(NOTE: Our system of regular font and italics does not apply for this post)

MANILA, Philippines (The Adobo Chronicles, Manila Bureau) – In a statement posted on its Facebook page, the League of Cities of the Philippines (LCP) condemned The Adobo Chronicles for our satirical news story about the League “launching a campaign against the Senatorial bid of former Solicitor General Florin Hilbay.”

The “news story” which most everyone knew — except perhaps the LCP — was satire, was a light-hearted take on Hilbay’s past criticism of Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, and by extension, all city mayors of the country, of not having the training for international politics.

Here is the LCP statement.

And this is our statement:

ADOBO CHRONICLES STATEMENT ON THE STATEMENT OF THE LEAGUE OF CITIES OF THE PHILIPPINES

It looks like it’s not only #Rappler that does not understand what satire is.

We appreciate the time and effort that the League of Cities of the Philippines took to prepare this statement protesting one of our “stories.”

We just wished that the intelligent men and women of the League also spent the time to research the meaning of satire as well as the history of our “news site.”

Disclaimers are all over our site — if only they took the time to first visit our “About” page before firing off with their statement.

Satire is a centuries-old literary art form that is protected under Free Speech. LSP could have easily Googled it.

But more than that, our same “About” page delineates (although we really don’t have to) what is true and what is fictional in our stories.  Everything that the League is protesting about as fictitious in our story is exactly that — as indicated by the use of regular font.  Only parts of our stories that are in italics are factual.

Facebook has no jurisdiction over our website.  It can exercise control over our site’s Facebook page, but we also know that Facebook understands satire and is equally committed to Free Speech.

(And by the way, can you authenticate your published statement since it was merely ‘signed’ as League of Cities of the Philippines, and not by any real, authorized person or representive?)