Category: Education

Taxpayer-funded Martial Law Crybaby memorial to be erected on prime UP Diliman campus land!

It seems another taxpayer-funded monument to “the heroism of human rights violations victims during martial rule in the Philippines from 1972 to 1986” will be built. Haven’t Filipinos had enough of “memorials” that divide rather than unite? It seems certain little cliques in Philippine society are bent on keeping Filipinos imprisoned in Martial Law Crybabyism.

The blurb on the website of The Freedom Memorial Museum, a flagship project of the Human Rights Violations Victims’ Memorial Commission mandated by Republic Act 10368, carries on thus…

It shall revisit a period of tyranny that bred reformists, revolutionaries and freedom-fighters from among farmers and professionals, workers and academics, students and religious activists. It aims to build an experiential tapestry of lives, ideals, courage and determination of the victims and, in the end, the heroes of freedom.

Blah blah blah. Cutting to the main punchline…

It shall be a lasting symbol of the long-fought battle against authoritarian rule that culminated in the globally-acclaimed EDSA People Power revolt in 1986.

A design competition for the The Freedom Memorial Museum is underway.

But of course. Another Yellowtard memorial. The trouble with Yellowtard memorials is that what these seek to immortalise all remain not only hopelessly debatable but acute partisan sore points that are epicentres of deep divisions in Philippine society. If a monument funded by taxpayers is put up on the most prestigious campus of the Philippines’ premiere state university, it raises the question around whether it will be representative of the broad public’s sentiment.

Quite predictably, members of the Yellowtards’ brains trust are ecstatic.

This latest Yellowtard edifice erected on the grounds of an educational institution further adds to a vast portfolio of Yellowtard propaganda already infesting the system miseducating future generations of Filipinos.

According to a VERA Files report published by ABS-CBN News, the memorial was “launched on April 28, 2016, just before the presidential elections of that year.” Convenient, right? Just a little project snuck into the budget just before the collapse of all Yellowtardom just a month later that year.

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Listening to “haters” can be your best learning experience

It’s hard to comprehend why one would want to block people who beg to differ to your world views. While it is nice to be surrounded by people who always agree with what you say, there is a whole much more to learn from people who disagree with you.

Indeed, being hated was one of my biggest motivations for writing. In the early days of writing online content I was challenged to get better at my persuasion skills after copping a lot of feedback over what were, at the time, controversial views about Filipino culture.

As our community of “GetRealists” grew, we focused more on honing our craft by closely observing our detractors rather than shutting them out and creating little closed echo chambers for ourselves. Indeed, even today, there are very few explicit high fives exchanged amongst ourselves in public.

What we do, instead, is listen.

By listening to detractors one learns to make one’s theses more resilient — even anti-fragile — in a way that allows one’s conceptual frameworks to progressively become richer and deeper by incorporating what is useful from critics’ responses.

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According to “sociologist” Ash Presto (@sosyolohija), Filipino voters are “just plain rotten”

The Yellowtards are in the midst of a monumental temperamental tantrum following a catastrophic loss of their Opposition bets in this year’s elections. They now dismiss Filipino voters as “bobo” (stupid) for not voting for their candidates. But in the face of clear evidence that this summary judgement of people who voted against the Opposition is a big lie, they are now on a warpath to slander highly-educated people who they believe supported administration-backed candidates.

One such person is a certain Athena Charanne “Ash” R. Presto who “graduated summa cum laude”, teaches at the Sociology Department of the University of the Philippines, Diliman, is currently taking her MA Sociology at the same institution, and tweets at @sosyolohija.

She writes in a Rappler article…

One should not set oneself up as a scholar if he or she refuses to recognize the moral responsibility that scholars are faced with, especially in the Philippines under the Duterte administration.

Unfortunately, the way Presto tweets does not, in any way, mirror the spirit of true scholarship she articulates.

In a single ill-thought-out tweet, Presto, as the typical “woke” snowflake is prone to do, reveals more about her real character — one that is profoundly inconsistent with her “woke” talk.

The trouble with Presto is that she builds an entire argument on an unsound foundation — her personal judgement that the candidates backed by the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte are the wrong people to vote. This is problematic because, according to the Philippine Constitution, only the vote can determine who is RIGHT for the job of representing Filipinos in Congress. Yet, Presto writes…

Those who had the means to get an education but who still chose to vote for the President’s allies are not bobo – they are just plain rotten.

Not only does Presto presume to be an authority on who Filipino voters should vote for, she builds an entire thesis on how one ought to apply one’s knowledge and education in his or her chosen field of endeavour, on her pompous and presumptuous judgement. That is not for anyone to decide for another. And, certainly, there are ways to make good use of one’s education beyond “morality, rights, and justice”.

Indeed, scholars of the hard sciences pride themselves in not having to defer to those nebulous flakey concepts to explain how the world works, how fortunes are made and lost, and how human nature shapes history and life on the planet. In doing so, a true intellectual (something Presto evidently is not despite her education) is able to use theories agnostic to such polticially-motivated constructs to develop better frameworks upon which truly visionary pathways for human progress could be charted — something the Opposition in this year’s elections failed to present to the Filipino Voter.

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De La Salle Philippines president Armin Luistro BURNT by LaSallian community following call to support Maria Ressa!

De La Salle Philippines president Armin Luistro the other day issued a baldly presumptuous call to action to — presumably all — “LaSallians” to support embattled Rappler CEO Maria Ressa.

Let’s give our all out support as Lasallians to Rappler. Let’s defend press freedom. Let’s make our voices heard. Let’s vote with our feet and stand with Maria Ressa!
— Br. Armin Luistro FSC

Photo [below] by The LaSallian

The statement failed because it was underpinned by the flawed sweeping assumption that all “LaSallians” would necessarily take the position espoused by Luistro. Luistro, in effect, makes the all-too-familiar fatal mistake that lost today’s Opposition bloc an entire nation in 2016.

Suffice to say, the LaSallian community didn’t respond too kindly to what, in essence, was a blatant insult to their intelligence delivered by their own president.

Ouch.

Lesson to administrators of educational institutions: Don’t insult the intelligence of your students.

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An “immersion”. With “farmers”. In Quezon province. Organised by @LFSPhilippines… 🤔

If it walks like a communist, quacks like a communist, looks like a communist, then it must be…

Rizza Divine was supposedly part of an “immersion” program organised by the League of Filipino Students (LFS) which everyone knows is a communist front operating with impunity in most Philippine university campuses. She went “missing” long enough for her father Roland Camingawan to seek the help of radio station dzBB.

But…

The legal management freshman is said to be a member of the League of Filipino Students (LFS)-UST, and of Anakbayan-UST when she was in UST Senior High School.

Was this really an “immersion” programme? Or was it just another method of recruiting combatants into the New People’s Army, the terrorist arm of the Communist Party of the Philippines?

The questions continue to mount…

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The mystery of the Yellowtard @MiaMagdalena’s sudden disappearance from Twitter… #PABoost casualty?

Back a few days, I noted the sudden mysterious disappearance of a noted Yellowtard Twitter user who goes by the handle @MiaMagdalena.

This Twitter user is a member of an active mob of Yellowtard Twitter accounts renowned for their ferocious attacks against the government of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and their gang-bullying of Twitter users that dare challenge their assertions.

Her last tweets just before the disappearance of her Twitter account were part of an attack on TV personality James Deakin.

Turns out the person behind this Twitter account is Mia Magdalena F. Longid, the Registrar of chi chi ultra-elite Brent International School in Baguio City.

To quote an important excerpt from the message of said Registrar to the student body and, presumably, its extended community of parents and faculty members…

We strive to be a living International School Community, where young people from different nationalities, religions, and family backgrounds, educate one another by mutual understanding and respect, openness of mind in dialogue, acceptance of the uniqueness and limitations of each, and with growth in the spirit of service and in the practice of justice and charity.

I don’t know about you, but I’m all choked up reading this.

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Is including a #NoToBullying hashtag in the Ateneo’s decision statement appropriate?

The Ateneo administration finally released an “official” decision on the bullying case of Taekwondo champ Joaquin Montesa. The letter was signed by its president Fr. Jett Villarin and published on Twitter…

The question is, was it appropriate to add hashtags to what one would have thought is an official document issued by the institution?

This further stokes speculation that the Ateneo had been managing this incident more as a PR management exercise than a truly administrative case that observers are expecting of the school.

A bit more sobriety and circumspect is expected of an upstanding institution such as that of the Ateneo de Manila University.

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Ateneo bullying incident a potential ASSAULT case and should involve the police

This is the right thing to do. According to a Manila Times report, parents of the victim of Ateneo Taekwondo champ Joaquin Montes’s alleged bullying are taking appropriate steps…

The victim’s parents accompanied their child to the Quezon City Anonas Police Station where they filed a report of the incident, Chief Supt. Joselito Esquivel told The Manila Times.

The Ateneo has lost the confidence of the public as far as dealing with entrenched bullying within its student body goes. Statements the Ateneo administration had released following the explosion of this incident over social media are perceived by many observers to be mere efforts at damage control and no more than public relations management measures.

Indeed, in essence, the Ateneo administration is not a disinterested party in any “investigation” surrounding this case — because it is a party essentially investigating itself and, potentially, parties of interest that it is financially involved with.

As such, it is good that the aggrieved parties have taken the matter to state authorities and have initiated the process properly by taking the first important step — filing a police report. An incident that can be considered to be a case of assault is quite evident in the videos that have, rightly or wrongly, now become part of the public domain. The only way forward is to move forward from there.

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Opposition attempt to POLITICISE Ateneo bullying scandal BACKFIRES badly!

Ahem…products of Ateneo who wreaked havoc in the Philippines:

– Noynoy Aquino
– Lourdes Sereno
– Andy Bautista
– Harvey Keh
– Jim Paredes
– Risa Hontiveros
– Kris Aquino

You have to wonder what is it about the school that produces sociopathic behaviour.

Some say the name of the bully from the Ateneo should be withheld because he has a right to privacy. Well, he forfeited that right after he willingly allowed someone to video himself beating another kid. He knew that video was going to go public but didn’t have a problem with it.

So, my dear yellows, prove that you can discipline your own ranks and fix the bullying problem in Ateneo before you try and fix others who think you never had any credibility in the first place. It‘s hard to take you seriously when you tolerate appalling behaviour from your own members.

I can’t get over how the yellows ride on every issue to take a dig at Duterte. It makes them look pathetic. They are scraping the bottom of the barrel.

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Joaquin Montes was likely a victim of his own psychological issues

Did you see how that Ateneo bully was fixing his hair before he beat the other kid? He was showing signs of narcissistic and psychopathic behaviour.

To be fair, Joaquin Montes, the bully from Ateneo knew his Taekawondo moves, but he shouldn’t be using them against kids who can’t fight back. He should only be using them for self-defence, not for hurting others who aren’t even provoking him.

But is Joaquin Montes into boys? Why did he threaten to make the other kid kiss his privates? The way I understand it, heterosexuals are not into that. Plus he seems to be frustrated about something and is taking it out on other boys. He could use some professional therapy.

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