Partner for Change Philippines

Photo from Google Images An affront to the Constitution and our sovereignty WITH the disclosure that they have been the conduits for spreading vicious black propaganda against President Duterte, it is high time, even an urgent matter of national security, for our sovereign state to shut down the four media outfits, funded by American entities, which have been used as tools to advance US hegemony over Filipino consciousness. These are the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (set up 1989), the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (also in 1989), Vera Files (2008), and Rappler (2012). It is indisputable that these news websites got funds from US entities — among them the Asia and Ford Foundations, National Endowment for Democracy, the Omidyar Network, North Base Media — which have even been explicit in their soft-power task to advance American interests globally. For the first time, the PCIJ yesterday admitted that it received a huge fund (an...

CYBERcrime experts have determined that the black-propaganda video titled “Ang Totoong Narcolist,” which fabricated preposterous, vile allegations against President Duterte and his children, that they were linked to the illegal drug syndicates, was released by a dubious website that rooted for Yellow “Otso Diretso” candidates. The video hosted by one “Bikoy” was distributed first by anti-Duterte writer Ellen Tordesillas, known since many years ago to be Sen. Antonio Trillanes’ most loyal and noisy apologist, and disseminated by three news websites here funded by US neoliberal entities—Tordesillas’ “Vera Files,” Rappler.com and the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ)—as well as by the leftist National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL). The video was largely ignored by netizens, with viewers for each of its four “episodes” not exceeding 2,000. It was so amateurish and its allegations clearly fabricated that it bored or turned off people. Netizens for instan...

THE misnamed Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ), Rappler and two other media outfits which have been stridently critical of President Duterte are violating the constitutional ban on foreign presence in media by receiving substantial funds from US entities. These media outfits are Vera Files and the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR). Vera Files was also designated by Facebook as one of its “fact checkers.” I dare it to fact-check the claims in this column. These outfits are in the same legal quagmire as Rappler, which the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 2018 had ruled was in violation of that constitutional ban owing to its $1.5 million funding from an American enterprise. The SEC pointed out: “The constitutional and statutory prohibition…means to isolate the Filipino masses from all foreign influence (even apparently ‘harmless’ ones) sent via “any medium of communication.” It ruled—which the Court of Appeals later affirmed—t...

COME to think of it, the Yellows most probably used the misnamed Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) as its template for Rappler, and improved on it by having daily new reportage and by spending millions of pesos for technology to expand its internet reach. While both viewed themselves as God’s gift to Philippine journalism, with PCIJ indeed producing to its credit about two dozen good investigative reports in its 29 years of existence, it has since degenerated into a tool of the Yellow forces and, recently, of US foreign policy. This is not my opinion but the indisputable conclusion from facts, which anyone can verify by simply going to the PCIJ website and poring over its articles since 1999. There is no PCIJ article critical of the second Yellow regime of Fidel Ramos posted in its website. But it produced dozens of articles against Ramos’ successor Joseph Estrada, especially on his wealth, so that its executive editor then boasted that it was PCI...

Photo from CNN Philippines Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 24) —  Canada assured that it is working with the Philippines to get rid of the trash illegally shipped to the country beginning 2013, following President Rodrigo Duterte’s threat of war against the North American nation. The Canadian Embassy in the Philippines said they are “strongly committed” to shipping back the trash to Canada. “A joint technical working group, consisting of officials from both countries, is examining the full spectrum of issues related to the removal of the waste with a view to a timely resolution,” the embassy said in a statement on Wednesday. It added that Canada and the Philippines are celebrating this year 70 years of diplomatic relations built on “strong people to people ties, our common interest in strengthening political, economic and cultural relations and in our mutual commitment to peace.” In a speech yesterday, Duterte threatened to go to war against Canada...

Members of the Liga Independencia Filipina peace group chant "Do not vote for #ShamefulNine" during a rally in Mendiola, Manila on Wednesday (April 24, 2019).  (Photo by Christine Cudis) MANILA  -- Former New People’s Army (NPA) rebels, who are now members of the peace group Liga Independencia Filipina, urged the public to refrain from supporting candidates who are “allies” of communist terrorist groups. Members of the peace group made this call as they staged a rally at the Mendiola Bridge on Wednesday, condemning opposition senatorial candidates and other politicians being endorsed by the Makabayan Bloc, which is branded as a legal front of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army (CPP-NPA). “ Hindi naman lingid sa kaalaman ng #ShamefulNine na ang Makabayan Bloc ay isang legal front ng National Democratic Front (NDF). Sa milyun-milyong pera muli nilang binigyan ang NDF ng tulong na maghasik ng terorismo sa bansa  (It...