According to the Inquirer Editor, camps aligned (loosely or tightly) with the Philippines’ Opposition are “fighting back”. Leading this “fight”, they claim, is “vice president” Leni Robredo who has seemingly taken it up upon herself to serve as the Opposition’s mouthpiece from within Malacanang.
Robredo’s jump-off point for this new “assault” on “fake news” and social media trollery is the recent explosive exposé on the alleged dark side of her and her late husband — Jesse Robredo’s — political brand detonated by the anonymous blogger group We Are Collective (WAC). Robredo’s whine is basically about how she and her late husband’s memory had become victims of this explosion of debatable “revelations”…
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“My husband is not here to defend himself,” VP Robredo said, adding that filing a case in court was among the options she was considering as a “principled response” to the dirty posts.
It is worth noting that WAC itself has had its own bad days of spotty credibility (its Facebook page and website had been shut down) and had thrown the various cliques of social media personalities aligned with President Rodrigo Duterte into turmoil and in-fighting. Some pro-Duterte personalities who had earlier contributed to the hype in the lead up to the debut of the WAC exposé have had to backtrack on their endorsement of its “revelations” and suffered a resulting dent on their own respective personal brands.
Indeed, the fallout from the WAC debacle not only damaged the Robredo camp. It also damaged the brand equity of key parties and personalities within the pro-Duterte camp. Such is the potency of social media — not in terms of adding to the collective intellect of humanity but in terms of exposing its impotence and inability to function properly in the face of a torrent of information new technologies serve up to humanity in increasingly voluminous data streams.
The key point being missed by those who lament “fake news” and social media trollery is in how all this, really, is the new 21st Century challenge to our species’ ability to think things through. Before the advent of social media or, for that matter, even older mass media piped through broadcast radio, television, and newspapers, people already generally struggled with making sense of and sorting through information coming through their gadgets (whether these gadgets are big appliances sitting on their living room floors or the newer and tinier ones permanently cradled on millennial’s palms).
On that, it is worth reminding “vice president” Leni Robredo that her Yellow Camp had itself sustained even more vicious trollery against its enemies during their day. The “evidence” used by the prosecution panel in the impeachment of the late former Chief Justice Renato Corona, for example, was found to be all fake. What is more astounding about this fake information presented to no less than the Philippine Senate was that these were broadcast and propagated through channels normally regarded as the mainstream — via big (and erstwhile “respectable”) corporate media outlets like the Inquirer and ABS-CBN and via no less than the Senate itself which, for months during this impeachment “trial” served as the sounding board of the Aquino administration’s campaign to demonise and persecute Corona.
Some news sites like Rappler had even resorted to potentially criminal means to contribute to this persecution effort using illegally-obtained information on Corona’s private bank accounts and packaging these into “news reports” written by their so-called “online journalists”.
In short, nobody can claim to be “fighting against” social media trollery and “fake news” — because all camps are guilty of engaging in trollery and propagating “fake news”. Don’t blame the technology. Blame a far more ancient malaise: Idiot members of the species who prefer believing over thinking.
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
Wow! the yellows are all over the world. de lima should explain first photographs of her partying with druglords as a DOJ.
The fake vice-president is spreading fake information about fake “7,000” summary killings supposedly committed by police, at a fake “UN” plenary. Leni Robredo’s “palit ulo” video is not being endorsed by the UN. It is only being aired at a side session organized by an NGO called DRCNet Foundation during the UN conference on narcotics. You wouldn’t know that though, from the way the mainstream media is reporting this as if the UN itself is endorsing Robredo’s harebrained video.
The Liberal Party and their accomplices in the mainstream media like to namedrop ICC, EU, and UN to create the illusion that they’re supported by these international organizations. They do this so they can convince people in government, military, and business to turn against the President.
For example, the UN rapporteur who keeps tweeting about the drug war, Agnes Callamard, is portrayed in Philippine media as a high-ranking UN official. But UN rapporteurs don’t speak in behalf of the UN. They’re not even salaried employees of the UN. They’re like “Angat Buhay partners” of the UN, to use a pet term of Leni Robredo. They’re only consultants.
Another example, look at this latest headline from GMA news: “European Parliament calls for De Lima’s release“.
It sounds like the EU itself is demanding that De Lima should be freed. But if you read the details of the article, it actually involves only a few members of the EU parliament, and their resolution has not even gone through first reading. It was only “submitted for discussion”. Yet GMA news reported this as if the EU itself already demanded that De Lima should be released.
(In case you’re wondering why some EU parliamentarians are siding with the yellows, there’s a global network of liberal elites who like to control everything in the world. For years, the yellows were their foot soldiers in the Philippines, and they got everything they wanted. Military access, mining concessions, etc. Duterte changed all that. These global elites have also been losing badly in other parts of the world in recent months, so they’re starting to panic. Anyway, that’s another story.)
It’s all smoke and mirrors. Robredo the “vice-president” releases “UN” video, then “EU parliament” calls for “senator” De Lima release, and then now Trillanes’s stooge files an “impeachment complaint” against Duterte in Congress. Conveniently timed, and just a day after 50+ congressmen who voted against the death penalty were removed from their committee chairmanships. Expect “Impeachment raps filed against Duterte” and “Philippine vice-president calls for Duterte resignation” to be the next international headlines. Even if the yellows know impeaching Duterte won’t work, this is all for show, for international media mileage. Trollanes needs to earn his monthly retainer, so he needs to keep producing stunts for the media to write about.
But Robredo’s video is her big mistake. It may be used to start building a case against her for incitement to sedition. Robredo was unmistakably calling for international intervention in her video. It just didn’t have that kind of impact, because she is so useless she couldn’t deliver her lines properly. She was actually smiling while talking about mass murders and summary killings, and she was struggling to pronounce very basic English words (i.e. palit ulo “skim” daw, like skim milk, instead of scheme). This woman makes Sarah Palin look like a genius.
President Duterte, time to play hardball. This isn’t about protecting your reputation, which we know you don’t care about. This is about protecting the reputation of the country. Start by purging the DFA and PCOO. The yellows are getting away with their international shenanigans because these two government agencies are sleeping on the job (or are they infested by LP residuals?). We, the Filipino people, give you a free hand to do whatever is necessary to eliminate Robredo, Trillanes, and De Lima. Please go ahead and crush them. You’ll be doing us all a big favor.
These ‘fake news’ that the Yellows and Robredo decrying are present before this adminitration. When it favors them with the mainstream media on their backs, it’s ‘actual’ news.
The 30 years of Yellow lies and hypocrisy is spot on – after 1986 what we got is a government whored by media that keeps on telling ‘everything is ok’. You guys connect the dots.
Analogy of the main stream media,social media of the past,present or maybe the future,now a day notice that the main stream crowded the social media,corporate revenue or income from journalistic news of the prints are getting affected may soon it will a red ink in their books.while social media crowded also by Trolls warriors are fighting back against bloggers…in other words every one or most of us are guilty of self interest or our individual prejudices towards the others who do not subscribed to our thinking…??? a great deal of thought !!! tY
it is absolutely amazing to me that the VP is working against the P! how is anything supposed to get done? how is the Philippines supposed to break into the economic stratosphere when the govt is fighting itself? it is ridiculous and it is a carry over from tribal politics of old. Philippines needs a deep and through cleansing of its root culture to rid itself of this problem.
Here is a summary of the WAC report, and here is a report any self-respecting Filipino ought to read concerning the root problems within Filipino culture.
The Philippines will never get anywhere with the government fighting against itself. Why is the Vice President fighting the President? How it even possible that Robredo would puttee good of her party so above the well-being of her nation that she would continually strive against her co-worker? And how can anyone support a party that seeks at any cost to stay in power even if it means constantly maligning the President and dividing the country? This all has its roots deep in the culture and psyche of the Philippines and until you can change a leopard’s spots or an Ethiopian’s skin this innate corruption will never disappear. Ever.
A Damaged Culture
A house divided against itself cannot stand.
The separate election of the VP and President was another one of those well-intentioned but poorly thought out policies implemented by the Cory administration as an over-reaction against the authoritarian regime of Marcos. The thinking was, if the President and VP came from different parties, it would weaken the Presidency and reduce the chances of a dictatorship returning to the country.
The flaw in this thinking is this: the VP is supposed to be the “spare tire” to the President in the event of his demise. As such the VP is supposed to continue the platform and direction of the President she replaced. It’s literally supposed to be like the spare tire in your car, which normally should be the same make and model as the existing tires. Imagine if the spare tire in a Hummer was not the normal H2 Tires but a standard goodyear tire for a Honda Civic: and that’s the set-up the Philippines inherited as Cory’s legacy. We have a VP who wants to replace the Presidency with a platform that is a different make, gauge and model as the present one. Like a Hummer with a Honda Civic spare tire this won’t lead anywhere but depredation.
There are some reliable reports, that COMELEC Chairman Bautista, had met with Pres. Duterte, regarding the 2016 election cheating role of the COMELEC, as ordered by Aquino, himself. Pres. Duterte was a victim of the “Dagdag-Bawas Scheme” of the COMELEC. There was a 5 million votes, added to Mar Roxas, removed from the 21 million votes of Pres. Duterte. Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr., was also a victim of the “Dagdag-Bawas scheme”…Leni Robredo, was the beneficiary of the electoral fraud. So, Leni Robredo is a Fake Vice President.
Okay, the woman, has declared “War on Trolls”…
How can she catch these Trolls ? They are using Fake Names. Their Addresses , you don’t know. I think, you need a Hyper Space Police, to catch them. And, they are multiplying like ants, everyday !
Leni “The Bobo” Robredo, must answer the allegations of the We are Collective, about her late husband. There are concrete evidences that , the Robredos, have been living beyond their means. And some witnesses in Naga City, can testify that they were involved in illegal gambling : Jueteng and Shabu Drug Trade.
There is a case of a certain Emil Aguinaldo, who is still missing. The antagonist of her husband, who filed graft and corruption cases, against the late , Jesse Robredo.
They usually say: “if there is a smoke, there is fire”… I say: if there is stink, something, somewhere is rotten !
Mrs. Leni Robredo. Do not be aggressive to catch and muzzle these Trolls. Because, you are only trying to Catch the Wind…
it is a frustrating effort on your part. Understand the Information Technology first, before you can do such a thing !
The Yellows deserve a taste of their own fake brainwashing medicine – to the point of historical revisionism that will change NAIA’s name into MIA (Macoy International Airport).
But really, is it “more fun in the Philippines” because of the adventure of Gullible’s Troubles at every turn? How did the Philippines come to be the Uto-uto capital of the world in the first place? Hint: False religion and the art of making people not question what is taught from the pulpit.
As a result of the COMELEC Chairman Bautista’s COMELEAKS…the integrity of the COMELEC is already compromised. There was a wholesale cheating thru: HOCUSPCOS, SMARTMAGIC in the 2016 election.
I myself, don’t believe that Porky Drilon has topped the Senatorial slate. He is a Pork Barrel Bribery enthusiast, and a Hacienda Luisita Swine…That, the nymphomaniac, Leila de Lima, who is now in Prison for drug dealing; and being the Drug Cartel Queen, is elected Senator.
That, Ms. Hontiveros and a certain Vilanueva, were elected as Senators. These people are useless, and unknown…
We have to have a RECOUNT, all Senatorial votes. And, put a good mechanism to guard our Electoral System.
Political opportunists, like the Aquino Cojuangco Political Axis, have already destroyed the integrity of the COMELEC.
As of now, Leni “The Bobo” Robredo, is being manipulated by her , Puppeteers, in the background…she sent a false information to the United Nation; the European Union; and to the U.S. She wants the Presidency badly…that she is now running around like a Pig in Sexual Heat !
This is all part of the orchestration of the Impeachment Complaint of Pres. Duterte, filed in the Congress, by the Magdalo Partylist. Trillanes, is running around, doing everything to impeach Pres. Duterte.
At the background, are “Men behind the Shadows”, directing this latest political zarzuela !
We are not amused by these Idiots !
The destabilization process of the administration of Pres. Duterte is already on its high gear…this is being done by the Aquino Cojuangco political axis, the Axis of Evil and Greed…they are the “men behind the shadows”, in this political poker game …
This is the reason. they bet everything on Leni Robredo…the impeachment; the UN report; the European Union Report; the campaign in the U.S., to help remove Pres. Duterte; and the campaign around the world against Pres. Duterte…
The YellowTard paid media is busy on all fronts. They are busy airing , FAKE NEWS , and political propaganda.
It is a fight of who will be impeached first: Pres. Duterte or Leni Robredo. At the background, is Sen. Ferdinand Marcos , Jr. waiting for the results of the votes for the Vice Presidency to be recounted !
It seems that, this is the “Climax of the political fight”, between the , YellowTards and the DuterTards …
Whoever wins in the struggle, will be good to see. I see that Pres. Duterte holds more “Aces”…some in his sleeves !
The Aquino Cojuangco Political axis; the YellowTards; the Liberal Party ; Leni Robredo ; etc…are “Dejado” ! They were “too soon” to show their “Aces”…
It is a “political poker game”….only in the Philippines ! I bet, Pres. Donald Trump of the U.S., is watching ! Unfortunately , Pres. Trump is an isolationist…no EDSA this time for Uncle Sam !