Noynoy Aquino supporters are getting fed up

I thought I’d give Noynoy Aquino a break because people are starting to think that I am a paid hack. I keep checking my account for any unusual transactions specifically on the credit side coming from someone named Villar but unfortunately, my account has remained unchanged apart from the fortnightly pay I get from my favourite job. It’s too bad all my articles with reference to Noynoy did not earn me a single centavo and it’s still hard to tell if I am going to get any credit for converting any pro-Noynoy supporter to switch to another candidate. Man, blogging sucks sometimes. There is hardly any visible return on investment for the time spent typing away on the keyboard and then I still get accused of being a paid hack. There is no gratification when one is dealing with Filipinos, really. There’s just a tiny fraction of the population who appreciates real honesty and truth in the get real sense of the words. It’s a good thing I am really passionate about what I’m doing and don’t rely on praises for motivation.

Over at Filipino Voices, I had the pleasure of debating with a new blogger there named Lila Shahani about — ahem — no other than Noynoy Aquino on one of Abe Margallo’s articles. Ms Shahani strikes me as a sensible, straightforward lady, and quite articulate too. You can tell, though, that she has lived a bit of a sheltered existence. I came to this conclusion when our discussion almost turned sour when she accused me of being hostile at some point and assumed I was grumpy as well, an observation of hers that had very little basis considering that I was just being my usual self the whole time. She obviously still has to learn to take things with a grain of salt lest she encounter another “getrealist” in the future.

We haven’t really had a chance to give her a warm welcome to Filipino Voices. FV had only recently lifted their ban on us commenting on their blog articles. In fact, some of the comments by some “getrealists” on that particular article by Abe Margallo have been deleted to silence any further dissent. FV is not the only site that does this though. Most of the websites created for Noynoy moderate or block any Noynoy criticism. I guess they just want to read their side all the time. Being told what you want to hear all the time has the effect of making us soft. So perhaps we too can blame Filipino Voices administrators’ being so overly protective of their bloggers for Lila’s quickness to find hostility in my/our comments.

It was a good thing both Ms Shahani and I quickly removed our fingers from the triggers and managed to come to amiable terms with our point of views. She has earned my respect because she is not one of those pro-Noynoy supporters who dismiss any questions regarding Noynoy as just being, well, anti-Noynoy and she said in the end that her options are still open. She just has to be careful not to allow the elders over at FV to unfairly taint her impression of Antipinoy.com. Regrettably, she is already of the impression that the rest of our colleagues here at Antipinoy.com are receiving money from Noynoy’s opponents. According to her, it’s because for one, a lot of our current articles are about Noynoy and second, she insists that those who are not supporting Noynoy should divulge who they are voting for. For Ms Shahani, doing otherwise makes us “paid hacks”. I did say to her I was leaning towards Gordon partly because I feared she would insist I was a “hack” and partly because it is the truth. I’ll discuss this phenomenon further shortly. First, here’s an excerpt of what she said:

The following comment of hers was what got me going. It came across to me like she was just compromising on Noynoy, which to me was unacceptable:

Mariano, Mike H and others, I understand the view that Noynoy is not perfect and does not have a brilliant legislative career behind him. Nicki Perlas, Gordon and Bro Eddie r certainly very qualified in their own respective ways, but to me it’s about not wanting to split the vote to favor GMA and her people. In an ideal world, I might have preferred Nicki’s credentials, for example. But we r practically in a triage situation at this point.

She later said the following which was, to me, a more satisfying response after a long exchange:

It should be remembered that it was Mar Roxas who was gunning for the presidency, and Hyatt 10 who supported him. Noynoy was not in the picture at all. It was Mar and his people who had a machinery, not Noynoy. U r absolutely right that it was Cory’s death that catalyzed his candidacy, which is why I had some reservations in the beginning. A mother’s death is not a basis for supporting someone.

[…]

Thanks for your response. No, I’m not voting for Noynoy regardless. There is still a little time and I may change my mind if new information or new configurations come up. But, yes, for now that’s where I stand.

Some of the boys from AntiPinoy also wanted to join the debate but it was a shame that the rest of the “getrealist” mob’s rebuttal have been deleted from Mr Margallo’s article. It means none of them stood a chance of defending their views. I was lucky enough to have finished my discussion with Lila before the administrators abruptly put an end to the thread.

Over at the Website Noypi Ako!, I was so flattered to find out that my previous blog Nonoy Aquino Supporters Get Desperate has been copied and pasted on their site for the rest of the pro-Noynoy supporters to peruse. This is such great news to me. This proves that some pro-Noynoy supporters are open-minded enough to see an article like that as being worth a read. Of course I didn’t get the expected agreeable commentaries but rather, I got (translated in English) “Why did you have to post that hate blog on this site?” and “I would rather hear stories about how Noynoy babysitting James (Kris’ son) turned out!”. I didn’t mind those ones but what I mind and I found really shocking was some of the claims that I am just one paid hack:

@awie, i know you mean well. reyna elena and b7 folks know the history of these ‘creatures’. mga masisipag na ‘bayaran’ ‘tong mga ‘to. if you want to help them with their livelihood, good for you because nakatulong ka.

here’s another one:

To be honest, I don’t read paid write-up critical of Noy.

and another one:

Gian youre just wasting your time discussing with them you know why? they are just doing their job.

Sigh. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when I read the above comments. And I really don’t know what to make of this phenomenon. What is the proof that I am a paid hack? Just because I write blogs about Noynoy doesn’t mean that I work for Villar or Gibo. Do pro-Noynoy supporters have access to Villar or Gibo’s bank account? Here’s pro-Noynoy logic at work: You criticise Noynoy = You are a paid hack. Full stop. End of discussion.

What’s our society gotten down to? You can’t have any real dialogue or conversation without being accused or labeled so and so with very little or no basis at all. I really think that they are just firing blanks and hoping the noise will scare us, because instead of giving us a rebuttal or use any real ammunition in Noynoy’s defense, it becomes easier to just dismiss us immediately.

Here’s another assertion by people from the Liberal party about journalist Jojo Robles who wrote the article “Noynoy Aquino Running on Empty” (I have deleted some names):

Comment 1

anyways, the guy who wrote it is Jojo Robles, once acting editor in chief and now relegated to mere columnist of Manila Standard – who is one of the MANY MANY MANY people in media said to be in Manny Villar’s payroll (that itself, was pointed out to me by his former colleagues in Manila Standard)..here’s what S*** A***** who used to be Business Editor of the Manila Standard said about Robles and that particular piece he wrote

Comment 2

this was written by Jojo Robles. Pay it no mind. Me carga yan. Nasa payroll ni Villar yan. I’m very sure about that. In fact your friend (anti-Noynoy Belgian manager of the Century Park Sheraton hotel, *********) posted it pa on his profile last week. And you know naman, since I launched my new blog, I have to read, read, read everything. That’s why I didn’t post it na on the blog e. Hay sus. I know Robles like the back of my knees (not in the biblical sense ha, yak!) but just bec. we worked together in Standard. And having edited the opinion section, I know when he’s cargado or not. (More often than not.)”

Again, where is the proof? There’s just too much talk of being under someone’s payroll but no evidence to speak of. All hearsay. If you read the entire article of Jojo Robles, he wasn’t even endorsing any other candidate. It’s the same with my articles. I may be guilty of criticising Noynoy but I have never endorsed anyone else because I am still in the process of assessing who I will campaign for, and for this, I’m being accused of being in the payroll of another. Where is the logic in that? And by the way, when I read an article in a local publication, I use my brain and judge it on the merit of the article’s message. I try to find out whether the writer has a point or not. I don’t judge it based on whether the writer was paid or not by Noynoy’s opponents. If we can’t even trust our journalists, who can we trust? It seems to me that Filipinos can’t really tolerate or trust each other. What hope is there for our society?

Personally, I have recently been dedicating most of my blogs to Noynoy Aquino as a way of searching for answers or enlightenment as to why he is so popular in those SWS “surveys”. I just don’t see in Noynoy what other pro-Noynoy’s see in him. Writing about him is like an exercise in demystifying Noynoy the person. Pro-Noynoy supporters always write about how he is the right person to lead our nation. I just want to know why. So far, Ms Lila Shahani has been kind enough to admit that the reason why she is leaning strongly towards Noynoy at the moment is because he is what the majority has chosen to defeat Gloria Arroyo. To her, Noynoy is the lesser evil among the rest of the candidates. Fair enough. Like she said, everyone is free to choose their own candidate. Likewise, as far as I’m concerned, I’m free to choose the candidate I want to scrutinise, especially since the candidate I choose to scrutinise is likely to be the next president of the Republic of the Philippines. Better to scrutinise him now than after the election is over — a concept that most Filipinos are not familiar with because as Bert (another commentator from FV) would say, “We’ll just surge the gates!” later on.

Sadly, not a lot of Filipinos get what we are trying to do here in Antipinoy.com. Our colleague BongV said it best:

The call for New Politics is not connecting those who need it most – the marginalized immature electorate. The message needs to be delivered and delivered hard. We have the chance to arrest, stop, block the continued lopsided rule of the oligarchs and their stooges.

All the tricks in the book which use emotional buttons can be addressed by facts and logic. We raise the level of debate by separating the goat from the sheep.

In the interest of balanced blogging, lest I get accused of being biased against Noynoy, please find below my table of comparison for all the top contenders:

The above illustrates what possible reasons people see in all their chosen candidates. Take Villar for example. His evil barometer might be very, very high but when people talk about someone with money, some people equate it with success. His supporters probably admire him for his ability to make lots money in a short period of time. As far as they’re concerned, how he made it or where he got it is still debatable and as far as the public sees it, a person is innocent until proven guilty. Any claims that he is corrupt are just hearsay and never been proven in court despite the number of people talking about it. Another phenomenon that is uniquely Filipino is to label someone corrupt without ever filing any charges against him or her. Even when a case has been filed, it is never followed through so there is very little success in bringing the case to closure. It speaks volumes of the kind of society we have. This is where the phrase “The people have spoken” so aptly applies.

As for Gibo, if it weren’t for his association with Gloria Arroyo and the fact that he is a member of the oligarchs, he would have been getting high marks. As someone pointed out, most of his supporters are women. Enough said.

Richard Gordon as far as I’m concerned is like Hillary Clinton. He is running for the presidency at the wrong time. If it weren’t for Noynoy Aquino, he would be “the lesser evil” to campaign for. People find it so hard to discredit him. There’s the occasional “He cries too much” observation, and to some political insiders, there is “If I wasn’t aware of his shenanigans during the FVR years, I would vote for him” and “He’s still young, his time will come”. Hang on minute…Dick Gordon, still young?! You’ve got to be kidding me!

Nicanor Perlas is just too straight, too wise, too unknown and too unfunded in the sea of famous names, moneyed and supposedly corrupt candidates. Nick is an underdog, the man we should be rooting for and the only one with a platform. A platform is another concept that is totally alien to the rest of the voting public. It is such a hard concept to sell which is why every election is just a carbon copy of the last. Sadly, in a society obsessed with celebrities, Nick doesn’t stand a chance.

Joseph “Erap” Estrada to me is just a total failure in thinking. I just don’t know why he is still running. It is too incomprehensible really. Does he want to finish what he started? He epitomizes what’s wrong with our society. He is a show-off, braggart and totally enjoying impunity. He doesn’t miss a chance for a photo-op every time he is donating goods to the poor. I can see why his supporters still want Erap around, especially those who need his dough.

Brother Eddie is going to be our moral compass. He will be the Ayatollah Khomeini of the Philippines. Enough said.

There you go pro-Noynoy supporters. I deliberately left out Noynoy. Feel free to fill in the data for Noynoy yourself as I really don’t see what you see in him and as you said, Antipinoy has been given the given the flack for being too anti-Noynoy just like Filipino voices has become too pro-Noynoy. To be honest, an election without Noynoy in the picture looks better doesn’t it? This scenario encourages people to work harder and be less enamored with dynasties and oligarchs.