Although not yet in the scale that blogs in the United States and South Korea influence national issues, the emerging power of blogs in the Philippines got affirmation in the appeal of Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman to the public, “especially the bloggers” to stop vilifying his family over the Valley Golf Glub.
A blog, by the way, is short for “web log”. It’s a personal website. The owner of the blog can write anything that he wants to express in his cyber space.
Last December 26, golfer Bambee de la Paz wrote in her blog that earlier in the day, his 56-year old father, Delfin, and 14-year old brother,Bino were “to a pulp” by Mayor Nasser Pangandaman,Jr and bodyguards while the father, who was re-appointed by Gloria Arroyo three days earlier as member of the peace panel in the negotiation with Muslim rebels, looked on.
Since most of the mainstream media were on holidays, the vacuum of informing the public about what many considered a despicable incident was taken up by blogs. Since many of those blogs were by people not covered by the journalism rules such as accuracy check and fairness, there was no effort to get the side of the Pangandamans.
The outrage over the incident and against the Pangandamans spread like wildfire in the internet. Within 24 hours, some 60 blogs, Facebook and Multiply accounts linked with Bambee’s site. Text messages directed people to Bambee’s blog. I got at least six emails of her story.
As of this writing, Bambee’s blog entry has over 1,000 comments, all expressing support for her and her family.
The Pangandamans,however, cannot complain about not having been given the chance to air their side. Reporter bloggers tried to get their side. I called up Press Secretary Jesus Dureza several times. They could not be contacted.
I sensed that the public anger against Pangandaman has a lot to do with his being a member of the Arroyo cabinet, which is seen by the people as corrupt and abusive. It did not help that two days after the Valley Golf incident, Pangandaman was at the Baguio Country Club playing golf with Rep. Mikey Arroyo
TV and newspapers later picked up the story. As usual, Malacañang did the standard dousing-water- over fire strategy of asking the Justice department to investigate.
There is now an entry in www.pinoygolfer.com whose author is identified only as RGE about an unofficial investigation report of the Valley Golf Club of the incident showing that it was older the De la Paz who instigated the fight. RGE said,” Let’s put it this way, the people we thought of as villains weren’t quite what they were depicted to be. and the supposed protagonists may have yet been quite as factual in their testimony as it turns out to be.”
Dennis Garcia of the ’70s band Hotdogs has a witty piece in his blog on the De la Paz-Pangandaman fight entitled “ 12 Things that the Valley Golf mauling effectively proved”. It sums up sentiments of many people about the incident.
Garcia’s list:
12.The pen is mightier than the biggest PR or crisis management budget (Tons of cash cannot buy minds with unwavering conviction – for further validation, go ask several Senatorial bets who spent a fortune in 2007… for nought)
11.The noisiest screw gets oiled first
10. Most of our politicians – from the most lowly to the most high – are guilty of hubris
Hubris denotes overconfident pride and arrogance; it is often associated with a lack of humility, not always with the lack of knowledge. An accusation of hubris often implies that suffering or punishment will follow, similar to the occasional pairing of hubris and nemesis in the Greek world. The proverb “pride goes before a fall” is thought to sum up the modern definition of hubris.
9. Filipino government officials – even when caught red-handed doing ‘bad’ things – never resign… because, they serve “at the pleasure of the President”
8. It pays to have writing skills when you’re up against abusive, ill-educated powerful people
7. At least, for a while, we may hear less and less of this line: “baka hindi mo kilala me…”
6. Golfers should make a canister of mace and a baseball bat standard golf accessories
5. People who work in golf courses do not see or hear very well
4. Being seen playing golf with the First Son, after a barrage of negative press, is not a very smart move
3.Filipinos will never be docile again because of the internet.
2.Technology can be put to good use – especially when exposing misdeeds and scandalous conduct.
1.The Pangandamans are in deep shit
Wait, there’s more!: Buy her a gift this Valentines! or send her flowers!
