Many non-Filipinos and non-Filipino media base their impression and judgment of Duterte only from the mainstream Philippine media some of which include:
Inquirer: daily English newspaper run by the wife of the CEO of Benguet Corp, a mining company suspended recently by Duterte’s environmental minister due to years of abuse to the environment. The Inquirer president’s sister is married to the president of a big online casino company, which did not get its license renewed to operate due to its chairman’s manipulation of the stock market, among many other things. This family lost billions of pesos in the valuation of their assets and they would not take it sitting down.
Philippine Star: owned by the family of the speaker of the house (congress) who happened to be a staunch officer of the political party, Liberal Party, who tried to do everything to ensure that Duterte would not win the election, but obviously failed.
ABS-CBN: owned by a family which had deep scars caused by Marcos. Marcos is supported by Duterte.
Rappler: an investigative journalism site which is partly owned by American companies and which supported the candidacy of Liberal Party’s presidential bet.
It is worth noting that USAID “donates” to the Gerry Roxas foundation, a civic society group run by members of the Liberal Party. Gerry Roxas is the grandfather of Mar Roxas, the LP’s last presidential candidate. US supported the candidacy of Mar Roxas becase the latter would have been a rubber stamp to the US “Pacific Pivot” where the Philippines plays a very important geographical role. Fact: US hates the leftist-socialist Duterte especially after the latter’s about-face to China.
These are not “tell-it-to-the-marines” tales…a simple google search would divulge the sources of the stories above. So you see, the media hates Duterte. So do the big mining companies which have been closed down due to abuses to the environment, so do the Marcos victims and the Liberal Party and a lot of big businesssmen and the wealthy drug lords and the rich corrupt politicians. Most significantly, the US hates him…hates him big time. And you get your mainstream news from these entities. Those Filipinos who either also hate him or did not vote for him get their news also from these entities. So it’s this one big growing wealthy network who wants Duterte out and you see news like these:
- Duterte kills 2 or 3 or 5,000 in his war on drugs. (The drug problem in the Philippines was not thought of to be as big as we can see now. It’s like opening a rathole and everybody is scampering to safety. 700,000 drug users surrendered to authorities. A mega-rehabilitation facility has just been opened to house some 10,000 of them. But it’s the few thousands killing each other off so as not to squeal on others that end up in the frontpages, and this is blamed on Duterte. If Duterte wants them dead, the 700,000 would have been an easier target.)
- Duterte is a dictator. His critics call him crazy, idiot, psychopath, murderer. They throw him everything but the kitchen sink and he lets them be yet he still ends up being called a dictator in the making.
- Duterte is corrupt for allowing the burial of the Marcos in the Heroes’ Cemetery. The guideline allowing burial at the cemetery requires one to be a solider or a a President, both of which Marcos had obviously been. The case was challenged at the Supreme Court and it voted 9–5 allowing the burial. Duterte ended up being tagged corrupt.
But the news and articles like the ones below which are found on the corners of the last pages of the newspapers:
- Launch of 10-point socio-economic agenda and 2040 anti-poverty plan itemizing plans on reducing poverty
- Launch of multi-billion infrastructure projects
- Streamlining of business process for entrepreneurs and foreign investors
- Peace talks with rebels ongoing in Norway
- National emergency hotline 911 launched…for free
- National hotline 8888 for complaints on governance
- Streamlining of bureacracy (government papers that used to take half to one day are now released in minutes)
- Audit of the mining companies which have gained huge profits but have severely damaged the environment including the surrounding areas which lead to the displacement of indigenous peoples
- Opening up of services & utilties to other business players to give Filipinos access to more stable & cheaper electricity, faster Internet, better services, etc.
- Request of emergency power from Congress to fast-track solving the urban road traffic crisis.
- Influx of Chinese tourists and increase of exports due to improved China-Philippines relationship
- Increase of social security pension amount given to retirees
- Distribution of free lands to farmers
- Allowing of vegetable farmers to sell directly to big malls without middlemen to increase their profit and thus, their production
- Setting up of a one-stop-shop for Filipinos working abroad to make processing of their papers easier and scrapping of previously required documents.
- Hosting of an international beauty paeant in the Philippines to showcase the islands and boost tourism
- Launch of the Freedom of Information website allowing anyone access to government’s non-security documents.
And all these happened in 2–5 months.
Ever wonder why it’s these kinds of news that actually get the majority of likes in the tune of thousands or hundreds of thousands when posted on social media? This is the news that many Filipinos now prefer to look at. Many have grown tired of the sweet-talking, US-educated politicians who promise the earth and the moon but do not really care if overseas Filipino workers end up with bullets planted in their luggage at the airport just to be extorted a few hundred dollars, or other nationals wrapping their luggage in plastic just before entering the Philippines for fear of theft or bullet-planting, or the middle-class workers who just want to be home early to be with their families and not spend 3 hours stuck in traffic, or the 5-dollar a day earners who have to pay more than a third of their incomes as taxes just to deal with flooded roads, damaged roads, or no roads at all, or those ailing grannies lining up for hours in a day just to get hold of a piece of paper they need just to line up at another office for more hours just to get her benefits, or those victims of typhoons who years after the calamity are still homeless amid the millions of dollars donated, or the student who walks home fearing everyday that he will get mugged by a rugby-sniffing guy on the streets.
Duterte enjoys immense popularity at home enjoying very high trust ratings…not because the Filipinos are stupid. Many doctors, engineers, educators, entrpreneurs voted for him. It is because they are fed up. And they see hope in the brass, non-diplomatic, gum-chewing, foul-mouthed mayor from a city down south. Nevermind that he has no class, no breeding, non-elite….many are willing to gamble just to get out of the rot that the Philippine political system has placed them in.
No comments:
Post a Comment