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Facts and lies: the Marcoses’ unpaid estate tax

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Facts and lies: the Marcoses’ unpaid estate tax

March 21, 2022

By Marites Dañguilan Vitug

25 years of failed collection

This is a seismic disregard for the rule of law. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., as a co- executor of his late father’s estate, refuses to pay billions in taxes and lies about it. There’s no other way to put it politely.

Fact #1: In 1997, the Supreme Court ruled that the estate tax assessments of Ferdinand Marcos were “final, executory and enforceable.” At the time, the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s (BIR) computation was at P23.3 billion. This has since ballooned to P200 billion because of penalties and interest charges.

What did Marcos Jr., the frontrunner presidential candidate, have to say about this? “In my case, whatever the court orders me to do, I will do,” he declared in a forum last week. But why is the BIR still running after him and his mother, Imelda, both executors of the estate?

Fact #2: In December last year, the BIR sent the Marcos heirs a demand letter, flagging them on their tax liabilities, according to Caesar Dulay, BIR commissioner. Thus far, through five administrations, the Marcoses have ignored notices of their unpaid taxes.

Let’s go to the background of the case to understand its twists and turns. These are based on the 1997 Supreme Court decision’s narration of facts.

Fact #3: After the dictator’s death in 1989, the BIR formed a special audit team to investigate his tax liabilities and found that the Marcos heirs failed to file the estate tax – in violation of the National Internal Revenue Code. In 1991, the BIR commissioner filed a tax return for the estate of the late president. The amount? P23.3 billion. Copies of the estate tax assessments were served at the San Juan address of the Marcos heirs.

Fact #4: In 1992, the BIR served formal assessment notices for Imelda in the office of Marcos Jr. at the House of Representatives. Imelda and the other heirs did not protest the deficiency tax assessments within 30 days from when the notices were served.

Fact #5: In February and May 1993, the BIR commissioner issued notices of levy on parcels of land owned by the Marcoses to partly pay for the estate tax.

Fact #6: In June 1993, Marcos Jr. questioned the BIR’s estate tax assessments in the Court of Appeals, seeking a temporary restraining order against the levy.

Fact #7:  In July 1993, a public auction for the sale of 11 parcels of land took place. There was no bidder thus the lots were declared forfeited in favor of the government.

Fact #8: In 1994, the Court of Appeals ruled that deficiency assessments for the estate tax have become “final and unappealable.” Marcos Jr. elevated the case to the Supreme Court.

Like octopus

Twenty five years after the Supreme Court ruled with finality, the ghost of the billions in tax debt haunts Marcos Jr.

To deflect blame for this huge debt to the government, the camp of Marcos Jr., like an octopus, is squirting ink at the issue, obscuring the public’s view.

Victor Rodriguez, spokesperson of Marcos Jr., said in a statement that the properties upon which the estate tax case was computed are “still under litigation.”  Moreover, he pointed out that the BIR and the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) had agreed that the “BIR should wait for the decision…to determine with accuracy the fair and just tax base to be used in computing estate taxes.”

Two red flags here. First, how can the properties be under litigation when the Supreme Court had already settled the matter?

Second, why would two government agencies enter into an agreement to wait for the computation of the estate tax when both were aware of the Supreme Court ruling?

We have an answer from the PCGG.

Fact #9: In 2003, the PCGG and the BIR agreed that the latter collect the estate tax due on all Marcos assets “except…those that are sequestered or subject of a recovery case by the PCGG…”

The agreement had nothing to do with Rodriguez’s claim that both agencies had yet to determine the computation of the estate tax—another lie from the Marcos camp.

As Antonio Carpio, former Supreme Court justice, said in a statement:

The verbal agreement is only between two government  agencies –the BIR and PCGG.  The Marcoses are not parties  to the verbal agreement  – therefore they are not bound by the  agreement and they cannot invoke the agreement in their favor.

Besides, the reason for the agreement is to collect the estate tax from Marcos assets that are not yet in the custody of the court so as to maximize the collection of the government.

Moreover, the BIR and PCGG are not questioning the basis for the computation of the estate tax and its total amount which they expressly acknowledge is already final, executory and unappealable.

Moreno’s promise

Thanks to the camp of presidential candidate Isko Moreno for getting to the bottom of the issue. It was Ernest Ramel, chairman of Aksyon Demokratiko, who wrote the PCGG to find out what had really happened and the BIR to check if it wrote the Marcoses to demand payment of their tax liabilities.

Earlier, Moreno made a campaign promise to collect the estate tax of a “family,” without mentioning the Marcoses. “I will make sure I will implement the decision of the Supreme Court, G.R. 120880, June of 1997 na may isang pamilya na pinagbabayad ng estate tax (where one family was made to pay estate tax). As we speak, it’s about P200 billion already,” Moreno said in February.

The existential question that makes me shudder is: What if Marcos Jr. wins?

Rappler.com

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Marites Dañguilan Vitug

@maritesdvitug

Marites is one of the Philippines’ most accomplished journalists and authors. For close to a decade, Vitug – a Nieman fellow – edited ‘Newsbreak’ magazine, a trailblazer in Philippine investigative journalism. Her recent book, ‘Rock Solid: How the Philippines Won Its Maritime Case Against China,’ has become a bestseller.

The Price of Public Office

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The Price of Public Office

April 11, 2022

by IBON Foundation

It apparently costs so much to wage and win electoral campaigns for national and local positions. Tens of billions of pesos will be spent in the run-up to the May 2022 elections — in the end, who really pays the price of public office that too often just goes to those who spend the most?

‘A million sorries is not enough’ — the daughter of General Fabian Ver (Part 1)

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‘A million sorries is not enough’ — the daughter of General Fabian Ver (Part 1)

The Filam.net (A Magazine for Filipino Americans in New York)

By Wanna Ver, Atmi Pertiwi, Leonardo Taddei, Jody Fish, Adolfo Canales

Wanna Ver spent her early childhood in a lavish Forbes Park mansion flanked by foreign diplomats’ homes. As the youngest daughter of General Fabian Ver, Ferdinand Marcos’ most trusted ally and loyal military officer and close childhood friend, Wanna was kept under close watch by security guards.

When Wanna was forbidden, for safety reasons, from joining her third-grade classmates at a movie theater to watch “Bambi,” Gen. Ver’s soldiers fetched her a baby deer fromBaguio. Wanna was not allowed to join a school camping trip either, so the school camped in her garden, in two army tents set up by soldiers.

Wanna’s father was Marcos’ armed forces chief of staff and head of the National Intelligence and Security Authority (NISA). Though suspected and later acquitted of the assassination of the anti-Marcos politician Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino, he was in command of the armed forces during ‘martial law, when the military was involved in multiple human rights abuses, including torture and forced disappearances. 

Gen. Ver, often tied up in the presidential palace, redeemed his absences with presents. Wanna loved Wonder Woman; so when Lynda Carter stopped in Manila, Wanna found herself in the star’s hotel room getting an autograph, arranged on her father’s orders. 

Yet it was not a completely happy life. Dressedinfancy clothes, Wanna was chauffeured daily in a stretch limo from the gate of North Forbes Park to her school in South Forbes. Stopped in traffic while crossing McKinley Road, children her age knocked on her windows, begging for a few centavos. “It was a lot of luxury and a lot of feeling guilty of how much I had and how little everyone else had,” Wanna said.

Her yaya (nanny), Tarcella Cerbules, or “Nanay,” as Wanna’s family called her, helped the young girl develop a sense of empathy. Nanay was the only staff in Wanna’s home not from Ilocos Norte or Cagayan, the Marcos’ supporters base. “Nanay was from a poor province in Iloilo. She made me understand that many Filipinos didn’t have anything, and reminded me to not take my good fortune for granted.”

Fleeing after the fall

Wanna’s mother, banker Edna Camcam, was Gen. Ver’s long-time companion. After the 1986 “people power” uprising overthrew the Marcoses, Gen. Ver and his first family fled with them to Hawaii. Edna, Wanna and her sister escaped to Hong Kong, where they were separated, searched and questioned—a traumatic event for the eight-year-old.  

Wanna Ver with Michelle Söderman, Adela Buhay and Nolasco Buhay in Sweden. Photo: Wanna Ver

Once reunited with her father, Wanna asked him why her family kept moving from one country to another. “Better you don’t know,” Gen. Ver replied, “The less you know, the safer you are.” 

Wanna, now 44, grew up in exile in the U.S. and Europe. She was taught that the Philippines had needed heavy-handed martial rule to fight poverty and communism, and usher in a golden age. For a good part of her life, she believed that Marcos did many positive things for her country. 

“People still say, my family included, that Marcos’ iron fist during batas militar saved us from communism. He built bridges, schools, our economy flourished, he put our country on the map”, she said. “After my father’s death, Mrs. Marcos told me that multiple PR firms were hired internationally to tarnish the Marcos name, so, when I saw anti-Marcos news, I wrote it off as foreign propaganda.”

Confronting the truth

In 1993, Wanna read “Waltzing with a Dictator,” a book on Marcos by the American investigative journalist Raymond Bonner. The book said that her mother was in fact her father’s mistress and she, an illegitimate child. Wanna, trained to be wary of such accounts and to view them as American propaganda, still wondered “If my family did lie about that, what else might be lies?” 

The questions remained in Wanna’s mind but she was not yet ready to confront them. Over the next two decades, while Wanna tried to separate herself from politics, friends encouraged her to write her memoir.

In 2019, Wanna was preparing for the birth of her first child so she sought a doula to assist her delivery. She was assigned a Filipina, Michelle Söderman, an experienced doula from the Philippines who was newly licensed in Sweden. Wanna was her first client, and was unaware

Michelle was a “martial law baby.” Michelle said, “I know people who disappeared and never came back.” 

As Wanna had grown accustomed to using her married name rather than her father’s, Michelle was unaware of her client’s family. But the day before Wanna’s due date, Michelle got an automated Facebook friend recommendation for a Wanna Ver. Michelle assumed Wanna was a distant relative of the Marcos general. What came to her mind, said Michelle, was “the image of Fabian Ver: the right hand of Satan or the devil, if not the devil himself.” She described feeling fear, anger and confusion. “If Wanna is connected to the devil, am I going to help her?”


Wanna discovered what had been withheld from her about her history by examining different accounts of what she had been taught was a golden age. Wanna Ver Images

Michelle decided not to let Wanna in on her discovery. She did her job. When the child was born, Michelle realized: “How would you connect a beautiful child to the doing of an evil person?”

Nonetheless, Michelle refused to accept payment, worried that Wanna’s money was tainted and part of the funds stolen by the Marcoses from the Filipino people. She told Wanna she had resolved to ask her first client in Sweden to donate to a nonprofit she supported in the Philippines. The pandemic came, and they lost touch. 

In 2020, Wanna began writing her memoir, in an effort to reconcile her conflicting understanding, and to work out how she would eventually tell her family’s story to her child. Her research revealed opposing martial law narratives but it was viewing Lauren Greenfield’s documentary, “The Kingmaker” that had the most impact.

“Before watching it, the data on human rights violations were names on a page, numbers on a graph”, Wanna explained. “After seeing the interviews of [human rights victims] Hilda Narciso, Etta Rosales and May Rodriguez, they turned into real people to me. They had been harmed and continue to suffer from the abuses of my father’s regime. It was the human rights survivors that made me finally realize that the Marcos’ Golden Age history was a fabrication.”

“The Kingmaker” showed Ferdinand Marcos Jr. being asked whether he should apologize for the abuses of his father’s regime. His response: “What am I to say sorry about?”

Wanna thinks differently: “I feel like a million sorries is not enough,” she said. “I needed to learn the truth of what happened so I could tell a different story, to help those without a voice to tell their story… because of the role my father played in their suffering.” 

This project is the result of an investigation by a team of journalists at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Wanna Ver is part of this collaboration as both a source and co-author for this article.

General Fabian Ver’s daughter stands up for Martial Law victims

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General Fabian Ver’s daughter stands up for Martial Law victims

By Interaksyon, based on a report by PCIJ – May 2, 2022

Wanna Ver, daughter of General Fabian Ver, is apologizing to victims of Martial Law for the crimes his father helped commit during his time in the Philippine military.

Wanna said this in a report the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism released on Monday, May 2.

The entire report can be accessed and read on PCIJ’s website. 

“In our culture we are taught to respect our elders, you know, utang ng loob, we are indebted to them. But I think it’s important to do our own research and to forge our own beliefs, look outside of what our family told us to believe,” Wanna said.

“We need to listen to each other and acknowledge wrongs done before our country and people can heal and move forward,” she added.

Wanna, daughter of the former general and banker Edna Camcam, shared these following the birth of her first child and while writing her memoir.

“When my daughter grows up, I want her to be able to know her history and lineage without avoiding it, like I did. The shame I’ve carried for years can be debilitating. Still, I’ve learned that with work, it can also be transformed into healing,” Wanna said.

Her father, Fabian, was the chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines under the administration of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr.

He was also Marcos’ most trusted military officer during Martial Law when multiple human rights abuses and violations were being committed.

To atone for his victims, Fabian’s daughter helped establish an organization called Kapwa Pilipinas. It aims to promote empathy and reconciliation between the people involved during the dark regime and the victims.

The younger Ver also disagreed with the sentiments to just forgive and move forward.

“The majority of my family believes that people need to ‘forgive and bury the hatchet for the sake of our nation and the people. But I disagree,” Fabian said.

“I feel this view implies that the Golden Age story and the Never Again story are somehow equal when they are not. Most of the people who suffered under Martial Law, who suffered systemic oppression at the hands of the Marcos regime were student activists, farmers, informal settlers, the masa,” she added.

How netizens reacted

The report is a collaborative work between Wanna and her classmates at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden.

They reviewed documents and data related to human rights abuses during the Marcos regime.

Some online users were thankful for Wanna’s apology and acknowledgment of her father’s crimes.

Historian Kristoffer Pasion, meanwhile, was reminded of Jose Rizal’s words following the release of this article.

Impact of ‘The Kingmaker’

Wanna who grew up in exile in the US and in Europe, admitted that she was “trained” to view Marcos accounts as American propaganda for the most part of her life.

Even when she started reading books like “Waltzing with a Dictator” by American investigative journalist Raymond Bonner in 1993.

In this book, Wanna said she became aware that her mother was a mistress and she was an illegitimate child.

Lauren Greenfield’s documentary “The Kingmaker”, which was released in 2019, made a drastic change for her.

“Before watching it, the data on human rights violations were names on a page, numbers on a graph,” Wanna said.

“After seeing the interviews of [human rights victims] Hilda Narciso, Etta Rosales and May Rodriguez, they turned into real people to me. They had been harmed and continue to suffer from the abuses of my father’s regime. It was the human rights survivors that made me finally realize that the Marcos’ Golden Age history was a fabrication,” she added.

Meeting the victims themselves

Now at 44 years old, Wanna also had the courage to meet and reconcile with the victims themselves.

She started the journey with Michelle Söderman, her doula or professional labor assistant.

Then, she met Nolasco ‘“Noli” Buhay and writer Aida Fulleros Santos-Maranan, both of whom were tortured during Martial Law.

Wanna described these meetings as “cathartic” in nature.

“We all noticed the cathartic nature of our meeting. I know I am not at fault for my father’s actions, but I believe listening to survivor accounts and offering an apology on his behalf requires relatively little effort on my part, and could potentially alleviate substantial suffering for them,” she said.

— Interaksyon/Catalina Ricci Madarang

Presbyterian mission co-worker the Rev. Cathy Chang red-tagged in the Philippines

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Presbyterian mission co-worker the Rev. Cathy Chang red-tagged in the Philippines

by Kathy Melvin | Presbyterian News Service (presbyterianmission.org)

LOUISVILLE — The Rev. Cathy Chang, a mission co-worker serving in the Philippines since 2015, was shocked on April 11 when she found stickers and a tarpaulin with her photo affixed to the front gate of her home with accusations that she is a “Supporter of Terrorist CPP-NPA-NDF” and threatening her to “get out of our country.”

She had been red-tagged.

In order to promote a campaign of fear and distrust, red-tagging is a process of blacklisting individuals or organizations not fully supportive of the policies of the sitting government, such as the Anti-Terrorism Act, the War on Drugs, and Covid response, that violate the human rights and civil liberties of the Filipino people.

Chang, along with husband and fellow mission co-worker Juan Lopez, are serving at the invitation of a PC(USA) global partner, the United Church of Christ in the Philippines. Under the administration of current Philippine President Rodrigo R. Duterte, the UCCP has been among those that have been vocal against the increasing disregard for human rights in the country.

The consequences of such a prophetic action can range from inconvenient to dire.

People who have been red-tagged as “terrorists” have faced false charges. Some have been gunned down on the street or killed while purportedly “resisting arrest.”  At the very least, red-tagging, by design, aims to keep people from speaking out against injustice. Even Chang feels pressured to decrease her voice of faith.

She was planning to travel to the United States for the 225th General Assembly to serve as a Mission Advisory Delegate, but she could be prevented from re-entering the Philippines. The designation could also make more difficult the renewal of visas for Chang and Lopez this summer.

Chang and the acting coordinator for World Mission’s Office of Asia and the Pacific, Hery Ramambasoa, are scheduled to act as resource persons at General Assembly related to overture INT-07 about human rights in the Philippines.

UCCP has released a statement for church members and international partners.

“The UCCP condemns in the strongest terms the recent acts of red-tagging and malicious vilification,” the statement reads. “Acts like these are concrete manifestations to blemish the integrity of our Church Workers, our Mission Co-workers, and our Church in general, as it faithfully carries out the mission of Christ to bring good news of hope and life to the masses.”

Since moving to the Philippines to assist global partners with addressing issues of migration and human trafficking, Chang has been aware of the importance of not attracting the attention of the government. On April 9, she and another U.S. visitor, Joe Iosbaker, dialogued with a progressive political party candidate for the Philippine House of Representatives as part of her peace and justice advocacy.

Chang’s pictures were taken from Facebook and used on stickers she found on the front of her home. (Photo by Juan Lopez)

Two days later, she was red-tagged, accused of supporting groups that believe they are engaged in a revolutionary war for national liberation, but whom the Duterte government has designated as terrorists.

Iosbaker was in the Philippines for eight days. He was red-tagged the day before Chang with tarpaulins, both at his hotel and at the front of the UCCP national offices.  He was able to get out of the country and is now safely back in the U.S.

It is unclear how the government identified Chang. She believes she could have been followed, or her information could have been pulled from government records. A precedent for targeting missionaries was set in 2018 when a Catholic nun who had lived in the Philippines for almost 30 years was red-tagged, identified as an undesirable alien and forced to leave the country.

In the same year, an American missionary and two young adult fellows from Malawi and Zimbabwe, all from the United Methodist Church, were similarly denied visas and forced to leave. All of them were targeted after mission activities that drew attention to injustice and human rights violations in the southern island of Mindanao.

Chang and Lopez have been working with the UCCP Office of the General Secretary and the Partnership and Ecumenical Relations Unit. They have been provided spiritual, material and legal assistance through the UCCP attorney. They believe what happens next will be determined by the upcoming May 9 national election to elect the country’s president and vice-president, senators, members of the House of Representatives, and municipal officials, when 67 million Filipinos will head to the polls.

The candidates for president are former presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella; labour leader Leody de Guzman; Manila Mayor Isko Moreno Domagoso; former defense chief Norberto Gonzales; Senator Ping Lacson; businessman Faisal Mangondato; former senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr., son of the former president who presided over 10 years of martial law; doctor and lawyer Jose Montemayor Jr; Senator Manny Pacquiao; and Vice President Leni Robredo. In surveys, Marcos Jr. and Robredo are the front-runners. While Marcos Jr. is expected to continue practices such as red-tagging, Robredo is a more progressive candidate who has pledged to open democratic spaces and stop some of the policies and programs of the current administration.

Chang and Lopez say the country is divided, just like the street on which they live, which has signs supporting different candidates. Even many of the UCCP churches are divided in the choice of presidential candidates. But on the whole, they are united in their vision of an egalitarian, just and peaceful society.

Chang connected with the United States Embassy to explain the incident, both to seek their advocacy on her behalf and to ensure that she does not become the target of a U.S. investigation because of the red-tagging.

“It’s surreal,” Chang said in a Zoom interview. “I am doing OK, but this feels very personal. I wish that I had more time and energy for ministry.”

The Rev. Cathy Chang and Juan Lopez have been mission co-workers in the Philippines since 2015. (Photo by Kathy Melvin)

Chang and Lopez met in 2002 while serving in Egypt as young adults. She was serving with the PC(USA)’s Young Adult Volunteer (YAV) program, and he was serving with Action Chrétienne en Orient (Christians in Action in the East), a mission agency supported by French Protestants. They married in 2008 while Chang was a pastoral resident at Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church in Pennsylvania. In 2009, she became associate pastor of Memorial Presbyterian Church in Midland, Michigan, while he continued his career in social work before entering mission service. Chang is a graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary and a member of the Presbytery of Lake Huron.

“GANA”

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“GANA”

by Beteng Peney (from his Facebook post)

Ang hanabuhay sa mundo ng marino ay maraming mukha ang realidad at maging sitwasyon sa karerang ito.

Maraming naghahangad sa propesyong ito, nainspira o nahikayat. Dahil sa kita, pangarap, ambisyon at plano sa buhay ang mga naging basihan para languyin ang masalimuot at mapanganib na karerang ito. Makuha lamang ang inaasam na pangarap sa buhay na naging ganap na marino at hangad na kinabukasan ng pamilya.

Pero ang totoo dito maraming marino ang bigo sa mga ninanais nila. Mapasahod man, extrang kita sa bapor o sa benipisyo ng karera nila tulad ng promosyon. Dahil merong mga prinsipal o may ari ng bapor na hindi patas o barat magpasahod at magbigay ng tamang pasweldo o extrang kita sa bapor. Meron din na ilan sa kanila ( may ari ng bapor) ang hindi sumusunod sa mga alituntuning pinapatupad na batas sa mga marino nito.

Anung mang batas pang maratima o mga susug nito sa Pilipinong marino ay hindi mahalaga sa totoo. Mas higit at importante sa lahat sa Pilipinong marino ay salitang “GANA” O INAABUT NG SWELDO.

Ito ang pangunahing tanong ng marino oras na umaplay sa anu mang bugaw (agency) o maging kwentuhan sa radyo, sa kapehan o sa tambayan partikular sa Luneta o sa Sta. Cruz church. Kung saan malimit ang mga marino noon tumambay.

Sa pagbago ng teknolohiya at kalakaran sa mundo ng marino. Madali itong makasabay ng mga sitwasyong nagaganap. Hindi malayo sa kanila ang teknolohiya o pagbabago ng mga patakaran para sa pagsunod ng mga ito. Kaya ang kwentuhan ng marino malimit sa messenger na lang o sa anu mang plataporma ng sosyal midya.

Ang pasweldo o inaabut ng marino ang higit mahalaga sa lahat na hangad nito. Para sa ilan na may magandang pasweldo o ganang inaabut ay maswerte silang nakakapag ipon sa buhay. Dahil may ilang kompanya sa Europa, US-Canada o maging sa asya ang mahusay magbigay ng pasahud lalo na sa pilipinong marino. Dahil may mga kompanyang may pusong makamanggagawa at higit sa lahat sumusunod sa batas internasyunal na pasweldo sa marino.

May ilang kompanya na nagbibigay ng CBA o callective bargaining agreement na pasweldo sa lahat ng mga bapor (fleet) nila. Mapa tanker man, LPG, bulk o kemikal. Lahat yun ay dumadaan sa CBA ang mga pasahud nila o PNO TCC-total true cost sa lahat na mga bapor nila na nakarehistro sa ilalim ng FOC -flag of convenient na kung saan ang FOC na mga nakarehistrong bapor ay idineklara ng ITF- international transport worker’s federation union na syang sumasalungat sa mga patakaran at sistema nito lalo sa may ari ng bapor na pinapatupad na mga kalagayan. Mapasahud man, kaligtasan, seguridad o sa kalagayan ng trabaho sa bapor higit sa lahat pasweldo at extrang kita sa bapor.

Bilang marino, nakaranas ako na madetini ang bapor ng kung ilang buwan sa pier dahil sa mga paglabag sa batas at kung anu pang di ko pinangarap at inaasam na mga kaganapan na masabi kong bangungot na karanasan sa ilalim ng kompanyang hindi patas (balasubas ang tawag ng marino dito sa di patas) at di makataong sistema ng mayari ng bapor.

(Bangungot is ober, penes na?) maswerte akong natanggap sa kompanyang ito sa pamamagitan ng agency (bugaw) nila sa Manila kahit na ordinaryong posisyon lang ako sa bapor.

(Ang narinig ko sa kapwa ko marino marami daw silang bugaw sa Manila)

May ilan na dito ang naninilbihan sa mahabang panahon sa kompanya. May ilan sa kanila ang paretiro na at marami sa kanila ang baguhan tulad ko.

Kaya lagi kong hiling Sa mga tropang nandito sa kompanyang ito na maswerteng natanggap at nabibiyaan ng magandang swerte, na sana suklian naman natin ng magandang trabaho ang swerteng natanggap natin dahil sa ating mga kahilingan sa buhay.

Maraming salamat po.

Ps. Sana mapromote na ako sa bapor ko na ito.

Photos by Beteng Peney

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***The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) is an international trade union federation of transport workers’ unions. Any independent trade union with members in the transport industry is eligible for membership in the ITF.

The ITF has opposed the system of Flags of Convenience (FOCs) for over 50 years. These flags, including the largest register in the world (Panama) allow shipowners, who have no genuine link to the flag state, to register their ships there in order to avoid the taxation and regulation which their own countries would impose.

*** FOC- If a ship sails under a flag of convenience, it means it is operated or taxed under the laws of a country different from its home country in order to save money. They always register their ships under a flag of convenience. Also vessels registered under flags of convenience can often cut operating costs or avoid the regulations of the owner’s country. To achieve that, a ship owner will find a country with an open registry, or a nation that allows registration of vessels owned by foreign entities.

TikTok as poll battlefield: Lies spreading unchecked

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TikTok as poll battlefield: Lies spreading unchecked

By: Ana Roa, Krixia Subingsubing, Mariejo S. Ramos – @inquirerdotnet, Philippine Daily Inquirer / April 27, 2022

(First of two parts)

MANILA, Philippines — When 24-year-old architecture student Jam created a TikTok account in 2020, she used it mainly to view general designs or videos of mothers making creative lunch boxes for their kids.

The content she sought was harmless, but the app became addictive and she found herself stuck on it for hours.

When the election season rolled in, political content started seeping into her app feeds. It was a hodgepodge of many things, but it was mostly about Vice President Leni Robredo and former Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., the two main rivals in the 2022 presidential elections.

Jam said many of the videos tended to disparage the Vice President.

One that went viral quoted Robredo promising that she would lead a government “na hindi lang corrupt …” (that is not only corrupt). Her opponents pounced upon this incomplete remark which drew comments like “yare, di lang daw corrupt, ano pa kaya?” (we’re doomed, not only corrupt, what else?).

In fact, Robredo said that she and her running mate, Sen. Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan, promised a clean and transparent government, even if it had only a little money to work with.

“There are a lot of videos like that that create lies out of nowhere,” Jam said. “They try to make her appear dumb.”

Propaganda battleground

It’s illustrative of how TikTok has been transformed from a platform for anything from recipes for pies to dance moves, into a crucial battleground for political propaganda.

These days, three-minute TikTok videos, savvily edited and layered with catchy tunes, could make or break a candidate’s narrative and branding — or even invent new “truths.”

A monthlong analysis by the Inquirer of the top hashtags and most watched videos on TikTok for the six most prominent presidential candidates — Robredo, Marcos, Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso, Manny Pacquiao, Panfilo Lacson and Leody de Guzman — bears this out.

The presidential aspirants and their supporters have been using TikTok heavily to package their platforms, personalities and idiosyncrasies into bite-sized, shareable videos, while also putting down their rivals.

Emotional effect

The most-watched TikTok videos of Marcos are those that dramatize his relationship with his late father, the ousted dictator. One video that raked in 14 million views as of April 26 showed the former senator touching a bust of his father held up by a supporter in the crowd during one of his motorcades.

Such TikToks, which make no explicit claims, aim to “dramatize or heighten emotional effect among the viewers,” according to Celine Samson, head of the online verification team of Vera files.

“It can be so compelling that it has the chance of making other disinformation more believable,” she said.

There were videos whitewashing the atrocities committed during the Marcos dictatorship. But most of the top viewed videos about the Marcoses paint them as a likable, relatable family, with good looks and enviable lifestyles.

Joel Ariate, a researcher at the Third World Studies Center of the University of the Philippines, whose work is centered on the life and legacy of the Marcoses, noted that this was straight out of the dictator’s own playbook: to project himself as a “man of the people: someone who is caring, compassionate.” As they promote their candidates, TikTokers also put down their rivals, and it was Robredo who was worst hit by the attacks on the platform.

Historians and fact-checkers fear that TikTok could be a new means to spread disinformation that can evade scrutiny.

“Because such content is in the realm of images and symbolism, they can now create content that is outside the ambit of fact-checking,” Ariate said.

Billions of views

Samson said it was impossible to correct video materials “where there are no claims.”

“It’s not always that disinformation constitutes something that is fact-checkable, though you’re aware that it’s meant to manipulate people,” she said.

Launched by Beijing-based ByteDance in 2016, TikTok is now the sixth most active social media platform in the world with 1 billion active users globally. In the Philippines, it’s the fifth most downloaded mobile app with at least 36 million active users age 18 and above, according to industry estimates.

In the beginning, the app allowed account holders to upload 15-second videos. That was raised to three minutes in 2021 and up to 10 minutes this year, still much shorter than what is allowed on YouTube and Facebook.

Tony La Viña, the lead convener of the Movement Against Disinformation, said this was “exactly why TikTok has become relevant in the context of the 2022 elections, (where) the majority of the 2022 voters are the youth vote. [That] and the nature of short-form videos itself: one (false) video can destroy hours of your work in terms of explaining something.”

From Feb. 25 to March 25, an Inquirer team monitored the top three hashtags for each of the six candidates as well as hashtags pertaining to the general elections, and the most viewed videos under them.

It collated the videos and tabulated the view counts, likes, shares, and comments, as well as related hashtags, to determine the breadth and depth of engagement and reach of the TikToks. It also tried to classify any claims into five categories: false, misleading, accurate, needs more context, or not fact-checkable.

Marcos’ TikToks amassed billions of views, far more than his rivals.

Marcos’ most viewed hashtag—#bbm—surged from 4.6 billion to 6.2 billion in five weeks. The hashtag #bbm2022 recorded 1.5 billion views.

In comparison, Robredo’s most viewed hashtag — #lenirobredo — hit the billion mark only during the fourth week of monitoring. Her other top hashtags collected views ranging from 2 million to 148.7 million.

Hannah Barrantes, a lawyer who studied the platform’s algorithm, believes part of massive engagement is due to the app’s tendency to lock users in an “echo chamber” where a TikTok post is shared multiple times among fellow supporters.

Samson said it was also possible that TikTok videos were “overperforming” because they are being cross-posted on other platforms like Facebook.

“There is amplification, and at the same time, it’s coordinated. You can sometimes see multiple groups and accounts posting at the same time, so you see it’s also networked,” she said.

In Robredo’s case, most of her top engaged videos were about her campaign and massive rallies. Some are about her relationship with her three daughters, Aika, Tricia, and Jillian, while others are videos of speeches of celebrities who support her candidacy.

‘Damaging rhetoric’

There were videos that belittle her or magnify minor mistakes to peddle the narrative that she was “lutang,” or someone who is not in touch with reality.

This, Ariate said, was one downside to social media. While it democratized content, it also “opened the floodgate to damaging rhetoric” that “does not necessarily have to be true,” he said.

“You can splice videos of Leni to create something else,” he said.

“Before, under the dictatorship, satirists used humor to point out absurdity,” said Ariate. “But now what is being done is to take uplifting messages and twist the message, not to show hypocrisy but to show your capacity for distortion … to squeeze out a lie from something that said a truth.”

Compared to the two frontrunners, the other presidential candidates had relatively unremarkable content that mostly featured their platforms, speeches or other elements from their campaigns. The Inquirer did not come across much fake news pertaining to them.

Domagoso’s most viewed hashtag — #iskomoreno — got 388.5 million views.

His most viewed videos included dance challenges and showed him waving the “two joints” hand sign in one of his caravans. Moreno denies that the hand sign, which is associated with marijuana use, is about illegal drugs. It symbolizes Y for “Yorme,” one of his monikers, and O for Ong, referring to his running mate Willie Ong, he said.

Pacquiao’s top hashtag — #mannypacquiao — obtained 655 million views and the most popular of them were related to boxing.

At the end of the monitoring period, views under Lacson’s top hashtag — #pinglacson — grew to 141.4 million while the most viewed hashtag of De Guzman — #leodydeguzman — had 16.7 million views by March 25.

(To be continued)

EDITOR’S NOTE: THIS REPORT WAS PUBLISHED WITH THE SUPPORT OF INTERNEWS PHILIPPINES


Human rights champion Marie Hilao-Enriquez; 68

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Human rights champion Marie Hilao-Enriquez; 68

By: Frances Mangosing – Reporter /Philippine Daily Inquirer /April 26, 2022

MANILA, Philippines — Amaryllis Hilao-Enriquez, a survivor of the Marcos dictatorship who endured torture and detention and thereafter became a leading human rights advocate, died in Covina, California, on Sunday. She was 68.

Her daughter Marie Andrea said on Facebook, “My mother dedicated her life to fighting for justice and human rights. She was a beautiful person, funny, intelligent, brave, and strong. She was loved and will be greatly missed.”

Hilao-Enriquez, whom many fondly called Marie, succumbed to complications from Parkinson’s disease.

Human rights group Karapatan, in a tribute to its founder and longtime chair, remembered her as “a stalwart in the anti-Marcos dictatorship struggle and in the relentless advocacy for justice and accountability of the Marcoses.”

Hilao-Enriquez had also mentored several activists and human rights workers, according to the group.

“We are deeply indebted to her brilliant, selfless and passionate work as among the foremost human rights defenders in the Philippines. We vow to strive to honor her legacy of service to the Filipino people in every possible way that we can and as long as tyrants and dictators remain in our midst,” Karapatan said.

Arrest, torture

Hilao-Enriquez was a scholar taking up occupational therapy at the College of Medicine of the University of the Philippines (UP) in Manila when she became involved in activism, joining a chapter of the militant youth organization Kabataang Makabayan. She was 20 at that time.

Her older sister, Liliosa, was already a journalist even while studying at the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila.

On April 4, 1973, almost a year after Marcos’ declaration of martial law, soldiers of the Philippine Constabulary (PC) who were in civilian attire barged into the Hilao residence in Quezon City.

When Liliosa demanded that they show an arrest warrant, the soldiers took her away and brought her to Camp Crame, the headquarters of the PC (now the Philippine National Police).

Two days later, Liliosa was found dead, the first political prisoner to die under torture during martial law. She is among those listed at the Bantayog ng mga Bayani memorial.

Following that episode, Hilao-Enriquez went underground, working as a community organizer. She was captured in 1974, together with her husband, brother, and sister-in-law, and was herself tortured. While in detention for the next two years, she gave birth to her first child, Liza Liliosa, named after her fallen sister.

After she was freed, she took part in Kapisanan para sa Pagpapalaya at Amnestiya ng mga Detenidong Pulitikal sa Pilipinas in an effort to campaign for her husband’s release.

‘Icon’

Later on, she worked for Task Force Detainees and became chair of Samahan ng Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto, which was formed in 1985 but became active the next year, after the fall of the Marcos dictatorship.

The Hilao family initiated the class suit in Hawaii against the ousted dictator Ferdinand Marcos who was exiled there.

Hilao-Enriquez was also a convener of the Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses and Martial Law.

In a statement on her passing, Edre Olalia, president of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers, said: “Tita Marie was very dear to me. We walked together in many a journey to defend, protect [and] promote human rights.”

“From Manila to Geneva, from Utrecht to Oslo to New York, she was a partner, aunt, comrade, and friend,” he added.

Olalia also described Hilao-Enriquez as “unique, indefatigable, funny, thoughtful and selfless, even as she was naughty and sometimes pesky in her own adorable way.”

“To say that she is an icon of the human rights struggle is an understatement,” he said.

—WITH A REPORT FROM INQUIRER RESEARCH


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