Before beginning my article on hoaxes and the propaganda machine, I would like to share this video:

Leni Robredo gave a speech at Alabang Country Club last March 21, 2016. The vice-presidential candidate told how and why she arrived at the moment of deciding to run in the elections, first as a district representative and later for the second-highest position in the land.

There were times when she seemed as if she was about to cry. A poignant part of the speech was when Leni recalled that her children told her it felt like “Dad’s plane was missing again” when she decided to run in the upcoming elections. I was very skeptical of personalities running on the basis of their dead relative’s good name, but Leni Robredo’s sincerity and simplicity dispelled all of that. In this campaign season full of propaganda, Leni effectively communicates her message as genuine, which appeals even to those who are still doubtful of her running mate, Mar Roxas.

If there is any major reason to vote for Mar Roxas, it would be Leni Robredo. He was the only one who approached and sought a candidate who was not really popular, as she registered a mere 1 percent in surveys up until she announced her intentions, or one who came from money. The Robredos live a decent life, untainted by corruption issues even while serving in government. According to the speech, both she and Jesse are the kind of leaders who had their political awakening during the turbulent years of the Marcos dictatorship. Leni was a college student who started attending mobilizations after the assassination of Ninoy Aquino, the Second Quarter Storm as veterans of those days call the phenomenon. Leni also recalled how Jesse reprimanded her for pulling strings to get a job when she was applying to his government office. Leni was the daughter of a Regional Trial Court judge who was a friend of the governor and readily issued a recommendation letter for his nephew’s reference, Jesse Robredo being the nephew. Leni did not get the job she was applying for, even assuming that Jesse Robredo was already attracted to her and despite her credentials, as she had a degree in Economics from the University of the Philippines, for the simple reason that the job had already been offered to someone else.

That is the kind of integrity that Jesse Robredo displayed even at a young age, as he was 28 years old at the time.

Two weeks later, his office called again and offered Leni a position that required writing skills. Leni wrote an essay about the role of Cory Aquino in the EDSA People Power Revolution. She started her work, and presumably her romance with Jesse, on the 18th of August. Exactly 26 years later, Jesse’s plane would crash off the coast of Masbate, and he would be found dead on August 21, 2012, almost twenty years after the death of Ninoy Aquino.

While one has often overlooked the vice-presidency as a spare tire, lessons from history tell otherwise. GMA’s succession to the office is enough to drive the point, but even without the chance of replacement, the example of a corrupt leader like the current Vice President Jejomar Binay, guilty according to the Ombudsman yet apparently protected by immunity, who has been campaigning his entire term for the presidency, should remind us to take more consideration in choosing who will sit at the Coconut Palace, a name for a place so bizarre one would think it taken straight out of a magic realist novel.

 

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In contrast to the hope one feels over a candidate with integrity having a shot at the vice presidency, I have been terribly annoyed by several hoax political sites such as this, which continue to spread blatant lies aimed at discrediting the campaign of Mar Roxas. In the latest hoax, a “beautiful netizen” warns Roxas against forcing government employees and soldiers to vote for him. I worked for the government until the 15th of March this year, and I was never forced to vote for Roxas. No one campaigned inside our offices or threatened to withhold our benefits if we did not vote for Mar. The truth is that many government employees are voting for Mar and his partido because of the increase in their benefits during the Aquino administration. Add to that the fact that for co terminus government officials and employees, the election of Mar Roxas means a longer term, another six years without having to look for a job in the private sector. The support of government employees is only natural if they feel they are being treated well.

While these sites seem to have credible names and their own domains, they appear to have mushroomed only as the campaign season approached. They obviously come from various organizations linked to one or more of the presidential candidates. I would not bet that they exist solely to support the candidacy of Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, as they are equally capable of using the popularity of the feisty mayor for their own ends. I have major issues against Rodrigo Duterte, especially his taking pride in committing human rights violations and his utterly misguided proposal to shift to federalism, a form of government copied from the United States that disregards the historical intentions of our national heroes when they conceived of this nation.

Duterte now has the perfect opportunity to exercise strong political will by organizing and disciplining his supporters. Until he actually does so, I will believe that he is willing to let false accusations slide. He is not averse to them, as shown by his insistence that Mar did not graduate from Wharton. This may well be the kind of “wisdom” he would use to impose his style of justice should he become president, forgetting that there are two other co equal branches of government.

Duterte may not have intended it but he represents the kind of provincialism and regionalism that has crippled the revolutionary movement of 1896. It is urgent to remedy the welfare of the Visayas and Mindanao regions, which have been treated with less priority by past administrations, but it would be foolish to pin this apparent neglect solely on the presidency. How can infrastructure improvements proceed at full speed when peace and security issues continue to interfere?

Even with rapid development, one cannot arbitrarily shift the focus of projects to Mindanao or the Visayas when the majority of the population lives in metropolitan areas. Projects must be delivered gradually, according to clear policy and proper proportions, to ensure sustainability long after regimes have changed.

Another issue I would like to raise not against Duterte but on the sensible electorate is the fact that one of Rodrigo Duterte’s closest advisor is a known leader of a cult.  Apollo Quiboloy not long ago proclaimed himself the “Appointed Son of God.” I wonder when God called for a board meeting in heaven. The title “Son of God” refers to no one else but Jesus Christ, so is he saying that Jesus is not enough, that God would have to appoint another son, and from all places, Davao City? You all watched Mel Gibson’s The Passion, so let me know when that messiah is ready to keep it real.

I do not necessarily find it anomalous that Quiboloy provides Duterte with helicopters and allows him to address his congregation in order to lambaste Mar Roxas over alleged links to illegal mining activities. Roxas is a friend of Eric Gutierrez, the owner of a mining firm. That may be true, but until solid evidence is presented that Roxas has benefited from illegal mining, Duterte’s accusations, even when delivered from the pulpit, are simply more hoaxes. When he was running for president, Noynoy Aquino was circumspect enough to decline an invitation from Apollo Quiboloy in 2010.

What I find anomalous is Quiboloy himself. Just look at the suits he wears and you sense that something is amiss. While I am a church going person, I am among those who would rather see religious personalities stay out of matters of the state. That said, I hope any future president is guided spiritually. I am intrigued by what kind of guidance a false prophet like Quiboloy would offer, given his emphatic butchering of traditional Christian doctrine that has successfully swindled millions for his own self-enrichment.

In a time when even a columnist of the Philippine Daily Inquirer can be beguiled into believing hoaxes, we citizens have to be more vigilant and investigative. Google or question everything! Doubt, if only to prove oneself right. Rage against the propaganda machine.