#philippines politics

[perfectlyasymmetrical]

The Pentagon ran an anti-vax psyop in the Philippines at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic

Pentagon ran secret anti-vax campaign to undermine China (usatoday.com)

Please read this article. It makes me sick.

TLDR: The US is directly responsible for the over 60,000 people who have died from COVID-19 in the Philippines since the summer of 2020. The pentagon made at least 300 fake social media accounts on twitter targeted at making Filipinos believe that the Chinese-made Sinovac vaccine was dangerous. The Sinovac vaccine came out before any US-made vaccine and was widely available in the region before the smear campaign started. They used lies that the vaccine contained pork gelatin (which is considered haram to Muslims—Islam is the second largest religion in the Philippines). Their aim was to harm China's reputation and to sell more American-made vaccines in the developing world for high prices.

[mypanoplies]

OpenLine New Media Forum Cebu

OpenLine New Media Forum Cebu

OpenLine News Media Forum is a new program by MyTV Cebu Philippines that airs every Tuesday morning and can be livestreamed via social media channels like Facebook, YouTube and their website. The host/moderators are veteran broadcast journalist Erik Espina and captivating Andrea Patena-Matheu. This show tackles current and relevant issues in the Philippines.

[tejennnn]

Happy 79th Independence Day our himbo!!!! Hope you will get better as a country and enjoy the nasi goreng harem 🇮🇩💖

Parody of this meme lul

(Update) just woke up so got more energy to add the details:

🇮🇩: nasi goreng kampung

🇲🇾: Malay sambal fried rice

🇸🇬: Singaporean chicken fried rice

🇹🇭: Khao Pad with basil

🇻🇳: Cơm Chiên with lạp xưởng

🇱🇦 (peeking): Nam Khao

((Sorry Piri you're not seen here 🥹))

Also food stall staples - tea glass, round tissue container (green) and kerupuk tin (blue)!

[orangerainforest]

in case you didn't know already, chinese coast guard personnel have been harassing and displaying aggressive behavior towards filipino vessels--using knives, axes, pointed sticks, and tear gas--to intimidate and prevent philippine navy rubber boats from delivering necessities to filipino troops stationed in the shoal that is within the philippines' exclusive economic zone.

you can watch this video for more information

[anexperimentallife]

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-covid-propaganda/

Is anyone actually surprised at yet another incidence of the US killing innocent people for political gain? The anti-vax campaign focused on the Philippines, and sought to erode confidence in the Sinovac vaccine in an effort to push anti-Chinese sentiment in the region. But of course, in addition to killing brown folks here, it broke containment and fed into the general anti-vaccination hysteria worldwide.

[appleflavoredkitkats]

For interested Filipinos:

We invite everyone to join us on May 28th, Tuesday, for a solidarity vigil to continue our commitment in commemorating and standing with the Palestinian people, their plight, and their struggle for liberation.

‼️Mass up: 6:00 PM in front of the Commission on Human Rights, Commonwealth Avenue (Google Maps Location)

[datura-tea]

still thinking about filipinos in the fallout wasteland, but now in the context of my headcanon that fallout america annexed the philippines in 1946 instead of granting the nation its independence.

what made me think of this headcanon? the timeline between our world and the fallout world splits at about that period, and, well, there's precedent for the annexation: in real life, there were 50 years of american occupation, and there's ongoing american intereference in our politics, economy, and culture (essentially making the philippines an american neo-colony, but i digress), and considering how fallout america is just america turned up to 11, these things will just be magnified, and so: the philippine annexation of 1946.

now, there's nothing in fallout canon about the philippines except for a brief off-hand comment from the newscaster at the beginning of fallout 4 about american troops in mambajao (an island in camiguin) but this already tells me that, by 2077, if american military presence in the philippines has managed to reach that part of mindanao, the american occupation has intensified.

that little nugget already paints such a vivid picture of what's happening in fallout philippines - an american military base in mindanao tells me that more indigenous communities were displaced (real life example: the aeta and ibaloi communities in luzon, who still, to this day, cannot return to their ancestral lands), that sexual exploitation of women and children was rampant (irl: the sex industry in angeles city, among other areas), that american soldiers were free to enact violence on filipinos without facing any consequences (irl: jennifer laude's murder at the hands of joseph pemberton), that american imperialism is thriving in the archipelago, and that the sino-american war is serious and ramping up.

but let's see what the newscaster actually says:

"It would also appear our troops stationed overseas are experiencing some unusual weather, as well. On the Island of Mambajao the nights are cold. Unseasonably so for Southeast Asia. But for the 5th Infantry, that's as comfortable as an Autumn jamboree. All the easier for our mechanized hellcats to drive any screaming Commie meanies right into the Bohol Sea."

"screaming commie meanies" tells me that there's a significant communist presence in the philippines, which i am taking to mean that the communist party of the philippines and the new people's army are alive and well and fighting against the american occupation. i really don't think there'd be many chinese communist spies in the philippines at this time since filipino communists are against chinese imperialism as well, but tbh this part isn't solidified in my brain as much... anyway

essentially, fallout philippines has the problems of current, real life philippines, just amplified. american occupation on one hand, chinese imperialism on the other, unusual cold weather (which tells me that climate change was also a problem in the fallout universe), the threat of nuclear war... all with ordinary filipinos in the middle. would it be a stretch to say that a lot of them fled to america and established their own communities there? that those communities would have thrived and retained our creativity and sense of community/pagkakapwa abroad? that those communities would have survived the bombs and banded together and kept themselves and their culture alive, in the apocalypse?

[robobarbie]

I'm gonna be so real I thought you were Filipino or Vietnamese for the longest time. white person jumpscare

the filipino portion of the fandom is so powerful that theyve even changed the perception of who i am. incredible

[skyethewolfwizard]

I'd like to say, that if you fight for rights of any discriminated people, whether people of colour, the ones experiencing genocide, have experienced genocide, LGBTQIA+, etc. It won't matter if there isn't a planet to live on.

Fighting to stop climate change is just as important as fighting for human rights. And to fight to stop climate change we have to acknowledge one of the biggest reasons it is happening.

Capitalism. It is their beliefs of infinite growth and profit over people and the planet that has caused and been causing all of this.

If you care about one of these things, you better start fighting the root of almost all of these problems.

The wars in the name of money

The deforestation for profit

The propaganda made to keep capitalism as the "best" economic system

The discrimination and shallow acceptance in the name of money

The violation of privacy for money

The violation of so many human rights for money

It may seem hopeless to fight them, but it isn't. We are the ones working and we can stop working, we are the ones buying and we can stop buying.

Protests, boycotts, and even revolutions taking down capitalistic governments and systems will happen.

We just need to be in solidarity, fighting for our and the planet's future. Elevate voices, fight the broken systems, start making your online presence more private, boycott companies mistreating employees, boycott companies supporting and profiting from genocide, protest, revolution.

Socialism or death.

That is our choice.

I personally believe the next few decades will see the fall of many capitalist societies, and countries. I know we would not and will not let it continue. The future will have a free Palestine, a prospering Sudan and Congo, an independent Hawai'i, a unified Ireland, an independent Scotland, a truly free Philippines, a safe America, a unified world.

Free Palestine, the Congo, Sudan, and all experiencing genocide.

Never stop talking about them

Protest, boycott, lobby

I'll see you all when the sun rises on a free and safe world. Until then, we fight and endure.

[sansculottides]

𝗛𝗼𝗹𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗨𝗦 𝗔𝗰𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗜𝘁𝘀 𝗖𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘁 𝗙𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀 𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗶𝗽𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀

On June 14, 2024, international news agency Reuters exposed a secret disinformation campaign by the US Department of State meant to discredit Chinese-manufactured COVID-19 vaccines amongst Filipinos. The US anti-vax fake news campaign ran from 2020 to 2021, and involved the use of dummy social media accounts posting false and unscientific information about the efficacy of Chinese vaccines, as well as weaponizing pervasive racist conspiracy theories that the COVID-19 pandemic was created and spread by the Chinese government.

We demand an immediate investigation by the Philippine government on the matter, and for decisive action to be taken by the government to hold the US accountable for its deception campaign against the Filipino people. The Reuters exposé has uncovered a clear national security threat to the Filipino people. The US carried out its fake news campaign at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic was ravaging the Filipino people, and worsened already widespread anti-vaccination beliefs amongst the public.

We are appalled by the glaring lack of Philippine media coverage on the Reuters exposé. An international scandal has just been uncovered. How can truth be spoken to power, and how can political action be taken by citizens, if the media does not play its part? Silence is silence, whether due to the threat of repression or the suffocating consensus by media capitalists that unsavory things be left unsaid. We call on all media workers, whether working at mainstream media organizations, independent media, social media, or campus media, to take the lead themselves and focus public attention on this issue.

The year-long campaign clearly demonstrates the untrustworthiness of the US as a strategic diplomatic and military partner of the Philippines and of all Global South countries. The campaign was initiated by the Trump administration and was first focused on the Philippines. Later on, the project was expanded further into Central Asia and the Middle East. It took the Biden administration three full months to end the globalized and state-sponsored mass disinformation project.

This issue is not just a problem of specific administrations. The year-long campaign should remind the workers and the masses of the Philippines and the world that the US remains the world’s foremost imperialist power. Its overriding foreign policy concern is the maintenance of its dominant global military and economic position, and its means are deception and force.

The US’ covert effort to corrupt public discourse in the Philippines should prompt the Marcos administration to question the intentions of its close diplomatic and military ally. The disinformation campaign was motivated primarily by the US’ geopolitical rivalry with China, which has, since the former’s Pivot to Asia in 2012, increasingly taken on a more militarized and antagonistic form. US military and intelligence agencies are manufacturing consent in the Philippines to win the hearts and minds of the Filipino masses in its effort to overpower China through military means. This is its real goal, and not to aid the Filipino people to address Chinese maritime aggression.

The US has no legitimacy to pose as a champion of international laws and norms and as a partner to secure the Philippines’ national sovereignty. It conducted its campaign to serve its own geopolitical interests with no regard for the immense need of the Philippines to vaccinate its citizens against the pandemic. Once again, Washington D.C. has Filipino blood on its hands.

US interference in Philippine public life cannot be left without consequences. Philippine foreign policy should pivot away from its longstanding reliance on the US and towards ASEAN, and away from addressing Chinese aggression through militarized means and towards regional multilateral diplomacy. 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙥𝙚𝙖𝙘𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙨𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙞𝙜𝙣𝙩𝙮 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙋𝙝𝙞𝙡𝙞𝙥𝙥𝙞𝙣𝙚𝙨 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙤𝙣𝙡𝙮 𝙗𝙚 𝙜𝙪𝙖𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙚𝙙 𝙗𝙮 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙁𝙞𝙡𝙞𝙥𝙞𝙣𝙤 𝙢𝙖𝙨𝙨𝙚𝙨. 𝙄𝙢𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙨 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙣𝙤 𝙛𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙨!

📷 AP

Reposted from SPARK - Samahan ng Progresibong Kabataan (Union of Progressive Youth), a socialist youth organization in the Philippines.

[msfisherot]

We are trying to fight off against China, to tell them to back off our own land.

US has fooled us with small boats and weapons for us to only fight China alone.

Innocent people WILL die here if we let the problem linger. PLEASE spread our word.

THE WEST PHILIPPINES SEA IS OURS‼️‼️

🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭

[oinonsana]

thoughts about a national "filipino" culture

this post is written after a bout of rereading fanon. this post is by no means a hikayat or persuasive piece but rather pure unfiltered thoughts, perhaps ya'll will find it interesting.

filipino culture is largely revolutionary. this is true of almost every colonized culture: as according to Fanon, National Culture is the Struggle for Liberation, and I largely agree with this. in a way, we are still struggling for liberation from outside forces. in many ways, the Philippines is still a colony (or, perhaps, a neocolony) of america. thus colonialism is still on going. thus, fanon's terminology of colonized/colonist dichotomy is still very effective when applied to modern filipino identity.

i've been pretty vocal about my perspective on filipino identity: it being mostly constructed during the american colonization of the philippines. even to this day, i believe that it is mostly a regurgitation of american culture, even seemingly activist perspectives. much of filipino culture is repurposed from american educational systems. much of filipino culture talks about filipinos, and ignores a vast majority of the other people in the isles. ask the general activist how a bisaya or mindanaowon revolutionary and they will balk.

fanon argues that national culture is just the culture of the struggle that arises from nationhood. after decolonization, both colonized and colonist die. what then, afterwards? he states that national culture is the best way to achieve international solidarity. smaller scale focuses of culture can create better and more authentic cultures instead of vague and generic eidolons. i largely agree for the most part, though we can definitely peer a lot deeper. fanon is also quick to argue that national consciousness (the consciousness to fight for liberation) is different from nationalism (that thing that very quickly leads to fascism).

in the case of the philippines, multiple different culture still exist in milieu with the rest of philippine culture. fanon's works talk alot about the importance of word and language in the colonized's world. so it is here: the filipino as a term is claimed from the colonizers (filipino used to mean spanish that lived in the isles). can it be redeemed and twisted into an empowering word for us, na nakatira dito? potentially (as with all things its mostly a percentage chance). unfortunately, larger is the chance that we completely assimilate into the term: we become spanish people that live in the isles, despite having an already multinational culture (the tagalogs, the bisayas, the bikolanos, etc. all only sharing culture through colonization, in the same way africa shares culture through colonization but have bespoke cultures in and of themselves). thus why there's a tendency for filipinos to be separate from the indigenous people of the philippines, despite tagalogs, bisaya, etc. being indigenous people of the philippines

"but waks, bitch boy, you can't compare the ph to the africa and whatnot they're too big!" witness the philippines' true size in comparison to mainland seasia

multiple empires can fit within the philippines in size, so that's a fraught argument.

anyway, as i reread fanon i'm realizing too many leftist spaces (at least, mainstream ones in the PH, and especially the manilenyo ones) are currently ascribing to the first kind of culture that fanon spoke about (regurgitation of white culture): looking for pieces of culture to turn into "filipino identity", reinforcing fragments of filipino identity, conveniently forgetting other cultures in the ph (and some even being outright hostile against the idea) when it doesn't benefit their movement (which is annoying, because as real marxists we should be including them under a single revolutionary solidarity). increasingly it's beginning to feel like (manila centric) Mass Organizations are becoming just larger college orgs

however, i'm not saying that won't change--i feel like these orgs will evolve past anyway. and harnessing the power of guilt-ridden petty boojwazee instilled with the fervor of national consciousness is pretty potent in mobilizing large movements, even if they end up burning out by the end of it

so at the end of it i accept filipino as a geographical and revolutionary description, but not as a cultural nationalistic descriptor (as that would end up with us redoing the colonizer's culture). it is a stepping stone. and perhaps we might need to rejigger our definition of the filipino: maybe change its name to pilipinhon (coming from the philippines) from bisaya. or barring that, look at it differently, refuse the colonized intellectual urge to make it a culture like our colonizer's, and accept the culture as it is, of struggle and of liberation.

and then accept that there are multiple cultures underneath it--that there are tagalog cultures and bisaya cultures and lumad cultures and bikolano cultures etc. etc. hell, if the spanish didn't hand us over to the americans, who's to say that the philippines wouldn't have split into multiple different nations (a bisaya nation, a tagalog republic, etc.) it almost happened multiple times in the past. the only thing stopping us was colonialism :)

[brother-emperors]

I am SO excited for bad governance especially for (among other things) the fashion choices we are going to see !

oh! this makes me so happy to hear 🥺 as a little preview of fashion choices to come, here are some sketches I was doing of some of the cast the other day, just trying to pin down their general vibe

[maya-chirps]

Bro im listening yo the Senate question Alice Guo and what the fuck what is going on with her

She went from being an isolated pig farm girl who was homeschooled since she was born and didn't went to college but somehow became the town mayor and she started a company but also she doesn't own it but she also submitted an application for another company who she then claimed that she had no connection to except that she submitted it but her name is all over the application as an applicant????

[anexperimentallife]

Anxiously awaiting November, when we will hopefully learn whether the US remains a genocide-supporting right-wing oligarchic police state, or becomes a full-on fascist military dictatorship that wants to step up the genocide (top GOP officials have suggested nuking Gaza, and blocked Biden's efforts to pause arms sales to Israel), ban abortion nationwide, make it illegal to be queer, and start WWIII.

Of course, there's also the worry of a civil war in the US. And even without that, there's always the race-based violence.

And THIS is why I don't feel safe taking my wife and daughter back to the US. Even if they were white-passing (like I am, despite my Native ancestry) and we could afford the move, it wouldn't feel safe right now.

The Philippines isn't perfect, by any means, and if the sabre-rattling with China escalates to war, it will get dangerous fast. Working on contingency plans for that. In that case, the US will suddenly become a LOT safer than here. (There's a fairly high likelihood, considering China is actively trying to provoke both Taiwan and the Philippines; the US is now moving a shitload of troops to the Northern part of our island, but we're still hoping for the best, even as the odds for that bet get worse.)

Again, I'm not saying it's perfect here, and no place is 100% safe, but this is a safer place for my wife and daughter than the US would be right now.

[appleflavoredkitkats]

MULA ILOG HANGGANG DAGAT, LALAYA RIN ANG PALESTINE! 🇵🇸🇵🇭

Different Filipino organizations march from Plaza Miranda to Liwasan to fight against the genocide in Palestine for the Global Day of Action Against Genocide.

(Learn more: SPARK's post | PAYAPA's post)