for the entire archipelago to “enjoy”.

Look, with this Train, the government does not only make your take-home pay tax-free, it also helps you watch your blood sugar. It doesn’t matter if it’s your only source of energy because you don’t have a regular income on account of having absolutely no job security being contractual, this regime will tax your sugar anyway.

Under this Train, drinks containing high-fructose corn syrup are levied at P12 per liter while excise rate on drinks containing caloric or non-caloric sweetener is P6 per liter.

Isn’t that great? With or without you meaning to shape up, this government will do it for you by raising the tax on sugar. The same thing could be said for the sugar barons, but to hell with them. This regime doesn’t care for them. Digong Dada has said over and over again that he hates oligarchs and the elite.

This Train simplifies the estate and donor’s tax, increases the excise tax on petroleum products, as well as with automobiles, and expands the value-added tax. Let’s see the oligarchs and elite claw their way out of that! Woot woot!

Don’t you believe me? You can check it out for yourself at http://www.dof.gov.ph/taxreform/. There, you could see that I used the same exact words they used.

This regime’s propaganda team (read: PCOO) even touted it as the “best Christmas gift to Filipinos ever.” Now, these people wouldn’t lie to our face, would they? What with their stellar embodiment of the truth.

Okay, that may be taking it too far. There have been instances where this team of intellectuals and pundits have spun the President’s pronouncements in the past. But hey, they do it so we, the people, could understand what Digong Dada is actually saying. They are looking out for us, that way.

Speaking of propaganda, if it hadn’t been for PCOO assistant secretary Margaux Uson’s booboo on the location of Mt. Mayon, our visual artists would not have been able to flex their creativity with photo editing software that much. See? The faux pas ushered in a massive interest where the friggin’ volcano really is from this generation of entitled half-wits and meme-dependent truth-seekers.

Palace spokesman Harry Roque eloquently argued this point by saying last Sunday: “Kung walang fake news, hindi natin malalaman ano ang true news. Let there be a free marketplace of ideas.”

I didn’t know that Roque is heavily into dialectics. Like, how would you know white if you haven’t seen black? How would you thresh out the truth if you haven’t heard the lies surrounding that truth? This argument makes perfect sense. Sieg Heil!

The killings, the Train, and this regime’s propaganda team are all for the “benefit” of every freedom-loving Filipino to enjoy.

Going back to my opening quote from Curtis Mayfield’s “People get ready, I suggest we stop our whining and just enjoy this regime’s Train ride to, err, somewhere. Let’s forget about critical thinking and what it’s for. Hell, let’s just give up thinking altogether and just thank the “lord.” Pfft.

Let’s kill the cats

WHILE my friend and I were shooting the breeze last Friday, I noticed our ceiling was already quite decrepit. One of the ceiling boards looked like it sagged in the middle part and was ready to fall anytime.

My friend, who repaired our stairway before, explained that the ceiling joists where the ceiling board was nailed to are already rotten. Whenever the cats walk across our ceiling, the nails could not hold the weight, and that’s why one of the ceiling boards is sagging in the middle, he added.

Before I continue, I should let you know that Crow’s Nest is really old. It was built during the “liberation” of the Philippines from the clutches of the Empire of Japan. It’s almost entirely made out of wood. Even the foundations are made of Narra unlike the houses of today which are made of concrete.

My friend offered two options to remedy my ceiling problem.

One, I could replace the whole ceiling construction with new wood for the rotten ceiling joists and replace the ceiling boards which are only 1/4” thick, with the sturdier 2” marine plywood.

Now, my friend said this will surely cost a lot. The materials and manpower, he added, could cost me at least P20 thousand. My friend also said there’s the time frame of the repairs to consider — his modest estimation was that it could take three weeks to replace the whole thing.

The problem is that I can’t spare that much money, I told my friend, plus I can’t expose my children to hazards of falling debris for three weeks.

He said there is another way. It is way cheaper and a helluva lot faster.

“You could just kill off all the cats,” my friend said with a sarcastic grin.

There was an awkward silence because we both realized we were solving my ceiling problem the way Digong Dada would with the drug problem and insurgency in the country.

If you still don’t get it, the ceiling problem is our country’s corrupted institutions, and the cats, well, it’s us, the Filipinos he swore to protect and love.

Unabashed bigotry

“Bigotry is boring when we add modifiers.” – Gregory House, MD [Hugh Laurie].

THIS is what I love about the current administration — its consistency on being inconsistent especially when it comes to the Bangsamoro people.

That is why I wasn’t particularly surprised when the “Muslim ID” brouhaha hit the fan, so to speak. However, I cannot blame Muslims about how they reacted. This administration’s Muslim ID is dissonant to hizzoner’s pronouncements in the past.

Didn’t this administration vow to correct the historical injustices done to the Moros? Didn’t this President lambast a US President because of a massacre some hundred years ago? Digression: With the Duterte administration, the President and administration are interchangeable because he micromanages.

Everything this administration does can and should be attributed all the way to the top of the bureaucracy because he is the boss. He made it clear in all of his long-winded speeches, albeit with a repetitive topic (read: obosen).

This administration is also systematic, too. Before the Muslim ID brouhaha, it clipped the executive powers of some seven governors and 132 mayors here in Mindanao. The reason, this administration said, is because they have been “engaging in acts inimical to national security or which negate the effectiveness of the peace and order campaign of the government; and providing material support to criminal elements.”

Even the most rabid supporters of this administration were included. Well, there being Muslims helped a lot in their inclusion in the list.

The multi-awarded mayor of Upi, Ramon Piang Sr. made it to the list. Cotabato Mayor Frances Cynthia Sayadi made it to the list, too. Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu and the 28 mayors under him have also been listed by the National Police Commission.

Haven’t these people showed enough support to the administration’s war on drugs? I’ve been reading these same names in the reports of our correspondents in their areas. I can distinctly remember Sayadi locking down Cotabato City when the Marawi crisis began and Mangudadatu’s all-out support to Masa Masid.

I can point out the inconsistencies and how bigoted this Muslim ID brouhaha is but I cannot narrate it funnier than what Armm Executive Secretary Laisa Masuhud Alamia posted on her Facebook wall over the weekend.

“And now some people in Luzon think I need a Muslim ID. I suppose they’re requiring this because we, Muslim Filipinos, don’t look Muslim enough as we are. I don’t look Muslim enough in person nor in these IDs, even when I’m wearing the hijab. So just to be sure, to be really 100% sure, they need me to present a Muslim ID to ensure that I’m really, truly a Muslim,” Alamia’s post reads in part.

I agree with her that the Muslim ID is “hilarious, if not tragically sad.”

Alamia started her post by saying “I need a bigger wallet.”

So here’s my equally “hilarious” suggestion to this administration. Since we have IDs for pretty much every single government service agency, I suggest these IDs be collated into one bar code for each citizen and then tattoo that bar code to the nape or forehead.

Better yet, RF tag the entire citizenry. That would really put the Philippines in the limelight. Sieg Heil!

Hunting fake news (1)

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” – Dr. Seuss

AS promised, I will be sharing to you, my dear readers, tips on how to hunt for fake news. More importantly, what to do about it. Understandably, this will take more than one column. Here’s the first of two parts on fake news.

Ever since social media platforms became “weaponized” for political gain, fake news has been the buzz word all over the blogosphere. I cited an example about Philippine News Agency’s fake news article entitled “95 nations in 3rd UPR convinced no EJKs in PHL” in my last column. I also discussed PNA’s attempt to cover it up with another article–slightly reworded but equally deceiving “PHL’s human rights situation commended at UPR.” A government functionary said they were commended by the UN Human Rights Commission on its 27th Universal Period Review. They didn’t. The team was commended on particular points like what it has done to combat human trafficking but other than that the review pretty much grotesque. To say that UPR27 commended the country for its human rights situation is a lie meant to deceive the more gullible, Facebook “like” addicts and share-a-holics.

Then last week, another seeming example propped up.

While terrorists burned buildings and soldiers dropping bombs in Marawi City last week, Manila-based Philippine Daily Inquirer’s web platform posted five photos which supposedly depicted the aftermath of the siege of the city. However, these photos were actually outdated and some of the photos were not even taken or depicting Marawi City.

An enterprising troll made a meme on PDI’s editorial gaffe which naturally trended on social media platforms. I say “naturally” because the meme obviously meant to rile up netizens. A troll even actually suggested to burn down PDI’s offices in Makati.

On May 24, 6:11 pm, PDI’s web platform Inquirer.net posted an erratum on it. They claimed the photos they posted came from a reliable source but before they could complete their vetting process or did a simple reverse-image search, they posted all the five photos anyway.

“That was a mistake, and we apologize unreservedly,” PDI’s erratum reads. They then offered to impose “necessary sanctions” to ensure the same mistake will not happen again.

For me, the enterprising troll who pointed PDI’s mistake did nothing wrong although the motive behind the meme is suspicious at best. I think it is healthy to point out mistakes in news articles. News, after all, is communication and the process isn’t completed without feedback.

I have pointed out on my Facebook wall that that is how a professional news organization acts when confronted with their mistakes. However, I would be remiss if I don’t also point out the difference between misinformation and disinformation.

Disinformation and misinformation are two different animals. Misinformation is inadvertent (read: wala gituyo; hindi sinadya) while disinformation is deliberate (read: gituyo; sinadya). The former is unintentionally inaccurate while the latter is intentionally false.

As National Union of Journalists in the Philippines director and Interaksyon editor Nonoy Espina puts it: “Wrong news is a whole universe away from fake news.”

So how can we scrutinize a news post, whether this be a misinformation or a blatant disinformation, on social media platforms in particular and the Internet in general.

1. Check if the uniform resource locator (URL). URLs are the web addresses of the articles in the Internet. Many propagandists have intentionally made web addresses to sound like it is of a legitimate news media organizations. Examples of these include: ABCnews.com.co, Bloomberg.ma, cnn-trending.com, NBCNews.com.co, washingtonpost.com.co, etc.

Notice that most of the fake news web sites have a suffix “.co.”

2. Read beyond the headline of a news post. I, as I assume you do to, see these almost all the time on Facebook. People sharing “news articles” based on the headline but have not really read the entire article. Worse, they will caption the link with an inappropriate comment because as I said they haven’t really read the article.
3. While you’re reading a news article, check for exaggerations. Fake news are meant to rile up or elicit strong emotions to drive web traffic and further inflamed on social media platforms. Naturally, fake news would have exaggerations.
4. Check if the data presented on the “news article” is corroborated or supported by experts on the particular field or other news media web sites. Okay, that sounds more daunting of a task as I would have preferred. Maybe this acronym can help: GIN (Google It, Numbnuts).
5. This next tip will sound idiotic but believe me many have done this–sharing a news article without checking the date of publication. Digong Dada’s drummer boy Peter Lavina did it by posting a photo of a rape victim meant to rile up support for the war on drugs. However, the photo was from another continent, Brazil and from an entirely different timeline. So before you share, check out the date, huh?
6. Always cross-check the site with other reliable sources on the web. Real news articles may differ in angling, perspective, or even syntax but these will always have the same basic accounting of the story. Like if there are two reporters of different news organizations covering a story, they might approach the story differently but they will always be, essentially, the same story.

Now, why would anybody deliberately lie to you on the Internet, you ask.

The answer is simple. As I have written at the start of this column: Social media platforms have been weaponized to serve political interests. It’s no longer just a virtual hangout for your friends.

So be a responsible netizen.

Let me leave you with these words of wisdom from veteran reporter Ellen Tordesillas: “There’s no excuse for spreading lies even if you don’t like a person. If you have to spread lies to protect or promote your principal, that means there is something wrong not only with your principal but also with you.” (to be continued)

Try again, Cayetano

“Truth was unimportant and entirely subordinate to tactics and psychology.” -Joseph Goebbels, Nazi party propagandist

APPARENTLY, only Sen. Allan Peter Cayetano believed in his presentation of the human rights situation in the country before the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland.

On May 8, Cayetano faced the rights council in Geneva for the country’s Universal Periodic Review. As state-member of the United Nations, each member country’s human rights record is reviewed every four years.

Without batting an eyelash, Cayetano lied through his teeth when he said that the more than 7,000 killings, most of whom belong to the urban poor sector, happened because they tried to shoot it out with authorities (read: nanlaban).

Picture this: A man living in the slums, armed with a rusty caliber .38 “paltik” revolver, shooting it out with a squad of anti-drug special unit with assault rifles in tow and clad in bullet proof vests. Does that ring true to you? If it does, then I’m a monkey’s cousin.

Let’s go back to Cayetano who is clearly in denial. Nobody… err… except of course the president’s new bestie, China, believed in his obvious lie.

What was he thinking? Did Cayetano really think the member countries of the council didn’t have cable news or Internet, and so be gullible as to believe his report?

His principal has been quoted numerous times, goading his gestapos to kill and even assured them he has their backs when the “pesky” human rights advocates come a-calling. His principal’s hate-mongering is on tape which have been transcribed for chrissakes!

Some 45 member countries expressed concern and recommended an inquiry into the extrajudicial killings in the country. As to what countries these are, trolls, you’ll have to Google that on your own. I don’t have the space in this column for such list.

So it is not surprising that 45 member countries of the UN human rights council didn’t believe Cayetano. By the way, what a way to start his career as a foreign diplomat, huh?

As the “pesky” Human Rights Watch Geneva director John Fisher puts it: “The government’s denial and deflection of criticism shows it has no intention of complying with its international obligations.”

“The Human Rights Council should establish an international inquiry and, if killings without accountability continue, reconsider the Philippines’ council membership,” Fisher further recommends.

Now that Cayetano is the country’s foreign affairs secretary, he might want to change his tact at diplomacy. He wouldn’t want to be the foreign affairs secretary  of the Philippines when it is unlisted from the United Nations. Pfft.