My country a war zone?

IT'S mid-November and Christmas season in the Philippines is in the air. Despite natural calamities that hit us, the survivalist Filipinos will find the way to celebrate the season. And yes, in disaster-hit towns and cities in Cotabato and Davao del Sur provinces, kind hearted men and women continue to give to scores of victims. Elsewhere, the price of “hamon” had gone up because hog growers were hit by African swine fever, but there is always spring chicken and pancit to celebrate with.

As of this writing, inflation has gone down to less than 1% and the economy is in the vicinity of 6.2% and can only go up because of the renewed and vigorous spending for the last quarter. The country’s dollar reserves rose to $86-billion in September, thank you to the economic team of the Duterte government headed by Finance Sec. Sonny Dominguez.  Tourist arrivals as of September this year had breached the Department of Tourism targets despite the fact that there seems to be no perceptible program that prodded that. The good news of peace has reached so many shores.

We have our own shares of natural calamities and some problems like the plight of our farmers which the Department of Agriculture seemly cannot find solution and a Department of Health Secretary who is not aware we have more than enough drug rehabilitation centers in the country but certainly Philippines is not a war zone as Maria Ressa, the journalist in the pay check of Omidyar Network and National Endowment for Democracy, told CBS News last week.

“Worse than any war zone”, she describes the Philippines. But the journalist who had received so many awards for allegedly standing against the oppressive Duterte government is coming home for Christmas. Her last tirade against Duterte in various media forums in the US must have pleased Omidyar and NED she may have been given a furlough to fly back to the Philippines.  

Ressa has a dual citizenship: American and Filipino.  The Philippines is what she use to create an image for herself as a brave and crusading journalist and the US of A her platform to conjure fairy tales twisting facts and figures to make her the heroine of the press.  All at the expense of every Filipino.

Ressa is only for Ressa and I don’t know whether the investors of Rappler are happy. In a press forum  in London where she got entangled in a tussle with Canadian journalist  Ezra Levant, who dubbed her a “paid hack of Omidyar”, she admitted that she received $4.5-million from Omidyar  Network instead of just $1-million which she said Rappler had issued Philippine Depository Receipts (PDRs). We got to know this from published reports following discovery by the Securities and Exchange Commission of the investments of ON  into Rappler which is contrary to the constitution of the Philippines. Realizing that Ressa and company are in a tight fix, Omidyar declared that it is donating the PDRs to the 14 staff members of Rappler, Ressa included. That is a clever legal strategy but does not erase, the fact Ressa and company received bonanza from Omidyar. As Levant pointed out Ressa’s claim that she is “winning” the case is simply based on the fact that “Pierre Omidyar gave up his stock,” after recognizing the risk in his exposure to Rappler.

All these should have been forgotten and nobody really cares how many awards Ressa received after she made herself the content of the story rather than the story teller. Against her peroration in every stage abroad she speaks about her being  threatened with death because according to her Rappler has been reporting the truth on the country's populist president Rodrigo Duterte and his government. In a country, where close to 80% of its population are satisfied and approved of the President’s handling of crime and managing the economy, criticisms and vilification coming from the likes of Maria Ressa are simply irreconcilable with what she tells Bill Whitaker of CBS that “the environment (in the Philippines) is worse than being in a war zone”.

At a time when the Philippines has achieved sustained economic stability under the climate of peace, Maria Ressa, the American citizen, has become a veritable intriguer and destabilizer. Since she considers Philippines a war zone then she might just as well stay in the United States of America where Pierre Omidyar, her provider is, and cease from creating another drama by seeking asylum in London.  Enough already.