Had lawmakers focused solely and exclusively on Identity Theft, Cybersex, Child Pornography, Computer-related Fraud and Forgery, Illegal Access and Interception, and Data and System Interference, there would have been no objections to the enactment of the Aquino Cybercrime Law.
But they didn’t. Instead, Congress made a full-scale, omnibus legal attack on netizens of the world’s social media capital.
From Day One, Filipinos have looked for ways to catch President Aquino’s and his team’s attention whenever they f—k their jobs and whenever they needed to be reminded about their solemn duties and the promises they made during the campaign.
Everytime the public would raise a howl over some grave mistake or omission, the routine answer from Malacanang has been to point fingers at the trust and confidence ratings of the President and the electoral mandate he enjoyed. Even social media, which the President and his team promised would be used for gathering feedback from the public, had been grossly violated. Each time netizens take to the President’s Facebook Page to give the President a piece of their mind, Palace factotums just suddenly get afflicted with an irrational allergy — they shut down the Page for comments. Of course, we cannot forget how the Palace just snatched the Facebook Page from the ordinary citizens which set it up and administered it until it reached millions of Likes. That in itself was an offense.
Enter Noynoying.
The technical working group formed by the Department of Trade and Industry has released a draft final report on the application of DTI rules on the requirement of sales permit for all online sales promotions.
In the interest of transparency and to allow as many bloggers to check and react to the draft final report, I am sharing the document in full:
Referring to extrajudicial killings and the killing of journalists in the Philippines in his July, 2010 State of the Nation Address, President Benigno Aquino III declared that his administration would “hold murderers accountable.”
Despite that pledge, six journalists have been killed since then, or a total of ten since the Ampatuan Massacre of November 23, 2009 claimed the lives of 58 men and women, of whom 32 were journalists and media workers.
In addition to the killings that have continued in the Aquino administration, a number of community journalists have also been threatened, sued for libel on the flimsiest grounds, barred from attending interviews and press conferences, and physically assaulted. In a recent incident, unidentified persons also burned a Catholic Church-owned radio station in Occidental Mindoro. All are indicative of a state of mind among those who want to silence the press that could, in the present circumstances, lead to murder.
Over 500 days have passed since Benigno Aquino III assumed the presidency on a pro-change platform – but families of victims of extrajudicial killings have been made to wait and to wait longer for presidential action needed to spur decisive action by government.
The administration has not done anything meaningful to address the political killings that were an indelible mark on the previous administration. A few statements in speeches, yes. But compelling action, nada.
Information and measurement company Nielsen today released in Singapore the first Southeast Asia Digital Consumer Report, declaring that widening internet usage is “revolutionizing digital media usage” in the region.
According to Nielsen:
Rapid technological developments, including high-speed internet access and WiFi, and increasing ownership of connected devices such as smartphones and tablets are revolutionizing digital media usage in Southeast Asia, with internet usage in some markets surpassing time spent on traditional media such as television, radio or print.
Together with colleague Delwin Keasberry, a.k.a. @BruneiTweet and the man behind Projek Brunei, we led a master class with the same title at the ASEAN100 Leadership Forum on Sept. 29, 2011 at the Shangrila Hotel in Makati City, Philippines.
Here is the presentation I shared at the master class:
The upcoming awarding of the first Tatt Awards coincides with the rise last year of #sentisabado.
At around this time last year, Manila was the center of world news as scores of tourists were hostaged for several hours, a terrible crime that ended with the death of the hostage-taker and, very sadly, a number of tourists. The entire country witnessed this via television and social media.
Days later, in a social experiment I started in my living room in Manila, Filipinos sought to demolish the bad vibes left by the incident with funny and fun-filled tweets marked by the #sentisabado hashtag. By the next weekend, a new worldwide-trending Filipino meme was born on Twitter.
Yahoo! Philippines and market research company Nielsen recently released the results of its Net Index 2011 study which, among others, “a shift from shared to private access” in how Filipinos connect to the internet.
Net Index 2011 is the third, consecutive study by Yahoo! and Nielsen that dwells on Filipinos’ internet habits.
Global market research company Nielsen today made a pre-release of its Southeast Asia Digital Consumer Report which says, among others, that “one in three consumers in the Philippines are now accessing the Internet, with younger demographics significantly more likely to get online than older generations.”
The Office of the President announced the abolition of the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) today […]
The Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) led other government agencies, private sector representatives and other stakeholders in the launch of the Philippine Digital Strategy 2011-2016 on June 29, 2011 at the Edsa Shangrila Hotel in Mandaluyong City.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in the Philippines and its partners including the Peace and Conflict Journalism Network announced the winners of the first Red Cross Award for Humanitarian Reporting today, May 7, a day before Red Cross Day, at the Richmonde Hotel in Pasig City.
Here is the list of winners:
Friends from PECOJON invited me to speak at the forum and awarding of winners in the Red Cross Award for Humanitarian Reporting. The forum and contest revolved around humanitarian reporting, about journalism in the midst of conflict.
I was asked to speak on social media, and below are the thoughts that I chose to share, out of many ideas that popped in my head:
Bullet Points on Social Media and Social Conflict
by Tonyo CruzHere are various definitions of social media, culled from various sources:
“Social media is a type of online media that expedites conversation as opposed to traditional media, which delivers content but doesn’t allow readers/viewers/listeners to participate in the creation or development of the content.”
The Roman Catholic Church on May 1, 2011 beatified Pope John Paul II, giving him the title of “Blessed” and taking him one step closer to sainthood.
Here is the full English text of Blessed John Paul II’s profile as published in the “Booklet for the Celebration” released by the Vatican for the mass celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI honoring and extolling the departed pontiff
Willie Revillame’s treatment of Janjan who was made to dance like a gigolo on his primetime game show beamed on national television last March 12 has attracted a whole array of opposition and strident criticism, and, of course, defense from his diehard fans and defenders of his new home network.
Monique Wilson, a respected stage actress, gives us another point of view, and a call to her colleagues in the Philippines.
Margaret Mead reminds cynics: Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, […]
Even as consultations and discussions are ongoing, but it seems there are bloggers who cannot wait to be part of what is turning out to be a controversial initiative.
The draft manifesto below hopes to provide a starting point towards forming an association of Filipino bloggers. Please feel free to make suggestions to improve this statement of intent.
Members of this future organization will make the final decision on the name to use, the constitution and by laws, its officers and its programs and policies. If you wish to join as a founding member, please sign up below:
(Post updated. Changes in brackets. Thanks.) I have long wanted to do something: To help form a national bloggers association in the Philippines. The premises are simple: We are a growing community, with more younger Filipinos trying to start their own blogs. We have worked together in many instances. We have organized events. Some of us have made blogging a career or a profession. We have been sought in interviews. Some have been considered experts in their own fields of interests. Blogs have become media too. Government and business have gone blogging and gone digital. Just imagine what we could do together if we have an organization that would take all these forward.
Merceditas Gutierrez, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s choice of ombudsman, now faces two impeachment complaints now being heard in a single proceeding by the House justice committee.
Previous impeachment proceedings against Gutierrez failed when the House of Representatives was still controlled by a pro-Arroyo majority. The new proceeding should have a different outcome. It is only reasonable to expect that the new majority, led by partymates of President Benigno Aquino III, would muster the political will to impeach Gutierrez in the House and send her to the Senate for an impeachment trial.
A number of Filipino netizens went ballistic today after reading news about the National Bureau of Investigation’s proposal to have all laptops and other internet devices registered as part of government’s efforts to purportedly curb cybercrime.
The laptop registry plan, first reported by GMA News and which follows a similar proposal covering mobile phone SIM cards, has attracted the choicest expletives from Twitter users as we could see in these curated tweets:
Three Filipinos were saved from certain death after the Chinese government postponed their execution on drug trafficking charges but more needs to be done by the Philippine government.
Yes, more and much more. According to Migrante International, an alliance of overseas Filipino workers, 125 other Filipinos face the death penalty in a number of countries and many of them have not been given the attention by the Philippine government.