Duterte to FB: Why stay if you can't help gov't? Inquirer Newsletter September 30, 2020

No images? Click here   PROTECTION    Batanes province recorded its first COVID-19 case only this week, but its native inhabitants known as Ivatans, including elderly farmers, have long been wearing masks to protect themselves from the coronavirus.  —ARNEL COMAYA/Contributor     Regions Davao night market bombers convicted​ Eleven members of the Islamic State-linked Maute group have been convicted of multiple murder and multiple attempted murder in connection with the 2016 bombing of the Roxas night market in Davao City that killed 15 people and wounded 69 others. But the Taguig City Regional Trial Court acquitted them of the crime of terrorism. Four of the convicts remain at large.   —STORY BY DEXTER CABALZA Read more: bit.ly/inquirer-plus   Sports Casimero feels ready for big-time fights John Riel Casimero is done fighting for loose change. “From now on, I don’t want a small money fight,” Casimero said days after stopping a previously unbeaten Duke Micah of Ghana in three rounds in Connecticut. His goal right now is to unify the bantamweight belts. He currently rules the 118-pound division of the WBO and is setting his sights on Japanese Naoya Inoue’s WBA and IBF crowns. —STORY BY MARC ANTHONY REYES Read more: bit.ly/inquirer-plus   Lifestyle Fatty is risky,  even for dogs​ Obesity in pets should be taken seriously as it could lead to major health issues, such as diabetes, hypothyroidism, bone problems, an enlarged heart and even cancer. There are many variations in the body size of dogs depending on the breed.  As part of responsible pet ownership, it is advisable to ask a veterinarian if your pet is within its ideal weight.   —STORY BY MARICELLE LICUANAN, CONTRIBUTOR Read more: bit.ly/inquirer-plus   Newsletter / Join us Has this been forwarded by a friend? Subscribe now to the Philippine Daily Inquirer Newsletter and get your latest news and important updates on COVID-19 and the enhanced community quarantine. Subscribe   Get here     Banner story Duterte to FB: Why stay if you can't help gov't? By Julie M. Aurelio President Duterte is seeking a meeting with representatives of Facebook after he questioned the social networking platform’s decision to take down progovernment and promilitary “advocacy” pages and accounts, saying he does not see any use for it if it does not help the government in the “fight of ideas.” Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque on Tuesday explained that Mr. Duterte did not intend to shut down Facebook’s operation in the country, but slammed its takedowns as a form of censorship and suppression of free expression. “The President only said there is a need to talk,” Roque said. “It won’t be good for Facebook and the Philippines [if the social network is banned], because we are No. 1 in Facebook after all. So it will be a huge loss to Facebook. But at the same time, since we are number one, many Filipinos using it will be affected.” Facebook last week said it took down two clusters of fake accounts, one in the Philippines and another in Fujian, China, that were involved in “coordinated inauthentic behavior” in violation of its community standards. The local group linked to the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police was engaged in attacks against activists and dissidents. The Chinese network attacked Rappler and supported the potential presidential run of Mr. Duterte’s daughter Sara in 2022. On Monday night, during his weekly television appearance, Mr. Duterte said the social media giant’s reasons for taking down the “advocacy” pages were “so convoluted” that he couldn’t understand them. “Facebook, listen to me. We allow you to operate here, hoping that you could help us also. Now, if [the] government cannot espouse or advocate something [that] is for the good of the people, then what is your purpose here in my country?” the President said. “What would be the point of allowing you to continue if you cannot help us?” he said. “We are not advocating mass destruction, we are not advocating mass massacre. It’s a fight of ideas. And apparently from the drift of your statement or your position is that it cannot be used as a platform.” Mr. Duterte said Facebook “cannot lay down a policy” for his government and prevent him from “espousing the objectives of [the] government.” “If you cannot help me protect government interest, then let us talk. We may or we may not find the solution. If we cannot, then I’m sorry,” he said. Censorship The President “does not tolerate censorship of progovernment advocacies, such as advocacies to protect children against enlistment as combatants,” according to Roque. One page taken down by Facebook was the Hands Off Our Children, which was put up and managed by an Army captain as a platform for parents whose children had allegedly been recruited by the communist New People’s Army. “We believe in freedom of speech. They may use as justification the ‘inauthentic behavior’ but the effect is censorship, because the contents of the page were deleted,” Roque said. Such “content-based restriction” is unconstitutional, said the former human rights lawyer. “The issue here is the effect of the takedown, and the Philippine government submits, it’s a form of censorship,” he said. Roque said the page and those who owned pages that were taken down should go to court “because the entire planet is waiting for jurisprudence in this regard.” He also criticized Facebook for choosing groups that were “against the Duterte administration” as fact-checkers, pointing to Rappler and Vera Files, which are independent media outfits. AFP, PNP requests Maj. Gen. Edgard Arevalo, the AFP spokesperson, supported the President’s call for a meeting with Facebook officials, with whom the military’s top brass last week held talks to request that the HOOC page and other advocacy pages be restored. Col. Ysmael Yu, spokesperson for the PNP, told the Inquirer they had asked Facebook to provide a list of the accounts allegedly linked to the police. Interior Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya said Facebook’s “unilateral act, without prior consultation or due process with affected individuals” was a cause for concern for the Department of the Interior and Local Government. He said “the least” that the social media giant could have done was to give those concerned the opportunity to refute the allegations against them. “We are open to dialogue with FB even as we appeal to them to be more transparent and accountable to their members in their regulation of member accounts,” he added. Propaganda Bayan Muna Rep. Ferdinand Gaite said the President’s statements were an admission that the government had a hand in using fake Facebook accounts for propaganda and “massive disinformation,” which largely targeted critics and the opposition such as the Makabayan bloc in the House. He called on Facebook not to be intimidated by the President’s threats. “They (Facebook) must reveal these pages and accounts. The people and the victims of these trolls’ online attacks deserve to know at least that much,” he said, adding that whether public funds were being used should be probed. “This is not merely an issue of fake accounts; this is about fake accounts spreading lies, vilification and hatred that has been used to justify human rights violations,” Gaite said. A university professor said banning Facebook would only entrench and strengthen, rather than dismantle, disinformation networks or troll farms. “Any state regulation of social media would be for the best interest not of the people, but of the powers that be,” Danilo Arao, a mass communications professor at the University of the Philippines, told the Inquirer.  Social media campaign One of the propaganda networks Facebook had taken down was found to have links to Nic Gabunada, Mr. Duterte’s most effective online election campaign manager. Mr. Duterte had admitted that a social media team was hired to defend and promote him online during his campaign. An Oxford study showed that his camp spent P10 million for his social media campaign. His statements of contributions and expenditures for the 2016 elections indicated that he spent P343.7 million for advertising, including on the internet, but these were not detailed. Human Rights Watch researcher Carlos Conde said “Duterte is nothing without Facebook.” “Duterte and his army of propagandists used Facebook to prop up his popularity even while thousands were being killed. Facebook was Duterte’s most effective weapon to threaten, harass and intimidate critics. It’s also the main media to promote the violence that we continue to see,” he added. —WITH REPORTS FROM MELVIN GASCON, NESTOR CORRALES, KRIXIA SUBINGSUBING AND INQUIRER RESEARCH   Read more: newsinfo.inquirer.net   Editorial Insidious proposition The call made by Pampanga Rep. Mikey Arroyo last Thursday to postpone the May 2022 elections because people in his district—'the businessmen, the old people'—allegedly have told him that they are 'scared to vote during that day' should be denounced and rejected here and now, and at any other time it is ever brought up, as a hideous, insidious proposition patently offensive to the Constitution and the democratic ways—eroded enough as they are—of this country. The public can see right through Arroyo's manifestly self-serving exertions. How convenient to use the pandemic yet again to push for another anti-democratic measure, so soon after the anti-terrorism law. But this one takes the cake: nothing less than the prospect of depriving people the right to vote, which is an inalienable right guaranteed them by the Constitution. That moment of reckoning before the voting public, when they have to make a case for and an accounting of themselves, is the price politicians have to pay at regular intervals to earn the privilege—and the pelf that goes with it—to be called leaders of this country. There is no justifiable reason to cancel wholesale that exercise and thereby strip the citizenry of the right, and the duty, to empower or vote out leaders as they see fit. That is the hallowed contract at the heart of the democratic project. Read full story: opinion.inquirer.net   Copyright © 2020 PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: P.O. Box 2353, Makati Central Post Office, 1263 Makati City, Philippines.   Share    Tweet    Share    Forward  Preferences  |  Unsubscribe