According to Rappler CEO Maria Ressa, her new lawyer, celebrity “human rights” campaigner Amal Clooney, is the final say on what is and isn’t true and what is and isn’t factual information.
Good morning from Manila! "The current media crisis involves both the silencing of truth and the amplification of misinformation to levels we have never seen before." Amal Clooney
One wonders though, by what authority do these two ladies presume to declare what is true or false and what is information and “misinformation”. Are they today’s modern dictators who can summarily declare who are the “truth sayers” and who are the liars?
This is the sort of sense of entitlement that lost these so-called “activists” their credibility and gave their otherwise noble advocacies bad names.
For that matter, Ressa needs to decide whether she is a “journalist” or an activist. You can’t be both. The earlier requires that you be a disinterested observer and the latter requires one to be a monomanic rabid crusader.
By all means, Filipinos should welcome to their shores the United Nations Human Rights Council delegation headed by Michelle Bachelet. They should open their government to “investigation” for “human rights” abuses. The key caveat there is that the public should keep engaged and apply a critical mind to observing and evaluating the progress of the investigation.
The Opposition have an agenda, and it is to overthrow the government of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. The UNHRC have a job to do, and that is to investigate and report on their findings. It is important to remember that, given those two objectives, the Opposition agenda and the UNHRC report, only the Filipino Voter has the final say on whether or not Duterte stays in power.
I therefore agree on this — that the UNHRC “investigation” should be embraced by Filipinos with open arms. In doing so, they will demonstrate not only their faith in their democratic institutions but also the strong mandate they have given the Duterte government to continue down the path he is leading his people.
That said, Leni Robredo is still wrong in saying this…
“If I were (the government), I will entertain (the reviewers) because we are a member of the UN,” Robredo said in an interview with dzMM
No, Leni. The Philippines does not comply simply because it is a member of the UN. The Philippines complies because Filipinos know who their president is and what they expect of him — because they voted for him.
Maria Ressa is insulting Filipino lawyers by hiring foreigners to defend her. I suppose it’s because it’s mostly foreigners who buy her lies. More importantly, foreigners lack a broad understanding of the context behind those lies.
These foreigners should take time out to recall just a few years back how no less than their resident Yellow “investigative journalist” Raissa Robles reported how they “reacted with disbelief to reports that star international lawyer Amal Clooney had filed a complaint to a UN human rights body on behalf of detained former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo”.
This time, the Yellows aren’t ‘shocked’ by Amal Clooney’s intervention into the Philippines’ justice system.
This is is a reminder of how selective the Yellows are in the positions they take. They reacted badly to Clooney defending their enemy former President Arroyo – someone who was being persecuted by then President Noynoy Aquino and then Justice Secretary Leila De Lima. Clooney actually won the case before the UN but the Yellows ignored the ruling and merely shrugged it off.
Now that Clooney is on the side of Rappler CEO Maria Ressa, the Yellows are all cheers. Selective indeed.
All that said, I actually welcome Amal Clooney joining Maria Ressa’s defense team. She’s an intelligent woman and would soon find out Ressa’s case doesn’t have legs to stand on. She could still continue to defend her after she finds out the truth, but Ressa’s lies will eventually be exposed.
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.
Hi all! May bagong museum na itatayo sa loob ng @Official_UPD (katapat ng CHED) to memorialize the martial law era. Ang tawag ay Freedom Memorial Museum.
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.
Why discriminate in the dispensation of justice in favour of “activists” and “journalists”? This is what proponents of a new law that adds favour to the “plight” of “human rights defenders” need to answer. It seems they are proposing a law that is completely redundant…
According to the explanatory note of the Makabayan bloc, human rights defenders are subjected to different kinds of harassment and threats. These include:
Killings
Death threats
Abductions and kidnappings
Arbitrary arrest and detention
Defamation campaigns
Filing of trumped-up charges
Many groups also emphasized that these attacks do not only target the defenders themselves, but also extend to their families. This aims to act as a way to prevent them from continuing with their works to spare their loved ones from the harassment.
Worse, this proposed law is discriminatory. Aren’t all of these types of attacks against people already punishable under existing Philippine laws? If so, it would seem that the proposed law that favours “human rights defenders” is discriminatory as it puts undue priority on the cases involving “human rights defenders” at the expense of cases of other Filipinos who have equal rights to attention as victims of what are essentially the same crimes.
The Makabayan Bloc propose a law that aims to discriminate in favour of certain people on the basis of their chosen type of activism.
People need to question why these people think some ought to be given extra special treatment under this new law. All Filipinos should be equal under the law and shouldn’t be entitled to special treatment just because they are “human rights defenders”.
Once again “vice president” Leni Robredo proves that she never was part of the Philippine government. Rather than set an example to the Filipino people by exhibiting faith in the ability of their country, their government, and their institutions to sort out its own domestic problems, Robredo shows a sick inclination to reach out to the devices of former colonial masters.
It totally escapes Robredo just how inappropriate her words are in reportedly calling for a foreign “human rights council” to meddle in what is clearly the jurisdiction of a Philippine court as well as every institution involved in the Philippines’ criminal justice system.
Kung totoo na walang human rights violations dito, bakit sasalungatin natin iyong imbestigasyon? Kasi ‘di ba, mas mabuti ngang pinapakita natin na wala tayong tinatago kaysa haharangin natin?
Robredo is, in effect, encouraging Filipinos to place their trust in a foreign entity, the United Nations Human Rights Council, to rule on what is clearly a case that can be resolved using their existing and hard-fought-for democratic institutions.
Robredo can’t seem to get past her scheming ways.
Perhaps it is indeed true. Robredo did not win the vice presidency in 2016 and is only in power thanks to the machinations of her partisan camp. This is evident in the attitude she exhibits towards her own people’s government.
The most recent social-climbing achievement of Rappler CEO Maria Ressa is the bit of schmoozing she’s been doing with celebrity activists George and Amal Clooney she exhibits in a recent tweet…
Ironic that up for “discussion” with the power couple is the issue of “rule of law”. Perhaps Ressa and her new friends should take a bit of time to recall what rule of law really means to Ressa’s real boss.
Back in 2015, Mrs Clooney stepped up to assist in an initiative to expose the Aquino government’s human rights abuses. Interestingly the key perpetrator of the human rights abuses being investigated was no less than then Justice Secretary Leila De Lima herself…
De Lima’s initial violation back then was in defying the Supreme Court’s temporary restraining order on the travel ban against Arroyo. De Lima even risked disbarment for ignoring the highest court’s order. Senator Miriam Santiago likewise questioned De Lima’s action citing the DOJ had no legal basis to issue a watch-list order against Arroyo since there was no pending case against the former President and was only a respondent in a joint DOJ Comelec investigation on electoral fraud at that time.
Evidently, rule of law meant nothing to De Lima who defied an order issued by no less than the Philippines’ Supreme Court!
Suffice to say, Ressa and De Lima are real partners in crime considering both are currently in big trouble with the law. Nonetheless, both continue to be engaged in a mutual back-patting love-in likely to distract people from the real charges they face. Even from jail, De Lima is all praises for the failed “social news network” CEO…
Well, whatever floats their boat, one would suppose. For now, there is no fooling anyone else other than the folks within their little chi chi cliques the hierarchy within which the are clambering upwards as a matter of desperate priority.
We do hope that the international community will continue to put pressure on the Philippine government to adhere to its commitments under international human rights instruments.
As if this weren’t enough of a shocking affront to Philippine sovereignty being invited by a politician aspiring to hold a seat in the Senate, Diokno adds that foreigners “influencing the way government operates” is something that he wants seen happen in his country!
The Opposition have truly gone bonkers. Imagine a Philippine Congress dominated by these traitors. It’s time Filipinos put their collective foot down and vote their will to be a truly free and independent nation.
According to “human rights” guy Caloy Conde, it is “shocking” that a survey revealed that Filipinos trust soldiers more than “human rights advocates”. In a tweet issued recently, Conde laments…
A jarring info I learned just now: the Filipino public trusts soldiers more than human rights advocates to have “true respect” for human rights.
That’s it. I’m going back to crocheting.
The trouble with the whole “human rights” advocate community is that they had made the really bad mistake of associating their “cause” with a specific clique of political partisans. It so happens too that the biggest bloc within this clique is made up of “thought leaders” of the Liberal Party (a.k.a. the Yellowtards) and Filipino communists.
Suffice to say, these two groups had, over the last several decades, suffered multiple crises of credibility, relevance, and ideological consistency. Much of these crises were brought about by a foolish rallying around personalities and outrage fads rather than sustaining a rhetoric anchored on foundational thought.
Human rights, an otherwise noble doctrine imported from Western Europe has succumbed to Filipinos’ renowned Reverse Midas Touch Syndrome — yet another noble idea perverted beyond recognition.
Tony La Viña writing for Rappler attempts to make a case for “senator” Leila De Lima to be considered for the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize…
De Lima is already internationally recognized for her struggle for human rights under Duterte’s rule, for which reason she was imprisoned and continue to be persecuted using fake charges.
Definitely, this persecution for her single-handed challenge against Duterte’s drug war and EJK campaign as early as July of 2016, especially her subsequent incarceration, has put the world spotlight on the former Chairperson of the CHR and Secretary of Justice.
La Viña, however, forgets that De Lima was once in a position to advance the cause of “human rights” when she was head of the Commission on Human Rights under the administration of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. What happened then?
De Lima was also called out for the human rights violations she then pepretrated under the administration of President Benigno Simeon ‘BS’ Aquino III against her former boss Arroyo when she had her travel rights restricted on no legal basis then ignored court orders to lift that order.
De Lima’s initial violation back then was in defying the Supreme Court’s temporary restraining order on the travel ban against Arroyo. De Lima even risked disbarment for ignoring the highest court’s order. Senator Miriam Santiago likewise questioned De Lima’s action citing the DOJ had no legal basis to issue a watch-list order against Arroyo since there was no pending case against the former President and was only a respondent in a joint DOJ Comelec investigation on electoral fraud at that time.
Should Leila De Lima be given the Nobel Peace Prize? Only a rabid Yellowtard would say yes to that.
