Inevitably, the Makabayan Coalition will be attacked with impunity by the trolls and crones of Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio just as its social media accounts were shut down by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) sua sponte, even as it admitted eventually that the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) and the Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC) had called for the blocking of such accounts.
NTF-ELCAC, ATC and the Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio diehards are united in keeping Makabayan social media accounts blocked forever for the simple reason that they want their “alternative facts” to be accepted as gospel truth. NTF-ELCAC was created by Rodrigo Duterte in December 2018 through an executive order while ATC was established through a contested law since it exercises quasi-judicial functions like designating terrorists, proscribing them, freezing and snatching their bank accounts and tagging them as non-persons without the benefit of trial under a competent court of law. The ATC is the law itself, to the consternation of jurists who have dismissed its cases for lack of probable cause or the preponderance of inadmissible evidence.
Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio has no love lost for Makabayan, particularly ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro, Gabriela Women’s Party Rep. Arlene Brosas and Kabataan Rep. Raoul Manuel, after the coalition uncovered her financial shenanigans at the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and discovered the mismanagement of the money of the Department of Education (DepEd) and the disallowances of P13.2 billion of expenditures. As a lawyer, Sara did not play up to par and flunked the smell test. She cannot batter the wall of proof amassed by Makabayan and the sleuths of the appropriations committee of the House of Representatives. What she had was a wailing wall, which heard her grievances and pettifoggery.
After she wrote that letter asking the panel to just decide on what to do with the proposed P2.037 billion budget for OVP next year, she surrendered her fight and forced the house panel to strip her largesse and actual pork barrel to campaign in 2025 on the people’s dime. However, the house was still generous to the absentee vice president as slashed merely P1,303,802,000 from the proposed P2.037 billion OVP budget, leaving her with only P733.198 million, still a gargantuan sum as Sara vowed to make her office operational even with an annual P1 budget. With the recommended P733.198 million budget set to be approved during the plenary, you could sense the gnashing of teeth as Sara’s allies went on overdrive, blasting the Makabayan Coalition and accusing the progressive lawmakers were in cahoots with the Marcoses, Romualdezes and Cos who want to kick out the stubborn Sara.
When the OVP budget hearing heated up, the Makabayan social media accounts, along with the Facebook pages, X and Instagram accounts of their Senate bets and affiliated groups have not been able to upload social media posts in view of restrictions for “violating community standards.” Moreover, social media materials were taken down and the accounts taken down. Blame Facebook, X and Instagram for their unilateral actions and notoriously inept inspectors. Like Elon Musk, they can change the algorithm to reduce the number of likes and followers, thus rendering them purveyors of bogus numbers and information. The narcissist and publicity hound Musk has been notorious in this regard as he bloats his numbers to massage his huge ego.
Among the prospective Makabayan Senate bets, peasant leader Danilo Ramos and fisherfolk leader Ronnel Arambulo had their accounts suspended for reasons known to the Facebook, X, and Instagram enforcers. The Facebook page of Bayan Muna in Mindanao was also suspended recently but was restored later. The X account of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) was also suspended. “The suspension of these accounts coincides with a spike in troll activities aimed at Makabayan representatives in Congress and their supporters,” the coalition added.
The group expressed apprehension over what they claimed as “coordinated attacks meant to disable the online presence of Makabayan and its supporters, even before the election period has begun. “We view these actions are very worrisome as these go against freedom of expression and freedom of association,” Makabayan noted that in 2022, the social media accounts and allied pages of the Bayan and Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) were either suspended or taken down. “This may be a preview of things to come during the actual election period. Freedom of expression advocates must be alerted and must collectively stand against these online attacks.”
While seeking to restore access to these accounts, Makabayan sounded the alarm over intensifying online attacks meant to silence progressive and alternative voices in what is generally an elite-dominated political system. It noted that after Sara boycotted the Lower House hearing, her partisans all came out of the woodwork as if on cue, with a TV broadcaster taking the Sara narrative hook, line, and sinker, and the Duterte zealots on social media slamming Makabayan as if they were Sara, whose flagrant financial mismanagement was the very reason why DepEd and the OVP could not account for the billions of pesos that the Commission on Audit (COA) and the new DepEd leadership seek. With what is happening with social media, they now function neither as neutral nor independent. They simply want the truth to be neutered. Like George Costanza, if they believe the lie, then it is true.
