Living where I do (near the Centennial and NAIA Airports) and having to commute each and every day to work I notice that there are more tarpaulins bearing Bayani Fernando's face littering the islands than that of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo or of Jun Bernabe, the Mayor of Parañaque City, or of Peewee Trinidad, Mayor of Pasay.

I first saw this blue billboard early in the first quarter of 2008. It stands near the end of the island along Roxas Blvd. just before the Uniwide Coastal Mall (or what bus commuters call Coastal). On the obverse side is its pink counterpart, something which I really have not read at close range, because the pink side is visible only if you are coming from Cavite or MIA road, when the buses are just speeding up again after making the stop at the corner. I had always thought the pink side was the Welcome counterpart of this farewell. In a way it is.

But when I had the chance to really look at it, I realized that it reflected the real intent of the man named Bayani Fernando, and why his mugshot has been reported to have been spread across the archipelago.

The pink sign reads "MABUHAY WELCOME METRO PHILIPPINES"


Uh, say what ... Metro Philippines? Alam natin merong Metro Manila. Meron din Metro Cebu. Meron naring Metro Davao. Pero Metro Philippines? Wala namang ganung lugar ah.

Ah, alam ko na, yun siguro yung iniilusyon ni Bayani Fernando na kung saan siya mananalo bilang pangulo. Metro Philippines. I get it now, and it actually makes sense.

Because if there is no such place as Metro Philippines, then there is no such place that Bayani Fernando can ever win the Presidency.

Ayos!

Photo taken at A. Santos Ave. Parañaque City

"Never say die" siguro ang motto ni BF pagdating sa pagsabit at pagladlad ng mga tarpaulin na may retokadong larawan ng MMDA Chairman. Bagong istilo at kunyari ay advertisement ng palabas sa t.v. Pero guess what, government property parin ang mga tarpaulin.


At the intersection of Roxas Blvd. and Edsa (sa may Heritage)


Along EDSA just before the Buendia flyover

This is my personal protest against the issuance of a presidential pardon to a convicted murderer.

DOJ to Hultmans: File your appeal before 'Jesus Christ'
AIE BALAGTAS SEE, GMANews.TV
10/08/2008 | 08:40 PM

MANILA, Philippines

File your complaint before “Jesus Christ."

This was the advice of Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez to the family of Maureen Hultman and those who have any objection to the executive clemency granted by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to convicted murderer Claudio Teehankee Jr.

Teehankee was convicted in 1992 of murder for the death of Maureen Hultman, then 17 years old; of homicide for the death of Roland John Chapman, 21; and of frustrated murder for the wounding of Jussi Leino, 24.

But he had been locked in jail since July 24, 1991, two weeks after the sensational crime took place on July 13, 1991 at the plush Dasmariňas Village in Makati City.

In an interview with the reporters on Wednesday, Gonzales was asked where those who are objecting to the release may file their appeal and he answered: "Kay Jesus Christ."

UP Professor Danny Arao has taken it upon himself to discourage bloggers who intend to earn money from their blogs. Two of his recent blog posts decry the proliferation of paid blogging services and the propensity of some bloggers to take advantage of cash payouts at the risk of misinformation.

• Two cases against sponsored posts
• Huwag kang mag blog kung ...
  

I was one of the first to comment on his "Huwag kang mag blog kung ..." ("Do not blog if ..."). I declared that my blog is monetized and that I do earn a few dollars with some of the things that I write. But Prof. Arao's post seemed to me a sweeping condemnation of those whose blogs are monetized, either through advertisements or through paid posting. I read with raised eyebrows as he stated:

Mahirap masikmura ng isang abang peryodistang katulad ko na may mga blogger sa kasalukuyang pumapatol sa kung anu-anong iskema para kumita nang malaki (at dolyar pa) kahit na nakokompromiso na nila ang pagbibigay ng impormasyon sa mga online visitor at minsa’y lantaran pa ang panloloko.

Translation by me: It is difficult for a humble journalist like me to stomach the fact that there are bloggers who ride on different schemes so as to earn a large amount of money (and in dollars at that) at the risk of compromising the means by which they give information to their online visitor and in some instances outright deception.

Paid blogging has been around for the past three years at least, although when it began it was not in the form that Prof. Arao shows an example of in his later post "Two Cases Against Paid Blogging". Several Filipino bloggers have gone into professional blogging as early as 2004 and now boast of refurbished houses and brand new cars as a result of their efforts. You can find them easily enough on the internet by typing the words "filipino pro blogger" (without the quotes) on Google.

As years went by and more Search engine optimization (SEO) techniques and tactics were discovered, the practice of paid links came into play. This is what I am into, in my blog, and I have a few contextual Google ads on my pages as well. Prof. Arao cites two examples of link requests from advertisers in his later post, both of which are the type that should be accepted only by bloggers who write in that niche. However there have been numerous instances wherein non-niche bloggers have picked out these review link requests and have forced themselves into blogging for a chance at their post being approved and therefore earning anywhere between 5 to 20 US$ per post. Bloggers based in the Philippines for example, who force themselves to write about a hotel in a Caribbean island that they've never been to, exhorting visitors to go there is obviously in it only for the money and should be dismissed as junk posts. Paid blogging services are more discernible these days, and will usually reject a blog outright if it matches the example I give above, or they have warnings at the outset such as "travel blogs only," or "do not accept this post if you are not primarily a marketing blog".

Prof. Arao apparently fears for readers who stumble upon a blog such as that I describe above, that these readers will not immediately see that the blog post they are reading is actually not by a person that specializes in the topic, but by one who is only out to make money. Here is where I maintain that Prof. Arao thinks too lowly of readers on the internet, that he believes anyone will believe anything that is written on the net.

Prof. Arao also does not cite the practice of contextual links, wherein the blogger is requested to insert a word or phrase into the blog post, making it part of the story in that post. Here there is no forced review of a service or establishment. When a blogger writes there is always a topic, whether mundane or thought-provoking, and working a requested contextual link into that post will earn the blogger a few dollars. The pay is not much, definitely no longer in the league of "I bought a car with my blog earnings," but for a working mom like me it helps to stretch the grocery budget.

To be called to task for earning money from my blog looks to me like someone who is attempting to stir up a hornet's nest. Rather than dwell on that, I would like to call attention to periodista's who accept money (and there are quite a few) to put a certain slant in their writing, as there are news reporters who brazenly insert non sequitur's in their reportage just to stir up interest and sometimes unnecessary concern among their readers and viewers. I'm not taking them to task for what they do--they too have their reasons for doing what they do, and as long as I can discern the real news from the slant, I'm good.

It is the reader/viewer who knows how to read between the lines, who knows when what he is reading or listening to is truth or trash, it is he who will decide in the end what to believe.