Libel Litmus Test

“Words as weapons sharper than knives
Makes you wonder how the other half die “

INXS The Devil Inside.

Much has been made of the Philippine Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012. On the surface some people feared that they can no longer provide or receive sharp opinion. This stems from the libel portion of the Act. Libel is defined as a  published false statement that is damaging to a person’s reputation; a written defamation. I decided to do an experiment and take some of my work and see if I get attention of the libel police. This of course is assuming a website will allow this post to go through. Every single word I quote here comes from compositions I made months before the Cybercrime act was signed. Many refer to the man who signed the bill. If you want to refer back to them in broader context they can be found here in GRP or in a different blog.

I am not doing this in retaliation or anything like that. I am not a reporter. I do write but I am not a journalist. I will give you my personal observations on commonly viewed news items based on my experiences and personal value system. If you can’t do that then how much does your governing body respect your humanity? Cyberspace in the Philippines  is used for more nefarious things as defined by the Act itself like child porn and  data manipulation. Why would anyone have time to observe a guy like me who will simply not swallow what is being shoveled his way?  Go after the real criminals. My opinion may be right or it may be wrong or somewhere in between but it’s my opinion.   So I won’t be accused of pulling a Sotto, that last sentence was inspired by something Curt Schilling    once said. My words are framed with words like ” I think”  and “look like”I don’t make any declarations on my own.   Do you really think that would hold up in court? Accusing a guy of libel and his ID picture is of a cartoon character in a blue mask.

Assuming this piece and my previous blogs are still up four years from now, will  history prove me right or wrong? Some of those quotes are now three years old. Do they hold up to time or are they now irrelevant?  Does it matter as long as I get that chance?

 

• ” My initial reaction when I heard her son Noynoy was running was , the guy was a politician but not a mover and shaker They are having someone who was a mover and shaker (Mar Roxas) who has been planning for his run to the Palace a while, step aside. To make way for someone who is carried by the outpouring sympathy of a cancer victim. ” Sept 9 2009
• ” One thing new I have to say about Noynoy that I did not say last time. You want someone who is driven to the highest elected office by a burning desire to serve the country. Not because other people feel that he should fill a burning hole in our country created by his mother’s death. I don’t know anyone who believes he would have ran for President if his mother was very much alive. And his mother has not been president since 1992.  “    Sep 29, ’09
• ” My personal opinion is that Noynoy’s campaign is being buoyed by the legacy of his dearly departed parents and the fame of his drama queen sister. He has nothing to fall back on. With the possible exception of some of my relatives campaigning for him.”
  Jan 27, ’10
• I think that Noynoy supporters believe voting for him will bring back Ninoy and Cory. Noynoy is wallpaper: just there. Feb 25 2010
• Who the heck gets fanatical over wall paper? The guy has not earned his followers by his actions. He has his followers because of his last name. If the guy’s last name was De Los Reyes and he had his identical resume , these groupies would just laugh at him.  Apr 19, ’10
• The guy’s record proves him to be a political stiff. Nothing noteworthy in his resume. But the fanatics somehow made a leap from his parents glory days to an envisioned future of a competent Noynoy steering this ship of state towards utopia. That may be a bit of an exaggeration but one does not get fanatic over a vision of mediocrity. Their envisioned future has no basis in the reality that Noynoy has delivered in his first 50 years on Earth. He could not lead his way out of a paper bag. Yet he is supposed to lead this country.   Apr 19, ’10
• The idea of going through obstacles to be worthy of your goal  is nothing new. This is a universal theme. Whatever movie you watch or book you read, the hero is credible and earns your admiration for going through trials and tribulations. The hardships makes them what they are. As I have always said, Noynoy is not made by trials but he is made and defined by his LAST NAME. Not by anything else. If that does not speak to the ignorance of his followers I don’t know what does.May 2, ’10
• Much has been made that Noynoy will not stain the legacy of his parents. For those of us paying attention to what he has done or not done in 50 years of living.He already has.  Running for president of the land not because of the wishes of his parents but for  the ulterior motives of those around him stains the parents legacy. Just bragging about his parents legacy in lieu of his personal deeds  stains the parents legacy. Running for president with his joke of a resume stains the parents legacy.  He already has stained the parents legacy. So don’t be giving some bogus promise that he won’t stain it should he win.  May 3, ’10
• Get any book on leadership and please photocopy or scan the pages that describe someone like Noynoy. Send it to me. And I will refute everything I ever said. Please back up your claim with facts from his life before the campaign. I doubt any of you can and that has always been my point. He is running for president because in this country the right last name is more important than the right resume. Noynoy talks about Mama and Papa and never about instances in his life where he has been challenged and he himself has answered that challenge. It always goes back to Mama and Papa. Well Mama and Papa ain’t here. Just Noynoy. May 5, ’10
• How can someone promise change when all he talks about what his parents did in the 80s?? He was part of the very government he claims he will change. Been there nine years and all of a sudden he will change it?
  You can have many emotional reasons to vote for Noynoy but your country needs your head making your decisions not your heart. May 7, ’10
• If I can make one plea to all of you going to vote for Noynoy, if you vote him in I will not stop. I will mock him at every turn. His mistakes will be inevitable. You want to know how to avoid mistakes? Do nothing. Noynoy is an expert at that. Guaranteed the first crisis he will face , he will have a deer in headlights look.  May 7, ’10
• Our standards in this country  for the highest public office one can attain seem to be really low if the right last name is all you need. No personal track record necessary.  Our countrymen who have campaigned and will vote for this charlatan  have bought emotionally   and can’t even defend logically.
  The Philippines deserves better than a President elected because of symbolism, sympathy, nepotism and memories. Or maybe it doesn’t. May 9, ’10
• The challenges that face your administration are daunting even for somebody qualified, passionate , ambitious  and experienced. You are none of the above and I hope you know what you are in for. Somehow I doubt it. May 12, ’10
• Facebook and all that is fine when it’s heaping praises on Noynoy but when the shoe is on the other foot he is crying foul. Then he says to stop it. To me that is the most moronic thing he has done through all this. A real leader would have known better. A real leader knows that criticism and second guessing is part of the territory. It’s part of the job description. Being critiqued is what you signed up for pal. Unless it was others who signed you up based on “Winnability”. Aug 25, ’10

• Much has been made about Noynoy’s smile describing the Hong Kong bus tragedy. Like I said before, no one ever trusted him with crisis before but the voters trusted this guy with the problems of the Philippines. So what does he do? With people watching him  looking for answers to an unfortunate tragedy he decides to do a Cheshire Cat. Sep 4, ’10
• I have said this on the record before. All the media did was make a guy who did nothing look like he deserved the top office in the land. Shame on the media for hoodwinking us. Shame on us for falling for it. Feb 21, ’11
• The laws should apply to people based on action or non-action. Not based on race. To hope for an outcome on those grounds is racism. Noynoy is in effect praying for racism. If  he told you to pray for an unjust law that would be one thing. But he is telling you to pray that the law of another country not be applied to violators who happen to be Pinoy. If you love your country then you want your country men to behave as well as possible.  Not to avoid punishment when they do not. Feb 25, ’11
• He was the only candidate that ran on the image of his parents and not what he has done. It’s like picking someone who will make economic , legal and international relations decisions using the criteria of American Idol. Text your vote!!!  It has nothing to do with merit. Forget about Noynoy looking bad. WE look bad.    Apr 30, ’11
• You can laugh at my theory all you want. But ask yourselves this. Why are we being oversold on every single date he goes on? Does he look or act like a guy who would be appealing to the women you see in the papers? Why do these women have a very short shelf life? What kind of woman would respect a man who used the mama’s boy strategy to get himself elected? May 18, ’11
• After reading his speech Noynoy feels companies in Asia are spared the Occupy movement  because they possess a certain halo that their western counterparts do not. I find it really  hard to believe that our nation has world class corrupt politicians but saints in the private  sector. It’s a gigantic leap of faith to make but then again so was 2010 Presidential Election.  Oct 23, ’11
• Anyway in the spirit of public protest came the new phenomena Noynoying. I found the Facebook page     and the creators actually made it last year. I would assume similar to Tebowing which sprouted at the same time. Making a verb out of a noun. Tim Tebow was known for prayer at the end of a game and Noynoy was known for , well you know nothing. Noynoying is defined as looking bored and assuming the laziest pose possible.
  Malacanang wants you to believe that is foul. But it has to come from somewhere? You know where it came from? Noynoy himself. An election campaign is an opportunity for one to talk about himself or herself. Noynoy did not do that because we all know there was nothing to talk about. That is exactly what he did pre elections 2010: nothing. Instead we were bombarded with his family members living or dead, seen or unseen. The campaign did it’s best to paint Noynoy Aquino as a sympathetic figure, lovable figure, sentimental figure but never made him out to be a working figure. Mar 18, ’12
• Can you imagine our current president staring down Ice Man? He had never had to compete for anything in a true competition. He never before had to go mano-a-mano with anything but now we expect him to take on China.  Sure he got elected but based on what? He relied on symbols and anchors to revisionist history. This guy pole vaulted over his mother’s corpse into Malacanang.  Anyone argue with that blunt, crude but true statement? His mom’s death was big news then he runs. Was he on that path before? Why is no one calling him out on this? The better question is why did we embrace this?   May 26, 2012
• Voting for Noynoy for many in 2010 was an excuse not to think. Many made the association to the end of Martial Law or some other idealized romanticized past. Leadership, Intelligence and decision making was not an issue. Noynoy’s campaign never showed concrete examples of any of that.    June 5, 2012
• Methods are unsound? I don’t see any methods when it comes to Noynoy BS Aquino. I don’t see a logical progression in his life that suggests he worked towards the presidency. I don’t see obstacles cleared. I don’t see accomplishments accumulated. I don’t see a stellar resume. I did see a lot of anchoring to his parents past. Do you call having the right mom dying at the right time a method? If we as a country are fine with a man like that as a leader it reminds me of another scene from the movie.  June 25, 2012
• People who take risks encounter failure. People take risk because they want to get somewhere. Show me someone who does not experience failure and I will show you someone who does nothing or someone who is not remotely challenged.   Show me someone who has not experienced failure and I will show you someone who can not handle adversity. So I ask the question again, what has Noynoy ever failed at before he was elected president?   July 6, 2012

Gogs

Putting a very sharp needle into the balloon known as Pinoy Pride since 2012.