British ‘Filipino-at-heart’ Malcolm Conlan writes a lengthy open letter addressed to the militants who protested on the alleged lack of press freedom under the Duterte administration.

Several days ago, some student activist showed their support to Rappler CEO Maria Ressa who got detained for a cyber libel case. They even made a placard which includes a warrant against President Rodrigo Duterte.

“You are hereby commanded to arr*st the person of Rodrigo Roa Duterte who is charged with the crime of committing treason, attacks on press freedom, and other human rights violation and bring him before the People’s Court as soon as possible,” the placard reads.

The photo was reposted by Conlan who also criticized them from thinking that they’re representing the majority of the Filipinos.

According to him, the activists should also look at the problems being solved by the President including the people who are victimized by the shabu users.

He also said that press freedom still exists under the Duterte administration, saying that the media can still be critical with the current administration without facing any consequences.

Conlan pointed out that while the Duterte administration is doing everything to solve the problem, the current administration cannot evade having some casualties.
“Whoever the st*pid people are in the picture and their supporters. 

Mga B*b*!!!

1. You and your cohorts seem to think you are representing ‘The Filipino people’. I’m confused, over 80% and more besides of the Filipino people (80 Million Filipino people, support the efforts of President Duterte and his administration in cleaning up the country and improving Filipinos lives. 

2. Talking about ‘Human rights’ what about the human rights of victims of crime, families of those who were addicted to Shabu who had their lives destroyed by this nasty dr*g?

3. ‘Press Freedom’ President Duterte is Open to dialogue with critics, the MPC regularly question President Duterte and of course Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo on all matters of government, whether positive or negative and none are silenced.

The reason why Pia Ranada and Rappler was banned from the press core was that Rappler sought to seek financial support from foreign investors, this is against the constitution as this means Rappler are not 100% Filipino owned.

The reason why Maria Ressa was also arrested stemmed from a complaint in 2012, by a private individual businessman who was libeled by her. I hope you appreciate, it’s his democratic right to seek justice from the courts, why is this anything to do with President Duterte or any kind of Press silencing? This businessman is fully entitled to seek justice.

3. To the ‘People’s court’ how dare you to accuse President Duterte of m*rder and treason!!!

President Rodrigo Duterte has given up so much to become a public servant. At his age, he should be enjoying a happy retirement and spending time with his family, children, and grandchildren.

Instead, he works night and day, 365 days a year for the betterment of the Filipino people. His work is not easy. He has to clear up the catastrophic mess made by previous administrations, underinvestment in infrastructure, a dr*gs pandemic, massive corruption, and rising poverty.

Sadly, there have been cases where innocent victims have lost their lives in the war on dr*gs, I accept that. Cases of mistaken identity, wayward police, rival gangs, corruption, and vigilantes.

This is regrettable, but sadly in any war, there will be innocent casualties. When mistakes are made, like in the tragic case of Kian De Los Santos, those responsible are prosecuted and imprisoned.

However, before President Duterte took office, there were over four million Filipinos addicted to illegal dr*gs. This meant people were not eating and children were going hungry and not even going to school as they were out begging whilst their parents forced them to beg to pay for their next hit of Shabu.

Filipinos now feel safer on the streets, crime is down by nearly 50% in many areas. President Duterte is a lawyer and as such is fully law abiding. He even instructs the PNP in allowing maximum tolerance, so that you and your friends are allowed to protest.

When you hold up bogus orders like this and in effect insult and undermine the democratically elected President of the Republic of the Philippines, please remember that under President Duterte, Filipinos lives have improved and therefore your protest is entirely irrelevant.

Thank you.”

National Youth Commission (NYC) Chairperson Ronald Cardema suggested that scholarship should be removed from students who are joining demonstrations against the government.

Cardema, who’s also the leader of ‘Duterte Youth’ said that ‘militants’ don’t deserve to receive a scholarship from the government.

According to him, President Rodrigo Duterte has the right to replace the militant students by people who are more ‘patriotic’ to receive a free education.

The Youth group leader also pointed out that student activists are only wasting the scholarship they received by joining rallies against the government.

You can read the whole post below:

“Pagtanggal sa scholarship program ng mga estudyante na sumasama sa mga rally laban sa gobyerno, kinatigan ng Youth Sector.

Mas gugustuhin ng Duterte Youth Movement na hindi na isama sa scholarship program ang mga kabataang sumasama sa kilos protesta at nananawagang ibagsak ang Duterte administration.

Ayon kay Ronald Cardema, Chairman ng Duterte Youth, dapat alisin sa listahan ang mga militanteng estudyate na hindi naman pumapasok sa klase at madalas nakikita sa rally.

Tama lang si Pangulong Duterte na palitan sila ng mga kabataang may interes sa pag-aaral at walang kakayahang pinansyal.

Una nang nanawagan ang youth sector sa law enforcement agencies na arestuhin ang ilang kabataan na nananawagan na ibagsak ang kasalukuyang administrasyon.

Apela ito ni Cardema kaugnay sa ikinakasa ng mga youth leaders na sumusuporta kay CPP-NDF Chairman Joma Sison na kilos protesta.”

In another statement, Cardema also said that some activists who are active in joining rallies against the government might be connected with the rebel group New People’s Army.

“Every week, you have the capacity to rally against our government troops but for the longest time wala namang naririnig ang Philippine society na nag-rally kayo against armed rebels of our country,” he said.

He also urged the other youths to avoid joining the rebel group.

“Being Presidential Supporters or Presidential Critics is part of a healthy democracy, no problem with that. But being consistently Anti-Government, being Anti-Government Troops, and being the youth recruitment base of rebels…the newly-elected government youth leaders of today must make a stand,” he said.

Senatorial candidate Doctor Willie Ong criticized Commission on Elections (COMELEC) for allegedly being too strict among candidates who are only relying on social media and other ways to campaign for free.

In his statement, Ong who’s known as a famous personality on Facebook was wondering why COMELEC is strict with the new ways to campaign like advertising on social media.

He said that COMELEC should focus on regulating the traditional campaign materials used by rich candidates like tarpaulins instead of trying to control the senatoriables who wants to use Facebook to advertise themselves.

Ong who got 9.4M fans on Facebook also slammed COMELEC for saying that surveys on social media are not reliable, unlike the private survey firms like SWS and Pulse Asia.

According to him, the plans of COMELEC might discourage the new senatorial candidates because they cannot afford to campaign like the other politicians who spent billions of pesos.

You can read his whole post below:

“Comelec Press Releases: 
Hindi ko talaga maintindihan ang nais ninyo?

Maraming payo ang Comelec sa kandidato ang hindi ko maintindihan talaga. Tulad ng:

1. Bawal daw mag-salita sa mga graduations. Pati ba conventions, meetings at flag ceremony ay bawal din? Eh iyan lang ang LIBRE sa mga bagong kandidato eh?
2. Ang poster dapat maliit lang at limitado din. Eh yan lang ang mura at kaya ng kandidato dahil 25 pesos ang isang poster.
3. Sa Facebook, babantayan daw nila ang sponsored posts. Eh 40 pesos lang ang isang sponsored post.
4. Sa Facebook, babantayan daw ng Comelec ang lahat ng pages ng Influencers at artista. I-Register daw lahat ng FB pages. Wala naman akong Influencer na ginagamit ah. Ako lang.
5. Sabi pa ng Comelec, huwag daw maniwala sa Facebook surveys dahil peke ito at ang nangunguna daw sa FB surveys ay isang “relatively unknown”. Dapat daw ay sa private surveys lang maniwala. 
Haay, grabe na talaga? Paano mo naman dadayain ang Facebook computer. Sige nga…

Kawawa talaga ang bagong kandidato sa patakaran ngayon ng Comelec.
Ang tanong ay ISA lang:

Bakit hindi Bantayan ng Comelec ang DAAN-DAANG MILLION na ginagastos sa TV Ads.
At pinag-iinitan pa ang maliliit na ginagawa ng mga bagong kandidato?

Ano LABAN ng isang POSTER sa 100 Million na halaga ng TV Ads. Hindi ba ang GOAL dapat ng Comelec ay maging mas PATAS ang labanan?? Kahit may pera o wala.

Nasa Philippine Constitution na dapat tulungan ng gobyerno ang mga kandidatong kulang sa pera para may tsansa silang mag-silbi sa bayan.

Hindi ko talaga maintindihan po.
Para maayos pa po natin. Para balang araw, may MATINONG bagong kandidato pa ang susubok.
God bless po.
– doc willie ong

Note: Nagtatanong lang po tayo kasi sobra na kami dehado. Ayoko nga sana ipost ito baka lalo pa tayo pag-initan eh.
Pero parang unfair po talaga. Pasensya na.”

Ong vowed to campaign without spending millions of pesos for campaign materials, unlike the other senatorial candidates by using social media to promote himself.

However, COMELEC was suspicious of using social media to campaign saying that they’re going to monitor bloggers and influencers on the internet.

“Number one, we have to look at the overall pattern of activity. It’s not that when you posted something, we will go after you already. We are going to check over time what you have been doing,” COMELEC Spokesperson James Jimenez said.

Jimenez also shared his disbelief on surveys conducted on social media in another statement.

“While it is heartening to see that many people are giving relative unknowns a second look – and even preferring them over more well known politicians, I would caution that surveys conducted on social media are not reliable,” Jimenez said.

Source:

Senatorial candidate Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa criticized the bet of the opposition for the 2019 elections for trying to duplicate the style of ‘Oplan Tokhang’ in their campaign style.

Dela Rosa shared an article wrote by ABS-CBN about the eight candidates of the opposition, also called as ‘Otso Diretso’ knocking the doors of the voters personally to introduce themselves and their platforms.

The former retired General said that the style of ‘Otso Diretso’ is the same as the controversial ‘Oplan Tokhang’ which means approach and talk with alleged users and pushers.

Oplan Tokhang has been criticized several times by the opposition, saying that the cops used it in a wrong way.

“Akala ko ayaw ninyo ng oplan tokhang yun pala ay gagayahin rin ninyo.” Dela Rosa said in his Facebook post.

According to the article, Otso Diretso said that they started the campaign with “knocking on doors and shaking the hands of bystanders’ in the place where they’re visiting.

Senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan said that they’re excited on doing door-to-door campaigning because it will be used for the national campaign for the first time.

“This campaign strategy of going house-to-house is a game-changer. It has not been done on a national scale,” Pangilinan said.

Dela Rosa started the ‘Oplan Tokhang’ during the time when President Rodrigo Duterte was still the Mayor of Davao City.

When President Duterte was elected as chief executive, Dela Rosa who got appointed as PNP Chief brought Tokhang on a national scale and started to knock the doors of alleged pushers and users.

However, it was criticized by the opposition saying that Oplan Tokhang was against human rights.

The controversial Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) Sheerlyn Gerasta who got featured in the radio program ‘Raffy Tulfo in Action’ finally chose her lover Edwin Madredio over her husband, Charlie Lozada.

Gerasta, who has five children with Lozada met several times and even helped by Raffy Tulfo and Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) to reconcile them, however, it seems that the OFW didn’t want to live with her husband anymore.

On February 5, Anitsirc Cataan Joaquino confirmed that the story between Gerasta and Lozada ended badly as she posted a photo of Edwin Madredio together with the latter.

Joaquino, shared her disappointment on social media, saying that Lozada is still crying because of losing the mother of his five children.

She even revealed that Gerasta asked money to Lozada several days before she met her lover.

“Kapal ng mukha mo kya pala nag madali ka na humingi ng pera ky Charlie ky gosto muna mka ponta na Manila. Kse nag antay na sa hotel c Edwin, mga sinongaling kyo sabi nyo matagal na kayong wla ano yan ngayon kitang kita na,” Joaquino said in her Facebook post.

Joaquino also urged her nephew not to talk with Gerasta anymore and fight for the custody of their children.

As of writing, the photo posted by Joaquino already reached 10,000 reactions and shares from the disappointed netizens.

Meanwhile, Joaquino shared that Lozada is already doing his own business to earn money to sustain the needs of his five children whom Gerasta left to him.

Several weeks ago, Lozada complained about how Gerasta is having a relationship with another man in Saudi Arabia who’s identified as Madredio.

Gerasta and Madredio said that they’re even ready to be deported just to insist their illegal relationship in Saudi Arabia.

After being featured in Raffy Tulfo in Action, Gerasta was forced to go home because of fears of being arrested for having a relationship with another man which is illegal in Saudi Arabia.

When she came back home, Gerasta denied that she met with Madredio personally.

Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) revealed shocking information on how connected the man involved in the 6.4-B shabu shipment last year to an opposition Senator.

Controversial businessman Kenneth Dong, who’s arrested several days ago is facing tax evasion charges for failure to file annual income tax return resulting in non-payment of taxes in 2013 and 2016, a total of P11,406,940.60.

Despite not paying taxes, a document from Commission on Elections showed that Kenneth Dong contributed 3 million pesos in 2013 and 5 million pesos in 2016 to support the candidacy of Senator Risa Hontiveros.

Hontiveros didn’t deny her connection to Kenneth Dong and admitted that she’s a godmother of the businessman at his wedding.

“Noong ikakasal na siya, inimbita niya ako kasama sina Senator Migs Zubiri, Kiko Pangilinan, Joel Villanueva, Ralph Recto, na magninong-ninang kami sa kasal niya,” Hontiveros said in an interview last year.

The lady Senator clarified that she didn’t know that Dong is doing questionable activities when her campaign team accepted the contribution.

“‘Yung campaign team ko ay may vetting process sa mga magpapakilala at magsasabing gusto nilang tumulong. As far as my campaign team knew then, at sa pagkakaalam ko rin ngayon, siya ay isang lehitimong negosyante,” she said.

She also pointed out that despite their connection, she will not do anything to save Dong from being punished for allegedly bringing shabu in the country.

“Talagang shocked na shocked ako, muntik akong mahulog sa silya nung banggitin yung pangalan niya bilang siya daw ang middleman sa shabu smuggling sa Bureau of Custom,” she said.