Archive for the ‘Media’ Category

Much of the criticism surrounding the handling of the Manila hostage crisis that ended in the preventable deaths of eight Hong Kong tourists had to do with the intrusive coverage of the event by the Philippine Media. Had the hostage-taker, ex-police officer Rolando Mendoza, (who had access to a TV set installed in the besieged bus) not been kept abreast of police personnel ... Full story

The recent Manila bus siege gave President Noynoy Aquino another opportunity to exhibit one of the two things he does best, which is to do nothing. As the tragedy of the hostage situation was unfolding, shocked and curious Filipinos were wondering where P.Noy was and what he was doing the entire time. Until now, I have never seen his Facebook fan page ... Full story

Last Sunday, the 21st of August was the death anniversary of National "Hero" Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr. That date is significant to me because I remember back in 1983, how his brother Agapito -- what's-up-with-the-nickname -- Aquino in a stroke of marketing genius began to fly a flag bearing the acronym ATOM (August Twenty One Movement) that was to go on to become indelibly associated ... Full story

ALL OF A SUDDEN, the method of the moronism reveals its purpose. I think that originally, most of us were assuming that Noynoy Aquino was just stupid. Any casual observer could be forgiven for forming that impression from the manifold evidence of his inability to formulate a coherent platform, speak intelligently on any issue during the campaign, and the amateurish and constant gaffes in the ... Full story

In the movie Inception the character played by Leonardo DiCaprio leads a team of dreamweavers on a mission to implant a concept in the inner reaches -- three levels down, to be exact -- of a powerful industrialist's subconcious. The expectation here is that an idea that originates at even the lowest depths of one's subconcious ultimately manifests itself in one's behaviour during the wakeful ... Full story

The word escapism, as defined in the Net, refers to a mental diversion by means of entertainment or recreation, as an "escape" from the perceived unpleasant or banal aspects of daily life. It can also be used as a term to define the actions people take to help relieve persisting feelings of depression or general sadness. Ironically, for a society that claims to be always ... Full story

Why is President Benigno "P.Noy" Aquino III smiling less nowadays? Perhaps it is because reality is starting to hit him -- the reality of the future and the reality that he, the President of the Philippines, is surrounded by morons. The problem with small moronic minds is that the people these inhabit lack a fundamental ability to take an imaginative step out of the ... Full story

Yes, Noynoy, great job! Thanks to you, everything is proceeding according to my Simounistic prediction. If you recall, I had predicted last May that your winning the 2010 elections will pave the way for the rise of Bongbong Marcos to become president in 2016, and it is obvious right now ... Full story

So President Noynoy Aquino is popular. Okay, already. Frankly, his minions in the Inquirer.net are over-praising him for just being popular with the public and rating highly in a trust "survey". There are even newspaper columnists who give P.Noy too much credit on things he hasn't accomplished yet -- even without laying any kind of concrete plan of action for the future. They say ... Full story

The Inquirer.net Editor has gone on a defensive strike against "so-called pundits" critical of President Benigno "P.Noy" Aquino III's 26th July State of the Nation Address (SONA). The Op-Ed piece came across to me as no more than a long-winded admonishment of how so much of what was in the SONA that could be "chew on" even by "non-fans" was left unappreciated.... Full story

By my reckoning (on the basis of its English translation), President Benigno "P.Noy" Aquino III devoted 1,558 words out of the 4,055 words in his 35-minute State of the Nation Address (SONA) to whining about the plunder of the National Budget (whatever that means exactly) and the salaries and bonuses of some Government employees. That's 38.4 percent of his speech devoted to what was ... Full story

Boo hoo hoo. The national budget is depleted and the new President Benigno "P.Noy" Aquino III, as it turns out, is no "superman". For the Average Filipino Schmoe who latched on to the promise of the "magic" of an Aragorn-led mighty army of righteousness galloping in to rescue him from his wretchedness, the road ahead leads back to Square One. And the only thing ... Full story

I say - More WOTL Less Wowowee. Finally, the Philippines has a TV show that tells it as it is. Initially, I thought it was an indie-film. But obviously, it isn't. The Philippine entertainment industries reason for producing B-movies and re-imagined Mexican/Korean/HK telenovelas is that there is no market for such fare. I find that hard to believe.... Full story

Is it being "destructive" to publish a litany of the gaffes that have come to collectively characterise the administration of President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III? Some people dismiss such an exercise as "nitpicking" and exhort the "offending" parties to take a more "positive" perspective, while others preach the virtues of dismissing these call-outs as nothing more than noise dished out by "hecklers" and ... Full story

(Updated with Part 3 - July 9' 2010 - Charice serenading a country that rejected her talent) Honeymoon periods with new incumbents are understandable. We, Filipinos, though have a way of overdoing things - not necessarily the right ones. In this satire featuring an animated (literally, a cartoon in the tradition of South Park) interview of Sarah Palin by Larry King about her invitation to ... Full story

Word has it that when Noynoy Aquino was still a candidate, there was a group in his billionaire-backed campaign team that was assigned to handle international media relations. As a result, Aquino received positive coverage. That makes these two articles published by the Asian Wall Street Journal during Aquino's first two days in office all the more interesting to read. Full story

The sight of the Yellow Horde during the inauguration of Noynoy Aquino frightened me. I was not there of course. I watched it on TV. As expected, the inauguration turned out to be highly emotional. Too emotional that it cheapened every single thing about it except for the first part of it where out-going President Gloria Arroyo (GMA) bade her farewell to the military people.... Full story

It's two days before Gloria Arroyo steps down as President of the Philippines. ABS-CBN reporter RG Cruz, who covers the Malacanang beat, wrote an interesting piece on assessing Gloria's performance. A fresh take like this rarely makes it past the gatekeepers of the Aquino Broadcasting Network, so soak it up, folks. Full story

The Armed Forces Chief of Staff General Delfin Bangit retired on June 22, 2010 after occupying the top post at the AFP for just over 100 days. Bangit was not due for retirement until July 2011, but the president-elect Noynoy Aquino forced his hand. This is the first time in modern Philippine history that an incoming president has forced the removal of an ... Full story

I gotta hand it to out-going president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Despite the immense amount of energy expended by the Philippine Media over the last ten years to turn her from hero of the Edsa II "revolution" into the reviled cunning "evil" empress out to divest the hapless Filipino of his hard-"fought" freedom, she manages to consistently remain one step ahead of her detractors. ... Full story

What the 60 percent needs to know is the PLAN… THE GRAND PLAN FOR ECONOMIC GROWTH AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT!!! Full story

Kuryente, or electricity, is the term Filipino journalists use when reporters get “electrocuted” by wrong information. ABS-CBN, a sister company of kuryente firm Meralco until Manny Pangilinan’s recent takeover, is on its way to becoming a regular source of kuryente. Philippine Star columnist Federico Pascual tells how his name was falsely included by ABS-CBN in a report on Gloria Arroyo’s “midnight” appointments. Full story

There is one good thing about a Noynoy presidency and that is he can provide a really good comic relief -- to people who think, that is. On the other hand, his avid supporters (idiots) will just praise him for his words no matter how absurd they are. Of course, we shouldn't just laugh about the turmoil we are in today. However, every time I watch ... Full story

In his latest hossana to People Power and Noynoy Aquino (yes, he's not over it), Inquirer columnist Conrado de Quiros claims Aquino will be able to stop corruption because "he will raise, like Aragorn who conscripted dead kings and their legions in 'Lord of the Rings,' an army mightier than any of his enemies can muster". What do you suppose he means by this? ... Full story

Some people are very, very disappointing. I'm not just talking about Noynoy Aquino. I'm talking about some people who used to make a lot of sense and now they are talking non-sense. They have the nerve to tell other people to stop engaging in "reckless adventurism" whatever the heck that means because to them, engaging in such "may negate what fate and fortune has laid ... Full story

If I lower my guard and take the comfy view that I am fundamentally defined by where I was schooled, I'd call myself an "Atenean". When you are an Ateneo alumnus (and specially when you remain on as a faculty member), you usually come equipped with a lot of connections and the frame of mind to segue into "socially-oriented" projects if you wanna go down ... Full story

IT IS NOT SOMETHING TO BE ADMIRED – Noynoy Aquino's claim that he wants to lead a simple life. Let us cut to the chase. Noynoy is not a humble man. He can deny it to high heavens but getting the supposedly 40% mandate has already gone into his head. His insistence on living in his residential home in Times Street instead of Malacanang ... Full story

Ellen Tordesillas found the appropriate title for her recent blog There are still those left behind. In an act of hollow-headed banditry on February of 2006 a renegade group of military personnel stormed the Manila Peninsula with the apparent hope of using it as a base for inciting wider-scale mutiny across the military establishment. The subject of the "crusade" in this instance was supposedly ... Full story

It's hard to lead a normal life when you are a Filipino. There are times when you just want to do the right thing but other people prevent you from doing so. Take voting during an election as an example. It should be a pretty straightforward exercise. You wake up, eat your meal, fix yourself up and then go out and vote. Sadly, in the ... Full story

President-elect Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III would've made any field commander serving on the ground in the latter part of of the Vietnam War proud. Just a week or so after he has been widely recognised as the next "President" of our excellent Republic, he has chalked up quite an impressive body count without actually gaining any significant tactical (much less strategic) ground as far as ... Full story

Here is an interesting excerpt from Manuel L Quezon III's recent column on the Inquirer.net, "The Mandate" where he gushes about Aquino's "landslide" win in this year's elections: It is the largest plurality since the present Constitution came into force; and only the second indisputable presidential win in a generation. It ends the legitimacy crisis of ... Full story

I don't think Kris Aquino has any real friends. If she had, they would have told her long ago that the only way people would leave her alone is if she quit being in the limelight. I know, I know, but what else is she going to do? More importantly, who else will the rest of Philippine society talk about? Even her famous buddy, Boy ... Full story

According to the Inquirer.net editor in his most recent Op-Ed, "President"-elect Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III garnered "the most remarkable mandate since the present Constitution’s ratification in 1987". Dude. And I thought the Inquirer.net had behaved like such a pathetic lackey of the Yellow Army all through the last twelve to 24 months leading up to this ... Full story

Edward Bernays recognized that advertisers can use messages that appeal to people’s subconscious, thereby influencing them to buy the products of his client company or even favor the politician who is his client. Full story

Filipinos are a funny people. We want change but we are not sure whether to look forward or to look back. Not surprisingly, we are again the butt of jokes of the international community. Just recently, I heard that a foreign news commentator from Australia remarked that politics in the Philippines is just like a swapping of seats between the Aquino and the Marcos clan. ... Full story

First of all I'd like to express how proud I am of the Philippines' Commission on Elections (COMELEC). It overcame the hexes cast upon it by shamans in the Philippine Media and the parties they supported, and stepped up in the face of overwhelming disapproval. Amidst the descent to a primitivist government, the COMELEC stands tall as a lone beacon of modernism in our backward ... Full story

If I trusted all the guys who kept telling me to trust them, I would probably be a run-down alcoholic has-been by now. I am so glad that skepticism runs through my veins. It has kept me grounded and safe from being trapped in sticky situations. I don't know why some people can't adapt the same kind of mentality because I see a lot of ... Full story

This is a video shared with us by an AntiPinoy.com commenter that shows Philippine Star columnist Carmen Pedrosa sharing information about Noynoy Aquino's mental health. Among other things, she hints, in this video, at how "the Media" would not allow her to express "the truth" she is revealing here and how this leaves her no choice but to resort to this video (presumably, but not ... Full story

Can somebody please turn back the hands of time? Where is Superman?!? We don't have enough time to convince the majority of Filipino voters that they are making a huge mistake by voting for Noynoy! I keep thinking to myself, what if I had written about the owners of SWS and Pulse Asia earlier on say, three months ago? I wonder if the ... Full story

As the election draws to a close, the situation is getting a bit too tight for Filipino voters and their candidates. There are others who are already expecting a defeat -- after the much anticipated (or dreaded) religious endorsement was announced -- but will nevertheless continue to fight on. But there are others who are quick to claim victory and pounce on the chance ... Full story

There's a whole lot of bull we wouldn't have to put up with if surveys weren't made for public consumption. We'd have none of those ignorantly arrogant claims from Senator Noynoy Aquino, like the one about how the only way he will lose this year's elections is through election fraud. And certainly none of our friends ... Full story

THERE IS ONLY ONE GOOD REASON why a writer for the Philippine Daily Inquirer like Patricia Evangelista would write against presidential candidate Dick Gordon a week before the election. It's because she is writing for the Philippine Daily Inquirer. When someone takes pains to emphasize that she is not doing so just because she ... Full story

Apparently Inquirer columnist Patricia Evangelista made a few waves among supporters of presidential candidate Richard Gordon in her recent article People call me Dick by making something about the man's assertive and straight-to-the-point manner of conducting himself. Evangelista's final indictment illustrates the very nature of some basic concepts about being a leader, that Filipinos so ... Full story