Letters From Davao:
I AM INTRGUED by the recent turn of events. Why is there so much brouhaha
over press freedom following the closure of the operations of Rappler, a media
outfit which was discovered to be generously funded by a foreign outfit knowing
for its covert destabilization activity in foreign government and leaders not
friendly to America?
How much more money had been infused to discredit the Duterte government
that a number of radical organizations and foreign-funded media firms suddenly
emerged in an unusual activism that stemmed from Rappler’s closure?
Stop, look and listen.
Have they lost their freedom which they claimed was deprived of them? It
was all about suppression of press freedom which Rappler complained of following
the closure order by the Securities and Exchange Commission. But should SEC
just watch in akimbo after it discovered that a notorious foreign
funder-Omidyar Network (ON) can intrude into the editorial content and policies
of the media company?
I do not wish to comment farther on the case of Rappler which is now with
the Court of Appeals but the outfit itself is actively covering activities that
had proceeded from its claim that its freedom had been curtailed and the
activists, as if on cue, damning it and walking out of class to “fight
Duterte’s dictatorship and tyrannical attacks on the youth and people”.
The sound and fury seem to drown the basic issue on what is (press)
freedom and what is criminal. But this is not even as simple as determining
whether it is just an issue of freedom or crime. This is intertwined with the
issues of nationalism, sovereignty and national security which are stonewalled
in the razzmatazz and drama taking place in the University of the Philippines
school campus, the leftist legal fronts like Kilusang Mambubukid, Kabataan
Party List, the Senate hall and unescapably the foreign funded media
organizations.
The issue of press freedom and crime had been convoluted. The noise and
sloganeering appears to be an attempt at concealing the crime of the past
administration among them the Dengvaxia horror and the Mamasapano massacre of
the police 44 Special Action Force. It is used by the moribund opposition and
some onion-skinned politicians to question bloggers and social media platform
like Facebook which impliedly Senators like Grace Poe and Manny Pacquiao want
to sanction. Poe even raised the possibility of barring Facebook in the
Philippines. Pacquiao is hurting some nosy bloggers are romancing his romance.
The opposition charged that pro-Duterte supporters and bloggers used
Facebook to spread fake news. Bloggers from all political persuasions and
ideology use FB and funny because the senators and the anti-Duterte bloggers
aimed their turrets on Asec. Mocha Uson as if all the fake news emanates from
her. They spared no words in discrediting her for mistakenly citing that Mt.
Mayon is located in Naga. What a big issue that was and still is and Uson
remains quiet to make her critics happy with their sarcasm.
Recall that Duterte’s followers intensively used the free platform of FB
because they were deprived of space and airtime in the traditional media.
Duterte was running on a shoe-string budget during the Presidential derby.
Duterte contracted advertising placements in ABS-CBN but even as he paid for
this in advance the network never aired these. But he was not lacking in
volunteers who covered the events of his campaign.
They told their stories and post these in FB along with the crude video
they took from their cell phones or handheld cameras. Jun Evasco, the campaign
manager, was surprised to learn that not a few domains carried out news and
videos of the campaign sorties. They were later dubbed as trolls but who cares.
Their message reached the masses and the videos of the Duterte campaign were
viewed by millions all over the country and by Overseas Filipino Workers who
were cheering for the candidate of their kind.
Were they viewing fake news in living colors? The political opposition
has never gotten over their defeat. The votes were just too overwhelming no
amount of machination and cheating reversed the outcome.
Until today they cannot come to terms with realty. They blamed Facebook
and Zuckerberg for their humiliating defeat and as the midterm election is
nearing they want to ban Facebook. This time they charge FB for being a
harbinger of what they claim are fake news. Symptoms of their hopelessness and
defeat are showing this early.
I wonder whether they will blame the Social Weather Station and Pulse
Asia for the “excellent” trust rating of Duterte. I wonder too whether they
suspect the international credit rating firms for the investment and stable
grade they gave to the Philippine economy under Duterte. I wonder whether they
find the BIR and BOC collection figures fakes.
Will they blame the Supreme Court for affirming the extension of martial
law in Mindanao?
2018 is a Build, Build, Build year. Surely the din of the rabid
rallyists, the headless Commission on Human Rights, the retinue of
foreign-funded media establishments and the interlopers from the Catholic Church
will be swallowed by the rumbling of construction equipment. (Jun Ledesma)
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