'GOD SEES THE TRUTH BUT WAITS'

By Philip M. Lustre Jr. 

THAT day - Oct. 4, 2017 - is clearly etched in my memory. It was a televised public hearing at the Senate. It was supposed to be a public hearing on the proliferation of fake news, but Grace Poe, the pretentious but underachieving senator, went out of bounce by openly praising RJ Nieto, the pro-government blogger who goes by the mocking name "Thinking Pinoy" (or Stinking Pinoy), for his "excellent research" and "neutrality."

Grace Poe is not known for sarcasm. She does not possess the intellectual savvy and sophistication to grasp the magic of words. A former preschool teacher, Grace Poe appears to have developed quite a limited range of ways to express her equally limited thoughts. Her words could be therefore construed as her views of the world. They hardly elicit any enigma, or stimulate the deeper recesses of the intellect. She is no intellectual. Mababaw, as we say it in Tagalog.

“You know we may or may not agree with you. But if there’s anything, you do excellent research and that’s the truth. You do excellent research – sometimes against us, sometimes for us,” Poe said. Poe, who chaired the Senate committee on public information, held three public hearings on fake news. But they resulted in zero accomplishment. They were not in aid of legislation as earter bruited about; they were in aid of her reelection, as he won in 2019 midterm elections.

At one point, RJ Nieto, or Stinking Pinoy, did not lose the air of a braggadocio. The windbag Nieto said the monthly retainer fee of P12,000 he received those days from the Department of Foreign Affairs as "consultant" was just a "pittance." "Kulang pang pantaksi," he said to confirm that he did not drive. He soared a little higher by saying "the DFA needs me more than I need them."

His ego trip did not end there. "Hindi po ako nagyayabang (I'm not bragging), I have 700,000 followers, and my engagement is equal to about Inquirer plus Rappler, my engagement on Facebook, and I basically want to lend my platform so that we can reach out easier to OFWs." It was his way to say he was being paid for his blogs and that makes him mercenary. He openly bragged he had more readers than the Philippine Daily Inquirer. I could only puke at the pontifications of this asshole. Saksakan ng hangin. Punong-puno ng kayabangan ang katawan.

Why not? They were sitting on top of the world during those halcyon days. In their obfuscated views, they would never go wrong. Even Rodrigo Duterte owes his political victory in 2016 to their skillful manipulations of public opinion. These pro-government bloggers even thought they were God's gift to Philippine politics. They thought they could do anything and everything they wanted and put in Malacanang whoever they would fancy and support.

Then, the world of those pro-government bloggers has started to cave in. The institution of fact checks in 2018 is among the first in a series of blows that have clipped their wings. Fact checking has enabled major media institutions to conduct probes on the authenticity of facts and veracity of their blogs and claims. Hence, the likes of media entities like rappler.com, VeraFiles, and Agence France Presse have been empowered to declare "FAKE" (in big bold letters) whenever these pro-government bloggers come out with fake news. Mocha was among the first victims of fake checks.

No, we did not need the intellectually challenged Grace Poe to tell us how to discern fake news and what to do with them. She is a fraud and has remained useless (until now) for the Filipino people.

The world of those pro-government bloggers, who have become specialists in fake news, has further caved in when social networking sites like Facebook have taken down en masse websites of fake news and fake accounts. The cleansing process has defanged pro-government entities whose business was mainly to come with every conceivable fake news to fool the world. Suddenly, they have become toothless and powerless. Where before they were the proverbial hunters, they have become the hunted and dispossessed.

Those pro-government bloggers have suddenly become irrelevant. They are no longer in the mainstream. They have been relegated to the fringes. Modern technology has its ways of correcting itself of its mistakes and excesses. In the 2019 midterm elections, those pro-government bloggers hardly played a role. It was Comelec which did the magic in its seven hour glitch where fake senators won.

Still, I am reminded by the title of Leo Tolstoy's classic short story: "God Sees the Truth But Waits." 😧😧😧