So what exactly was the Inquirer.net editor thinking when it splashed its report on Jun Lozada’s arrest using this headline:

“Free Lozada movement on”

I read the report and out of a word count of 1,132, I could find only 22 (omitting the text in brackets) related to this headline:

[Renato Reyes, secretary general of the left-leaning Bagong Alyansang Makabayan] said Lozada’s supporters from the religious, civic and activist groups may hold vigils outside the MPD to show encouragement for the whistle-blower.

That’s less than two percent of the report dedicated to information related to the headline.

Not only that, we get a flaccid punchline: “[...]may hold vigils[...]“. It seems to me that the Philippine Media is suffering from a bad case of vanishing testicles. “May”?? Hey Ms Dona Pazzibugan, why don’t you get off your arse and verify what you “report” so that you can go the whole nine yards and use a word with more conviction than “may”.

Right.

And here I was getting all excited that another round of ocho-ocho festivities was underway. As a matter of fact, within a few seconds of seeing the sensational headline, my superfast mind had already spun an entire outline for an article that aims to speculate (our comfort zone, right guys?) on which of the usual suspects in the spin game will jump upon the bandwagon of drumming up “support” for the poor sod and kickstarting the all-too-familiar ocho-ocho machine.

Tough luck for moi.

The only high-profile personalities to step up in “support” of the bozo are Cory and Erap. Representatives of “civil” society daw according to that guardian of our sacred right-to-be-informed, the Inquirer, which gave front-page profile to that piece of “news” too just a couple of days ago.

Ah yes. Jun Lozada. Guardian of the “truth”.

The guy can’t handle the truth.

I saw it with my own eyes on Bandila and expressed myself on Peyups.com to see if I wasn’t dreaming at the time:

A student was physically removed from one of the assemblies being addressed by Lozada as part of his circus/tour.

All this student was doing was asking why Lozada was doing what he was doing and why he wasn’t instead directing all this energy through the proper legal channels where processes are in place to investigate, evaluate, and RESOLVE these things.

I saw it all on ABS-CBN’s Bandila news program last night. The irony there (yet another one lost in the vacuous minds of Pinoys) is that this student as a result of this, managed to express his views on global Pinoy television.

Good thing I got a bit of verification:

Ego Worship

By Anton Java
Cebu Daily News
First Posted 15:46:00 18 March 2008

Seeking to sway Cebuanos to God-knows-what, former National Broadband Network (NBN) project consultant Rodolfo Noel Lozada Jr. visited Cebu yesterday and did what he does best – yap. That, and bask in the infamy that he so giddily accepts.

But his visit to Cebu and the actions (and reactions) of those who support him definitely did more harm than good to whatever cause he is pushing. Speaking at the University of San Carlos, he again said his cause is to “seek the truth,” but his trips obviously have a “down with Arroyo” flavor to it. If his intention really was to seek the truth, why do he and his followers ostracize those who would ask him questions contrary to their cause? “Ostracize” is even putting it mildly, because instead of answering those questions by simply clearly explaining the “truth” he claims to push for, his followers instead kick out and threaten to beat up the person asking the question, while Lozada does nothing to stop it. So what if a person asks questions that imply things contrary to Lozada’s “cause”? If Lozada and his ilk do intend to seek the truth, shouldn’t he and his followers listen to all sides – even highly critical questions – to find out what the truth is? But what Lozada and company are doing is not seeking the truth, it’s to press on people what they believe to be the truth. Whether or not it is actually the truth is a matter of debate, and it’s a debate they probably think they can’t win, otherwise they would have simply provided counter-arguments to critical questions. Instead, they kick out the person asking the question. That’s the kind of reaction one would get from people who know their arguments can’t hold water, much less the truth. The truth hurts. And Lozada and company were obviously hurt.

That person who was kicked out was right. It WAS quite obvious what that (not-so-) open forum was all about, and it was not about seeking the truth. It was not even a good attempt at pushing what Lozada thinks is the truth.

What was it about then?

Hero worship. About how those foolish enough to take Lozada’s “truth” at face value, and worse, how Lozada just loves to bask in the glory and praise people are giving him. If he and his followers really are seeking the truth, they’d be out trying to back up their “truth” with hard evidence, not jumping from city to city saying the same thing over and over again.

[Read the rest of the article here.]

So, folks: Show of hands. Who’s gonna follow the Lady in Yellow and the Convicted Plunderer, to battle this time?

Manila’s balut, fishball, and cigarette street vendors are keeping their fingers crossed.

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