All posts by Pol Pinoy

No, UNDAS Is Not A United Nations Agency Or Holiday

IMG_6769.JPGMANILA, Philippines (The Adobo Chronicles, Manila Bureau) – UNESCO. UNAIDS. UNDP. UNCHR. UNDAS. These are all United Nations agencies. Well, except UNDAS.

UNDAS is a Filipino term that refers to the day people remember their dearly departed.  It is a holiday during which families troop to the cemetery to visit the tombs of the dead. It is commemorated on November 1, which, ironically is All Saints Day.  Perhaps all Filipinos automatically become saints?

But if UNDAS were a United Nations agency or holiday, what would it stand for?

In the spirit (pun intended) of this Filipino religious and cultural holiday, let us know of what you would suggest to be the meaning of this acronym.  Use our comments section.

We’ll start:

United Nations Day of Asian Separation (to celebrate Philippine President Rodrigo Roa Duterte’s previous remarks about his country leaving the U.N.)

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The Cry Babies of Philippine Media: Rappler And GMA News

img_6768MANILA, Philippines (The Adobo Chronicles, Manila Bureau) – First, it was Rappler that made a big hullabaloo about the fact that a political blog by a non-journalist entertainer has generated more social media engagement and following than its Maria Ressa-owned and foreign-funded news outlet.

Rappler spent a lot of staff time and content space “analyzing” why Mocha Uson’s Facebook blog is significantly more popular.  It went to the extent of blaming Facebook’s algorithms to justify the fact it is less read and followed by Filipino netizens.

Now, another sinking news media, GMA news,  is abandoning its very core purpose of reporting on news-worthy (not to mention fair and accurate) developments in the Philippines by harnessing its resources to police the Internet.  It recently launched what it called “Hindi Tama,” which supposedly is out to call the public’s attention on “fake” or “inaccurate” news.

It is a sad state of Philippine news media when “legitimate” news outlets like GMA and Rappler would rather spend their time attacking Internet information sources that they feel make them totally irrelevant and insignificant. 

Expect all the other biased news media like ABS-CBN and Inquirer to follow suit.

Long live citizen media!

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Inquirer, GMA Network, Rappler On Blogger Mocha Uson: If You Can’t Lick Her, Join Her

img_6758MANILA, Philippines (The Adobo Chronicles, Manila Bureau) – Entertainer-turned-political blogger Mocha Uson has emerged to be a social media phenomenon. The self-confessed supporter of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has media institutions like the Inquirer, GMA Television Network and Rappler all scratching their heads.

Uson’s blog has more Facebook user engagements than ABS-CBN, GMA, Inquirer and Rappler.  In fact, she has more followers than the Inquirer and Rappler combined!

The news media’s attempt to discredit Uson is getting the opposite desired effect.  She has become even more popular.

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So, as they say, ” If you can’t lick ’em, join ’em!”

And that’s exactly what the Inquirer and GMA have done, interviewing Uson in the hope of gaining more readers and viewers.

Rappler, on the other hand, devoted a lot of staff time and space on its news blog to analyze the Uson phonomenon, even blaming Facebook’s algorithm for the fact that the the Maria Ressa-owned company is lagging way behind Uson in terms of followers and engagements.

As for ABS-CBN, its executives are reportedly in closed session today to chart their next move. They’re still scratching their heads.

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