A Porsche 918 Spyder linked to actor Derek Ramsay and found to be using a fake license plate, will mean uncertainty for some motorists and commuters as the Land Transportation Office cracks down on improvised and temporary plates from Tuesday, September 1 — a truly ‘pare, pulis ako’ development.

The LTO had allowed, or at least had prohibited less vigorously, the use of improvised — for vehicles with lost or damaged plates — and temporary — for those still waiting for theirs — license plates that people can order online because of limited official supply.

Thanks to Ramsay’s friend AJ Violago (and reportedly ramped-up production), that has changed.

LTO Assistant Secretary Markus Lacanilao has announced new restrictions: Vehicle owners will need to get authorizations, good for 90 days, to keep using the unofficial plates. Failure to present authorization will mean a P5,000 fine and impoundment of the vehicle.

Some problems: The memorandum circular on the crackdown is so far only available on the Facebook page of an LTO branch in Bulacan and on online forums.

It isn’t on the LTO’s official channels or on its website so it’s unclear how widely it has been disseminated, which could lead to arbitrary enforcement.

There isn’t time either to get authorization before implementation since Monday, August 31, as Sen. Robinhood Padilla reminded the nation this week, is National Heroes Day.

LTO tried to implement a similar crackdown last year but walked it back as it acknowledged reports of delayed distribution of license plates. It said then that motorists shouldn’t be penalized for factors outside their control.

Kapatiran sa Dalawang Gulong, or Kagulong, an organization of motorcycle transport workers, doubts those factors have changed much since.

Even if the LTO has eliminated its license plate backlog, it still needs to address the problem of dealers taking months — in some cases, years — to release them to vehicle owners, Kagulong Secretary General Don Pangan says.

Pangan says delayed release is a common issue among Kagulong members.

Motorcycle riders, who many now rely on to get around, transport items, and deliver their food, are also the easiest targets for checkpoints. That makes the potentially ad hoc enforcement of the LTO order extra worrying.

Lacalinao has acknowledged the issue with some dealers, saying in a Bilyonaryo News Channel interview that some keep the plates as a sort of insurance to keep buyers who got their vehicles on installment paying.

He says the LTO is also cracking down on those dealers, which is great for enforcement, but no comfort at all for motorists who have been waiting for their license plates for months.

—

Slow Notes are quick pieces on things that might make you go ‘huh?’. They come out Saturdays, in time for weekend drinks conversation.

As a further argument for a separate Facebook for old people like me, you may have noticed in coverage surrounding the school shooting in Zamboanga City posts that refer to “g*ns”, or to people being “k*lled”, or the crime of “m*rder”.

While stories on school shootings should be handled with sensitivity, the asterisks are not there to protect the victims or readers’ sensibilities.

They are meant to help bypass screening on social media, which has been mostly automated and, colleagues say, is increasingly arbitrary.

Erik Tenedero — head of social media at ABS-CBN News, where I work — says some newsrooms do it to avoid platform restrictions and takedowns for potential violations of community policies.

“There is no consistency on social media policies and big publishers are more prone to takedowns so they are also just trying to be safe,” he says.

The consequences can range from a takedown, to demonetization, to account suspension, he said.

For media companies that increasingly live on and through social media, that could mean hundreds of thousands of pesos of lost revenue until the account is restored.

In some cases, that has taken months. Tech firms like Meta and Google used to have people dedicated addressing these issues but they have since reduced engagement with newsrooms, leaving social media managers scrambling to look for an actual person to talk to.

The asterisks are an abundance of caution, says John Marwin Elao, social media boss at Philstar.com.

“I don’t see the use of the actual word alone as an automatic violation,” he says.

He says the bigger concern is for the “overall content” to be violative of community standards.

“I think some newsrooms do censor words because they’re being cautious about automated moderation or past takedowns, but it’s not something I want to rely on as a workaround,” he says, since the asterisks make copy awkward “or obscure what actually happened.”

Social media platforms changing how we communicate is not something new and “algospeak” like “grape” and “unalive” has been documented since earlier in the decade. In some cases, like for survivors of sexual assault, they could even be helpful and empowering.

But when newsrooms do it, it risks altering how we do our work and how we are seen to do it.

Journalism professor Danilo Arao, who teaches at the University of the Philippines and the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, says the irregular spelling “[gives] the impression of poor proofreading and horrendous diction”.

During a literacy crisis and at a time when media is already facing questions on credibility and competence, that does nobody any favors.

Even more important, Arao says, “self-censorship sanitizes the news as the right words get replaced for more sustained clout or engagements.”

He says newsrooms should avoid trying to “game the algorithm” and instead keep on engaging platform owners “to ensure more responsible gatekeeping that is not dependent on AI but is mainly powered by human editorial supervision.”

POSSIBLY OF INTEREST: Who decides what is fake news? Philippine Bill puts power in state’s hands, to dismay of journalists

—

Slow Notes are quick pieces on things that might make you go ‘huh?’. They come out Saturdays, in time for weekend drinks conversation.

Accrediting vloggers has been brought up every now and then since Duterte was president, when the Palace said that it was considering allowing them and social media influencers to cover events and speeches.

RELATED: How pro-Duterte bloggers went from the margins to the mainstream of Philippine politics on the back of fake news

The proposition was met with some resistance (and outright horror) at the time, and again when it was brought up during the first year of the Marcos Jr. administration, but times, circumstances and the media landscape have changed a lot since then.

With many, if not all, newsrooms putting out content online, KBP president Noel Galvez notes that “broadcasters” are no longer just on TV and radio but are also “using the technology that is available right now.”

Of course, viewers would benefit from vloggers and content creators observing ethical standards in the information that they provide — if that is even what audiences go to them or even online for anymore.

RELATED: Who among the 2025 senatorial aspirants have been sources of mis- and disinformation?

A decade, possibly even half a decade ago, accreditation by the KBP would have provided the benefit of being an assurance of quality or of access to spaces reserved for journalists, but content creators have managed to thrive without us — or even despite us.

One problem with self-regulation, although still preferable to government regulation, and things like ethics is the regulation itself. Since they cannot be imposed (at least not really, not in people’s hearts), one has to trust that the person claiming to work under a certain code really does.

Bolting KBP — or, to be fair, NUJP — does not carry any real penalty and does not bar anyone from the practice of journalism or of content creation.

Top network GMA isn’t a member and Quiboloy media company SMNI was a member when it was actively engaged in maligning and red-tagging all and sundry, eventually leaving the organization “[b]ecause they could not follow the Broadcast Code of the Philippines.”

SMNI still operates, though, and is probably even more partisan than it used to be, a feat previously not thought possible.

The KBP proposal is a good idea on its face, and there may be some vloggers and content creators who would take them up on the offer when it finally comes, but I am not sure many would.

After all, part of the draw of being an independent is being able to do, say and stream what you want and not being part of mainstream media and its institutions might even be what draws their viewers to them

If we’re being honest, broadcast and mainstream media in general have been playing catch up for eyeballs in recent years. We’re still pretty big, but one doesn’t seem to have to be anymore.

KBP’s Galvez acknowledges as much in his pitch for members to produce new content that is relevant to the public: "It's very important for us to be relevant. Pagka relevant tayo, magsu-survive tayo and hindi lang 'yun, magta-thrive tayo.”

(If we are relevant, we will survive. And more than that, we will thrive)

At a recent informal gathering — more drinks-around-a-table than an actual roundtable — colleagues and contemporaries tried to wrap our heads around the thought that we might be the last generation, or at least cohort, to do this in a way that would still be recognizable to those that came before us (and even then, we get complaints).

It has been a very challenging couple of years and the coming ones will likely be that way too, if not more.

—

• On a related note, Rappler’s Don Kevin Hapal writes in the New Internationalist on the Philippines’ Disinformation Disinformation Machine from Twinmark — a commercial propaganda network uncovered during the Duterte administration — to what the landscape is now in 2024.

• (The) Sheila Coronel offers Ten Tips for Reporting in an Autocracy in the Columbia Journalism Review, which I initially thought was ill-timed — because, have we not been? — but realized it was for US colleagues. It only took me half a second to get it, to be fair, and it’s also still applicable to us.

• Some newsrooms, like The Guardian in the UK and Vanguardia in Spain, are leaving Twitter, saying it has become “a toxic media platform and that its owner, Elon Musk, has been able to use its influence to influence political discourse.”
  
  It has never been a good driver of views — NPR left a while ago and has survived — and I have been thinking lately of how being on it makes me even just a little complicit in all that Musk has been doing.
  
  People have been flocking to rival and lookalike Bluesky but it’s early days and we don’t know how that will work out. Maybe the shift will get us off social media eventually. We might get to actually, as they say, touch some grass.

• The Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility is holding its Jaime V. Ongpin Seminar on Nov. 19, where the absolute best in our profession will talk about best practices and future prospects for the industry and craft.

• President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has appointed veteran journalist Joe Torres as the new executive director of the Presidential Task Force on Media Security, a development that colleagues are viewing with hope. Comments on the previous PTFoMS heads are unprintable but let us just say that Torres seems to not have been cut from that same cloth.
  
  Human Rights Watch researcher Caloy Conde has a podcast interview with him, where he says there will be no red-tagging by the agency under his leadership.
  

• Meanwhile, UN Special Rapporteur Irene Khan again raised concerns over the protracted trial of Tacloban journalist Frenchie Mae Cumpio, noting she is only getting to testify in her defense nearly five years since she was arrested.
  
  “That itself raises serious questions about the fairness of the process,” the special rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression said this week.

—

Frenchie Mae Cumpio, a community journalist who has been detained in Leyte since 2020 on questionable terror-related cases, will finally get to start telling her story in court on Monday, November 11.

“Cumpio’s plight reflects the broader struggle of Filipino journalists working under challenging and often hostile conditions to uphold their commitment to truth and justice,” AlterMidya People’s Alternative Media Network said of her case in a statement commemorating the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists.

RELATED: Community publication executive director threatened

The Eastern Vista news portal where Cumpio was editor-in-chief is a member of the AlterMidya network and has been dormant since 2020, a direct effect of her arrest and proof of how cases against community journalists weaken press freedom.

UN Special Rapporteur Irene Khan, the first foreign visitor Cumpio was allowed to meet, said in February that the government should “look into those cases, review the case and dismiss the charges. Or, bring them to trial rapidly with full due process so that it can be decided whether or not they are guilty.”

FIRST PERSON: Dalaw sa Tacloban City Jail

Nine months since Khan’s visit, that has not happened, but Cumpio’s chance to testify on Monday brings hope that she — as well as church worker Marielle Domequil and human rights defender Alexander Abinguna who are facing the cases with her — will be freed soon.

RELATED: In Marcos Jr.’s Philippines, milder tone belies harsh media reality

The Committee to Protect Journalists made a similar call for the government to drop the cases, pointing out in a statement that she is only getting the chance to speak “after languishing in jail for nearly five years,” which, it said is in itself a “disgraceful travesty of justice.”

Reporters Without Borders, meanwhile, called for the dropping of the charges, saying Cumpio “who reported on abuses committed by the military, is obviously targeted by a strategy that seeks to deter all Filipino journalists from investigating taboo topics.”

“Her case highlights the disturbing ‘red-tagging’ practice in the Philippines, used to label journalists as ‘subversive’ or even ‘terrorists’ when they cover issues deemed sensitive by the government,” RSF also said.

Unfortunately, not even the Presidential Task Force on Media Security can help itself from engaging in the practice, with its head at the time saying in January that Cumpio was in detention “for her active role in the local terrorist groups of the communists,” an accusation that has not been proven in court.

—

• Inspired (and maybe a little shamed) to give this newsletter another whirl by media watchers Press on Standby PH and Medyo Media PH, who have the advantage of being younger than me by at least a decade and of having the energy of youth.

• US-based Prinz Magtulis has a data story on why it feels like more of the same people are running for office in the Philippines. It feels that way because it is true and with nice visuals: Smaller and smaller election field.

• Everybody’s idol Krixia Subingsubing was in the US to cover the elections there, and sends back a familiar dispatch (doubly so for her since she covered the Robredo campaign in 2022): Fil-Ams target of information manipulation in US polls

• A related (and also familiar) story from Mother Jones: The Oligarch Election: American billionaires have long placed their thumbs on the scale of democracy—but never like this.

• This is a plug for an upcoming Photojournalists’ Center of the Philippines seminar, but is also a situationer on the particular plight of visual journalists: Nobody wants to be a photojournalist anymore

• Finally, an alternative narrative to the one that mainstream media has been telling of violence involving fans of an Israeli football club in Amsterdam: Maccabi Tel Aviv fans chant racist slogans upon return to Israel from Amsterdam
  
  I have been binging the Citations Needed media criticism podcast and, to borrow a term from it, the way media has been covering these things (things like, for example, the bloody and brutal collective punishment being conducted in Gaza) — and more broadly, how most of the world has been responding to them— has been “jokerfying.”

—

The Philippines marked National Press Freedom Day — more properly Marcelo H. Del Pilar Day because he deserves a holiday and because the community traditionally instead celebrates World Press Freedom Day on May 3 of each year — with little changed and, in fact, with colleagues actually at risk on the ground.

You cannot have missed the ongoing search operations at the Kingdom of Jesus Christ compound in Davao City that began on August 24 — it is hard to ignore thousands of cops combing through a 30-hectare property and the political drama surrounding it.

SUDDENLY, HUMAN RIGHTS: Rights advocates explain human rights issue in the KOJC standoff

More easily missed was the plight of colleagues, from local newsrooms and from national media networks, covering a tense situation while caught between a phalanx of police personnel and hundreds of followers of Apollo Quiboloy, former President Rodrigo Duterte’s spiritual adviser and fugitive from the law in the Philippines and in the US.

Quiboloy’s followers blocked news teams of MindaNews, Newsline Philippines, the Philippine Daily Inquirer, and state-run PTV News as they tried to cover a rally in support of the KOJC leader and were accused of being biased and of being paid off.

Video posted on SunStar Davao also showed people throwing mineral water bottles and monobloc chairs at the media.

An earlier video from ONE News showed on of their reporters being driven away, presumably by Quiboloy’s followers, who were shouting at her for being “biased”.

MORE ON THAT HERE: Media personalities file blotter vs KOJC supporters for harassment

The Mindanao Independent Press Council added in a statement that “KOJC followers have been threatening and displaying hostility toward the media” since June, when police first tried to serve warrants on Quiboloy and four others facing cases in Davao and in Pasig

MIPC said the harassment “violates press freedom and hinders the media's ability to impartially inform the public.” 

MORE BROADLY: Press Freedom remains under siege

Ten days into the search for Quiboloy at the KOJC compound, media workers on the ground are exhausted and are still caught between two powerful forces — both with a capacity for violence and both reminding them to be “fair”, which is often shorthand for sticking to their preferred narrative.

This is not new ground for media in the Philippines, but the inability of— both on the national and local level — to ensure a safe environment for media flies in the face of assurances from the current administration that it is friendlier to and more supportive of a free press.

If nothing else, this episode has, at least, given KOJC, which operates red-tagging propaganda machine SMNI, an appreciation of the need to verify claims made by the police and by government in general after

SOME LINKS YOU MIGHT LIKE:

• Journalist on hiatus Xave Gregorio has started mamser.net, a website on queer news and life in the Philippines and which “seeks to take queer matters into queer hands, with the belief that no one is in a better position to tell queer stories than queer people themselves.”
  

• Mariejo Ramos writes about small-scale mining while also making us die of envy every day:

  It's a man's world mining gold in the Philippines - but it's the women who come off worst.
  
  Be it cooking toxic pans of mercury, scouring mud pools for cheap slivers of hope or sluicing the boggy soil - women do the hardest jobs and get paid the least.

• Award-winning documentary “Alipato at Muog” has been given an X-rating by the Movie and Television Classification and Regulatory Board for “[tending] to undermine the faith and confidence of the people in their government and/or duly-constituted authorities.”
  
  Two reviews while that rating is under appeal:
  
  On the Fringes : Alipato at Muog, and the roller coaster of emotions
  ‘Alipato at Muog’ review: Why the film demands to be seen by the public
  

• Finally, from abroad: How a bill meant to save journalism from big tech ended up boosting AI and bailing out Google instead

—

The media community was shocked to learn this week that the National Bureau of Investigation had arrested three alleged hackers, including the data officer of broadsheet Manila Bulletin, for cyber attacks on “websites of the military, National Security Council, and of several banks.”

We were even more shocked still that the hacking was supposedly instructed by Art Samaniego — campaigner against scams and the Bulletin’s senior technology officer — for content for his column, an allegation that he was quick to reject.

The reveal was met with side comments from some in media who have had their differences with Samaniego, with some saying it was shocking but not surprising.

NewsBytesPH, which has been in the IT news space for at least a decade, provides necessary (and necessarily snarky) context:

Samaniego, who has denied the allegations against him in TV interviews, is the same author of the fake article on Comelec hacking, which was published by the Manila Bulletin as a banner story immediately prior to the 2022 national elections.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines is still discussing our position on the arrests and the allegations, but the consensus so far is that instigating incidents like data breaches in order to write about them is unethical, problematic, and at the very least weird.

We do have to consider, though, that the NBI has not had the cleanest of records on operations against cyber crime, especially against those whose politics might not align with the administration.

It arrested a teacher in 2020 without a warrant over tweets the NBI saw as seditious and a threat to then President Rodrigo Duterte and, in the same year, summoned a Facebook user for commenting on the government’s purchase of an executive jet in the middle of a pandemic.

The year before, the NBI arrested a website creator for allegedly uploading videos that claimed Duterte had links to the illegal drug trade. That arrest was also made without a warrant, with the Department of Justice arguing it was done during “hot pursuit.”

Those arrests as well as documented cases of misuse of the law to harass and silence journalists mean we have to be vigilant about due process in the investigation even if the case is weird. Or especially because it is.

The Journalists' Code of Ethics limits journalists to using “only…fair and honest methods in [our] effort to obtain news, photographs and/or documents” and while there are arguments likening this — again, if true — to going undercover in pursuit of a story, that does not seem like a very honest comparison.

In any case, as lawyer Oliver Reyes — whose thoughts have been quoted by Abogado and apparently the New York Times — points out: “I can't think of a bigger local journalism scandal in the last 20 years or so.”

That it comes while we’re already grappling with how to retain, and reclaim, audience trust makes this episode all the more unfortunate.

—

• Anyway, you may have missed NUJP’s report on red-tagging, which was done to help address government’s claim that it does not happen, to call attention to the practice, and to seek ways forward in seeking redress for victims: Government behind majority of red-tagging cases involving journalists – NUJP study

• A civil suit that journalist Atom Araullo filed against the red-tagging duo from SMNI, who seem to have skipped proceedings altogether, is up for resolution.

• More on red-tagging and the recent Supreme Court decision acknowledging that "red-tagging, vilification, labelling, and guilt by association threaten a person’s right to life, liberty, or security, which may justify the issuance of a writ of amparo" from former SC PIO chief Ted Te on PumaPodcast’s “Teka Teka”.

• There has not been a lot of uproar from politicians over a Reuters report on a US military influence operation in the Philippines during the pandemic, although there have been calls to hold hearings on it at the Senate and House.
  
  Former vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said he was not aware of the covert operation (because covert) and that he believes the report “is not true” while the Department of Health has only said that the reported operation deserves to be investigated.
  
  That the US military did disinfo in the Philippines is ironic given US support for fact checks and for tracking influence operations by others, and because of low trust in China among Filipinos.
  
  It is also jokerfying because it likely put lives at risk, or at the very least added to vaccine hesitation in the Philippines, which has been a problem since the Dengvaxia controversy of 2017.
  
  More on the influence operation against Sinovac from The Conversation: US military launched a secret anti-vax campaign in the Philippines – here’s why I’m not surprised

—

“Un-SMNI?” a Cebuano who likes puns might ask about the propaganda channel linked to, but apparently not owned by, doomsday preacher Apollo Quiboloy — wanted in the US and in the Philippines for trafficking and abuse cases.

There is no hope of explaining that joke, but it is true that the media community has been struggling to find where we stand on the network.

In chat groups and on the sidelines of events, the questions often come up: “Are they media? Are they news? Is their reality completely divorced from the one we live in?”

Rappler’s John Nery takes a deeper dive into the nuances of SMNI — which has been quick to malign journalists but also quick to hide under the mantle of press freedom — and of media, journalism and the press:

But isn’t the attempt to recall SMNI’s franchise an attack on the free press? What’s the difference between SMNI and ABS-CBN, whose franchise Congress refused to renew under pressure from Rodrigo Duterte? The difference is the purpose for which the networks are used and, because form follows function, the way the networks are organized.

The piece deserves a read but, in brief, SMNI is part of media but whether it practices journalism and whether it is part of the press as an institution are separate discussions entirely.

With franchise revocation a distant possibility — it probably won’t happen, but the ABS-CBN franchise issue shows improbable things can happen — the general sentiment seems to be solidarity with SMNI’s media workers if they need it but not for its management.

At any rate, Quiboloy probably has bigger problems right now, including the cases he faces in Pasig and in Davao City.

In the meantime, he has named an ally and former president as administrator of his religious group’s properties.

Asked if he was sheltering the fugitive pastor, that ally had this to say:

“Pastor, you’re the one who’s wanted, don’t drag me into this.”

—

• Sort of related to SMNI, PressOne reports China state media has been producing pro-China content in Filipino: “They even posted a Filipino article about China’s representations to the Philippines on the latter’s resupply mission on March 23 to the BRP Sierra Madre marooned in Ayungin Shoal, which the Chinese call by the name of Ren’ai Jiao.”
  Not necessarily insidious or unique — the US has Voice of America, for example — but concerning given other tactics they use.

• Meanwhile, a representative of Reporters Without Borders “was detained for six hours, searched, and questioned at Hong Kong's international airport before being deported from the territory.”

• And Max Limpag in Cebu takes aim at the continuing use of news terms beloved by old-school news editors but meaningless to most readers: “Headlinese such as ‘dad’ or ‘cager’ should be retired. Its use is lazy and confusing to people outside the newsroom. How many non-journalists actually understand Dad to mean a councilor? How about a female councilor, should we call her Mom in the headline?”

—

It is impossible to be online in the Philippines and to not have heard about the Taragis tattoo fiasco — an April Fools’ post that supposedly prompted someone to accept the challenge to tattoo the logo of a takoyaki store on their forehead for P100,000.

IT WENT REGIONAL, EVEN: Filipino man tattoos his forehead to win US$1,770 in April Fools’ Day prank gone wrong

A little less than a week into the low-grade internet saga, it has emerged that it was all an elaborate online stunt that an internet CEO planned to get more people talking about his takoyaki or, as Thysz posits on Twitter, himself.

It was, in a way, a win for internet sleuths who doubted the story, for the internet CEO class, and for newsrooms looking for easy content that had legs.

But it also goes to show how small a gate there is left for us to keep. Yes, the hoax was eventually exposed, but not before every online outlet had a story on it or, at least, around it.

Content creators and online marketers have long figured out that all they need to do is come up with stuff that will go viral and we will eventually (even if reluctantly) be compelled to pick it up.

RELATED: Conspiracy, monetisation and weirdness: this is why social media has become ungovernable

There is no moralizing here, just an acknowledgement of where we are.

And perhaps a pointing at the potential* to latch on to these inevitable internet trends as a springboard to more substantial issues — like, for example, the ethics of paying a desperate someone to tattoo your business logo on their forehead.

—

*This is not a new idea and there was an attempt to do something like that in the Philippines in maybe 2019 but it didn’t really take.

Anyway, this week in things that I wish I had thought to do but would never really have gotten around to, if we’re being honest: Top officials with private interests spoil effort to track big fishers

Also in that category, is this feature from The Straits Times: Mama, come home: Can the Philippines bring back its migrant workers?

Meanwhile, while memers and content creators get more space online, journalism stands to see even less even offline: Israel says Al Jazeera is a security threat. The network says that’s a dangerous lie.

As someone with little time and a difficult time focusing on just one thing, I have always been interested in the potential of radio and podcasts (as things that can run in the background while I try to not be buried by tasks). If you have time, here’s a discussion on St. Louis Public Radio of “Homecooked: A 50-year History of Meth in America”.

PLEASE NOTE: I am not interested in meth per se, but was interested in podcasts and public radio and in St. Louis (because I was there briefly last month) that is why.

—

Reviving this newsletter after a very long hiatus that included a change in jobs, a bout of depression and self-doubt, and a bit of self-care after a chaotic year. More on that later, maybe, but I look forward to doing these short notes again each week.

Anyway, you may have seen journalists’ organizations up in figurative arms this week over characterizations by China’s Foreign Ministry and by its embassy in Manila of journalists joining the Philippine Coast Guard’s resupply missions in the West Philippine Sea as propagandists for the government.

Beijing claimed that the journalists, mostly Filipinos, are made to “manipulate the videos they recorded to make sensational news and project the Philippines as a victim”.

The Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines, National Union of Journalists of the Philippines and the Defense Press Corps have issued separate statements condemning the allegation as — as FOCAP says — a bare-faced lie, “an insult to the integrity of journalists and an alarming attempt to muzzle an independent press.”

RELATED: What it’s like on board an outnumbered Philippine ship facing down China’s push to dominate the South China Sea

NUJP, of which I am a member, generally views embedded coverage as problematic and risky and advises — because embedding cannot be avoided — journalists joining security operations to “scrupulously preserve their independence” and to avoid being “cheerleaders for military operations.”

That doesn’t mean, however, minimizing what journalists on the missions see and experience for themselves or ignoring documented incidents of water cannoning and dangerous maneuvers by Chinese ships in the West Philippine Sea.

As much as casting doubt on the integrity of the media covering these resupply missions, China’s labeling of media as “troublemakers” and propagandists is dangerous because it paints them as participants in the incidents that they are there to document.

RELATED: Philippines to maintain ‘assertive transparency’ over South China Sea row against Beijing’s ‘bullying behaviour’

Being “participants” would mean, if you squint, that actions that would affect them or put them in danger would be slightly more acceptable (again, if you squint).

If all this seems too familiar, it may be because “troublemaker” and “propagandist” are labels that have also been thrown at journalists from within our borders, and to similar ends.

We can trumpet our free press (relative to China’s) but should also keep in mind how fragile that freedom is.

—

NUJP came out with a few guidelines on reporting on China in 2022 as part of a project with the International Federation of Journalists, in case you’re interested. The Ethical Guide for Filipino Journalists is also a (free) gift that keeps on giving.

Further on guides and manuals, alternative news site Bulatlat released its Filipino Journalist’s Guide to Human Rights Reporting this month as a reminder that every story is a human rights story.

Meanwhile, a very deep dive into Twitter bots by New York Magazine documenting our favorite social media platform’s continuing descent into the sea: Who’s Behind All the ‘Pussy in Bio’ on X? I clicked all the way through so you don’t have to.

An update from PCIJ on the International Criminal Court probe into the “drug war” beyond Harry’s histrionics: 'We want the trial to start': What happens now to ICC's probe into Duterte's drug war?

Also a look at WhatsApp, the world’s favorite messaging app and the nemesis of fact-checker colleagues from India and elsewhere: How WhatsApp became the world’s default communication app

Finally, this sad reminder of shrinking newsrooms, news deserts and corporate capture of journalism: Chevron owns this city's news site. Many stories aren't told

—

The Philippine Coast Guard spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea has set forth an interesting proposition: That Filipinos “defending and making excuses for China's aggressive behavior should deem you unpatriotic, and a traitor to the Philippines and to our people.”

RELATED: A longer discussion on Christian Esguerra’s ‘Facts First’ with Coast Guard Commodore Tarriela on Pro-China ‘traitors’

To be sure, most of Philippine media has for years been framing the West Philippine Sea issue in the context of the 2016 Hague ruling and international law.

Most have also been taking cues from the Department of Foreign Affairs on messaging — for example, by not calling the sea disputed because that has long been settled by the arbitration case.

BUT NOT ALWAYS: Chinese Embassy focuses on ship photo to dismiss reported dumping as fake

An expansion of Tariella’s idea — voiced by columnist Philip Lustre Jr. citing an unnamed Chinese Filipino friend — though shows the slippery slope that we may be setting ourselves to slide down.

Chinese Filipino communities, Lustre says, quoting his supposedly real friend, should condemn China’s activities in Philippine waters to prove that they are Filipinos and not “citizens of convenience.”

By shifting responsibility to civil society groups, columnists and media to prove their patriotism with declarations and overt demonstrations of Filipino-ness, we give actual state officials whose job it is to stand up to China a free pass.

Rather than policing speech or compelling patriotic speech, it might be better to look into who has actually been in bed with China and its state firms — especially those involved in building up Chinese installations in our waters.

RELATED: Pro-China 'political elite' in the Philippines enables Chinese aggression in WPS — expert

“Condemn China or you are the enemy” is not that far removed from 2016’s “condemn drugs or you are the enemy” and 2017’s “condemn the communists or you are the enemy”.

One of the academics (?) who would fall into the category of China apologist and mouthpiece for conflating appeasement of with “peace with China” is even comfortable with calling criticism of his position “the New McCarthyism.*”

The West Philippine Sea is ours, and our reporting while I was Philstar should bear out where I stand on this (nobody asked).

But our reporting would, I hope, also show why sticking to the government line for patriotism’s sake should make one feel at least a little discomfort.

—

* Ironically, the SMNI network that feels fine with quoting Austin Ong and entering partnerships with Chinese state media has no problem with engaging in “the New McCarthyism” against activists and journalists.

• Some advice from veteran Johanna Son that she learned from Amando Doronila, who died in July: “Keep writing, even when you are a veteran journalist or an editor. Seniority or experience in journalism doesn’t mean you should ‘graduate’ from, or stop, reporting or writing.”
  
  I hated having to write for lack of staff to do it, but tried to do longer-form stories when I could because I’m a believer in writing better to edit better (and reading better to write better).
  

• Further on the “New McCarthyism”, Altermidya’s Neil Eco writes about how red-tagging has affected him personally:
  
  ”My grandmother just died but I am unable to go home to mourn properly. I cannot go back to my hometown of Catarman, Northern Samar because there is a possibility of getting arrested, abducted, or killed; these are real threats faced by individuals like myself who are red-tagged.”  
  

• Radio reporter Jose Rizal Pajares was arrested in Iriga City for allegedly violating the Data Privacy Act by reading the police blotter — a public document that journalists usually have access to. He has been released after being held in custody for three days but still faces charges.
  

• At least 10 — possibly as many as 50 — staff members of state-run Radyo Pilipinas have been told their contracts are ending on August 31. Contract of Service workers do not have security of tenure, are paid less, and do not have access to benefits.

—

Some hope for the red-tagged: BAYAN chair emerita Carol Araullo this week sued Lorraine Badoy-Partosa and her co-host Jeffrey Celiz for P2.15 million over their “vilification spree to demonize me and my good name and that of my organization” by accusing her of affiliation with and support for the communist party, which ther government has designated a terrorist organization.

True to form, Badoy-Partosa challenged Araullo to file a criminal case against her instead — because apparently the avenues we seek for accountability and justice are subject to the approval of those we week it against.

No doubt, the accusations that Badoy-Partosa and Celiz made on their show on the SMNI station fall within the definition of libel.

Araullo, though, filed a civil suit for the principled but arguably impractical reason that she is for the decriminalization of libel — a position that has forced activists and journalists to seek other legal actions to take.

In my own consultations with lawyers, we have had to weigh what kind of message filing a libel complaint — even a civil one, for damages — would send and how it would look for the decades-long campaign to decriminalize libel.

Interestingly, social media users have been able to get more done in recent weeks than we have in our years of wringing our hands about disinformation and red-tagging.

YouTube has banned accounts linked to controversial pastor and SMNI owner Apollo Quiboloy — including that of red-tagging show “Laban Kasama ang Bayan” — over sanctions in the US related to allegations of sex abuse and “serious human rights abuse” after users reported them to the platform.

They have framed the takedowns, as they did when Quiboloy’s own account was banned in June, as equal parts communist conspiracy and foreign meddling.

It isn’t, but we cannot set aside how these channels have been used to spread unfounded accusations that certain people or organizations are part of the underground movement and the communist insurgency, a practice that has been labeled as a form of disinformation and of hate speech.

In a statement after the filing, Araullo said that she was suing “in behalf of those who do not have the means, the opportunity and support system to do so but who are experiencing red-tagging [or] terrorist labelling and the harassment, if not actual terror, this brings” and in the hope of also prompting them to file their own complaints.

With the sheer number of people who have been unfairly accused on SMNI of having communist links, that is probably just a matter of time.

—

Colleagues from San Juanico TV who were harassed by police while on coverage earlier this month have filed a complaint before the Office of the Ombudsman, a move that has unfortunately now been framed as an attempte to embarrass the Philippine National Police. Our SJTV colleagues have also reported being tailed and having unknown men show up at their homes in the run-up to the filing.

As Filipinos continue to leave the country for better opportunities abroad, a reality that many have to contend with: going into debt just to get out.

Meanwhile, the International League of People’s Struggle has launched a podcast. Their first episode is on militaristic and imperialist narratives in movies and TV and it’s pretty good.

The controversial Maharlika Investment Fund has been signed into law, with supporters saying that the finance secretary will only be chair of the state firm that will handle it in an “ex officio” capacity. Does that even make sense as a defense?

Artificial Intelligence has raised concerns of impending job losses, especially in the Philippine Business Process Outsourcing industry, but industry leaders say there is still time to help workers adjust to how chatbots like ChatGPT might change work processes.

Also, something from The Daily Tribune and, ultimately, from the LiveJournal school of snarky writing: “Carlos Agassi (remember him?) apparently released a transphobic rap song, and no one heard about it until Mela Habijan, beauty queen and trans activist, called him out on it.”

—

Many in the journalism community in Manila have learned to wait for the Telum newsletters on movements in the industry, and it is clear from recent issues that these past months have been a time of transitions and transfers for many of us.

We’ve seen colleagues leave the industry — decisions no doubt helped along by the political environment and the fact that we need money to survive — but have also seen some make huge leaps towards bigger opportunities.

I hope that it will be the latter for more of us, especially these three who I have had the honor and pleasure to work with and who are now seeking work:

• Kristine Joy Patag
  
  I have known Tin since she was justice reporter for BusinessWorld and have always been impressed with her earnestness and her determination to get and follow a story, even across newsrooms.
  
  At BusinessWorld, she reported on overtime pay issues at the Bureau of Immigration that eventually led to the “pastillas” bribery scandal at the bureau, which she also wrote about years later at Philstar.com.
  
  Since joining Philstar.com, she has covered the justice beat and the courts — including the moves to remove Maria Lourdes Sereno as chief justice — and is a meticulous and detail-oriented reporter who can break down legal jargon for the layperson (often at the cost of her own sanity).
  
  Deputy news editor since July 2022, Tin has also produced longform pieces on the psychological effects of pandemic lockdowns, the plight of political prisoners and of Persons Deprived of Liberty, and led the website’s fact-checking efforts under the Philippine Fact-Checker Incubator.

• Xave Gregorio
  
  Xave was, until recently, covering the Senate as his primary beat. He has also been writing about media issues and started work on ‘Prism’, our attempt at more intentional coverage of gender and LGBTQ+ issues.
  
  He has also covered the House of Representatives and Malacañang and, by divine providence, the Hong Kong protests.
  
  Xave was showrunner, writer and host of ‘Anyare?’, Philstar.com’s first foray into video explainers.
  
  The series in Filipino is an attempt to marry in-depth reporting with humor, memes and pop culture references (it is an open marriage, I guess).
  
  Xave has also worked for CNN Philippines and Politiko.

• Kaycee Valmonte
  
  Also a BusinessWorld alum, Kaycee covered foreign relations and migration for Philstar.com.
  
  Before she left the newsroom, she was writing about Overseas Filipino Workers and the Filipino diaspora.
  
  She covered the 2022 US midterm elections as part of the International Reporting Tour hosted by the US Department of State's Foreign Press Center and was also selected by the Australian Embassy for a study tour in Canberra and Sydney in March this year.
  
  She also ran News From Home, a weekly “newsletter” on Philstar.com curating news relevant to OFWs and diaspora communities.
  
  Also assigned to cover human rights, Kaycee is among the fellows of the Drug Policy Reform Initiative.

The three would be great additions to any newsroom, or you can hire them together as a set.

I am also winding down my time at Philstar.com after seven years and will be out of the company by August. I think we had a good run and I will always be grateful for the opportunities and the freedom to experiment that working with them brought.

Moving forward, I do plan to keep working in news and hope to have something good to announce before I become officially unemployed.

—

• ANYWAY, climate change education in the Philippines is supposed to be integrated into school subjects under the K to 12 curriculum, but, in practice, it is only really taught by science teachers. This has meant missing discussions on how climate change is a societal issues.

• People are selling children on Facebook, where “babies are offered like regular products in online stores,” according to this story by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism. Legal adoption is done through the National Authority for Child Care, but the process is slow, making illegal ones online an option for some couples.

• Remate Online photojournalist Joshua Abiad was shot while driving in Quezon City this week. Motive for the attack is still unclear, but Abiad has signed as a witness in government drug operations, a practice that puts media at risk of retaliation from drug suspects. It also obligates them to attend court hearings on the case or face being cited in contempt.

• From Davao, the story of Pilar Barredo, a public school teacher red-tagged by Sara Duterte, who is now vice president and also secretary of education:

  “I saw policemen carrying poster-sized photos of me and other chapter officers, like Elenito Escalante, Willy Lacatan, and Rey Pardillo…. They blocked us from entering the flag ceremony despite the invitation of Councilor Pilar Braga”

• TeleRadyo signed off on June 29, its staff the latest victims of the 2020 decision by a House panel to deny ABS-CBN a new franchise.
  
  From AlterMidya:

  “This upcoming shutdown of another credible news outfit in our age of information disorder is a defeat not only for the media industry. Ultimately, it is the Filipino public who will suffer from such a long-term loss.”

• Finally, on Teka Teka News: The court decision affirming that Bonifacio Global City is not part of Makati is a big win for Taguig, but presents problems for residents outside the business district who have been “Makatizens” and who have been getting government services from the original financial center of Metro Manila.

—

Corporate media is by now scrambling — as with eggs — to either validate or disavow the incredible but still potentially real story of Julian Martir, the Negros Occidental high school graduate who says he has received admission and scholarship offers at 30 colleges and universities abroad.

That it has been more than a week since mainstream media picked his story up from Facebook and the best we can do is “it might be true, right?” is really more on us now than on the kid, who may have embellished details for his social media post.

In these cases, blame will always be on how newsroom staffs are shrinking or are stagnant while targets — like engagement, with newsrooms gambling and selling off their brands for trending posts about politicians being silly and relatable and about whatever thing people on Facebook like at the moment — keep rising.

At a World Press Freedom Day program that I attended earlier this month, Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility Executive Director Melinda Quintos De Jesus argued that journalism is different from content creation because it is an edited process.

She did not mean that pieces are checked for grammar and style, although that is also part of it. Rather: “There has to be an editor, the editor is the one that says this is the kind of conversation that you will get if you come [to this news outlet].”

“There is an editor that keeps a memory of past events and adds them as important context to current events. There is an editor who does not look only at issues of the day, but anticipates issues we will face tomorrow.”

This was, of course, disputed as soon as it went online — through Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism Executive Director Carmela Fonbuena, to whose tweets I have linked — and this Martir episode doesn’t really shift the argument in our favor.

I submit that there are editors — I am one, QED — but these editors are also writers, administrative personnel, ad hoc human resource managers and — as a senior editor I used to work with said, quoting an imaginary job contract — “all other tasks assigned.”

We really do not have the Beyoncé hours to do all that while also contributing to, as De Jesus says, “the conversation that keeps us working as a democracy” as much as we should be or want to.

Not if we can’t even properly gatekeep a story — and the questionable math — about a kid getting accepted to schools abroad.

A counterpoint from Bloomberg’s Claire Jiao, from whom I take journalism and career advice: “Mmm there’s only so much we can blame management for our own shortcomings.”

And that is true. Colleagues already got in touch with Martir and that they ran the stories anyway is on them, and on the editors who let that happen.

Whether the story turns out to be true or not matters to the audience — and, of course, to Martir — but will not change the fact that we ran with stories we weren’t sure about.

—

• Some drama at the House of Representatives this week and, by extension, the ruling UniTeam coalition: Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was demoted from being senior deputy speaker and Vice President Sara Duterte resigns from the ruling Lakas-CMD party in response (but to what, exactly?)
  
  As allies rush to reaffirm loyalty to the president and to his cousin the House speaker, a reminder that lawmakers should be debating issues and not jockeying for position and advantage.

• As we coo and risk complacency at how the Marcos Jr. administration has been better at engaging media than the previous one, a reminder from Committee to Protect Journalists: In Marcos Jr.’s Philippines, milder tone belies harsh media reality

• While we’re on that, despite rosy economic projections and reported figures, layoffs at the Wyeth Nutrition factory in Laguna hit 140 workers, among them 10 officers of the workers union there. More about that union, which has existed for more than 60 years.

• For years, tech-voc was seen as something for people who couldn’t go to college, but the Philippine Institute for Development Studies finds views on skills training are changing.

• With the government’s penchant to file cases against activists that eventually fall apart in court, lawyers are suggesting those who have been unfairly charged countersue to help curb the dangerous and traumatizing practice.

—

Misery shared is misery halved, they say, but there is little comfort in knowing that Southeast Asia has been sliding towards authoritarianism along with many parts of the world.

Thailand, for example, is holding elections that have seen the following familiar things:

• “An increase in pro-establishment and biased information that praises the government at the expense of opposition political groups

• Disinformation campaigns that target and harass political members of under-represented groups to decrease their political activism

• The creation of distorted electoral information that creates confusion

• And campaigns to spread inflammatory political content with the aim of further polarizing Thai society.”

Journalists in Indonesia are barred from coverage in favor of official photographers and media relations officers. The government also restricted internet access in Papua and West Papua until a court told it that was illegal.

Malaysia has laws that prohibit the posting of “offensive content with the intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass”, penalize “intentional insults”, and “conducing to mischief.”

The Centre for Independent Journalism in Kuala Lumpur notes that “legitimate and necessary comments for upholding democracy and ensuring accountability” could be considered an insult under the law.

Not for the first time, someone commented at the Internet Freedom in Southeast Asia conference last week that “governments seem to be copying each other.”

Not a lot of insight this week — it has been a long and tiring one and I am also still processing ideas from the conference — except that, as also said at the conference, “it’s time we also started copying each other” on tactics and campaigns.

—

• Probably the biggest news in the Philippines this week, the acquittal of former Sen. Leila De Lima on the second of three drug cases she is facing. Detained for more than six years on cases that she says are political, De Lima might actually get to go home while the third case is being heard.
  

• Not in the news as much but still important, an Abra court has dismissed rebellion charges against seven people — including Northern Dispatch correspondent Niño Oconer — for lack of probable cause.
  

• PumaPodcast found itself in the middle of controversy this weekend over this “Catch Me If You Can” episode featuring Duterte propagandist Sass Sasot.
  
  Personally, I wasn’t ready for it and I don’t see much gain in interviewing a bad faith actor in good faith. But! As Bulletin columnist Tonyo Cruz points out on Twitter, press freedom isn’t just for the press we like and the uses we approve of.
  

• We also have a podcast: ‘Why Naman?’ talks about the wage gap, labor unions and a ‘living wage’ this week.
  

• Meanwhile, Rappler correspondent Joann Manabat was stalked and then sent creepy messages by a man claiming to be from the military.
  
  He reportedly sent Manabat photos that “showed her covering the Workers Alliance of Region III Labor Day rally near the roundabout at San Nicolas Public Market in Angeles City” and offered scoops in exchange for her friendship.
  

• Also, a new SWS survey suggests that a little less than half of Filipinos considered it dangerous to release content critical of the Marcos Jr. administration. The figures are actually lower than those in a similar survey in 2021, when Duterte was still president.

—

It was inevitable, really, but still a shock when it finally happened: Earlier this week — on World Press Freedom Day of all days — I was accused by name on a government propaganda show of being in a communist front organization and of “being active in underground operations” of the Communist Party of the Philippines and New People’s Army.

It is true that I joined protests leading to Joseph Estrada’s ouster in 2001 as was my right to do and one that I exercised openly. What, after all, is the point of a protest that nobody sees?

That is not even a crime, but even if it was, then I would certainly be among the least guilty.   

I am not, for the record, a member of the CPP or the NPA, nor have I ever been.

I am, though, a proud member of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, a registered organization that is an affiliate of the International Federation of Journalists.

We have been active in documenting threats and attacks on media workers, helping journalists get basic safety training as well as training in planning coverage in hostile or unsafe areas, and assisting colleagues facing legal problems.

Because we were organized as a union of media unions, we continue working to inform colleagues of their economic and labor rights and have been encouraging organizing in the workplace.

We have also been consistent with speaking out against red-tagging — the dangerous practice by the government and its proxies of labeling dissent, critical reporting, and organizing as a threat to the very existence of the Philippines and civilization in general.

RELATED: ‘Red-tagging’ of journalists looms over Philippine elections

We do this because many of our colleagues have been red-tagged, which puts them in danger of surveillance, harassment and arrest.

At the very least, the anxiety and worry that being red-tagged brings contributes to the chilling of media in the Philippines.

Our campaigns are premised on freedom of the press, expression and of association, which are all in the Constitution, and we have never made statements beyond that.

NUJP REPORT: State of Legal Safety of Filipino Journalists

They’re red-tagging entire newsrooms now

Also red-tagged on the same show were Philstar.com — the newsroom where I work as news editor — and Rappler, which was described as having been infiltrated by communists.

I cannot speak for Rappler — in any case, they have their own staff and a huge community to do that for them — but can say with confidence that our reporting is anchored on fundamental freedoms and on human rights, concepts that should not even be controversial much less revolutionary.

RELATED: Kids' books about dictatorship, Martial Law spook Philippine intel chief

It is ironic that our shift to reporting with a human rights lens began because of the “war on drugs” and the notorious narco-lists that the president used to read live on national TV.

In that list is the liar and red-tagger Jeffrey Celis, who now claims to be a former NPA and who maligns people to justify his continued but discredited role as an informant and mouthpiece.

We believed then as we do now that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends on evidence.

We believed then as we do now that people have the right to speak out, to seek redress and to organize without being reflexively labeled as troublemakers and enemies of the state.

We believed then as we do now that people should be protected from surveillance and illegal searches, unfounded accusations, and arbitrary arrests.

We believe these as much as any government official and employee claims to do when they take their oath of office and promise to preserve and defend the Constitution. 

I believe that our newsroom will continue believing these things because our editors and reporters cannot do otherwise. This is what we have been taught since elementary school and through, for those who had the privilege of attending, journalism school.

I am proud of the journalism that we have produced and it is unfortunate that being red-tagged is the price of giving primacy to underreported sectors and the groups that represent them.

I say this now because there is a possibility, however remote,  that I might lose my job over these accusations — as we have constantly reminded people, red-tagging has real world consequences and loss of livelihood is just the least dangerous of those.

RELATED: Journalist who complained vs Meta had to flee home due to vicious red-tagging

I take comfort in the support that I have received in recent days and solace in knowing that there are others, so many others, in our newsroom and in others, who will keep this going.

As colleagues said at the Press Freedom Fair on Friday, the community of independent journalists is never writing 30.

—

• Meanwhile, here’s the first of a series of stories that earned Rappler threats from the hosts of the government propaganda show: Negligence, corruption lead to fire sale of DepEd laptops

• These are the stories that Celis and his friends said prove we are communist fronts even though others carried them too:

  • CPP confirms deaths of top leaders Tiamzons, claims they were tortured and killed

  • Ex-congressman calls on authorities to ensure rights of brother nabbed in Malaysia

• Also, a 2022 Internews report: META’S AMPLIFICATION OF PERSECUTION: Red-Tagging in the Philippines

• Also important in this week of investigative reports: 5 Villar companies top delinquent taxpayers in Las Piñas, owe city more than P200M

—

After April 26 — the deadline for SIM card registration under a new law — more than half of the active SIM cards in the Philippines could end up being deactivated if efforts to promote registration fail to bring the proportion of those registered past the estimated 45% as of Friday.

The National Telecommunications Commission has already acknowledged that getting 100% of 168.9 million active SIM cards registered by the deadline is unlikely.

Earlier Sunday, Globe Telecom used a service usually reserved for emergency broadcasts and disaster alerts to remind users to register for the deadline.

Not quite how the Free Mobile Disaster Alerts Act meant for the system to be used, but SIM deactivation could mean loss of access to the internet, to messaging and banking apps, and to e-wallets, which would pretty much be a calamitous situation for millions in the Philippines.

RELATED: 'Mandatory SIM card registration puts privacy at risk, might not curb crime'

But what does that have to do with journalism? Quite a lot, actually.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines has warned since October, shortly after the law was passed, that SIM card registration will affect how we do our work.

I don’t — because I am less careful than most about digital security — but many colleagues use burner phones when talking to sources and contacts.

Registration would put the anonymity of sources at risk, and could mean contacts and potential whistleblowers would be more hesitant to talk to us.

We are also worried about potential surveillance. The Department of Justice has assured the public that the law will not be used for that, but even if the DOJ during the Marcos Jr. administration sticks to that promise, we cannot be sure that the next presidents will.

We are worried that law enforcement and other government agencies will have easier access to our personal information when they are having trouble keeping their own records safe.

Anyway, we are worried about it enough to file a petition at the Supreme Court and ask for a temporary restraining order while the court decides on the issue.

RELATED: Why some groups are challenging mandatory SIM card registration before SC

Low registration numbers aside, the SIM card registration does seem popular, if you go by comments on social media, where the familiar argument of “if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear” has been doing numbers again.

Vetoed in the waning months of the Duterte administration, SIM card registration hurdled Congress quickly under Marcos Jr., helped along by the near-universal experience of and annoyance at scam and spam text messages.

This is not the first time fear of some bogeyman (communists! fake news! hurt feelings!) has prompted legislation that would force citizens to choose between security and freedom and probably not the last.

Two things that could still happen before the 26th: The Supreme Court issuing a TRO on Tuesday, and the Department of Information and Communications Technology announcing an extension of the deadline.

In any case, as long as SIM card registration remains the rule, many of us will not be able to communicate as freely as we once used to.

—

• The new Hustle culture has been helped along by the old practice of outsourcing to cheaper labor. Rest of World looks at virtual assistants in the Philippines who earn hundreds of dollars a month but who also wrestle with issues of job security and benefits.

• Every now and then, we do longer-form pieces on issues close to our hearts. Like a library program of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology that will help Persons Deprived of Liberty read their way out (that is the actual name of the program). More longer reads from Philstar.com here.

• Meanwhile, from Rappler, a profile of the Cariño family that has been fighting for Indigenous Peoples rights and human rights in general for generations.

• And a scary story: The closure of Buzzfeed News (as online news jobs are cut across the world) while everyone else in online journalism tries to do increasingly more with increasingly less.

Our news website alone is filled with enough oddity to make anyone feel that the simulacra is broken.

For example, a woman who seems to have been scammed by someone pretending to be WWE champion Roman Reigns while also pretending to be in a relationship with her brought her troubles to one of the Tulfo instant karma radio shows for redress.

Her complaint, though, was against the courier company that was supposedly holding a package that Reigns had sent her despite her already paying P15,000 to have it released.

In that package, she said, was a SIM card that she could use to communicate with Reigns, who is not allowed to talk on the phone because of pro wrestling rules.

Also over the weekend, a story on supposed friction between media and the director of a documentary on Vanessa Hudgens’ attempt to reconnect with her Filipino roots.

Supposedly, the director — who is also a special appointee of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. for creative communications — cancelled Hudgens’ one-on-one interviews with the press and told them to go away.

Incidentally, the director is married to a popular vlogger who eventually ended up getting a one-on-one interview with Hudgens.

It happens. But what has made this whole episode particularly weird is how a room of reporters couldn’t seem to piece together what exactly happened. Our showbiz section has one version of events, entertainment portal PEP.ph has another, as does probably every other website in the Philippines but few people seem to want to go on record to say what really happened.

Reporting on the issue has been, as a friend said, “beyond Rashomon” and, while interesting and entertaining, has not really told us much.

Maybe it is April Fool’s Day or Mercury in Aries, things have felt a little too out of control of late.

• —

• Further in odd news, the National Water and Resources Board is considering banning commercial car washes and discouraging filling up swimming pools to help Luzon avoid a water shortage.

• The report posted by The STAR newspaper and by One News mention that these are some of the options that the board is looking at but does not mention if letting golf course grass turn yellow — Metro Manila has several of them — is among those options. Probably not, though. We have to keep up appearances after all.
  

• Still also weird: Elon Musk’s plan to make the blue checks strictly for paying subscribers seems to have backfired.

  When Elon Musk took over Twitter, he said he wanted to protect its place as a “digital town square,” where ideas from all corners of the internet could flourish. But soon, if you want your voice to really be heard in the town square, you’ll need to pay. (Vox)

  
  Meanwhile, Twitter has granted requests from the Indian government to block more than 100 accounts, including those of journalists.
  

• Serious news on how hot it has been in the Philippines: Primary and secondary education teachers report the intolerable heat is making it difficult for students to focus on their lessons or to even come to class at all.
  

• Finally, some good news: Strikes and unions work, according to this Bloomberg Law report noting the highest pay increases in labor contracts since the 1990s.
  
  Workers in southern Luzon have petitioned the regional wage board to increase the daily wage across the region to P750 and are planning a massive protest on Labor Day, May 1 to push for better pay.

—

The Department of Justice is investigating an incident from earlier this month when National Bureau of Investigation personnel tried to harangue members of the media into signing an inventory of drugs that had supposedly been seized in a drug bust in Pasay City.

Having a member of the media as a witness in drug operations is meant for transparency, but reporters covering the raid said they wouldn’t sign because they weren’t there to see the operation itself.

Colleagues have signed as witnesses in the past, which, even if they had actually observed the operation and the inventory of the drugs seized, presented problems.

Some colleagues, for example, found themselves risking contempt of court for missing hearings when the cases go to court. Others were at risk of reprisal from drug suspects and of being accused of involvement in the drug trade themselves.

Worse is when colleagues sign inventories without even having been at the raid — notably in a Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency drug bust in Dumaguete City in 2020 that turned out to have been staged.

The regional trial court ordered the release of the people arrested by the PDEA, issued warrants of arrest against the agents involved in the fake operation, and began contempt proceedings against the media worker for “misleading the court, for making untruthful statements in their affidavits, and for directly impeding and degrading the administration of justice.”

Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla assured media that they have “have no duty to testify if you were really not part of [the operation],” saying also that potential witnesses from the media — the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act also includes barangay officials as mandatory witnesses — should have been at the raid itself.

The NBI has also apologized for the incident, adding that “while we try to observe standard operating procedures, given the technicalities in the conduct of field operations, the actions of some of our agents may have offended some media members.”

Remulla’s assurance and the NBI’s apology, while welcome, do not address the risk that including journalists among the mandatory witnesses under the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act puts media workers in.

Nor does it remove factors like the threat of losing access to law enforcement officials and official information for refusing to sign.

Based on input from colleagues who had been covering the “war on drugs”, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines launched a signature campaign in 2018 to amend the anti-drugs law to remove journalists as mandatory witnesses altogether.

The petition eventually led to a bill being filed at the House to amend the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act that, unfortunately, was included in a consolidated bill along with other proposed amendments.

Among those proposed amendments was a series of dangerous presumptions, like, for example, that “any person found or is present within the immediate vicinity of the area of sale, trading, marketing, dispensation, delivery or distribution, is presumed to have been involved in the sale, trade or distribution of dangerous drugs, controlled precursors or essential chemicals.”

Justified objections to what critics called a “whittling down” of the Constitutionally-guaranteed presumption of innocence soon saw the bill — which had initially been approved by a vote of 118-11, lose steam and supporters at the House.

Although another bill has yet to be filed at the House, there seems little to gain from agreeing to sign a drug inventory.

The transparency that making media workers witnesses in drug raids can still be provided best through what the reporters ride along in raids and operations in the first place: reporting the operation as independent journalists.

—

• As lawmakers revive the discussion on changing the 1987 Constitution, Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Juan Ponce Enrile — most recently Senate president and less recently achitect of Martial Law — has proposed removing the ban on nuclear weapons, a Cold War-era proposal that would violate conventions that the Philippines is party to.
  
  He also said that had the mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant had been allowed to go operational, we would have nuclear wapons by now (which is, I guess, yet another argument against the power plant).
  

• Things are not going well for Rep. Arnolfo Teves Jr. (Negros Oriental), whom the House has suspended for not returning to the Philippines to face allegations related to political killings in the province and whose properties police have been serving search warants on.
  
  One detail from the raids, which have expanded to his relatives’ properties, is how “an informant tipped off the police about a cache of high-powered firearms within the property’s compound, which led to the execution of search warrants.” That may well be true, but it’s the same narrative that has been used in arrests of activists in recent years.
  

• Meanwhile, a reminder from the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance in Australia on ChatGPT and other AI tools: “At its core, media professionals must have a say in decisions by publishers and broadcasters about integrating AI into workflows. And media outlets must be upfront with their audiences, the public and the communities they serve about how AI material is being incorporated into editorial output.”
  

• Finally, from the Guardian, a very deep dive into the type of person some online trolls might actually be: My mother, the troll: ‘I think she lost sight of the McCanns’ humanity’

—

Apologies for the radio silence, it has been a particularly busy couple of weeks, one of which was spent in Australia with Filipino journalists to learn about the media landscape there.

As we were flying back to Manila, though, an announcement from the Presidential Communications Office that it will “implement a Digital Media Literacy campaign this year, seeking to equip the most vulnerable communities with knowledge and tools ‘to be discerning of the truth’.”

This is by no means a new tack for the PCO (nor for its predecessor, the Presidential Communications Operations Office).

The Palace has been, in various forms, been engaged in similar campaigns over the years — from the ‘Real Numbers’ campaign during the worst of the ‘drug war’, to the silly #ExplainExplainExplain mantra of the Philippine Information Agency.

All of that while also benefiting from — if not engaging outright in — approved misinformation and disinformation.

Announced on the sidelines of the 67th Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in New York, the campaign will “bring the online experiences of females of all ages into focus” and combat misinformation and disinformation that undermine the rights of women and girls, PCO said.

Government is, of course, free to launch media literacy campaigns and it is true that the internet is especially vicious for women and girls, but there is also concern that the campaign will stray into propping up the government narrative and sidelining uncomfortable media and inconvenient dissent.

That has happened before and concerns are not without basis.

Australia — have I mentioned yet that I was there last week? — has a similar campaign to protect women and girls from misogyny and gendered online abuse, including social media self defense and regulation.

The PCO campaign mentions none of these in the vague announcement, but, it is impossible to object to campaigns to make the internet safer — unless that is by labeling certain ideas, speech and content as “dangerous” and out of bounds.

—

• Particularly proud of the special reports that our tiny news team did for the EDSA People Power anniversary, which, unfortunately, like the commemoration itself, may not have received as much attention as deserved. So, here they are:
  
  As EDSA memory fades, children’s book creators hope to pass on People Power stories
  The Catholic Church's place was at EDSA in 1986, where should it be now?
  In nation of frustrated readers, history teachers share People Power through videos
  

• Some of our team also traveled to Oriental Mindoro to report on an oil spill there that threatens waters in the region, including the fragile Verde Island Passage.
  
  The spill threatens shoreline ecosystems too: What happens when oil enters mangrove environments?
  

• Meanwhile, from the Lopez journalism siblings: A story on conflict (of interest) — Barangay chairman works for gas plant in Ilijan, Batangas — and (potential) — Over the South China Sea, dispute simmers via radios and rhetoric.
  

• While we’re on the West Philippine Sea dispute, a town in Palawan is betting that tourist boat expeditions will help the country stake its claim on waters that are within its exclusive economic zone: Kalayaan LGU turns to tourism, game fishing in tense West Philippine Sea

The requests, most by email but some sent by mail, are from people who were reported to have been arrested years ago and whose arrests come up on online searches after the charges have been dropped, or the case dismissed or they are acquitted.

Most of the time, those who ask that stories about them be taken down are regular people.

In one case, it was the relative of someone who was reported to have been a drug suspect and whose name couldn't be cleared because the local police units all denied that the information came from them.

As long as they can show proof that the case has been dismissed, we usually accommodate the requests — most reports were from before our time anyway.

But that these things happen, is, I feel a case against writing police stories at all — or at least as a matter of course.

One of my failings is that I never covered the police beat and we don’t have one now, technically — our foundational beat is human rights — so I may have a bias against police stories.

But writing about someone’s arrest — often based on just a police or incident report, on sometimes in such a templated format — is, as The Objective points out, not a substitute for investigations.

Because they are based on police reports, they often end up parroting police talking points, sometimes at the expense of the presumption of innocence.

In the meantime, the allegations are treated as fact or at the very least given more weight.

They give the impression that police are taking action but leave readers with little more than confirmation that crimes do happen.

As we have seen in monitoring cases of attacks against journalists, arrests are the flashy and early part of what could be a long trial.

As a young reporter, I attended a forum where Marvic Leonen — dean of the UP College of Law then, senior associate justice of the Supreme Court now — challenged us to follow cases from arrest to verdict.

I feel that if we are not willing or able to do that, we have no actual business writing about how some random person was arrested as a suspect in a certain crime and then moving on to the next blotter report for our next story.

Are you a fan of crime stories? Suggest your favorites because I love reading and also being wrong.

—

• Anyway, a plan by the Makati Central Estate Association to remove protected bike lanes on Makati’s Ayala Avenue has been met with protest from commuters who see the move as part of a systemic regression from progress in active transportation that began during the pandemic lockdowns. As more people go back to work, the tendency has been to return to cars as the default mode of transport in Metro Manila.
  

• A bizarre news story about how Manila Bay is biologically dead has been pulled from UCA News. The report, citing the non-existent Department of Fisheries, has been debunked by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, which actually does exist.
  

• The most bizarre part is the suspicion that it may have been written by AI, or also possibly by aliens with no familiarity with the Philippine bureaucracy.
  

• Meanwhile, the sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression (SOGIE) Equality Bill met resistance at the House and Senate from the father-and-son team of Rep. (while also Bro.) Eddie Villanueva and his son, Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva.
  
  I had been iffy about passage of the Religious Freedom bill at the House because — on one hand, people should be free to practice their religion, and, on the other — that exercise has often meant imposing Bible-based beliefs on secular matters.

• A UP professor was arrested last Tuesday by undercover cops over a case involving Social Security System remittances that she said had been settled long ago.
  
  Apart from the unnecessary use of disguises, the arrest is feared to have repercussions on UP as a sanctuary from heavy-handed state tactics and on already battered civic spaces.
  

• Finally, from Bangkok, a feature on our counterparts in the National Union of Journalists Thailand, who are facing similar challenges in organizing media workers. Living under a junta aside, journalists there also working in the same situations that we are: Underpaid, overworked and with few protections or institutional support.