ellen tordesillas – Page 25 – Making life worth living.

An interesting profile of a troll

Published by Ellen on February 18, 2018

Cover image of the study “Architects of Networked Disinformation-Behind the Scenes of Troll Accounts and Fake News Production in the Philippines,

In the session on the study “Architects of Networked Disinformation: Behind the Scenes of Troll Accounts and Fake News Production in the Philippines,” by scholars Jonathan C. Ong and Jason Vincent A.Cabañes, during the Democracy and Disinformation Conference last Feb. 13, writer Marian Pastor Roces made special mention of the part about the profile of an anonymous influencer who was a transgender.

The transgender influencer went by the name Georgina, 28 and a digital marketer with a computer engineering degree from one of the leading national universities.

Tension in Taiwan Strait

Published by Ellen on February 18, 2018

It’s not only in the disputed waters of South China Sea that China is flexing its muscle. It is also making troubling moves in Taiwan Strait.

But the big difference is, while the Philippine leadership acquiesces with nary a whimper amid China’s militarization of the seven reefs it had transformed into artificial islands in the disputed waters of Spratlys, Taiwan is protesting what it says is China’s violation of a 2015 agreement not to use the flight route that divides them.

A statement from the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in the Philippines states: “On Jan. 4, Taiwan government protested mainland China’s unilateral launch the northbound M503 flight route in the Taiwan Strait and the W121, W122, and W123 east-west extension routes.

Ombudsman: Probe vs Duterte can be refiled

Published by Ellen on February 16, 2018

Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales. From Ombudsman’s FB page

Read carefully the reply of the Office of the Ombudsman to the announcement of Solicitor General Jose Calida Tuesday that the investigation on the plunder case filed by Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV has been terminated.

The letter sliced through Calida’s mediocrity while assuring the public that Malacañang has not succeeded in quashing the issue of President Duterte’s undeclared wealth.

The plunder case has not been dismissed. This is important. What Overall Deputy Ombudsman Melchor Arthur Carandang said in his Feb. 12 letter to Calida was “the investigation on the complaint entitled ‘Antonio F. Trillanes IV v Rodrigo Roa Duterte’ and docketed as FF-M-16-0161 was already closed and terminated” upon recommendation by Deputy Ombudsman Cyril E. Ramos on 29 November 2017.”

“By rule, ‘[a] closed and terminated field investigation is without prejudice to the refiling of a complaint with new or additional evidence,’” the Ombudsman said.

SIM registration- risks outweigh benefits: FMA

Published by Ellen on February 7, 2018

I had always batted for registration of cellphone SIM (subscriber identity module) to get rid of mobile phone scammers and bullies.

My belief has been challenged by the briefing paper of the Foundation for Media Alternatives (FMA)(Briefing Paper – SIM Card Registration – FINAL(1)) which states that based on their studies of actual experiences of other countries where SIM is registered, the risks outweighs the perceived benefits.

Duterte’s ‘garbage’ continues to stink

Published by Ellen on February 6, 2018

Pres. Duterte, speaks at the 2017 Anti-Corruption Summit 2017. Malacañang photo by Ruji Abat.

When then presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte dismissed as “garbage” the exposé of Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV during last two weeks of the election campaign about his bank deposits with the Bank of Philippine Islands, Julia Vargas branch, he thought probably that was the end of it.

Duterte was leading the surveys in the contest that he eventually won convincingly.

With the powers of the presidency, Duterte has been effective in crushing most of political his enemies. His devoted mob has been successful in spreading chaos in cyberspace.

But as one sage said, “Truth is always like oil in water; no matter how much of water you add, it always floats on top.”

If AMLAC didn’t send Ombudsman bank documents, what did Carandang leak?

Published by Ellen on January 31, 2018

There is something that defies common sense in the suspension by Malacanang of Overall Deputy Ombudsman Melchor Arthur Carandang for supposedly leaking to media confidential and alleged false information on President Rodrigo Duterte’s bank accounts September last year.

The “leak” was an interview of Carandang by reporters checking on the progress of the plunder case filed by Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV with the Office of the Ombudsman in May 2016.

Trillanes attached a bunch of bank documents showing deposits of Pres. Duterte and daughter Sara Duterte-Carpio, Davao City mayor, in BPI and other banks in hundreds of millions, much, much more than the amount disclosed by the two in their Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Networth when they were Davao City mayor and vice mayor respectively.

What’s going on in Benham Rise?

Published by Ellen on January 28, 2018

The decision of the Duterte government to allow Chinese scientists to do research in Benham Rise, renamed Philippine Rise, a 13-million-hectare undersea region off the provinces of Isabela and Aurora has generated heated discussions layered with patriotism, nationalism, ignorance, sinophobia – all combined.

In 2009, the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) declared that Benham Rise is part of the Philippine’s extended continental shelf (350 nautical miles from the shores).

UNCLOS’s declaration gave the Philippines sovereign rights over the area but not sovereignty – the supreme right of the state to command obedience within the area.

As explained by Senior Associate Justice Antonio T. Carpio, the Philippine’s sovereign rights over Benham Rise includes “to explore and exploit the oil, gas and other mineral resources in Benham Rise, and even the sedentary species (e.g., abalone, clams and oysters.”

Carpio also said, “Other states, like China, have the right to conduct in Benham Rise (1) fishery research because the fish in the ECS belongs to mankind; (2) surveys on water salinity and water currents because the water column in the ECS belongs to mankind; and (3) depth soundings for navigational purposes because there is freedom of navigation in the ECS. If the Chinese vessels were looking for submarine passages and parking spaces, that would be part of freedom of navigation and the Philippines has no reason to complain.”

Amid the controversy, the University of the Philippines Marine Science Institute issued the following statement explaining the project they are doing with Chinese scientists. The statement is a bit long but I deemed it right to give to you in its entirety for us to better understand the project:

I love Mocha Uson

Published by Ellen on January 25, 2018

She entertains us.

Last Wednesday, she provided distraction from the revolting picture of Senate President Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III, House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, Senate majority Leader Vicente “Tito” Sotto III and House Majority Leader Rodolfo Fariñas doing the fist pump over dinner in a restaurant in the midst of reports that Alvarez wants to convene a Constitutional Assembly to change the Constitution even it consists only of congressmen and a few senators.

Imagine transferring Mayon Volcano which is currently in tantrums from Albay to Naga City in Camarines Sur some 100 kilometers away.

The truth is in the numbers

Published by Ellen on January 24, 2018

Sara duterte kisses the hand of her father during the IBP Davao chapter oathtaking on September 30, 2017. Malacañang photo by Robinson Niñal.

Take note that in the statements of Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque and Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, they were not denying the contents of their bank accounts cited by VERA Files in its special report about the President and his daughter’s undeclared wealth.

They dismissed the story as “hearsay” because they said the bank records, where we based the report, have not been authenticated by the Anti-Money Laundering Council.

Last Sunday, VERA Files, which I am part of, released its analysis of the bank documents which Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV exposed in April 2016 comparing them with the Duterte father and daughter statements of assets, liabilities and net worth.

This is what VERA Files found out:

Curtailing freedom of expression redux

Published by Ellen on January 22, 2018

Moves in the House of Representatives to insert the words “”responsible exercise” in the freedom of speech part in the Constitution’s Bill of Rights is a revival of the same attempt made by the government of Gloria Arroyo in 2006.

Last week, Deputy Speaker Fredenil Castro (Capiz’s second district, informed the House of Representatives’ Committee on Constitutional Amendments of the proposal on Tuesday (January 16).

Castro proposed that Article 3, Section 4 of the Bill of Rights which states “No law shall be passed abridging the freedom of speech, of expression, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and petition the government for redress of grievances ” should be reworded to “No law shall be passed abridging the freedom of speech, of expression, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and petition the government for redress of grievances.”

ellen tordesillas Posts