'Trending topics' Zubiri and Cris Lao reflect the character of Pinoy chatter

By -

Just two unrelated events over the last couple of days have set the Philippines' chattering classes on fire again. The resignation of Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri and the unfortunate mistaking of a car for a submarine by a certain Christopher Lao have become fodder for speculation and low-brow entertainment.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular this week

Jose Rizal never had Tagalog in mind when he encouraged us to love our own language

By -
Image
Posted by a certain Chloe Santiago on the Facebook GRP Community Group : Jose Rizal died in 1896 and Tagalog was declared the official language of the Philippine only in 1937. This can only mean that Rizal wasn't really talking about Tagalog when he made this statement: "He who does not love his own language is worse than an animal and smelly fish." Indeed. Who made the arbitrary directive to make the Tagalog dialect the "National Language" to begin with? Furthermore, why have a "National Language" when Filipinos are already proficient in the global lingua franca of commerce and scientific achievement?
Read more

Day 2: Senate hearing backfires against a rattled Senator Leila de Lima!

By -
Image
Just watched Day 2 of Senate hearing. Tables were turned once again on De Lima, without any effort it seems from the PNP or Duterte's senate allies. This must really be karma at work, or Duterte's magic is really strong. De Lima opened the session by saying she had asked ABS-CBN, Inquirer, and GMA 7 to submit their "kill list" databases and methodology for compiling the lists. However, only GMA 7 submitted. Strange. If those lists were being prepared properly, shouldn't these media groups have their databases and methodology on hand at any time? Or were those lists haphazardly done? Sandra Cam showed up in the middle of the hearing and sat directly behind De Lima. But Cam disappeared after a while, so viewers were not treated to scratching and hair-pulling. A group of women wearing dark glasses, masks, and headscarfs sat in a row on one area–I don't know why De Lima made them dress like jihadist terrorists, but they were her witnesses. (No offense mean...
Read more

Over 100M-peso cost of #DongYanWedding shouldered by GMA Network as publicity investment!

By -
Image
I was correct with my gut feelings. My friendly butiki, who listens to everything inside the executive offices of GMA7, confirmed that it was the network that paid for everything (repeat, everything) in the so called 'royal wedding'. It was over Php100m on the wedding day alone, not including other expenses in the pre-nuptial activities. This is an eye-popping amount if it is just a wedding expense (as I am one of those who think that a 20m wedding is already stupid and insensitive in a Third World setting, even if one could afford a 500m one). Over 100m, however, is a justifiable amount, even cheap vis-a-vis the ROI, if it is accounted as marketing and advertising expense of a large corporation that regularly spends much more anyway in their ads and promos. If the network has been able to project that their signature stars are bigger than those from competition, then they would have been able to deliver the message that GMA7 is the bigger kid in the block (don't get me...
Read more

Philippine Roman Catholic Church suspiciously SILENT on electoral fraud!

By -
Image
Cheating is a grave sin. And yet the Philippines' Roman Catholic Church remains silent on the biggest issue Filipinos need to wrap their heads around today -- the Great Electoral Fraud of 2016. Could it be because their allies, the Yellowtards, stand accused of cheating in these previous elections? Here we see the banal bias the Catholic Church applies with regard to its politics. Yellowtards currently presume to lead the wider Philippine Opposition which desperately needs to unite to beat the popular incumbent administration of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. Its choice to front this leadership is "vice president" Leni Robredo who encapsulates the prayerful archetype favoured by the Church. The trouble is, the Robredo brand is stained by charges of electoral fraud in the 2016 election which brings to question her claim to the Office of the Vice President of the Philippines. The Church is therefore behaving predictably -- which is why its credibility as a ...
Read more