Faces of the News: October 4, 2020
ILLUSTRATION BY RENE ELEVERA
Alex Paul Monteagudo
Retired Police Gen. Alex Paul Monteagudo, head of the country’s premier intelligence agency, was exposed as an unwitting social media troll during Tuesday’s budget deliberations at the House of Representatives.
As director general of the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA), Monteagudo was explaining the agency’s P850-million proposed budget for 2021 when Kabataan Rep. Sarah Jane Elago called him out.
She accused Monteagudo of sharing posts from 21 Facebook pages involved in a “vilification and disinformation campaign” that supposedly included the Red-tagging and terrorist-tagging of progressive lawmakers, civil society organizations and critics of the administration.
Monteagudo admitted he “may have shared” posts “quite a number of times” from a network of troll accounts linked to the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police that Facebook later took down for “coordinated inauthentic behavior.”
Claiming he was merely sharing social media posts with his operatives and personnel, the NICA chief also said that he did not know the owners or administrators of the troll accounts.
—Melvin Gascon
Willie Marcial
After months of being trapped in limbo by a health crisis like no other, the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) is raring to make a comeback with the resumption of its stalled milestone season.
The reboot began with a faint heartbeat, a government health body giving the league the green light to allow its pros to start individual workouts.
Now, the 45th season — compressed into a single Philippine Cup — is ready for action. Led by the efforts of its commissioner Willie Marcial, the PBA will get to crown an All-Filipino champion.
Reopening day is on Oct. 11. Stealing from the pages of the National Basketball Association, the PBA assigned two separate venues in a bubble at Clark Freeport Zone in Pampanga province — one for the games and another for lodging.
Once inside, teams, media and league employees will be subject to regular tests to ensure everyone’s safety. Anyone who leaves the bubble will not be allowed reentry.
The league has made efforts to ensure the mental health of bubble residents by providing many avenues for rest and recreation. The bubble will last for two months with games played twice a day during the elimination round.
—Louie Greg Rivera
Filipino rice farmers
Filipino rice farmers continue to get the short end of the stick as palay prices in several provinces dropped to P12 per kilogram this week.
The low price means the daily staple is cheaper than a COVID-19 mask, although the two products cost about the same to produce.
The development has sparked a debate among the Department of Agriculture, lawmakers and industry groups whether it is now necessary to amend the rice tariffication law that is being blamed as the culprit for the plunging prices.
The policy, enacted in February last year, allows the unlimited importation of rice while committing an annual fund of P10 billion to the rice industry to make palay production more efficient.
Major palay-producing provinces are faring better. Some of them are reporting a farm-gate price of P19 per kilo on average. However, farmers in other regions are breaking their backs in exchange for the meager returns.
The challenge now facing the government is how to help these farmers who are growing hungrier by the day — not just in terms of food security but also through assistance and reforms that would finally alleviate their plight.
—Karl R. Ocampo
Donald Trump vs Joe Biden
It was a verbal brawl never seen before in US presidential debates. Moderator Chris Wallace raised his voice as US President Donald Trump heckled former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democrats’ bet, in their first of three engagements on national television.
Trump barreled his way early on — berating Biden for supposed socialist ties and insisting on a fraudulent mail-in ballot scenario. He also boasted about his “phenomenal job” in dealing with COVID-19.
But it was Trump’s continuous tirade whenever Biden spoke that turned the debate chaotic.
“Will you shut up, man,” the usually cool Biden said at one point.
Biden brought up Trump’s $750 income tax payment and his refusal to act on COVID-19 despite the alarming facts he knew in February. He also argued that Trump’s divisive style makes him unfit for a second term. Latest polls show Americans disapprove of how Trump is handling the pandemic.
And a certain awkwardness greeted the announcement days later that he and wife Melania are positive for the coronavirus.
Pundits hope Democratic vice presidential bet Kamala Harris and the GOP’s Mike Pence will behave better when they face off this week.
Amy Coney Barrett
Five-and-a-half weeks before the US presidential election, US President Donald Trump nominated seventh US Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, defying calls by Democrats to allow the winner of the Nov. 3 contest to name the replacement of the liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died on Sept. 18.
Democrats have reason to worry. Barrett is considered Ginsburg’s judicial opposite. Should Barrett be confirmed by the Senate (where Trump’s Republican party mates hold a 53-47 majority), she is feared to further sway the high court toward conservatism on issues like abortion, religious freedom, gun control and LGBT rights.
At 48, Barrett, a Roman Catholic, could help define and steer future Supreme Court rulings for decades to come — especially as conservatives will solidly be the tribunal’s majority at 6-3.
Educated in the University of Notre Dame, Barrett says she takes on the philosophy of late Justice Antonin Scalia, one of the most influential conservatives on the bench.
With Barrett’s credentials, philosophy and probable confirmation, Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer said Ginsburg must be turning over in her grave.
