MANILA, Philippines – San Juan City Mayor Francis Zamora ran his 2019 campaign on the promise of a new style of governance and a new political culture in Metro Manila's smallest city.

But the fall of his former allies– the Ejercito-Estrada clan that had ruled the city for almost 50 years – came with a lot of problems to clean up after.

During the first State of the City Address he delivered on his 100th day in office, Zamora outlined his administration's early accomplishments and future goals, but he also stressed the need to address the previous administration's sins in order for the city to move forward. 

Zamora has two years and 265 days to go for this first term. He is looking to serve for two more terms after. But 100 days in, what has the new mayor got to show for himself? 

Inherited problems

During his first week in office, Zamora promised to make governance in post-Estrada San Juan more transparent. He signed his Executive Order (EO) No. 1, he said, after uncovering documents showing questionable transactions done by the previous administration.  

Zamora's first executive order seeks to institutionalize a pre-audit system in all transactions of city departments. The EO is "a reminder that all employees, job order or permanent, need to follow the rules set by the Civil Service Commission" to better serve San Juan citizens, he said.

Many of these citizens, according to Zamora, often seek medical assistance, which is why the new mayor lamented the incomplete rehabilitation of the San Juan Medical Center, the city's public hospital.

Aside from the unfinished P500-million renovation, which stands at 60% completion, P137 million worth of unopened and untested medical equipment also sit in the hospital's storage area. (READ: Francis Zamora appoints ex-military doctor as San Juan hospital chief)

Aside from hospital woes, he also said he would have to deal with P736 million worth of undercollected business taxes. He said investigations are ongoing, and that he has replaced the heads of income-generating departments to better run the city's tax collection.

Road clearing

Since assuming his post, Zamora has signed 3 ordinances in a bid to comply with President Rodrigo Duterte's order to clear public roads of obstructions. In July, Zamora signed EO No. 4, prohibiting parking in some streets in Barangay Greenhills from 6 am to 9 pm. 

The two other ordinances passed in August also intend to address San Juan's parking problem. Zamora believes clearing San Juan streets will help decongest the metro's main thoroughfare EDSA, and that solutions to traffic have to be coordinated among all Metro Manila cities. 

"Hindi tayo nabahala na, dahil dito, nawalan ng karagdagang pondo ang ating pamahalaang lungsod na nagmumula sa parking fees sa Greenhills, na umaabot sa P2.5 million buwan-buwan. Ito ay dahil ang nakikinabang naman sa road clearing ay ang mas nakakaraming mga tao, at binabalik lang natin sa tamang gamit ang ating mga kalye," he said.

(We are not bothered by the fact that the city government lost additional funding from parking fees in Greenhills that can reach up to P2.5 million monthly. We are unbothered because the road-clearing efforts will be for the greater good, and we're just going back to how the roads should really be used.)

Zamora in July also joined Philippine National Police chief Oscar Albayalde in demolishing Police Community Precinct 6 in West Crame. The precinct was erroneously built on a sidewalk, obstructing smooth pedestrian activity.

According to the new mayor, the Department of Local and the Interior Government gave the city a 100% mark for complying with the 60-day deadline. 

Housing

A 1,850-square meter lot owned by the city government and located in Barangay St Joseph will be used for a 22-floor high-rise public housing – the first of its kind in the country. Zamora said it would have 396 units, each with an average size of 29 square meters. The building will also have a multi-purpose hall and 10 commercial space units. 

Units will be rent-to-own, said Zamora, who promised reasonable amortization for prospective residents. Ideally, they would own the property in 25 years. 

There are currently over 6,000 illegal settler families in the city. If a family is interested to own a unit, they would have to submit an application subject to assessment.

The project broke ground on September 27. The target is to start construction by end-2019 and complete the project by the first quarter of 2022, when Zamora's first term ends. 

Smart city

Making San Juan a "smart city" was among Zamora's campaign promises. The vision was in response to San Juan being left behind by Pasig and Quezon City– local government units that have been aggressively pushing initiatives to become smart and green cities.

With the signing of a memorandum of agreement with the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) in September, 3 Wi-Fi access sites became operational in the city. 

The city government and DICT aim to cover all of San Juan's 21 barangays. Ninety-one more access sites are eyed by 2020. These sites will be located in barangay halls, health centers, public schools, and public parks.

The DICT said 400 megabits per second (mbps) have been allocated for the entire city, with 10 mbps per access site, which usually allows for good web surfing.

Aside from free Wi-Fi, Zamora also wants to launch a San Juan City phone application to facilitate government transactions without citizens having to go to the city hall.

He also wants to set up e-kiosks in each barangay, so people without smartphones can pay bills and taxes without having to leave their barangays. Zamora said he is in talks with the company MultiSys for the application and the e-kiosks. He has yet to give a timeline for the project's implementation.

Employment

On October 3, the city government partnered with the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and held a "Mega Job Fair" for local and overseas employment. They also had a dialogue with commercial center owners in the city about employing drug abuse victims after they have completed government rehabilitation programs. 

Zamora also called on unemployed and underemployed citizens to apply to DOLE's Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (TUPAD) program, an emergency employment program that will provide P5,370 for every applicant who will work as a street sweeper for 10 days.

Education

Zamora inaugurated the new 4-floor, 20-classroom building in West Crame Elementary School, whose opening, according to the mayor, was delayed due to city politics. Construction of the school, which is the first public school in San Juan's most populated barangay, was finished in December 2015.

Zamora said the previous administration never allowed the school to open because bullets from the firing range in Camp Crame could hit the school. But Zamora believes their former allies clamped down on the opening because it was the elder Zamora, San Juan's representative, who secured funds for the construction. 

Aside from West Crame Elementary School's new building, Zamora also led the groundbreaking of 3 new public school buildings in San Juan. 

Students and teachers of San Juan Elementary School, San Juan National High School, and San Perfecto Elementary School can expect 4-story, 28-classroom buildings to rise in their schools during Zamora's term. – Rappler.com

MANILA, Philippines – Anyone who faces the daily commute in Metro Manila is no stranger to hours of traffic and unpredictability.

Between the complaints of commuters, motorists, and transport operators and the debates and hearings done by policy makers, the proposed solution that always stands out is the improvement of the mass transport system.

What is the state of mass transit in the National Capital Region (NCR) to begin with? 

Land motor vehicles

A 2019 Asian Development Bank (ADB) study reported that Metro Manila is the "most congested city" out of 278 cities in developing Asia.

As of August 2019, the Land Transportation Office reported that there is a total of 1,644,932 registered motor vehicles on the roads of NCR. A quarter of all motor vehicles nationwide are packed into NCR.

As of 2018, the number of cars travelling along EDSA (251,628) dwarfed the number of public utility buses (13,356). 

Public utility buses comprised only 3% of total traffic along EDSA in 2017. Private cars took up 67% of road space. However, that did not stop the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) from implementing a provincial bus ban dry run last August.

Trains

Metro Manila has 4 operational railway systems: Light Rail Transit (LRT) lines 1 and 2, the Metro Rail Transit 3 (MRT), and the Philippine National Railways (PNR).

LRT1 has been operational for 35 years; MRT, 20 years; and LRT2, 16 years. Meanwhile, the PNR first began operations in 1891 – far back enough to see Jose Rizal’s completion of El Filibusterismo. Some of the train cars being deployed today have been there since they first opened.

In 2017, there were 516 MRT problems recorded – almost 10 a week. Of this number, 449 were offloading incidents, where passengers had to alight the trains and walk along MRT tracks. (READ: MRT woes: How often do they happen?)

In early 2018, the MRT suffered almost daily breakdowns. 

China-made Dalian trains, which were meant to replace the old MRT cars, have been in the Philippines since 2016. To this day, they have yet to be put to operation. Incompatibility issues have been cited as the cause of the delay in their deployment.

The PNR has been known to cancel trips without prior notification to the public. Many of the canceled trips are along the Tutuban-Alabang-Tutuban route, the most in-demand of all. (READ: Poor National Railways? Thousands suffer as PNR cancels 713 trips in only 2 months)

Data from the Department of Transportation show that an average of 276,128 passengers board the MRT every day. 

Meanwhile, the PNR had more than a million passengers in January this year.

Train authorities have set policies allowing free rides for students. Stations are also compelled to allot special cars or lanes for women, students, persons-with-disabilities (PWDs), elderly passengers, and pregnant women.

Corruption?

The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board is hounded by reports of corruption in granting franchises. Liaison officers at companies looking to acquire a franchise reportedly resort to bribery to hasten the process – allegations that the LTFRB has denied. (READ: Corruption at LTO, LTFRB: Unfit drivers, vehicles on the road)

In 2014, availing services from a fixer to get a driver’s license at the Land Transportation Office would cost around P2,500. Part of the fare would be split among the employees in connivance with them. (READ: The fixing business at LTO)

Root problems, economic costs

A 2012 ADB study identified the main challenges the Philippine transportation faced: 

• Poor quality of road network
• Poor intermodal integration
• Weak sector governance and institutional capacity
• Lack of quality urban transport systems
• Limited private investment in transport infrastructure 

In 2014, a Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) study projected the economic cost of traffic in Metro Manila – we would suffer economic losses of P5.4 billion daily if the situation continues.

In 2018, the House of Representatives passed a bill seeking to grant emergency powers to the DOTr secretary to address the urban traffic problem. No counterpart measure prospered in the Senate. DOTr withdrew its request, made on behalf of President Rodrigo Duterte, last September 23.

Commuters’ voices

The advocacy group AltMobility has lobbied for a law protecting commuters’ rights. The Senate and House versions of the bills have been pending in Congress since July 2019. 

According to the bill’s explanatory note, commuters comprise 70% of total trips in Metro Manila, but only 20% road space is allocated for them. – with reports from GM Castro/Rappler.com

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo took the challenge to personally experience the hellish daily commute in Metro Manila but his decision inadvertently added another layer of suffering to the woes of some commuters on Friday morning, October 11.

Passengers rushing to go to work and school who were aboard one of 4 jeepneys Panelo rode on Friday grumbled as Panelo was interviewed by the media.  (READ: No transport crisis? Panelo gets to work late after nearly 4-hour commute)

In a chance encounter with the media under the LRT2 station in Cubao, Panelo was already inside a jeepney – his third for the day – when reporters and cameramen swarmed the vehicle for an interview.  This forced the jeepney to stop along Aurora Boulevard.

The reporters were interviewing Panelo for a few minutes – an eternity for people rushing to a destination – and the other passengers started to grumble. Asked if they were bothered, a nun angrily said: "Oo, naapektuhan kami. Eh nagmamadali kami eh. 'Di lang siya ang pasahero dito. Nang dahil sa kanya huminto 'yung jeep."

(Yes, we are affected. We're in a hurry. He's not the only passenger here. Because of him, the jeepney had to stop.)

"Nagmamadali kami. May klase din kami. 'Yung iba sa amin may trabaho din po (We're all in a hurry. We also have classes. Some of us here have work)," she added, speaking for the other passengers.

A motorbike rider who was near the ambush interview area observed that Panelo wasn't experiencing the full extent of commuters' hardships. (READ: Panelo didn't experience real commuter struggle, netizens say)

"Bago-bago ['yung jeep], dapat siksikan, hindi ganun. Dapat ‘yung talagang siksikan, punong-puno ng pawis mo (It should be a packed jeep, not like the one he was riding. It should be packed to the point that you'll sweat buckets)" he said, referring to commuters' daily experience during rush hour.

Media's fault, not mine

Panelo, in turn, blamed the media for hounding him when he supposedly barred media coverage of his commute and kept his route secret, and for causing traffic by interviewing him, though he granted the interview.

"Ang nagcause ng traffic ‘yung mga media, hindi ako. Kasi dalawang oras akong nananahimik eh, bigla kayong dumating. Kaya nga precisely nagdecline ako eh, nagdecline ako ng coverage. But obviously magagaling kayo, natrace 'nyo," he said.

(The media caused traffic, not me. I kept quiet for two hours and then you suddenly showed up. That's precisely why I declined a coverage. But obviously you're good at your job, you were able to trace me.)

The ambush interview lasted around 5 minutes before Panelo tricked the press into thinking he would get down from the jeepney, only to stay put in the back while the jeepney sped off. 

On October 9, Panelo accepted the challenge of militant group Anakbayan to try commuting so he can experience what Filipino commuters go through on a daily basis.

Bayan Secretary-General Renato Reyes had earlier offered to accompany Panelo on his commute via LRT2. 

Panelo did not meet Reyes at any point during his commute. Asked why, he claimed that Reyes was just seeking publicity.

"Naghahanap lang ‘yan ng media coverage. Ayaw ko ng ganito. Bakit kayo nandito? Pano 'nyo ‘ko natunton (He's just looking for media coverage. I did not want that. Why are you even here? How did you track me down me)?" he reiterated. 

On the eve of the challenge. Panelo said he would not be accompanied by any security and press, refusing to give the details of his planned commute. However, netizens who spotted Panelo on Friday took to social media and gave hints as to the Palace official's whereabouts. – Rappler.com

MANILA, Philippines – The basketball court was crowded in the evening, a blue tent shielding the starless sky. The grieving and their children sat upright on plastic monobloc chairs as they listened to the female pastor preach about justice and God with a cracking subwoofer. Behind her lay a man they knew dearly.

Kim Lester Ramos, 23, loved playing basketball. He was short and thin, but the players who knew him said his feet moved with certainty. He spoke little but laughed often. He did not smoke. Only drank on birthdays and holidays. He was still more of a boy than a man. They all said he was kind.

That night, he rested inside the walls of a chalk-white casket, just under the shadow of a rusting ring where he dropped his three-pointers.

His face, calm, bulged below his right eyebrow. On October 5, a cop shot him within point-blank range from behind his head. Police said Kim tried to snatch a cornered cop’s gun. The cop won in the supposed tussle and shot Kim straight in the head.

The people of Mountain View Subdivision in Marikina City know a different story. They say they were the lucky ones in the government’s war, as not one of their men had been lost in a TokHang visit or buy-bust after thousands have been slain.

Confronted with their first case, they could not sleep. They said they could not stay silent either. On the rotting railings of the court hung a spread of black cloth painted red and orange that said “JUSTICE FOR KIM.” Posted a few steps away was a tarpaulin screaming the same, but with a label for Kim: “EXTRAJUDICIAL KILLING VICTIM.”

They were familiar with the stories of those killed in other neighborhoods. They were ready to fight back.

The witness and victim speaks out: ‘Pumikit na lang ako’

Lauro Lagarde, 22, told his story on a reclined white single bed inside a buzzing male ward of the Amang Rodriguez Memorial Medical Center.

He remembered seeing darkness even before the sun set on October 5, the day he almost died. Lauro shut his eyes as he bled after being shot and falling from his motorcycle. He held his breath and lay still, pretending to be dead as Kim ran away.

The cop aimed his gun at Lauro’s chest, but Lauro shoved down the gun as the cop pulled the trigger. The bullet entered his left hip and came out of the left cheek of his buttocks.

He then heard the cop run after Kim, with seconds of slapping flipflops on the pavement before the gunshot. He peeked, just for a second, and saw his friend fall, face down on the pavement.

“Narinig ko na hinabol niya si Kim. Noong naramdaman kong hinabol niya si Kim, tiningnan ko kung ano ang gagawin niya. Binaril niya talaga,” Lauro said. (I heard him run after Kim. When I sensed that he was chasing Kim, I looked at what he would do next. He really shot him.)

Lauro forced his eyes shut once more. He choked back tears and screams.

Just an hour earlier, he was shooting hoops with Kim and another friend, Johnny. Lauro had just finished repolishing his motorcycle, a pink Mio, while Kim came from work at the Project 4 district in Quezon City. The court was their refuge.

They wanted to have supper at a nearby eatery but first decided to meet in front of Johnny’s house nearby. They sat by the gutter as they waited, Lauro teasing Kim for playing Mobile Legends, when a cop whizzed past them aboard a motorcycle then made a U-turn. The cop spoke with a man on the street they did not know, then looked to Kim and Lauro.

“Kayong mga adik magsitigil-tigil na kayo sa paggamit ng droga (You addicts, stop using illegal drugs already),” Lauro recalled the cop saying. Then the cop sped off, leaving the boys shocked.

As they rode the motor to supper, by coincidence, they caught up with the cop at the intersection of Mount Vernon Street and Gil Fernando Avenue. Lauro confronted the cop.

“Sir, bakit ‘nyo kami sinasabihan na adik (Sir, why are you calling us addicts)?” Lauro recalled asking the cop. That was when the cop pulled his gun and shot them.

Lauro kept his eyes shut until he heard the footsteps of people – witnesses. With all his strength, Lauro pulled out his phone from his right pocket to try and call his friends and to get an ambulance. The cop snatched his phone, spat at him with expletives, and said, “Pasalamat ka buhay ka pa (Be thankful you’re alive).”

The crowd then began taking photos of him and Kim, angering the cop. The cop pushed the people away, and while holding on to his pistol, ordered them to delete all the footage they took.

“Sabi niya, ‘Pulis ako, pulis ako,’” Lauro recalled. (He said, “I’m a cop, I’m a cop.”)

Lauro never got his phone back.

The rescue attempt: ‘Muntik na’

Christopher Ramos, 33, arrived first from among Kim’s family at the crime scene. He was panting as a curious crowd started to form. Cops marked their territory with the yellow line.

Inside the no-cross zone, Christopher saw Lauro groaning as he bled, and around 10 meters away, saw his cousin Kim lying, face down, his left hand holding a blue handkerchief, his right hand empty.

At around 6:45 pm, Christopher said there were around a dozen cops at the crime scene, 3 of them standing guard around his cousin. He began to panic as there was no ambulance in sight. The cops were just looking, he said.

Then Christopher saw Kim’s head twitch – a sign of life – and he quickly slipped past the police line and dashed towards the body. His calculation was simple: he would haul his cousin’s body to the Amang Rodriguez Medical Center, 10 minutes away, to save him, instead of waiting another minute for an ambulance.

“Mahahawakan ko na sana. Muntik na. Kung nahawakan ko ‘yun itatakbo ko talaga ‘yun eh (I almost touched him. I almost did it. If I had grasped him, I would have run and carried him away),” Christopher said, as he began to cry.

Before he could reach Kim, a policeman pushed him out. Christopher said he was Kim’s cousin. The cops didn’t appear to care. Even Kim’s father was kept out of the yellow line.

Christopher cried for cops to call an ambulance. Again, they just looked. Helpless, Christopher joined the rest who were staring at his cousin, praying that he would move again.

Kim had long stopped twitching when a funeral van picked him up from the scene.

The making of a coverup? ‘Pinabalik-balik kami’

When the van took off from the crime scene, Norman Ramos, 63, was already down the corner, standing to block its path. The only way he would leave, he said, was if he was let into the van. The funeraria men gave him the shotgun seat.

At the funeral parlor, Norman saw his son up close. Kim wore a white shirt and bright silver basketball shorts. His right eye was a red void, while his forehead and knees still bled from the fall on the asphalt.

Norman wanted to know what led to his boy’s killing. That same night, he went to the barangay hall, but was told that policemen kept the blotter. He went to the Marikina City Police Station, but was told to return in the morning. When he returned in the morning, he was told to come back after lunch. When he returned after lunch, he was asked to drop by again in an hour.

“Pinapabalik-balik lang ako (They only kept asking me to go back),” Norman said. He never got a police report.

Meanwhile, Lauro’s family was told about what happened only the next day. Lauro’s younger sister, Leslie, said she was also repeatedly asked by cops to return. They only found out about her brother’s case when a prosecutor and lawyer dropped by the hospital to hold bedridden Lauro for an inquest.

“Pinapabalik kami, 'yun pala, ginagawa na nila (They were asking us to return when in fact they were already working on it),” said Ansly Lagarde, Lauro’s eldest sister.

For Ansly and Leslie, "working" on the case meant the cops were working on a false narrative to spin the case against Kim and Lauro.

Even the media was informed late about the details of the encounter. In a news report dated October 7, the Journal reported that police announced the details in a “belated report.” 

Other reporters have tried to speak with Lauro Lagarde inside the hospital, but he and his family said guards have been blocking reporters from entering, with or without cameras. 

Police accounts don’t add up: ‘Napilitan akong putukan’

In the affidavit of Police Corporal Herjonner Soller, he was the victim on October 5. His story presents an alternate reality to what Kim's and Lauro’s families have seen. (READ: The Impunity Series)

Soller is an intelligence officer. At 6:30 pm, he said he was on “surveillance operation” in civilian attire to keep track of their most wanted persons when he found 4 men whom he described as “kahina-hinalang nakatambay sa madilim na bahagi ng kalsada (suspiciously loitering at a dark part of the street).”

Soller said he introduced himself as a cop and asked them what they were doing, but the men supposedly said, “Pakialam mo (why do you care)?” and when he left, he claimed the men shouted without any prompting, “Hoy gago, p*tangina mo, gago ka (Hey bastard, you son of a bitch, you’re a bastard)!”

Soller said two of the men, Lauro and Kim, then followed him onboard their own motorcycle.

Without explaining how, he said that they all fell from their bikes when they reached the intersection of Mount Vernon Street and Gil Fernando Avenue. Soller then said Lauro snatched his “bag” which contained his pistol, ammo magazine, handcuffs, money, and his ID.

While pulling it, Soller was supposedly able to open his bag and take out his pistol. Soller then said that Lauro tried to grab his gun and hold it by the barrel. According to Soller, they fought for the gun until eventually the gun’s trigger was pulled, releasing a bullet into Lauro’s hip.

The cop did not account for what Kim was doing while the scuffle was happening.

In Soller’s story, Kim had a gun with him all along, but Kim apparently decided to run towards a tree after Lauro was shot. Soller said Kim pointed the pistol at him, forcing him to shoot. Even at a supposedly far range, Soller was able to shoot Kim’s head even as Kim supposedly turned his back on Soller.

Soller claimed he immediately called for his teammates to call an ambulance, contrary to what witnesses saw in the crime scene.

Soller’s affidavit also does not match the narrative presented to the media by Marikina police chief Colonel Restituto Arcanghel. The more senior cop told the Journal that Soller identified Ramos as being involved in robbery cases. Arcanghel also said Kim was part of the gun scuffle, which was not in Soller’s account.

A community takes a stand: ‘Hindi kami natatakot’

On the other side of the blue tent are metal bleachers packed with young-looking adults, Kim and Lauro’s church community, the Christian Walk Ministry, ready to fight for them.

The Christian Walk Ministry is a born-again Christian organization that leads weekly bible teachings and feeding programs for the poor. As expected, Kim and Lauro were among the top organizers of the community liga (basketball tournament), where even policemen joined.

“Hindi kami natatakot, kasi alam namin nasa tama kami (We are not afraid because we know that we are on the right side),” said Mary Jean Fulgar, one of the group’s most senior members.

Mary Jean watched the two boys grow up in the same court. She knew that they would not lift a pistol against anyone. They did not know how to use a gun. The kid Kim, she said, was even afraid of fireworks, triggering laughter from her companions.

Kim’s father Norman and Lauro’s siblings, meanwhile, have been bracing for battle in the legal arena. Lauro was accused of direct assault and attempted homicide, while Norman wants to clear his son’s name.

They have culled certificates from their barangay and the National Bureau of Investigation saying the two were neither drug personalities nor robbers. They have also spoken with the Commission on Human Rights and Marikina Mayor Marcelino Teodoro to aid them in facing the police.

Kim will be buried on Sunday, October 13. His family and friends will use his funeral procession as a platform to protest killings and demand justice, much like those of drug war slain Caloocan teens Kian delos Santos and Carl Arnaiz, who were killed by cops and then framed as drug suspects.

The Marikina City police have already relieved Soller from his post as an investigation has been opened, but Norman Ramos wants cops to take a step further.

“Gusto kong maipakulong ‘yan, masampahan ng kaso kung anuman ang ginawa niya (I want him to be jailed, to face a case for what he did),” Norman said.

The men and women of Mountain View Subdivision are mourning the death of one of their own. With the pushback, they are making it clear that any cop who commits abuse in their community must pay. – Rappler.com

TOP PHOTO: MOURNING. Norman Ramos looks over the casket of his son Kim Lester. Photo by Maria Tan/Rappler

MANILA, Philippines – A crisis hit Isko Moreno’s schedule before midday that Monday, September 23. A building has collapsed, and two men are missing. Lights, camera, action.

He was being paid a courtesy call by pastors, but the conversation about God had to be cut at an unexpectedly ungodly time. He bowed for their prayers, and, with his entourage of aides, ran to his mayoral car – a shining white SUV with inch-thick windows.

People had spilled to the streets when he arrived, sweating under a clear sky. They attempted to snatch details where the sound of a tsunami of rocks earlier came from: a Hotel Sogo undergoing demolition, covered in green nets, its facade intact, while the rest had been reduced to rubble.

Cops, medics, and firemen told him the situation didn’t look promising, and he strode to an Angel’s Pizza store, one of the few restaurants open, and asked the staff to close off the store for the day.

“This will be our command center,” he said, telling the police, fire, and hospital officials to huddle over plastic chairs and tables.

When he came out of the make-shift base, he refused to grant interviews to reporters for the first time. They were trying to save lives, he said. He didn’t have time.

By the end of the afternoon, two construction workers were pulled from the mountain of cement, dead.

LOOK: Inside the Sogo Hotel under demolition which prematurely collapsed this morning. Photo from @ManilaPIOpic.twitter.com/Brwho2myrJ

— Rambo Talabong (@ramboreports) September 23, 2019

But the mayor couldn’t allow a sad ending. His voice breaking after announcing the deaths, Moreno ordered aid for the bereaved families, and directed the city engineering office to review demolition works with the assurance that the city wouldn’t lose more of its men to its ruins. And cut!

In the capital, every day is a story, and so far, it has starred and has been directed by the one-man show that is Isko Moreno. 

His victory over political goliath Joseph Estrada gripped the nation’s attention, propelling him to unprecedented stardom. He uses that newfound celebrity for the city's good. He has been keeping a dizzying schedule on a daily basis, packed with meetings, speaking engagements, and inspections all fit for broadcast on his Facebook page.

But in Moreno’s first 100 days as mayor, he has seen that managing a city requires more than just the showmanship he has masterfully executed in his campaign. There are body counts to work with, and buildings do not crumble on their own. And there was a system, an oversight of a government that he now leads that has allowed it to happen. The mayor has to act.

"The City of Manila is really challenging. There is tyranny all over, and a certain level of anarchy in our streets and some agencies, chaos, and a lot of disorder," Moreno said in a Rappler Talk interview.

Isko’s many lives 

Want to know where Isko Moreno is? Just open his Facebook page. He's always live.

His Facebook live videos have become his main connection to his constituents. It even paints his schedule more accurately than the advisories released by his public information team the day before, as he often goes on inspections unannounced, and then cancels his attendance to events when he feels the need to be in an urgent operation, say, the dismantling of a gambling den.

Rappler charts his broadcasts – all 263 of them – ever since he assumed office on June 30 up to October 7. The statistics show the mayor’s priorities in his first 100 days.

Moreno has gone live for a total of 10,706 minutes. Half of the time, he stays inside the city hall, and half of the time, he’s out. Each broadcast on average is 40 minutes long, with the shortest live clip just 10 seconds for a prayover, and the longest live marathon 225 minutes during the Hotel Sogo fall.

Including weekends, Moreno on average goes live two to three times a day.

The two activities with the most broadcast minutes were both done outside his office: speaking engagements with 2,424 minutes, and inspections with 1,863 minutes.

These are then followed with activities held inside the city hall: city programs with 1,507 minutes, meetings with 1,474 minutes, and his weekly The Capital Report program, which totals to 1,174 minutes.

As expected, most of his broadcasts are within workday hours. But he also went live at night frequently, with 28 evening broadcasts, and 21 late-night broadcasts. His latest live video was up at 1:49 am on September 16 to announce to the public personally that there were no classes in the morning.

He has also gone live 13 times even before office hours – as early as 4:13 am, for example, for a random inspection on October 6.

Moreno’s live broadcasts have at times gone beyond the normal ambit of officials, as he also went live for 4 minutes on August 13 during a tooth operation. On July 20 at 11 pm, he spent 24 minutes telling Manileños where to watch the Pacquiao-Thurman boxing bout the next day.

The broadcasts are all in accordance with his first executive order: that Manila will have an open government, which to him includes self-imposed surveillance.

Milking the Iskomania

That Moreno spent most of his time in speaking engagements is not surprising. When he steps into a room, he knows everyone looks and falls in line for a selfie. When he speaks, he knows everyone listens.

Some have called it Iskomania.

When President Rodrigo Duterte said he was impressed with Moreno, he first praised him for his charisma, saying that he watches Moreno's speeches.

“Ito, lesson learned ko talaga, meron kaming ginagawa with regard to our communication: to change the mindset. Tingin ko lang, ha? Kasi mura eh, libre. Kasi laway lang ang puhunan,” Moreno said in a Rappler Talk interview.

(This is what I really learned, and it’s what we’ve been doing with our communication: to change the mindset. I think this is the right approach. It’s cheap, and it’s free. My mouth is my capital.)

There’s a certain method of choosing which speaking invitations Moreno accepts. He prioritizes Manila-based organizations, and business and professional organizations.

He has spoken to business organizations such as the Philippine Chamber of Commerce & Industry, IT and business process association forum, the Catholic business forum, the Foundation for Economic Freedom, GoNegosyo forum, and the Metrobank Foundation. These do not include his meetings with the country’s tycoons.

He also delivered speeches to influential organizations, such as the Philippine Judges Association National Convention, the International College of Surgeons, the Rotary Club, and Junior Chamber International.

On average, he speaks for 63 minutes per engagement, and with 41 delivered, he has mastered the delivery of his invitation for the audience to hope in Manila again. He begins by lamenting how the capital has fallen over the past administrations.

Moreno usually uses the word “chaotic” and “dugyot (dirty)”, then shifts to describing it simply as “sleeping” and “napabayaan (neglected).” Then comes the invitation to help him in his commitment to restore their crumbling city to its old glory.

“I want to do a lot of things, but I cannot do it alone. We cannot do it alone,” Moreno has repeatedly said in his speeches.

Moreno is not a detail-oriented speaker. When he speaks to businesses, he only talks of having “incentives” for them to set up in the capital. When it comes to Manila’s debt, he does not give a point-by-point presentation on how to diminish their P4.4-billion account. Once in a forum, he was asked what Manileños could do to beat traffic, he only said, “It’s a fact of life.” 

Yet these speeches have produced tangible results.

The returns come in the form of donations and partnerships, most notably with top fast-food chains agreeing to employ senior citizens in Manila. Meanwhile, the Manila Lions Club donated 120 wheelchairs, and the Inner Wheel Club of Rizal turned over 300 bottles of dextrose for Manila’s hospitals.

His meetings with the country’s wealthiest, he said, resulted in commitments for donations and even promises to set up business headquarters in the capital. Pressed to disclose more information, he said: “Ayaw ko silang pangunahan. Maghintay lang kayo at mag-abang.” (I don’t want to pre-empt their commitment. Just wait and see.)

An outdoor mayor

On his first full day as mayor, Isko Moreno went on overtime.

At 6 pm on July 1, he walked out of the City Hall across the Bonifacio Monument and toward mountains of garbage. Dubbing the historic area as having deteriorated into a “new Smokey Mountain” – in reference to the actual garbage dump in Tondo – he ordered that the monument be cleared within the day.

“Kung hindi natin kayang linisin ang sarili nating bakuran, ano pa kaya ang Maynila?” Moreno said. (If we cannot clean our own backyard, then how else can we fix the entire Manila?)

Since then, he has led at least 45 inspections around the capital, taking around 42 minutes each. The earliest started at 4:13 am, and the latest began at 12:28 am, prompting people to ask, “How does Isko Moreno sleep?”

“Mahilig talaga siya sa aksyon (He really likes action),” said Cesar Chavez, Moreno’s chief-of-staff, who tags along on his inspections.

Prior to President Duterte's order for mayors to clear the roads across the country, Moreno had already conducted at least 16 inspections. Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Eduardo Año described him as a “model mayor” in an interview with Rappler.

“He’s a man of action and conviction. Kung ang mga mayors ay gagayahin si Mayor Isko, for sure, wala silang problema sa elections,” Año said on September 17. (If mayors can copy Mayor Isko, for sure, they wouldn’t have a problem in the next elections.)

The Bonifacio Monument – where during his first week as mayor he spotted scattered human feces and plastic cups brimming with piss – is now water-blasted and swept clean, repainted, and lit by lamps hanging from trees.

True to his statement upon assumption, he has cleaned his own backyard. He struggles with the rest of the vast city.

He followed the President’s orders to take down all road obstructions, even the livelihood of thousands of street vendors who had made a living in those areas for generations.

While the roads are clean, Moreno now has thousands of constituents jobless and starving – a problem that would force the mobile mayor to sit down with his city council.

Moreno's silent majority

At the flag-raising ceremony on September 21, a frustrated Moreno announced to reporters that he had ordered the council to abolish the Manila Tricycle Regulatory Office.

He said he had been fed up with the office’s corruption, and abolition was the only way.

Although they knew in advance, the council still needed to study whether it was doable. The office had 51 plantilla positions, posts that were occupied by employees whose work was protected by laws. With an order, Moreno ordered for them to be jobless. It was just another day for the city council.

“Sanay na kami kay mayor,” said Vice Mayor Honey Lacuna in an interview with Rappler. (We’re used to the mayor already.)

While Moreno stands out as the ever-visible figurehead, it’s the city council that has been working silently to pass his dream policies and sweeping orders. Even Moreno’s meetings with them are not broadcast live, but they have been meeting at least twice a week, walking one by one in barongs and knee-length dresses into Moreno’s office in City Hall.

Most recognizable of them is their presider, Vice Mayor Lacuna, the woman who wears her ash-grey hair in a pixie cut, her look complemented by her lips painted blood-red.

Lacuna is Moreno’s longtime ally, and the daughter of his political counselor, longtime Manila vice mayor Danny Lacuna. Behind closed doors, he simply calls her his "ate" – his big sister whom he trusts to watch over the council.

Just like the office of the mayor, the council has been on overdrive.

“It’s been a whirlwind romance,” Lacuna said.

Lacuna described the current council as “revived” under Moreno. She worked as the vice mayor under Estrada too, and recalled the council as a rubberstamp for the former president and dethroned patriarch.

Staffers Rappler spoke to described councilors under the Estrada administration as frequently walking in late and skipping sessions when a drizzle aggravates traffic.

Lacuna recalled Moreno’s first order after they were proclaimed winners in the 2019 elections: “Ate, gusto ko walang a-absent sa council.” (Big Sister, I want absentee councilors.)

Under Moreno, the council has been forced to work the same odd hours, ready just in case the mayor makes sweeping policy statements that need the backing of local laws, like his welfare programs and tax amnesties. Within 100 days, they have passed 8 ordinances.

“If he’s working with his 110%, then we are expected to do the same,” Lacuna added.

A frustrated director

During his break time, Moreno finds solace with a lit cigarette in a room adjacent to his office. It has a long wooden rectangle table, where, according to Vice Mayor Lacuna, he is visited by councilors and Lacuna herself to listen to his frustrations.

He talks of the capital as an overwhelming feat for one man.

“Madaling ma-frustrate si Mayor kapagka hindi nangyayari the way he wants it na mangyari. Napu-frustrate siya doon,” Lacuna said. (He gets easily frustrated when things don't go the way he wants.)

Sometimes he wonders why illegal vendors continue to return to the areas they were driven away from. At other times, he blows off steam about offices where corruption persists despite his weekly address about public service means.

According to University of the Philippines Political Science Department chair Maria Ela Atienza, Moreno’s frustrations can be traced back to his obsession to be hands-on with his programs.

“He still has the sense that he has to do it every day. Of course, he has a lot of plans he has to do, but he has to pace it. He cannot do everything by himself,” Atienza said.

Moreno should consider delegating more of his tasks to his deputies, according to Atienza. This would have lasting returns. When he shares the spotlight, he would have enough stars to handle the show in case he moves up to higher office. And he has been approached by many parties for their 2022 ambitions.

“All the success of Manila now depends on him, which is not good. It’s not sustainable. It’s also not fair, because he cannot do all this by himself. He already has a core group. He can begin grooming them,” Atienza said in a mix of English and Filipino.

Is the mayor going through burnout? Without hesitation, he reiterates where he came from.

“Burnout? Hindi siguro. Alam mo kung bakit? Mas mahirap magtulak ng kariton, mas mahirap mag-drive ng sidecar,” Moreno said. (I don’t think so. You know why? It’s harder to push a cart, and to drive a sidecar.)

He added: “After those two decades of me being on the fence and watching somebody leading the city, then we ended up where we are today, I think if I’m going to follow the same footsteps, no new things will come to Manila tomorrow. So I have to do things differently.”

 – Rappler.com

TOP PHOTO: NEW ROLE. Manila Mayor Isko Moreno, dubbed as a 'model mayor,' is frustrated by the capital's overwhelming problems. Photo by Angie de Silva/Rappler

MANILA, Philippines – The Supreme Court, among the most secretive institutions, has recently been giving glimpses into its hallowed halls with a uniform message: "We are collegial, we are united."

The fiercest dissenter on the bench, Associate Justice Marvic Leonen, appeared on live television on Friday, October 11, to heap praises on retiring Chief Justice Lucas Bersamin: "We have become good friends because that's how the Chief Justice is, he is very collegial."

Not so long ago, in 2015, Bersamin lodged a complaint against Leonen for the latter's strongly-worded dissenting opinion in the Chief Justice's ponencia that granted bail to Juan Ponce-Enrile.

Leonen had called Bersamin's Enrile ponencia "a result of obvious political accommodation." Bersamin lambasted Leonen's dissent as having "impugned the integrity of the seven members of the Court."

Three years later, Leonen was master of ceremonies in Bersamin's retirement party held during a special en banc session live streamed from the High Court's session hall.

"I think I have the most dissents against the current chief justice, Lucas Bersamin, and these are very important cases, yet in his retirement ceremony he has chosen me as the master of ceremonies, I will host the retirement ceremonies....He will take the risk, he told me, 'Just say anything you want to say,'" Leonen told CNN Philippines' The Source.

Leonen added: "He thinks it's important to send the message that despite our ideological differences in ideological and judicial philosophies, we can still act as an institution."

Post-Sereno

The messaging still smacks of criticism directed at ousted chief justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, whose portrait no longer hangs in the halls of the Supreme Court.

Outside the session hall where portraits of past chief justices are, the portrait of impeached chief justice Renato Corona is followed by retired chief justice Teresita Leonardo-de Castro, skipping Sereno as if she did not sit as top magistrate for 6 years.

Sereno was ousted in an unprecedented quo warranto mode, a process that exposed cracks in the Supreme Court, with justices voluntarily going to the House of Representatives to rant against Sereno's alleged unilateral decisions in the Court.

In a press conference on September 4, Bersamin said: "Hindi kailangan masyadong mataas ang IQ(intelligence quotient), kailangan mo EQ (emotional quotient) lang." (You don't need to have a high IQ, you just need EQ."

"I wish to be remembered and known as the healing chief justice who brought stability and normalcy back to the judiciary and particularly to the Supreme Court," Bersamin said during his retirement ceremonies on Friday, in front of former chief justices and justices alike.

"Yes the judiciary needed healing and it became my responsibility as chief justice to initiate and ensure such healing," said Bersamin, who will retire on October 18.

The ousting of Sereno was intensely divisive, resulting in an 8-6 vote, with Leonen calling the decision a "legal abomination." That was barely a year ago, in 2018.

Collegial

But the dissenters never faltered in the Bersamin Court.

In the 3rd decision that upheld President Rodrigo Duterte's martial law in Mindanao, Associate Justice Francis Jardeleza said he has "grave concerns over the Court's seeming abdication of its duty."

In the decision that upheld Duterte's closure of Boracay as constitutional, Associate Justice Benjamin Caguioa said his colleagues' ruling "leads to the realization of the very evil against which the Constitution had been crafted to guard against – tyranny, in its most dangerous form."

Leonen called the Boracay ruling as one that "invites a regime that is borderline authoritarian.”

"They have the fullest freedom of what they will write in their dissenting opinions...Wala kaming restriction sa kanila, in fact I dissented in a few cases and I can even say that I criticized the majority opinion, kasi kung hindi mo gagawin 'yun walang kuwenta 'yung dissent mo. That is what gives us the dynamism," Bersamin said.

(We have no restrictions for them, in fact I dissented in a few cases, and I can even say that I criticized the majority opinion, because if you do not do that, your dissent is useless.)

"We need people like Leonen, Jardeleza, and Caguioa telling us that we're shit," Bersamin said, laughing it off after.

Another kind of dissenter is Associate Justice Estela "Telly" Perlas Bernabe. She dissented in the Leila de Lima jailing case and the Sereno quo warranto, the few times she found herself on the side of the losing bloc.

As she told the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) during her chief justice application, her ponencias are mostly unanimous.

"I am very collegial and I think with proper justification, I don’t think they will reject any proposal I will make," said Bernabe. 

Bersamin backed that: "She has contributed a lot to the discourse and has often explained to me why my arguments were wrong or misdirected. I have not complained, Justice Telly, because as usual, I was easily charmed by the way you explained things."

Marcos-Robredo case

An upcoming highly political issue that is perceptibly a divisive one is Bongbong Marcos' electoral protest case against Vice President Leni Robredo, where Caguioa is member-in-charge.

Caguioa has already submitted his report on the assessment of the initial recount of Marcos' chosen 3 pilot provinces. Robredo's lawyer Romulo Macalintal told media, citing reports, that Caguioa's report showed no substantial recovery from the pilot provinces, meaning the recount should uphold Robredo's win.

The issue has been thrice deferred since September, with the next deliberations set for October 15, Bersamin's last en banc session before he retires.

In his retirement ceremony, Bersamin told Caguioa: "I have always valued your opinions, many of which I have adopted without hesitation, even if they initially conflicted with mine just because you were right after all. I wish you to continue being strong and persistent in your opinions."

Earlier that day, Leonen told CNN that they were close to a consensus.

"I think we’re getting there, that there is an emerging consensus on how to move with respect to this case," said Leonen.

Bersamin had teased that the ruling is "not what you would expect."

Duterte's winning streak

Duterte has enjoyed an overwhelming winning streak in the Court, with Bersamin always voting in favor of the President.

"I think that's an unfair implication there, para bang kinakampihan ko na ang administration. Lagi kong ipinapaliwanag na ang isang hukom kagaya ko kapag sinuri namin ang isang case may kanya-kanya kaming pag-aaral," Bersamin said in a CNN Philippines interview earlier this October.

(I think that's an unfair implication there, that I am siding with the administration. I always explain that judges like me have our appreciation of cases based on our respective examinations.)

But even he would admit that he is more for judicial restraint, or a philosophy where justices avoid superseding the policies of elected officials.

“I am more on the side of restraint. Why? Because I happen to believe the 3 branches should work together, and the 3 branches should respect each other’s boundaries,” Bersamin said when he was appointed chief justice.

With his and Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio's back-to-back retirements, only 3 of the 15 members of the Court will be non-Duterte appointees.

"Hindi naman (Duterte court)," Bersamin said. (It's not gonna be a Duterte court.)

"Ayaw namin ng bansag na rubber stamp lang kami ng executive. Ayaw din namin 'yung bansag na rubber stamp kami ng legislative. Our history in the Supreme Court, we are no president's court. I can give you that assurance," said Bersamin.

(We don't want to be called a rubber stamp of the executive, we also don't want to be called a rubber stamp of the legislative.)

Duterte has started to pack the SC with young appointees who will serve in the High Bench long after he leaves the presidency.

Bersamin has advice for them: "May you quickly adapt to the rigors of dealing with court business in the SC on a daily basis."

Indeed, the responsibility of rebuilding an institution that had been rocked to its core in the past falls upon the next generation of magistrates.

Forging an image of unity may seem superficial, but in a bench of 15 people, collegiality may just pave the way for good decisions. After all, the en banc is also largely a numbers game, and the one with good convincing power can win. – Rappler.com

Photo of the en banc from a June 2018 oral arguments by Ben Nabong/Rappler

MANILA, Philippines — For most Catholics, the devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary is an epitome of expressing their faith. 

Every second Sunday of October, thousands of devotees join the procession celebrating the feast of Our Lady of Holy Rosary - La Naval at Santo Domingo Church in Quezon City.

As the devotees gather, whispers of prayers are lifted to heaven in exchange for receiving miracles from La Naval.   

Miracle in battles  

It was also miracles in battles centuries ago that gave birth to the annual grand celebration of La Naval in the Philippines.

In 1646, the Dutch Republic attempted to invade the Philippines as part of its strategy to open trade in South Asia. The Spanish and Filipino defenders had only two old galleons against the enormous Dutch ships. 

The book, The Saga of La Naval: Triumph of a People's Faith, recounts the story of a naval captain who asked Our Lady of the Holy Rosary for their victory. He vowed that if their prayers were granted, they will walk barefoot towards her shrine in Santo Domingo Church in Intramuros, Manila. 

Then the miracles happened: the defenders conquered the naval battles five times in 1646. The successes were attributed to the intercession of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary. Hence, she was venerated with the title "La Naval". 

In October that same year, the first Feast of La Naval de Manila was celebrated in the old Santo Domingo Church first built by the Dominicans in Intramuros in January 1588.

Unfortunately, it was struck by fire in 1603; two earthquakes in 1645 and 1863; and the Japanese bombing in 1941.

The old church found a new home on Quezon Avenue in Quezon City in 1952. Two years later, the Philippine Catholic Church hierarchy declared Sto. Domingo Church the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary. 

Our Lady of the Holy Rosary was canonically crowned on October 5, 1907. This was one of the most significant events during the first decade of the 20th century in the country.

Beautiful vestments  

The La Naval used in the procession today is not its first sculptured image. The original image—made of wood—was burned during World War II. It was brought to the country by Dominicans from Acapulco, Mexico in 1587. 

In 1593, a non-Catholic Chinese artist was commissioned to carve the head and hands of La Naval and the Holy Child. The 400-year old image was made of ivory, earning the distinction of being the oldest Marian ivory sculpture in the country. 

Rappler recently visited the Santo Domingo Church's first exhibit for the feast of La Naval, launched this year. We saw some of the preserved pre-war and decade-long mantels that have great historical value. Among these are the Numero Uno and Carrascoro Ensemble.  

The oldest vestment of La Naval was Numero Uno. It was one of the artifacts saved from the ravages of World War II. La Naval wore this iconic vestment during her canonical coronation in Intramuros in 1907.

It is carefully embroidered with gold threads that make La Naval look so regal. The gilded bodice, skirt, and sleeves are mounted on the silver backing of the plancha, which La Naval wears along with Numero Uno. A young missionary we met at the exhibit told us the silver hem of the plancha was said to be dipped in gold, making it sparkle from afar. 

Don Antonio Carrascoso, a devotee from Spain, donated a new gala out of gratitude and thanksgiving to Our Lady. La Naval wore this when Pope Paul VI visited the country in 1970. During the historic visit, the Pope declared Our Lady as the Patroness of Quezon City. 

The vestment of La Naval was inspired by the Spanish court dress in the late 16th century. The camarera, or the handmaids, were in charge of the process in clothing La Naval. The first camarera was Doña Angelita Leyba. 

Aside from her mantels, her pieces of jewelry and crown also spark interest. A written account by a priest in 1907 said the La Naval's crown weighed 60 ounces, or equivalent to 1,866 grams. There were 1,083 gemstones set into it, including 62 sapphires, 61 rubies, and 59 rubies. The crown was valued at P30,850.00. 

On the other hand, the Infant Jesus’ crown weighed 21 ounces and was, at that time, worth P10,600. This crown has 638 gemstones consisting of sapphires, emeralds, rubies, topazes, among others. 

Marian processions

The celebration of Our Lady of La Naval is not only a commemoration of a historical conquest, but it also reveals the meaning of one of the most important Marian processions in the country. (READ: WATCH: Mass, grand procession for La Naval de Manila 2018)

For devotees, the Blessed Virgin Mary is the symbol of love and strength to withstand life's constant battles. - Rappler.com 

Bookmark this page to catch the interview live on Monday, October 14, at 2 pm

MANILA, Philippines – It has been more than 3 years since what was once a tense relationship between the Philippines and China turned cordial under President Rodrigo Duterte.

But many have criticized Duterte's embrace of the powerful country, pointing out how he has also compromised the Philippines' stand on several issues, including the West Philippine Sea. (READ: Philippines loses to China 3 years after Hague ruling)

On Monday, October 14, Rappler editor-at-large Marites Vitug talks to Jeffrey Ordaniel, assistant professor of international security studies at Tokyo International University (TIU), to assess Duterte's pivot to China and his foreign policy since 2016.

A fellow of TIU's Institute for International Strategy, Ordaniel has worked on projects about Southeast Asia, particularly on regionalism and maritime security.

What are the benefits which have been experienced by the Philippines since promoting warm ties with China? What are the disadvantages? (READ: China at 70: 'Fantasy of cordial relations' with the Philippines) 

Watch the discussion live on Monday, October 14, at 2 pm! – Rappler.com 

Claim: In Norway, humans and animals can get married and have sexual intercourse, according to an article by website thewatchdogweb.com.

The article said that Dagens Næringsliv, a Norwegian media outlet specializing in business news, published a story on March 10, 2017 about a 23-year-old woman named Barbarä Trüdlosmek as the first human to marry a domestic animal and celebrate a “zoocontractual union.” At the bottom of the story, it also listed secretnews.fr as a source.

The article was posted in June 2017, but several Facebook pages were still sharing the link as of October this year. Social media monitoring tool CrowdTangle data shows Filipino Facebook page called "4:30pm ko to ginawa" got the most number of engagements, with over 2,100 shares and 300 comments.

The page shared the link on October 1, 2019, and several users were still sharing it as of writing. Facebook Claim Check, the social media network’s tool that identifies suspicious posts spread across the platform, flagged the link for fact checking.

Rating: FALSE

The facts: The source of information cited in the article, secretnews.fr, is a French satirical website but thewatchdogweb.com treated it as an official source. Norway has not legalized marriage between humans and animals.

Secretnews.fr published two satirical articles about the topic – first in November 2016, then in February 2018. The first post said marriages between humans and animals will soon be legalized, and the second one featured Trüdlosmek marrying her dog on Valentine’s Day.

In its About Me section, secretnews.fr wrote: “SecretNews.fr is a free and independent collaborative parodic media gathering several contributors. Most of the information on this site is probably false, published for a satirical and humorous purpose and can not be considered authentic.”

The Norwegian paper mentioned in the article, Dagens Næringsliv, also did not publish anything about the matter. An archived version of its webpage on March 10, 2017 shows no mention of Trüdlosmek or legalized marriages between humans and animals. The name Barbarä Trüdlosmek was also never mentioned in any of its published articles.

The photo of the woman and dog used in the articles is a stock photo from Pixabay. – Pauline Macaraeg/Rappler.com

Keep us aware of suspicious Facebook pages, groups, accounts, websites, articles, or photos in your network by contacting us at factcheck@rappler.com. Let us battle disinformation one Fact Check at a time.

Claim: Facebook group Philippines Freedom Wall claimed in a post that 95 United Nations (UN) countries believe there are no extrajudicial killings (EJKs) in the country.

The post, dated October 2, included a photo of President Rodrigo Duterte with text that reads, “Dear LP, pikat! (a Visayan expression for teasing) 95 out of 105 countries in UN review believe there are no EJKs in the Philippines.” 

At the bottom of the photo, the social media accounts of blog site Mindanation were listed.

The claim was spotted through the social media monitoring tool CrowdTangle. Since its posting, it accumulated total reactions, comments, and shares of 1,328. 

Rating: FALSE

The facts: This claim has been debunked. The claim originated from a state-run Philippine News Agency (PNA) 2017 news report that misquoted Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Undersecretary Epimaco Densing III, who was then-assistant secretary. 

The PNA article, dated May 15, 2017, was headlined “95 nations in 3rd UPR convinced no EJKs in PHL.” 

In the report, Densing supposedly said 95 countries were convinced that EJKs were not happening in the country during the 27th Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland in May 2017. The UPR is a periodic review of human rights records among 193 members of the UN.

Rappler reported on May 20, 2017, that contrary to the PNA article, Densing said that the Philippine delegations to UPR were "very confident" that 109 countries were convinced by former senator Alan Peter Cayetano's presentation of the human rights situation in the country. 

The former assistant secretary also said 95 countries "made interventions" or gave comments and recommendations on the EJKs that happened in the past 9 months at the time. (READ: Countries call for end to killings in PH drug war) 

In fact, on May 19, 2017, the UPR tweeted, "To our best knowledge, 95 states were not 'convinced that EJK is non-existent.'"

Aside from the UN mishap, the PNA also claimed that Densing described the information the other countries heard about the drug war as "spoiled and rotten information." This was supposedly released by local media and human rights groups.  

Densing told Rappler that he never said those words. 

PNA revised their article and replaced the title with "PHL's human rights situation commended at UPR." The said revised article, however, is no longer accessible today. 

– Glenda Marie Castro/Rappler.com

Keep us aware of suspicious Facebook pages, groups, accounts, websites, articles, or photos in your network by contacting us at factcheck@rappler.com. Let us battle disinformation one Fact Check at a time. 

Claim: A bill seeking to penalize a father for his failure to provide child support has been passed into law. 

The website dilawnabuwan.com posted an article on July 26, which details the provision of the supposed newly enacted law.

A part of the article said: “Kamakailan lang ay naging batas na ang bill na ipinasa ni Manila Representative Rosenda Ann Ocampo na nagsasabing mapaparusahan ang mga ama na hindi magbibigay ng tamang sustento at suporta sa kaniyang mga anak.”

(Recently, the bill filed by Manila Representative Rosenda Ann Ocampo seeking to penalize fathers for failure to provide the right support to his children has been passed into law.) 

The article is headlined “Batas Laban Sa Mga Ama Na Hindi Nagbibigay Ng Sustento Sa Mga Anak Ipinasa Na! (Law against fathers who fail to provide child support passed into law!)

According to the social media tool CrowdTangle, the claim has drawn over 23,000 shares, 80,000 reactions, 16,000 comments. Some of the Facebook pages which shared the claim are Buhay May Asawa, Pinoy Health Tips, and Hello Kitty Pa More. 

Rating: FALSE

The facts: As of October 2019, House Bill No. 6079, or the Child Support Enforcement Act, has not yet been signed into law. Similar versions of the measure had been filed several times, yet they remained pending at the House committee level. 

The version of the bill filed in the 15th Congress has been pending before the committee on welfare of children since August 23, 2011. 

The bill mentioned in the claim was authored by former Manila 6th District Representative Rosenda Ann Ocampo. She filed another version in the 17th Congress which was left pending at the committee on revisions of laws. 

The latest versions (HBs 3925 and 1414), filed by incumbent Quezon City 5th District Representative Alfred Vargas in the 17th and 18th Congress, were also pending either at the committee on revision of laws or at the committee on welfare of children.

The claim specifically mentioned that only the father of the child would be penalized if he fails to provide legal support. This is misleading. What the bill proposed exactly is to impose a penalty on the obliged parent who refused to provide legal child support.

The bill defined legal child support as the amount to be paid by the obliged parent to the custodial parent. 

There is no existing law to penalize anyone for failure to provide legal child support. Under Republic Act (RA) No. 9262 or the Anti-Violence Against Women and Their Children Act of 2004, a person who deprives a woman or her children of financial support would be punished for 6 years in jail. 

The website dilawnabuwan.com lacks sufficient information, such as its office address or contact information, to say it is legitimate. The byline of the article containing the claim is hidden in the pseudonym “dilaw." According to WhoIs, a tool that provides domain registration details of websites, the domain was created only on April 5, 2019. – Glenda Marie Castro/Rappler.com

Keep us aware of suspicious Facebook pages, groups, accounts, websites, articles, or photos in your network by contacting us at factcheck@rappler.com. Let us battle disinformation one Fact Check at a time.

MANILA, Philippines – Oscar Albayalde was appointed on the basis of the President’s perception.

It was in April 2018. President Rodrigo Duterte’s most trusted cop, Ronald dela Rosa, was stepping down and he had to choose a police chief, fast. They were in the middle of a "war" to expunge drugs, crime, and corruption, and he needed a worthy successor to lead the 190,000-strong police force.

The President consulted with his next most trusted cops – the men in blue from Davao. There were two names that hung in the air. One was kind, the other was strict, said the Davao cops.

“Sir, he’s too strict,” Duterte recalled them saying about Oscar Albayalde, then the chief of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO).

For that, Duterte chose Albayalde, a cop who had never served in the Davao Region. For Duterte, a hometown connection did not appear to be convincing.

The President said: “The stricter the better.”

Weeks ahead of Duterte’s meeting, Albayalde often landed in the news for his motorcycle rounds in Metro Manila. As NCRPO chief, he wanted the capital region’s cops whipped to shape, for the rest of the regions to follow.

Aside from the high kill record in the drug war under his region, Albayalde was known for sacking cops. He sacked sleeping cops. He sacked drinking cops. He sacked underperforming cops. He sacked drug-positive cops. At one point, he sacked the entire police force of the Caloocan City Police Station over a drug war killing.

Oscar Albayalde was known as the strict cop. A year and 6 months later, a defeated Albayalde stepped down from his post – on piling allegations that he was not strict enough.

Oscar Albayalde’s rocky beginning

Oscar Albayalde was known among the PNP’s top brass as one of their “brightest.” A cadet who went straight to Special Action Force – a stark contrast to his predecessor Dela Rosa, who was dubbed their “class clown” at the Philippine Military Academy.

Upon assumption as police chief, he vowed to expand to the rest of the country what the President saw him doing in Metro Manila. He was focusing on their internal cleansing and discipline programs. And so the sackings continued.

Albayalde was also a leader sensitive to criticism and comrades who go against his will. He made a show of how he leads for the low-ranking cops, and the police’s top brass.

A week into his post, he ordered an investigation against cops who bashed him on Facebook. He was not being petty, he said. He only wanted to discipline his men.

He summoned them to his office and gave them a tongue-lashing. Their photos standing erect against a white wall, faces blurred, were sent on Viber to reporters. It was announced they would be reassigned to Mindanao. It sent a clear message: the PNP chief will not be disrespected.

He came into another conflict with Lieutenant General Camilo Cascolan – one of the authors of the controversial Oplan Double Barrel and his successor as NCRPO chief.

Just after 6 weeks into the post, Cascolan was pulled in by Albayalde and dropped to a Camp Crame office position. Albayalde said it was a “collective decision” and not his alone.

But Cascolan maintained in interviews after his sacking that he performed his duty as Albayalde’s successor. Like Albayalde, Cascolan cruised around the capital to visit police stations, also sacking underperforming cops.

Police sources told Rappler that the two had been caught in the conflict long before Dela Rosa retired. The tension came to a head when Albayalde learned of Cascolan allowing cops to avail of 8-hour shifts instead of his preferred 12-hour shifts. For generals in Camp Crame, Cascolan, a known friend of Dela Rosa, was the padded equivalent of Albayalde's bashers.

Cascolan was replaced by Major General Guillermo Eleazar, a known subordinate of Albayalde for their shared time at the NCRPO.

Once “demoted” by Albayalde, Cascolan is now among the top contenders for the resigned police chief’s empty seat, along with Eleazar.

The loyal outsider unscathed

Albayalde has also distinguished himself from his predecessor for the calm he showed when treading explosive issues.

Under his watch, the drug war kill tally rose from 4,000 to over 5,500. Five mayors and vice mayors were killed by drive-by gunmen. Billions worth of illegal drugs were smuggled through the Bureau of Customs. The epicenter of drug war killings, once in his home turf of Metro Manila, moved to Central Luzon, and then later, to Negros island.

As Duterte’s second police chief, he also inherited a Supreme Court petition that questioned the constitutionality of the war on drugs.

In these controversies, he echoed inherited responses: that the police enjoy the presumption of regularity, that drug suspects fought back, and while each drug-related killing was probed, they would only share documents to independent investigators upon the approval of Duterte himself.

For his quick and outburst-free retorts, Albayalde was perceived as more cerebral and level-headed compared to his predecessor Dela Rosa.

He further built his image in reviving the ban against presentation of suspects to the media. It was also under him that the police unit most depended on its internal cleansing efforts, the Counter-Intelligence Task Force or CITF, upgraded to a fully staffed Integrity Monitoring and Enforcement Group or IMEG.

But Albayalde also had his moments.

He wondered why state scholars were protesting against the government. He oversaw cops who visited media offices, justifying it as being simply part of community relations. By the President’s command, Albayalde saw the police arresting loitering Filipinos. When polling firm Social Weather Stations (SWS) reported that the anti-drug campaign worried Filipinos about being killed, Albayalde said the survey was done incorrectly.

When a hooded man in a dark room called Bikoy alleged in viral videos that the President’s closest people were involved in illegal drugs, he ordered an investigation. When Bikoy surfaced, Albayalde called him an “information peddler,” then days later when Bikoy recanted, Albayalde welcomed him in a press conference.

Loyalty was a potent resource for the cop who did not belong in the President’s inner circle.

Albayalde waged the President’s war. He tolerated the President’s sweeping statements. He deferred to his wisdom. He did not mind that the Commander-in-Chief, at times, mispronounced his name as “Agbayalde.” He stuck to the script and hoped for a well-decorated retirement.

Then came September 2019.

From Vietnam, with love

Albayalde’s fall from grace began in a cold and unlikely place: a Senate budget hearing.

On September 16, Aaron Aquino, the ever-frustrated chief of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, dropped the first bombshell that triggered what came after: that drug recycling remained to be rampant in the Philippine National Police.

That time, Albayalde was not even in the same time zone. He was in Vietnam for the ASEAN police conference in Hanoi from September 16 to 20. He could not speak for the police.

The only general who stood up to defend the police was Eleazar, slamming Aquino for not letting them know first before he made the damning testimony.

Aquino’s revelation was enough to alarm the Senate blue ribbon committee to pivot an exhausted hearing on the Good Conduct Time Allowance law towards sniffing for corruption in the PNP.

The Senate fanned flames of suspense in inviting, then keeping in an executive session, the former Criminal Investigation Detection Group (CIDG) chief and now Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong – the general who first blew the whistle on former president Benigno Aquino III in the 2015 Mamasapano probe.

Albayalde held his testimonial parade at the PMA in Baguio amid rumors that he had been implicated in the executive session.

When reporters asked Senator Richard Gordon after the closed-door meeting what rank the most senior drug-tagged cop held, he declined to comment, locked his lips, then dragged his right palm down his face with 4 stretched fingers – an allusion to 4 stars, the rank of the police chief.

Back-to-back bombshells

The snowball became an avalanche when the secret session turned public.

Magalong named 13 “ninja cops” he found to have been involved in drug recycling in November 2013. The cops had reported to have busted a Chinese drug suspect, but further validation revealed another story.

The cops were sacked months later after CIDG probers found that they underdeclared the hauled shabu (methamphetamine) by over 160 kilograms, accepted a bribe, let the suspect go, and then arrested a fall guy.

And all of it happened under the nose of their provincial police chief, Oscar Albayalde.

Albayalde was sacked for months following the operation, but made a comeback with the prime post of NCRPO chief in 2016 under Duterte. PDEA chief Aaron Aquino was then the Central Luzon police chief, holding direct supervision over Pampanga.

During the Senate hearing on October 1, Aquino dropped another bombshell. He recounted that when they were regional commanders, Albayalde asked him not to implement the already years-delayed dismissal order for the 13 Pampanga cops. Puzzled, Aquino asked Albayalde about his request.

Aquino said Albayalde replied, “Sir, those are my people.”

The last bombshell came from retired general Rudy Lacadin, former deputy of Magalong in the CIDG who probed the case. He said that as he was starting the probe, Albayalde called him to confirm the investigation.

“I didn't know if jokingly, he said, 'Actually sir, konti lang naman napunta sa 'kin diyan (Actually sir, I only got little from that),’” Lacadin quoted Albayalde as saying.

Albayalde also baffled senators for invoking the presumption of regularity for the 13 cops, even when Senator Panfilo Lacson surgically interpellated the cops to reveal that their testimonies did not add up. (READ: 'Spectacle of a grand cover-up': Senate hearing bares how 'ninja cops' remain in service)

By the end of the hearing, calls for resignation poured in. He spent months building up his stern image, but in a matter of days, it crumbled. He was being labeled as negligent, if not complicit, in the operation.

The fight to stay

Albayalde fought hard to keep his position and his reputation intact. He granted interviews left and right, and met with Camp Crame reporters in their press office for an “off the record” talk. He even posed for photos with top lawyer Estelito Mendoza as he threatened to sue retired general Lacadin.

In his mind, the 3 former generals hatched a conspiracy against him to compromise his retirement. Albayalde was expected to endorse Eleazar, but with the controversy, he said his blessing would have become a "kiss of death." It was a theory that landed with a thud.

Even with President Duterte demanding clear proof to merit firing, Albayalde could not directly answer the big questions: Why have the 13 cops stayed in the police service, with one of them even landing a coveted post? What does it say about the administration’s war on drugs? What does it say about his strict cop persona? Was his conscience clear?

Facing these questions, the usually calm Albayalde erupted for the first time when hounded by journalists after the session on October 3. He accused a television reporter of “prejudging” him, and told another, “Ang kulit mo eh (you’re annoying already).”

At the Senate, he answered with a question that did little to clear his name: if he was guilty, why was he allowed to stay in the service and was appointed PNP chief by Duterte?

Behind the scenes, sitting and retired generals were advising him to resign to spare the PNP and the PMA from the controversy. Politicians also recommended that he step down to keep Duterte’s unrelenting anti-drug campaign credible. His children, Albayalde said, were already suffering.

He submitted his resignation letter to Eduardo Año on October 12, Saturday afternoon. Duterte accepted it on Sunday evening.

On Monday, Albayalde sluggishly stepped behind the pedestal at the foot of the PNP’s National Headquarters building, a bit unstable as he looked over thousands of cops standing in salute before him. He felt the stare of the generals and colonels behind as he spoke, his voice cracking.

Oscar Albayalde, the 22nd chief of the PNP, was stepping down. He still believed he was the victim of a conspiracy stirred by his foes, but he said he was still grateful. He thanked the President for the trust, and the public for their support.

“In my one year and 6 months as Chief PNP, I have served my country well,” he declared. – Rappler.com

TOP PHOTO: LAST ADDRESS. PNP chief Oscar Albayalde announces his resignation in a Camp Crame flag-raising ceremony on Monday, October 14. PNP photo.

MANILA, Philippines – The ball is in Francis Zamora’s court. 

He is finally the mayor of San Juan. He had slain allies-turned-enemies: the Estrada clan that had run the city for 50 years until 2019.

Zamora’s win was not only a victory against Janella Estrada, who had been eyed to extend the line of succession which her grandfather, former president Joseph Estrada, started in San Juan. Zamora’s win, he himself said, was a victory against how things used to be done in the city. He promised a “new San Juan,” to end the culture that did not hold leaders and government workers accountable. 

He believes the Estradas – the patriarch, then son Jinggoy, then other son JV, then JV's mother Guia – steered the city into stagnation. He says his victory last May proves that more San Juaneños see this now more than ever. 

But will this be his only legacy? What will the people of San Juan see in him?

The shadow of the Estradas

Undoing the impact of a 50-year dynasty cannot happen overnight, this much Zamora knows.  

San Juaneños had not known any other kind of leadership since 1969, when then 32-year-old Joseph Estrada became mayor. Since then no one has defeated the Estrada family in a mayoral race. The only other time a non-Estrada was at the helm of the city was in 2001, when former basketball star Philip Cezar served as acting mayor as Jinggoy faced plunder charges. 

After Erap and Jinggoy, the throne was passed on to the latter’s estranged half-brother JV Ejercito, whose mother Guia Gomez took over until she maxed out the 3-term limit by 2019.  

Jinggoy's daughter Janella, vice mayor to Gomez from 2016 to 2019, was supposed to continue the line, but she lost with only 24,813 votes to Zamora’s 35,060 – over 10,000 votes apart. This was a far cry from the tight race between Gomez and Zamora in 2016, which Zamora attempted to protest but eventually lost. 

Zamora believes the family’s own in-fighting caused their downfall. He said all of San Juan knows they had not been united for a while. During the May elections, there were San Juan residents who supported Janella for mayor and JV for Senate reelection but did not back Joseph Estrada's reelection as mayor of Manila and the bid of the disgraced, plunder-accused Jinggoy to return to the Senate. 

It could also be a case of a dynasty over-stretching: the Estradas could have overstayed their 50-year welcome, and people were looking for something new.

But after 100 days in office, Zamora said the reasons for the Estradas' downfall do not matter as much to him. What matters is the mess they left behind, and how he and his administration would clean it up.

“I had inklings already before, but before I didn't have access to documents. I only had limited authority then," Zamora said in a Rappler Talk interview. 

“But now I've been elected as mayor, I have a chance to correct wrongdoings, and to clean up the local government of San Juan. This is a very good opportunity to change San Juan. I believe that's the reason why people voted for me,” he added.

Getting to work

Zamora’s first order of business was to make governance in the city more transparent. 

He signed Executive Order (EO) No. 1 after uncovering documents showing questionable transactions done by the previous administration. With the EO, Zamora wants to institutionalize a pre-audit system in all transactions of city departments. He wants it to be “a reminder that all employees, job order or permanent, need to follow the rules set by the Civil Service Commission” so they can serve San Juaneños better. (READ: IN NUMBERS: Francis Zamora's first 100 days as San Juan mayor)

One example, he said, was the rental of the San Juan Gym. Zamora said that in his first 3 months, the city government had been able to collect rental fees amounting to P650,000. For the entirety of 2017 under the previous administration of Guia Gomez, however, they only apparently collected P200,000. 

Another thing he told Rappler and later on his constituents during his first State of the City Address about was the previous administration’s purchase of a P40-million spider excavator. “It's been used 0 times. It’s just parked here because it can't fit our waterways, and it can't be deployed to the creek and the river because there's no way to actually bring it down,” he said. They are still figuring out what to do with it, he said.

His administration is also facing a problem at San Juan Medical Center, the city’s public hospital. The previous administration left the hospital’s P500-million renovation project unfinished. It stands now at 60%, according to Zamora, but the contractor insists it is already 85% complete. Aside from the unfinished renovation, P137 million worth of unopened and untested medical equipment also sit in the hospital's storage area.  

He recently appointed an ex-military doctor to be the hospital’s medical director. He did this to “instill order and discipline” in the city’s healthcare delivery system. But he said they could only do so much until the renovation is done. "We don't have a full laboratory, we don't have a dialysis center, we don't have rehabilitation centers, our operating room is in bad shape," he lamented. 

He attributes the sorry state in which he inherited these things to complacency. “Probably they got used to the old system, and now that we've come, I really want them to realize that things will not be the same as before, that we'll run San Juan transparently,” he said. 

He shared that a number of department heads have resigned, including two from the income-generating ones that left behind nearly P1 billion in debt and  P736 million worth of undercollected business taxes when Gomez's term ended. 

He said many heads had been resigning from July until September, but did not say how many. “Those who have resigned and will still be resigning, they're free to go,” he said. “What I really try to instil is the fact that we are here to serve the people, regardless of political affiliation.”

Zamora had a problem with political affiliations – particularly in the city council – on his first week in office. 

Eight of the city’s 12 councilors did not show up to a special session called by Zamora on July 16. He had called for it to discuss his authority to sign the checks for the salary of city hall employees and the chairmanship of the appropriations committee.

The 8 councilors, known Estrada allies who had dubbed themselves the #Strong8, later told reporters they could not stomach how Zamora wanted to meddle with the city legislature. They promised to be a fair majority opposition and called on the new mayor to respect the separation of powers.

Months later, Zamora has the majority in the council. But it took a lot of meetings in and beyond Vice Mayor Warren Villa’s office for 3 of the 8 to finally join the captain’s team.

Villa, Zamora’s running mate and friend since the new mayor’s city council days, told Rappler he had been playing the role of mediator for the past 100 days, organizing dinners and sit-downs between opposition councilors and the mayor’s team to make sure their goals are aligned.

He said the day after the #Strong8’s non-appearance at the special session, he immediately received text messages from some of them, apologizing. “Tinanong ko sila, 'Tutulungan ba kayo ng nag-utos sa inyong mag-walk out?” Villa said, hinting at the remnants of Estrada influence in the city council. (I asked them, "Will that camp who ordered you to walk out help you now?")

“The following day, may nag-sorry. Tapos 3 na silang lumipat (The next day, some said sorry. Then 3 of them came over to our side),” Villa said. They had flipped the council, giving Zamora the majority of 9 to the opposition's 5. 

The opposition councilors do not attend Monday flag-raising ceremonies at the city hall atrium, Villa said. They also did not attend sessions during the city council's training on executive-legislative agenda from September 23 to 26 in Baguio City. Villa said these were whims of local politics. "Maaga pa lang, nakikipagsabong na sila sa mayor," Villa said. (It's too early in the term for them to be butting heads with the mayor.)

Still, as he sees his role as a mediator, he is hoping for better relations with the #Strong8-turned-minority going forward. They might have the votes, Villa said, but the council needs to be on the same page if they are to serve the people.

At 41, Zamora was hailed as one of 2019’s new, young mayors, toppling dynasties in the wake of their victories. He stands alongside Manila’s Isko Moreno, who dethroned former president Estrada as mayor of Manila, and Vico Sotto, who ended the almost-3decade reign of the Eusebios in Pasig City.

But Zamora is not the only one who carries the surname in San Juan politics. There is his father, longtime congressman Ronaldo Zamora. The elder Zamora has been in politics since 1978. He’s a longtime legislator in the lower house, once  amember of Marcos’s Kilusang Bagong Lipunan, executive secretary to former ally Erap when the latter was president. 

Asked how he can assure that there will be no Zamora dynasty in San Juan, the new mayor said: “[After this term, my dad] will definitely retire, so I will just be alone. Hopefully, I will be entering my second term and, hopefully, a third term. But my dad will also be retiring.”

It was the elder Zamora who gave Francis the blessing to seek an elected post in the city in 2007. He is in almost every tarpaulin of groundbreaking ceremonies, seminars, job fairs, that Francis is in. How will Francis set himself apart? 

According to Maria Ela Atienza of the University of the Philippines Diliman Political Science Department, Zamora embodies a kind of political persona that banks on his youth and his being educated to appeal to constituents.  

“He appears like a learned leader. With his educational background, he’s able to present a more modern kind of thinking,” she said.  

After his career in basketball and his stints in business, Zamora took up a Masters for Public Administration at the National College of Public Administration and Governance in UP, already gearing up for a run for public office. 

Atienza also said Zamora also appears in touch with the sentiments of the people. 

During his first 100 days, Zamora focused not only on President Rodrigo Duterte's order to clear roads, but also on promising better healthcare and afforable housing to the city's poorest. 

His administration is pursuing public-private partnerships to improve the state of the city's public hospital. While he has no deadline for the hospital's full rehabilitation, he said the city government has made agreements with private hospitals to cater to San Jueneños seeking medical help. 

He is also proud of what he has dubbed as San Juan's own "condo for the poor." A 1,850-square meter lot owned by the city government and located in Barangay St Joseph will be used for a 22-floor high-rise public housing – the first of its kind in the country. Zamora said it would have 396 units, each with an average size of 29 square meters. The building will also have a multi-purpose hall and 10 commercial space units.

Units will be rent-to-own, said Zamora, who promised reasonable amortization for prospective residents. Ideally, they would own the property in 25 years. 

Atienza said Zamora would need to balance projects and policies like these and "convincing San Juaneños who are less poor" to buy into his governance. Though the smallest city in Metro Manila, San Juan is a first class city and business hub. 

"San Juan is a city, but it does have remnants of a small town [given its population and geographic size]," Atienza said. "Zamora will need to capitalize on that."  

– Rappler.com

TOP PHOTO: NEW CAPTAIN. Francis Zamora takes on the role of San Juan's chief executive, the city's new captain after 50 years. Photo from the San Juan City Mayor's Office

Claim: Nobody was poor during Martial Law and the "real poverty" happened during the Aquinos' terms.

Facebook page Blessed Be Philippines posted this claim on September 21, using a photo of Ferdinand Marcos and Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III. It showed the two former presidents side by side with the following text: "Walang Pilipinong naghirap noong panahon ng Batas Militar o Martial Law." (No Filipino suffered during Martial Law.)

At the bottom, another statement read: "Ang tunay na kahirapan naranasan noong panahon [ng] mga Aquino." (Real poverty was experienced during the Aquinos' terms.)

The post has gotten over 1,100 shares, 1,600 reactions, and 163 comments as of writing. A reader emailed the post to Rappler for fact checking.

Rating: FALSE

The facts: The earliest official poverty data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) is for 1985, or the year before the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos was ousted. It shows that poverty incidence in families that year was at 44.2% – 4.3 percentage points higher than in 1991, when Corazon Aquino was the president.

By 2015, during Noynoy Aquino's term, poverty incidence in families only stood at 16.5%.

The PSA tracks poverty data every 3 years.

The PSA uses the official poverty line set in 1993 by the National Economic and Development Authority for the years 1985 onwards. Before this, they used the poverty line set by the National Statistical Coordination Board in 1993, adjusted for inflation, for the years 1961 to 1971.

While these two series are not comparable, they still show that poverty was high under Marcos. A World Bank report in 1995 shows that poverty incidence was already high before Marcos came into power, but it barely changed during the first half of his term where more than half of the population was considered poor. 

Underemployment, which contributes to poverty, also spiked during Martial Law and the rest of Marcos' term, contrary to Blessed Be Philippines' post. This indicates that the work conditions in the country deteriorated more under the Marcos government compared to the Aquinos'.

Underemployment is when people have work, but want additional working hours or an additional job for better pay. Though underemployment in the country was low during the early years of the Marcos administration, it hit the highest level in Philippine history towards the end of his term.

"From the perspective of poverty, underemployment is a bigger problem than unemployment. The underemployed face the highest risk of poverty. The visibly underemployed (those who work part-time) are the most vulnerable to poverty. They are twice as likely to be poor as the fully employed," the World Bank wrote in a 2016 report.

This is not the first time Rappler has fact-checked Blessed Be Philippines. In November 2018, the page also posted a false claim comparing the national debt of the Philippines under the Arroyo, Noynoy Aquino, and Duterte administrations. – Pauline Macaraeg/Rappler.com

Keep us aware of suspicious Facebook pages, groups, accounts, websites, articles, or photos in your network by contacting us at factcheck@rappler.com. Let us battle disinformation one Fact Check at a time.

CEBU CITY, Philippines – Brigadier General Debold Sinas took the helm of the police force of the country’s biggest metropolitan area on Wednesday, October 16. (READ: Central Visayas top cop Debold Sinas is next Metro Manila police chief)


While even Sinas will admit that heading the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) will be a new challenge for him, it’s not his first time to oversee the police force of a big metropolitan area.



Sinas has been police director of the Central Visayas’ regional office (PRO-7) in Cebu City since July 2018, or a little bit over a year. 
The PRO-7 is responsible for securing over 7 million people across the provinces of Cebu, Bohol, Negros Oriental, and Siquijor.

When the regional director gave his last press conference to reporters in Cebu City, he said he would not change much with the way outgoing Metro Manila Police Director Guillermo Eleazar – his Philippine Military Academy classmate – is doing things in Metro Manila, but acknowledged he would have to adjust to the challenges of overseeing safety and security in the national capital region. (READ: Metro Manila's next top cop sees diversity, big population as challenges)

From Mindanao



The outgoing Central Visayas police chief is a native of Butuan City and speaks a Mindanao variant of Cebuano, which often mixes a few Tagalog words and phrases in the middle of sentences.

He said one thing he likes about Cebu is that everyone speaks Cebuano. He said last week that moving to the capital means adjusting to the diverse languages to be able to engage the communities more effectively.

But this is also not Sinas’ first time being based in Manila.

His family is also lives in Manila. They were staying together when he was working in the Philippine National Police Headquarters’ Camp Crame. Before he was regional director of Central Visayas, he was the crime lab director and secretary for directorial staff in Crame.


PMA classmate of Eleazar



Sinas is a batchmate at the Philippine Military Academy of the outgoing NCRPO chief Eleazar. They both graduated from the Hinirang Class of 1987.


He told SunStar Cebu in an interview that he joined the academy due to pressure from his father – he was warned that if he did not get in, he would not be accepted back home.


He said that he would implement all existing policies left by his classmate if they are effective. “I won’t invent anything,” Sinas said in Cebuano during his press conference last week.

He also said he would do his best to solicit the help of the city directors and police staff in Metro Manila to continue the campaign against illegal drugs. 


“Hopefully, I could live up to expectations of my classmate Eleazar,” Sinas said. “Hopefully mapantayan nako (I can match it),” he said.

Escalation of violence in the region


During Sinas' tenure, the war on drugs intensified, while violence escalated in the Central Visayas. At least P1.2-billion worth of shabu was confiscated under his supervision over the course of one year of anti-drug operations. 



He sees his new job as Metro Manila's top cop as a continuation of his work in the Central Visayas. Sinas noted that nearly all sources of drugs in the region come from Manila. His goal in his new post is to stop the flow of drugs from Metro Manila to the provinces when he becomes chief.

The Commission on Human Rights noted in February that the number of unsolved killings, where hundreds of victims were linked to the drug trade, increased during Sinas' watch. In February, the CHR said the Central Visayas had the 4th highest number of drug-linked killings in the country. (READ: Killings in Cebu rise as mayor, cops feud)

Aside from Cebu, Negros Oriental saw increased violence during the same time period. 


In July, 21 people were killed in Negros Oriental alone. This number includes the 4 police officers who were ambushed in Ayungon town. Many of the killings were linked to communist rebels by local police.

It was also during this time that Sinas intensified the province's anti-communist campaign, leading a task force to capture communist rebels in strongholds across Negros Oriental. (READ: TImeline: Killings in Negros)

Last August, Sinas appeared at a Senate hearing to explain why killings were increasing on the island. The panel demanded a probe into a vigilante group that was circulating a hit list where 5 of the 15 people on the list had already been killed, including lawyer Anthony Trinidad. (READ: Lawyer killed in Negros Oriental ambush)  

Individuals on the  hit list were targeted for allegedly being members or supporters of the communist insurgency.

LOOK: Alleged kill list in Negros used by alleged anti-communist group Kagubak. | via @ramboreportspic.twitter.com/FEUzTvIHrs

— Rappler (@rapplerdotcom) August 27, 2019

Clash with ex-Cebu city mayor Osmeña

While then-mayor Tomas Osmeña was supportive of the drug war at the beginning of his term in 2016, offering rewards to police who helped capture or kill drug suspects, he openly clashed with the police leadership when his choice for city director was not honored. 



Mayors usually have prerogative over their choice of police chiefs and only get denied their picks in rare instances. (READ: Cebu City mayor stripped of supervision powers over police)

Known as a tough-talking mayor who used to draw comparisons to President Rodrigo Duterte, this was the first time in Osmeña’s political career that he did not enjoy the cooperation of his own police. (READ: Cebu City: Mayor Osmeña, who 'inspired' vigilante killings, is back)  

He spoke out against former Cebu City police director Royina Garma on multiple occasions, accusing her and Sinas of being behind the rise in killings. 

Garma served as chief from June 2018 to July 2019 before she was appointed Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) general manager.

During the midterm elections, Osmeña accused Garma and Sinas of using the police to intimidate his allied barangay captains, councilors, and other residents.

 A checkpoint was also set up outside Osmeña’s house for several days prior to the election. (READ: Osmeña, police clash anew: Why a checkpoint outside Cebu mayor’s house?)

Both Sinas and Garma denied accusations of using the police against political candidates on multiple occasions.

Osmeña again publicly accused the police of being behind the killing of ex-police officer Deflin Bontuyan on May 22. Bontuyan was the father of a Sangguniang Kabataan councilor aligned with Osmeña. 
(READ: Police officer, two others killed in separate incidents in Cebu in 24 hours)

Sinas warned Osmeña then to refrain from publicly accusing police of wrongdoing.


Local reporters over national media


Sinas would hold press conferences regularly and communicate with the local press through chat groups and would interact with reporters there directly. 

“I prefer having my own press corps than a PR man,” he said.


While he was accessible to reporters for most of his tenure, he said he preferred to speak to the local press over national media.

“I don’t go to national, I have the local media. We have time for press cons,” he said.

He would sometimes get calls from the national media for requests for individual, sit-down interviews, but said he would rather address all questions during the daily press conferences. He said it saves him time. – Rappler.com



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MANILA, Philippines – Bumaba sa puwesto si Philippine National Police (PNP) chief General Oscar Albayalde sa kalagitnaan ng kontrobersiya tungkol sa ninja cops.

Ang mga ninja cops di umano ay mga pulis na sangkot sa ilegal na droga. Ang isyung ito ang naging focus sa sunud-sunod na hearings sa good conduct time allowance (GCTA) law at kontrobersiya sa ilalim ng Bureau of Corrections. 

Sa podcast na ito, pag-uusapan nila researcher-writer Jodesz Gavilan, police reporter na si Rambo Talabong, at Senate reporter Aika Rey ang isyu ng ninja cops, ang mga alegasyon laban kay Albayalde, at ang implikasyon nito sa kampanya ni President Rodrigo Duterte laban sa ilegal na droga.

Ang Newsbreak: Beyond the Stories ay isang podcast series ng Rappler tungkol sa mahahalaga at malalaking isyu sa Pilipinas. – Rappler.com

Pakinggan ang iba pang episodes ng Newsbreak: Beyond the Stories.

• Dapat bang gawing ilegal ang pagiging komunista? 
• Inciting to sedition sa ilalim ni Duterte
• May silbi ba ang diplomatic protest laban sa China?
• Ang batas na puwedeng magpalaya sa rapist-murderer na si Antonio Sanchez
• Makakalusot ba si Ronald Cardema ng Duterte Youth sa Kongreso?
• Impunity in the West Philippine Sea
• Sino si Bikoy at dapat ba siyang paniwalaan?
• Bakit mahalagang mailabas ang Tokhang documents?
• Ang doble-plaka law bilang panakip butas sa mga patayan
• Ang alas ni Eduardo Acierto laban kay Michael Yang
• Ano ang dapat mong malaman tungkol sa Metro Manila water crisis?
• Ang pagkalas ni Duterte at Pilipinas sa Int'l Criminal Court

MANILA, Philippines – “Taghai, bolan, songhot, adlo, abaca, sabun, ayam, ido, balay, boloto,” reads Filipino historian Ian Alfonso.

(Cup, star, moon, sun, cloth material, shirt, dog, house, small boat.)

These ancient Bisaya words leap from a digital copy of a 16th century French manuscript – one version of the account of a Venetian named Antonio Pigafetta, the first Westerner to document the Bisaya language.

Alfonso goes through this dictionary of sorts, rendered in flowery font by a scribe for the reading pleasure of European royals wanting to learn more about distant islands.

Alfonso uses laptop keys to turn the pages, as his boss, Philippine national historian Rene Escalante, looks on.

A few keyboard taps later, pages of words give way to pages of paintings. Grey islands pop from a blue backdrop of wave-flecked sea. White banners proclaim them to be depictions of “Mattan,” “Zubu,” “Bohol,” “Zuluan,” “Humunu,” and “Pulawan.”

They are known today as Mactan, Cebu, Bohol, Guiuan, Homonhon, and Palawan.

“We’re almost at the first encounter,” says Alfonso excitedly, as he uses his laptop to arrive at the page where Portugese explorer Ferdinand Magellan and his crew catch their first glimpse of the Philippine islands and are about to meet their first “natives” in Guiuan, Eastern Samar.

A year ago, Alfonso would have had to travel to the United States or Europe to view Pigafetta’s manuscript in high resolution, and likely be asked to pay a fee. 

But he is viewing them in Manila, inside the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) library beside Rizal Park.

This access can now be enjoyed by any Filipino for the first time because the NHCP has finally brought home high-resolution digital copies of all 4 Pigafetta extant manuscripts.

Antonio Pigafetta was a young Venetian, likely in his 20s when he arrived in the Philippines as part of Magellan’s crew on March 17, 1521.

The geographer and scribe of the group, he recorded not only names of places and the vocabulary of the natives, but their food, attire, customs, and traditions, too. He described historical events like the first Easter Day Mass celebrated in the Philippines and the battle of Mactan, where Magellan was killed by Lapulapu’s men.

Pigafetta’s eyewitness account is the “most detailed and only surviving account” of this critical event in Philippine history, says Escalante, who chairs the NHCP.

Pigafetta wrote all his observations in a journal, now lost. But based on this original journal, 4 manuscripts were produced – 3 in French and one in Italian. They were distributed to European royals interested in financing their own expeditions to the Spice Islands.

These 4 manuscripts have survived. The originals are in libraries in the United States, France, and Italy.

Their pages are a treasure trove of knowledge about the Philippines’ mysterious precolonial past – when chieftains ruled independent fiefdoms, animals and plants were sacred, and Western civilization was hazier than myth.

Collecting the manuscripts

Like Pigafetta himself, Escalante has had to reach out to different parts of the world to bring home the high-resolution digital copies of all 4 manuscripts.

While in New York City for negotiations on the return of the Balangiga Bells, he decided to take a drive to Yale University, only 3 hours away, where one French manuscript is kept.

After paying roughly P20,000 and promising to abide by conditions like not using the document for commercial purposes, Escalante secured a high-resolution digital file of Pigafetta’s account for the Philippine government.

He would later on write to two other institutes – the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris and Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan – which possess the remaining 3 chronicles.

The Ambrosiana manuscript, the longest of the 4, was the priciest, costing the government P100,000. The two manuscripts in Paris were obtained for only some P5,000 after the library gave NHCP an 80% discount.

In total, the government spent P125,000 for the manuscripts.

The government’s expense is the Filipinos’ gain. With all 4 digital copies now with the NHCP, any interested citizen can troop to the commission’s office in Rizal Park and request to view Pigafetta’s accounts, free of charge.

A request can be made with an email to nhcp.chair@gmail.com indicating the name of the requestor and the purpose of the request.

With this kind of access, anyone can be a historian.

“In history, there is still this passion for primary sources. If you really want to be a credible historian, you should not be [content] with translations and secondary accounts,” said Escalante.

Bringing home the Pigafetta manuscripts is one way to promote the study of history, especially that chapter in the Philippines’ shrouded in mystery.

As one explores further and further into the past, the number of materials about the time period diminishes. The only artifacts in our own backyard that have shed light on precolonial Philippines are jars, human remains, and epics preserved by oral history.

That’s why written accounts by foreigners who visited the Philippines in that epoch are valuable, and the Pigafetta manuscripts all the more so, for their level of detail and the historic events they describe.

For instance, Pigafetta narrates that the first Easter Day Mass was celebrated in the Philippines in a place called Limasawa. Despite a law in the 1960s declaring that this happened in Limasawa Island, Southern Leyte, there remain adherents to the theory that the site was Butuan, in a swampy area that had been called Mazaua.

Pigafetta also relates the planting of a cross in a mountain in Limasawa, and days later, in Cebu, the bequeathal of a statue of the baby Jesus to Juana, wife of Bisaya ruler Raja Humabon.

The climax of Pigafetta’s account is Magellan’s death in the Battle of Mactan. Reading his chronicle would challenge what most Filipinos know about that historic event.

Pigafetta wrote that Magellan was killed, not necessarily by Mactan ruler Lapulapu himself, but by a swarm of his men. After a blow to his leg at the height of the battle, Magellan fell face down in the water where he was besieged by Lapulapu’s men.

“Immediately they rushed upon him with iron and bamboo spears and with their cutlasses, until they killed our mirror, our light, our comfort, and our true guide,” wrote Pigafetta.

To be consistent with this narration of events, the government has begun efforts to replace the current Lapulapu statue in Mactan with a “liberty shrine” that more accurately depicts the collective effort that led to Magellan’s death.

It is from Pigafetta’s account that we learn Magellan’s death may have been due to his own folly because he had refused the help of a rival Cebu chieftain, Zula, against Lapulapu. 

Magellan asked Zula and his men to stand back and watch the battle, confident that the Europeans outmatched Lapulapu’s army. The mistake cost him his life.

Apart from historical events, Pigafetta jotted down his observations about even the mundane details of the lives of early Filipinos.

He devotes paragraphs to describing Filipinos’ many uses of the coconut – a source of liquor (“uraca”), oil, vinegar, bread, and milk. He enthuses about how Butuan was full of gold “the size of walnuts and eggs” and how its king, Rajah Colambo, was the “finest looking man” they saw.

There are descriptions of the food served to them (roast pork, roast fish, ginger, bananas), attire, drinking ceremonies, burial rituals. Pigafetta speaks of the islanders’ habit of chewing a fruit called “areca” with betel leaves because of its “cooling effect.” 

For Escalante, returning to Pigafetta’s manuscripts allows Filipinos to learn about a part of Philippine history “unadulterated” by colonialism. It would challenge the misconception of some that Filipinos, before colonization, were savages. 

“We can tell them that we have already a respectable degree of ciivlization, we have forms of government, we have customs and traditions, we have appreciation of art, we are practicing also basic agriculture. We have developed the technology of boat-making and then land-navigating and seas,” said Escalante.

But the value of the manuscripts lies not only in Pigafetta’s words, but also in their other visual elements. Not your modern-day drab, typed-up report, the chronicles are painstakingly handwritten and come with colorful paintings.

Scholars of calligraphy, cartography, drawing techniques, and early forms of languages would also have much to mine from the pages, especially in their high-resolution renderings.

Hike for history

One hot April day, Francis “Chas” Navarro found himself huffing and puffing up a hill in Limasawa, Southern Leyte with fellow historians.

Navarro, a history professor with Ateneo de Manila University was with church historians Father Tony de Castro, Victor Torres, and Brother Madz Tumbali; Rolando Borrinaga of University of the Philippines Tacloban, and Carlos Madrid, former head of Instituto Cervantes, an organization that teaches Spanish language and culture.

Their young guides said it would take only 15 minutes until the peak, but they didn’t consider how the steep assault would force Navarro and his companions to stop for rests and gulps of water.

They almost gave up.

Their hike up Limasawa was not for an adrenaline rush but to settle a historical debate – if the first Easter Day Mass was held in Limasawa, Southern Leyte or in Butuan.

In Pigafetta’s account, Magellan and his crew scaled a hill in the place where they would later on hold the Mass to see the entire island and its surroundings. This is apart from their other hike to plant a cross after celebrating the Easter Day Mass for the newly-baptized islanders.

Was it this hill the explorers climbed, thus proving Limasawa – and not Mazaua in Butuan – was the site of the Mass?

Navarro and his companions, sweaty and out of breath, found the answer at the peak as they looked out into the seascape. 

“It was at that particular point that when they were up there, they saw 3 peaks. That would be the peaks of the mountains of Samar, Leyte, and another province, and it was verified that it could be seen at the peak of Limasawa,” said Navarro.

Madrid would later on climb a hill near the supposed location of Mazaua, the place in Butuan which some believe to be where the first Easter Day Mass was really held.

But Madrid did not see 3 peaks, which led him to conclude it was not the right place.

Navarro is part of a group of historians tapped by the NHCP to settle disputes on the March 31, 1521 Easter Sunday Mass celebration using the Pigafetta manuscripts and other primary sources. 

Because of his expertise in the transcription of historical documents, Navarro was specifically tasked with the transcription and translation of the portion of the Pigafetta manuscripts that deal with the Philippine leg of the Magellan-Elcano expedition.

Navarro, who specializes in Spanish documents, asked the University of the Philippines’ Jillian Melchor and fellow Ateneo academic Robert Yu to translate the Italian and French manuscripts, respectively.

He himself focused on the accounts of Gines de Mafra and Francisco Albo, the other crew members who kept a diary or logbook of the expedition, among other relevant documents.

The Philippine portion comprises only 25% of Pigafetta’s account of the entire Magellan-Elcano expedition but transcribing and translating this is painstaking work. Transcribing is turning the characters of historical writings into Roman letters. Translation is when these writings are made understandable in another language, like English. 

Months of transcriptions and translations, trips to different parts of the country, and dialogues with various historians championioning their own theories have borne fruit.

An effort that began in January will soon culminate in a final report the panel of historians is now finishing. Escalante said the findings would be contained in a two-volume book to be released in 2021 in time for the commemoration of the 500th-year anniversary of Magellan’s arrival in the Philippines.

It was the 2019 to 2022 quincentennial celebration of the Magellan-Elcano expedition or the First Circumnavigation of the World that catalyzed NHCP’s efforts to bring home the Pigafetta manuscripts.

In past years, the government had been more focused on commemorating events that took place during the colonial era, like the birth anniversaries of national figures like Jose Rizal, Andres Bonifacio, and Emilio Aguinaldo.

The quincentennial of Magellan’s journey gave NHCP the perfect opportunity to collect materials about that little-known time in the country’s past when ancient Filipinos answered to no foreign master.

The Pigafetta manuscripts are just the beginning of a long journey. The NHCP is looking for more sources of primary accounts of ancient Philippines from other countries, including its Asian neighbors. 

They’ve reached out to Japanese, Chinese, Malaysian, Indonesian, Turkish, and Indian officials. NHCP historians have flown twice to Malaysia to follow up on some sources. 

They’ve secured digital files of the richly-illustrated, 300-page Boxer Codex for a mere P5,000.

Some P10 million in public funds have been earmarked for the retrieval of such historical materials, said Escalante. 

These documents would again have to be transcribed, translated, analyzed, and discussed extensively.

It’s work reserved for both the Philippines’ experienced and budding historians, who together, can weave an ancient world from centuries-old ink. – Rappler.com

Claim: A quote attributed to former Singapore prime minister Lee Kuan Yew says, "The Philippines' version of democracy as of late is best called a government by stupid people, of stupid people."

The quote can be found on the website makingitfuninthephilippines.blogspot.com, which posted a blog entry dated July 21, 2015 with a title that read, “The Filipino people need more discipline, not more democracy.”

Part of the blog includes a photo of Lee Kuan Yew combined with text about the problem with Philippine democracy.

Rappler found this claim through the tool CrowdTangle, where it had a total of 8,000 interactions on Facebook. It was reshared to Facebook by hyper-partisan pages such as We Support PDu30 Administration and We Support Bongbong Marcos, Marcos Loyalist, and DDS for Life. 

Rating: FALSE

The facts: Lee Kuan Yew never said those words. The quote was the opinion of the blog author and was falsely attributed to Singapore's former prime minister.

In the latter portion of the blog, the author said the same quote without citing Lee. 

The title of the blog, however, references the speech delivered by Lee during the Philippine Business Conference on November 18, 1992. The following is an excerpt from his speech based on the records of the National Archives of Singapore: 

"Contrary to what American political commentators say, I do not believe that democracy necessarily leads to development. I believe that what a country needs to develop is discipline more than democracy." 

Besides this part, Singapore's founding father did not mention anything about the poor state of democracy in the country as a consequence of having "a stupid government and a stupid people."

The image used in the claim originated from Getty images with its watermark removed and replaced with the name "VincentMarcus." The photo was taken by Bloomberg photojournalist Jonathan Drake. 

The website makingitfuninthephilippines.blogspot.com described itself as "Just another blog ranting with facts and opinions concerning the Philippines' welfare." Its author uses the pen name Sean Akizuki. – Glenda Marie Castro/Rappler.com

Keep us aware of suspicious Facebook pages, groups, accounts, websites, articles, or photos in your network by contacting us at factcheck@rappler.com. Let us battle disinformation one Fact Check at a time.

Claim: No other former Philippine president after Ferdinand Marcos developed and built mass transit projects in the country, according to Facebook page Sangkay Janjan TV.

The page posted a screenshot of an article about Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo, saying the country’s public transportation problems stemmed from previous administrations.

In his caption, Sangkay Janjan TV agreed with Panelo’s statement and said that except for Marcos, who was ousted in 1986, no other former Philippine president after him built mass transit projects that could have avoided the traffic congestion problems in the country today.

Sangkay Janjan TV shared the post on October 10, 2019 and got over 1,400 shares, 2,100 reactions, and 505 comments as of writing. Rappler spotted the post via social media monitoring tool CrowdTangle.

Rating: FALSE

The facts: It is not true that only the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos built projects for the country’s mass transit system. Despite the current state of Metro Manila’s public transport system, several other presidents after him developed public transportation projects that are used by Filipinos today.

Mass transit is defined as the transportation of large numbers of people, especially within urban areas. This includes not only trains but also buses, subways, and other modes of public transportation.

Currently, Metro Manila has 3 functioning train systems: Metro Rail Transit System (MRT Line 3), Manila Light Rail Transit System (LRT), and the Philippine National Railways (PNR).

The LRT Line 1 was opened in 1984 and was indeed a project of Marcos. However, LRT Line 2 and MRT Line 3 were developed after the late dictator was ousted. Meanwhile, the PNR already existed way back in 1891, before the Marcos administration.

The MRT Line 3 started construction in 1997 during Fidel Ramos’ term after the Metro Rail Transit Corp (MRTC) signed an amended turnkey contract. It officially opened in December 1999, during Joseph Estrada’s term.

The LRT Line 2 also started construction during Ramos' term in 1997. It officially opened in 2003, under the administration of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Arroyo also initiated the Strong Republic Transit System in 2003, which integrated these existing railways for a more seamless commute.

Further, premium point-to-point (P2P) buses were introduced in 2015 during former president Benigno Aquino III’s term. These are non-stop buses found in 56 stations to date, spread from Pampanga to Laguna.

As of 2019, there are also at least 6 new railways to look out for under the Duterte administration.

This is not the first time Rappler has fact checked Sangkay Janjan TV. In August, the Facebook page made a false claim that retired army general Jovito Palparan was innocent over the abduction of two missing students of the University of the Philippines. – Pauline Macaraeg/Rappler.com

Keep us aware of suspicious Facebook pages, groups, accounts, websites, articles, or photos in your network by contacting us at factcheck@rappler.com. Let us battle disinformation one Fact Check at a time.

Salvador Panelo not only speaks for the President. He apparently sings too.

The presidential spokesperson was invited to the Asia Leaders Forum to give stakeholders an update on the administration’s infrastructure programs. 

The briefing took an odd turn when it started with Panelo singing Sharon Cuneta’s “Sana’y Wala Nang Wakas,” much to the amusement of the media, urban planners, and real estate executives.

Business forums are usually very formal. Panelo's song number was a clear departure from the norm.

The business executives, consisting of some chief executive officers and company owners, quickly raised their phones to record his surprise number.

Meanwhile, foreign journalists who were at the event found Panelo's performance amusing.

"This is the first time we heard a government official sing," one of them said.

Some bloggers were impressed that he was able to hit the right notes.

Panelo then went on to read some rollout updates of crucial infrastructure and railway projects. 

He then admitted that Public Works Secretary Mark Villar, who was not invited to the press conference, was better suited to answer questions.

Panelo also took a swipe at former president Benigno Aquino III for underspending and supposedly not having major infrastructure projects during his term.

After the brief press briefing, the program emcee announced that Panelo would sing two more songs due to public request. Some couldn't hide their puzzlement about who actually made the request.

His second song was Dean Martin’s “From the Bottom of My Heart.” A song released in 1962, this millennial reporter had to listen carefully and Google the title using the lyrics.

Panelo then rendered an original ballad and said it was for the brokenhearted in the audience.

"Take my hand, be my girl, and we'll live forever. I'll touch your hand, kiss your lips, they are my forever," he sang, while holding the hand of one of the female business leaders.

Had he joined the singing competition, The Voice Philippines, would Panelo have compelled judges to turn their chairs around? – Rappler.com