every time something comes up to threaten media pros or press freedom here in the country, i'm awed and rather comforted at the SEETHING RAGE with which the press fights back. these media folk are an obnoxious, arrogant and irrepressible lot - but i can't imagine any other traits that would assure their survival in a setup such as this.

( three recent events )

just some news bits, mostly local, before i actually wake up.

• there's this volunteer writing project calling for short stories in filipino, and philippines-based illustrators. the deadline of the first wave of stories is apparently set on february 7 (so close, bb), but if still interested, click here for the details. you have to email the contact ( Read more... )

paypal philippines can now receive funds?? :O :O

how does this work? i don't have a US bank account, so... is it worth it to transfer funds to a debit card? and um... how do you withdraw from a debit card? we ain't exactly a paperless economy here kthx.

so the malu fernandez affair turned out to be one of those flash in the pan things the intarwebs are famous for. some say forgive but do not forget, but who's willing to bet that in just a year or so, nobody will even remember the name "malu fernandez"? sure she's easy enough to google up now, but unless she does something else that's flame-worthy ( Read more... )

an update to this:

Malu Fernandez resigns

didn't catch the news report on this myself, so i can't confirm it.

Connie Veneracion, also known as The Sassy Lawyer, writes about her reaction to the blogosphere's reaction to the People Asia article.

learned about this just now, through checkerberry's blog post:

Tingog.com recently posted a call to action asking for the firing of a certain Malu Fernandez, a socialite columnist for People Asia. in her article "From Boracay to Greece" (scanned and posted in Tingog.com) she appears to have included two paragraphs of inflammatory verbiage on Filipino workers ( Read more... )

should really know better than to get riled up so early in the morning. then again, i was probably just absorbing my father's incredulity. he strolled into my room holding a copy of the main section of yesterday's Inquirer. the paper was open at a full-page all-text ad ( Read more... )

Thanks to work and general disinclination, have not been keeping as close an eye on local news as I should have. This afternoon I heard something upsetting:

Musa Dimasidsing, a Maguindanao schools district supervisor, was fatally shot in the chest and face outside a madrasah (Islamic school) last Saturday, June 9, 2007. Only a few days prior to ( Read more... )

LJ has issued an apology. reaction is varied, but seems to lean mostly toward indignation. i suppose even the LJ mods would agree that this is perfectly understandable.

from the comments, i learned that this isn't the first time this mass LJ deletion suspension thing occurred. nipplegate took place at around the same time last year (and i ( Read more... )

caught on the morning news a while back that the warden of the samar provincial jail allowed the inmates to leave their cells in order to beg for food. and according to him, this had to be done because the governor had appropriated the budget for the prisoners' meals. governor Milagrosa Tan insisted that the money was hers to do with as she pleased ( Read more... )