Reporter for @PhilstarNews covering disinformation, foreign affairs, education, human rights, etc.
cristinachi@philstar.com
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Dozens of bot accounts on X have pumped out nearly 1,000 posts framing Vietnam as the PH's main threat in the South China Sea.
We dug into the network and found that some of the most active accounts were churning out pro-Duterte content.
My latest: philstar.com/headlines/2025/…
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I wonder what it's like to live without triggers? To hear something and then just shrug it off, to not allow it to take root in your heart as if you didn't just spend months trying to heal from it
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“The first line of defense is the kindergarten teacher.” edition.cnn.com/interactive/…
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Please read. This is the reality of UP students on the eve of the first day of classes - almost everyone I know has been emailing professors to ask if they can be included in classes that are already over capacity.
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Sharing here the full transcript of what Anakbayan's Vinz Simon said at the protest today, because tweets don't do the full message justice.
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I know it has been said and it will continue to be said, but the absolute chaos that is having to sign into Zoom using my UP mail drains 60% of my energy every day. It feels like a six-step process for no reason at all
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Why is it a big deal that Bato is calling for increased police presence in UP?:
1. It will violate the Soto-Enrile accords in place since Martial Law that forbid the entry of police and military personnel in UP to protect students from harassment, especially during protests.
AFP, PNP OUT OF OUR SCHOOLS!
Nakakagalit ang pagpupumilit nitong AFP at PNP na pasukin ang mga pamantasan tulad ng Unibersidad ng Pilipinas at Politeknikong Unibersidad ng Pilipinas. Ang AFP at PNP ay ang mga nasa kapangyarihang pangunahing nagpapalaganap ng takot at (1/n)
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Suppose that there's a classroom of 30 ten year-old students that represents all ten year-old children in the Philippines. 27 of them will most likely struggle to read simple text, according to learning poverty stats. It's that bad.
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For 47 years, this tiny UP campus in Leyte has been producing doctors, nurses and midwives who choose to serve where others won't go.
Enrollees are handpicked by underserved barangays. No numerical grades — just "pass" or "needs tutorial."
My latest:
philstar.com/headlines/2024/…
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In an email to Philstar.com, Inquirer’s US editor Rene Ciriacruz confirmed that he has resigned from his post over the removal of the story.
“I resigned my position, because no public official should be shielded from scrutiny,” Ciriacruz said.
philstar.com/headlines/2023/…
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I don't get anyone criticizing UP for suspending the UPCAT this year. The greater injustice would be if we spent a chunk of our resources on an nationwide admissions exam during this pandemic - all because of what? A false sense of pride and exclusionary mindset?
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I wish the BOR exerted the same effort in understanding their constituents' calls for mass promotion the same way they protect and coddle fratmen. Send tweet
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It’s graduation season at UP this week. Here’s another game of: how many more times do we have to be subjected to the myopic view that the recent increase in the number of students with latin honors mean that classes are easier + faculty more lenient?
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😃 RECON PROCESS IN UP! 😃
@nombradomarlon asked me to publicize how I appealed for recon to UPM last year and this is basically it.
For those who need this, I hope this helps you, but also confirm all info muna ha!
Good luck and join Gabriela UPM / UPD!
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This former public official of UP should take a hard look at the many years PGH remained underfunded and understaffed under his watch and feel ashamed. Imagine having a doctor at the upper echelons of the UP admin and still PGH perpetually had to rely on donations as it does now.
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This is vague and unprofound but I just want to get this off my chest: I wish I could unwrite half of the things that I've written for people I claimed to have deep feelings for. The truth is that I just really wanted to write, and they happened to be in the way.
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LOOK: DepEd released a memo on June 14 requiring offices to identify public school teachers who are members of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers and are part of DepEd's Automatic Payroll Deduction System @PhilstarNews
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Misleading to say that the UP-DND accord was a gesture of courtesy extended to UP. This erases the historical context that demanded better protection for students. Lest Secretary Lorenzana forgets, it has always been the military who kidnaps, threatens and harasses students.
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Working class men, revolutionary men, woke men, men who are feminists, can still oppress women. Men who march beside you in protests, men who loudly condemn oppressing women, can still oppress women.
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If it feels like lesbians in this country are invisible, that's because the spaces for them are.
The belief that "lesbians just don't go out" + the stifling business climate for queer Filipino women has made creating spaces for them a challenge.
philstar.com/headlines/2023/…
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Parlade is a macho-fascist red-tagger who is attempting to demonize an organization that has tirelessly fought for a just and free society for women. It's one thing to not understand activism. It's another to deliberately spin tales that undermine what Gabriela stands for.
Binanatan ni Gabriela Rep. Arlene Brosas ang naging pahayag ni Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr. na dapat putulin ni Liza Soberano ang pakikipag-ugnayan sa grupo. Gumagamit lamang daw ng lumang paratang ang gobyerno para i-discredit ang grupo.
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I thought UP students were supposed to be critical? Those who tell SHS students to "just wait a little longer" should be ashamed for not demanding the admin to be more responsible with the release of UCAT results. For many, the delay has already taken away opportunities.
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Here's one of the sample questions in the newly created PISA 2022 creative thinking test, where the Philippines ranked among the bottom four out of 64 countries.
How did the PISA score questions like this?
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There's no excuse in depriving UP lecturers of their salaries while simultaneously passing on the burden of remote learning and course pack distribution to them + other faculty. What little basis UP has to call this remote semester a succes is thanks to them.
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Have we looked at dropout rates? Percent of students extending their stay for reasons not their own? AWOL rates? Number of students queueing for psych services?
Have we looked at student demographics? Effect of free tuition on the kind of students entering college?
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Orgs who still practice some form of initiation rites are always moving the moral goalposts of hazing. Org leaders often place their initiation rites above this shifting limit of what's acceptable, always saying that it was worse before to absolve themselves of any guilt.
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Rep. France Castro (ACT Teachers) expresses dismay over the House appropriations panel’s abrupt termination of the budget deliberations for the OVP. Castro said P125M confidential funds need to be explained: “Maraming dapat ipaliwanag sa taumbayan ang OVP.” @PhilstarNews
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Sometimes I really hate UP. I hate UP when it's inefficient, selfish, bureaucratic, and uncaring. I hate that it pushes students to fight tooth and nail to get basic services like dorms, classes, lahat nalang.
Today, I personally sent letters to the OVCSA, OVCCA, OSH, & Chancellor’s Office, all w/ receiving copies. I also sent letters to the USC, OSR, & OFR.
I SPENT THE WHOLE DAY CRYING & GOING FROM OFFICE TO OFFICE FOR MY DORM SLOT.
Talk about emotional, physical, & mental abuse. 🙃
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For Chad, teaching without pay in Lumad schools is not a sacrifice or a burden. What he does, he said, should be "the baseline of what a UP student must offer the people he or she serves."
up.edu.ph/from-computers-to-…
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The University of the Philippines Diliman has approved a proposal to create a minor program in Alternative Learning System — the first of its kind in the Philippines that will allow students to specialize in teaching marginalized communities. philstar.com/headlines/2023/…
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Parang walang karapatang magmalaki yung UP na nasa world rankings pa rin tayo. Ilang taon nang napaka dehumanizing ng enlistment system na halos magmakaawa mga estudyante para lang makapasok sa mga klase na REQUIRED sakanila. Pinalala lang yun ng remote learning.
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An airborne virus is sending thousands of people into a merciless search for help in overwhelmed hospitals. In some households, whole families - including children - are infected. We can't allow online classes to go on as scheduled with the normal volume of requirements.
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Let’s be real. The reason why some of us didn’t learn so much from our journ classes is because the instructor(s) didn’t adapt their pedagogy to the current demands of the industry. So may disconnect. Not a reason though to do away with the whole program.
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LOOK: The UP College of Engineering drapes black cloth over its building to call for transparency in the Board of Regents’ selection of the new UP Diliman chancellor. 📸UPD College of Engineering / FB @PhilstarNews
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Great catch from Kule.
UP attempted to hide a portion of the UP Gazette that discussed the OSG’s request for Justice Leonen’s SALN by... highlighting and turning the text color into blue. Second photo shows the fine print which can be easily copied and pasted. 🤪
The Office of the Solicitor General has requested the UP Board of Regents to release the SALN of Justice Marvic Leonen from his time as a UP professor, according to a portion of the UP Gazette that should have been redacted.
phkule.org/article/173/badly…
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For those who didn't qualify in the UPCAT, I hope you guys know it's not the end of your UP dreams.
I posted the reconsideration / recon process last year. I'm plugging it again for those who want to appeal to campuses outside UPD. This might help!
😃 RECON PROCESS IN UP! 😃
@nombradomarlon asked me to publicize how I appealed for recon to UPM last year and this is basically it.
For those who need this, I hope this helps you, but also confirm all info muna ha!
Good luck and join Gabriela UPM / UPD!
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This really hurts me. I'm so tired of the apathy towards students begging for help, the dismissal of the call to postpone classes, the collective exhaustion of not knowing when this will end. Students and teachers are doing the best they can and still falling short.
KANINA SA OL CLASS PINARECITE UNG KACOURSE MATE KO TAS OUT OF NOWHERE HE CRIED SAYING “ KANINA~KO~PA~PONG~DI~NAKIKITA~PPT~TAS~PAWALA~WALA~PO-KASI~SIGNAL” OMG I LITERALLY CRIED HEARING HIM BURST INTO TEARS. IT'S ALMOST 2 HRS WHEN THE DISCUSSION STARTED!!
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Strongly worded statement from the UPD College of Engg: “We demand punitive measures to those accountable, starting with the AFP 10th Infantry Division all the way to the top brass!” Says spate of killings in country “conveniently attributed to encounters with NPA” are rising.
LOOK: The UP Diliman College of Engineering (COE) issued a statement denouncing the murder of their alumnus Chad Booc in Davao de Oro on Feb. 24.
This is the first response from the UP Diliman administration since Booc was killed a week ago.
#JusticeForChadBooc
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Sorry All Too Well, but "How can a person know everything at 18 but nothing at 22" hurts more now
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(Personal news)
Capping off college with cloudy and rainy skies and a heart bursting with warmth!
Goodbye, UP, for real 🐥
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In 2000, Filipinos whose highest educational attainment was to graduate from elementary school outnumbered those finished HS and college.
That has flipped after two decades. More than 21% of Filipinos now have least a high school diploma — ⬆️ vs. 13% in 2000.
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How can anyone stomach protecting rapists? Even telling them to "stay strong," as if they're the ones traumatized? Gaano ba kalalim yang pagkakaibigan na yan para maging enabler ka ng sexual harassment?
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Tatlong taon kitang hinintay, Journalism. Nabigo man dati, nakabawi na ngayon. Paghuhusayan ko to, promise.
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Professors are forced turn down most of these requests because they cannot handle too many students in one class without sacrificing quality of instruction.
There was absolutely no evidence that teachers and students were ready for the Sept. 10 class opening. But here we are.
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Very dangerous to be sitting in a computer shop for a long period of time. This is frustrating and, let’s face it, dehumanizing na at this point. The lengths students and teachers go to just to keep the appearances that remote learning is working — who is it for?
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There is no shortage of children's book writers in the Philippines.
But the economics of it all — from out-of-pocket expenses to limited print runs — "just makes you want to cry," one independent children's book publisher said.
Our special report:
philstar.com/headlines/2024/…
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Yung lalaking nag assist saakin para sa thumb mark hinawakan ng mahigpit kamay ko tsaka hinimas himas sabay tanong kung bakit malamig kamay ko. Mga 5 seconds yon bago ko natanggal sa hawak nya. Putangina nalang no?
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I pray philstar dot com never pulls its punches
While the Palace is firm against the use of tricycles for transportation, saying social distancing is hard to enforce inside the vehicle, passengers of a military truck were photographed sitting next to each other amid #COVID19PH.
📷 STAR/Michael Varcas
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This! 👇 Some have asked kung paano mapapanatili ang excellence ng UP if we do mass promotion, but that's exactly it: honor and excellence means knowing when academics should take the backseat. It means looking out for each other and not leaving anyone behind.
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HAPPENING NOW: Launch of the UP Department of Journalism’s media & information literacy video series led by veteran journalist and journalism department chair Kara David.
Leading broadcast journalists across competing newsrooms collaborated on the project. @PhilstarNews
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Vistan is a member of the Upsilon Sigma Phi fraternity and among its many alumni that have successfully landed a position in the university’s halls of power.
philstar.com/headlines/2023/…
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JUST IN: Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU) announces its transition to being a fully co-ed school by 2030. ADMU will start accepting female students in Kinder, Grade 1 and Grade 7 starting SY 2024-2025. @PhilstarNews
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Here's one category in the PISA where the Philippines came out on top: Filipino students have the highest incidence of long-term absenteeism (absent for 3 months or more) in the world at 30%. This is nearly 4x higher than the OECD average. philstar.com/headlines/2023/…
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Waves of oil price hikes in June have driven up fare costs for habal-habals — Alternative Learning System teachers' ride of choice in geographically distant areas where there is no public transportation.
My latest in-depth story for Philstar:
philstar.com/headlines/2022/…
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NOTE: Students in the Philippines took their PISA test in ENGLISH.
Imagine having the bare minimum reading comprehension skills in English, and you're asked to answer these questions within a time limit.
And if you didn't know how to use the computer? philstar.com/headlines/2024/…
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Is this real? Also just a reminder that this person is UP Executive Vice President. Either he doesn't double check sources or he really wants to spread black prop against protesters. Spreading lies like this harms his constituents — UP students themselves.
Walang author.
Walang linked source.
Walang "About" tab ang website.
Worst thing, XXX videos ang lumalabas kapag sinearch ang "Pinoy Expose".
Worst-worst thing, shared via tweet by an MD.
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4. Lastly, this will pose a threat to Lumad groups that conduct their Lakbayan and alternative schooling inside the campus. With military free to come and go in UP, they are also free to intimidate the very same people they aim their guns at when taking away their lands.
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The accord itself explicitly acknowledges that these institutions have been known to threaten, intimidate, and harm the youth. Removing this would be akin to allowing the AFP and PNP to wash their hands clean of their involvement in the cases of many missing activists today.
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Independent fact checkers don’t have the power to remove posts on Facebook. They flag false content, and the platform takes care of content moderation. Facebook likely detected something in the article thumbnail and flagged that.
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I don't owe my younger self anything. Her long-term plans are not my long-term plans. I owe my present self the freedom to switch interests and pursue what I really want, regardless of the things I wrote on my high school diaries.
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UP Diliman hire enough instructors and lecturers challenge para hindi tayo nagkakaubusan parati ng slots! We are living like rats
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What constitutes radical anyway? Pag sinabi kong bastos ang bunganga ni Duterte, does that make me radical, a threat to others? Giving the PNP and AFP the freedom to patrol inside campuses will leave many students, some not even members of progressive orgs, in danger.
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Attorney @SamiraGutoc, since I look up to you, I would like to suggest a jingle for your campaign. Samira mira eh eh..... Hehe joke lang po atty. #SamiraSaSenado!!!
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Can I just say this. If your whole personality is based on being a student of *this* school, being in *this* campus, or being in *this* course, and you think this gives you some kind of edge on other people, everyone thinks you're an asshole. Pls reevaluate yourself.
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Just because something follows an international standard does not mean that it also fulfills the needs of the nation. We have to contextualize it when we say that we want to be 'competitive' - competitive in what? In providing cheap labor?
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2. That the police has openly expressed their plan to round up “teachers who radicalize their students” opens more chances for campus repression. This includes blatant harassment towards student organizations and the campus press remaining critical of the administration.
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I'm the associate editor of this magazine. I asked Atty. Jesus Falcis to remove his post about us on his FB page; I don't want the pub to be politicized. To everyone, please refrain from tagging us as pro- or anti- anything. We are journalists. We are just pro-truth. Thank you.
The Bedan Roar, the official publication of San Beda University-SHS, was stopped by the admin from releasing the second issue of their magazine for being “too critical and too negative for the community of San Beda.”
@TBedanRoar released it online instead.
Here is a glimpse:
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How can you call yourself a crediblenews organization when you allow your columnists to red-tag and parrot state propaganda towards university students and campus journalists? Shame on you @TheManilaTimes.
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The assumption here is that these teachers, orgs, and pubs are responsible for students deciding to pursue activism full-time and leave their families. This assumes that student-activists have no autonomy, and that teaching students to be critical makes them rebellious, evil.
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Hi! @janfelicia_ and I are freelance journalists looking to chat with queer women for our story on queer safe spaces for the Friedrich Naumann Foundation. You have the option not to disclose your identity in the article.
We'd love to talk to you. Send us a DM!📩
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Abolish golf and convert all golf parks as urban green spaces literally nobody gives a F about golf. Why not pick up a new hobby like birdwatching
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Irresponsible reporting is when you frame the mob earlier as a gathering of activists who ~~~may~~~~ have ties with suspected ‘terrorists.’ Then going on to say that mostly ~celebrities~ disagree with the bill, as if sila ang dapat nyong icite na opposition. Tigil nyo yan
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If you haven’t watched A Rustling in the Leaves, please do so. It’s a much needed watch for anyone who has never truly understood the roots of armed conflict. Post-Marcos, Filipinos remain largely landless, and the violence exacted upon farmers and workers continue to this day.
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LOOK: Following the UP College of Engineering, the UP College of Education similarly drapes black cloth over its building as a message to the Board of Regents to "observe principles of transparency and democratic governance in all their actions and decisions." 📸College of Eduk
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This hotline has been promised for more than a year now. I called one of the division offices a few months ago for a story to ask if they have one. They said: Bakit kami magkakaganyan, hindi kami guidance office.
Through the helpline system, learners, teachers, and the general public can get in touch with various health organizations all over the country that can help them deal with mental and psychological distress.
READ: inq.news/mentalhealthhotline
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The narrative really went from 'frontliners are heroes and it's an honor to die for the country' to 'frontliners are ungrateful and wrong for calling out incompetence' ... This is the kind of twist that only this admin can pull off. Grabe
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Importante kasi na alam natin kung bakit tayo naeentertain sa mga media na cinoconsume natin, because in this case, supporting the profit-hungry is to support the downfall of local PH cinema. And we don't want this.
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Thank you everyone! It will always be a privilege. And please always support the campus press! ❤
Congratulations to Ma. Cristina Chi, Tinig ng Plaridel Editor-in-Chief for AY 2020-2021!
Chi, a second year journalism student, is the publication's outgoing news editor and the lone applicant for this year's editorial examination.
🎨: Khim Joshua Raymundo
#TNP42
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When the government, or any institution, wants the press silenced, that's the most crucial time to speak up. Our journalists are our last line of defense against full blown fascism. Without a free press, we will all live in the dark.
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By all means defend your principles, call for accountability. But merely piggybacking off a disorganized, divided student council will only hurt its constituents. If you only want to jump at the opportunity to attack people with clever soundbites, let it stay in the drafts.
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UP's recent statement just basically wants to wash its hands of the "policy of other universities" when it should be at least accountable for the late announcement of its own results. We cannot ask students to choose UP or nothing. Everybody deserves a shot at education.
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Magpapapresscon ka ng hatinggabi para lang bumulwak ng katangahan tungkol sa pagiging threatened mo sa efficiency ng isang mayor. Hindi ka naman talaga concerned sa pagsunod ng mga tao sa social distancing, galit ka lang dahil nalalantad kung gaano kayo kawalang kwenta.
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Frustrating. What's the use of passing a bunch of laws declaring a climate emergency, creating a whole new department for disaster resilience, when our officials can't even follow the basic tenets of environmental conservation.
JUST IN: Chief Justice Diosdado Peralta confirms junking of writ of kalikasan petition vs Bulacan airport
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We are all victims of capitalism. Schools train us to become cheap robots for the profit of companies by teaching us to follow rules without questioning them. And when contractual, abused workers protest their conditions, mainstream media frames them as uneducated.
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Gusto ko lang malaman gaano ako kaantok kagabi at inakala kong Google yung profile ng random Facebook person
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In 2018, when our campus publication was banned by San Beda from publishing what they thought were articles offensive to Duterte, Sen. De Lima penned a letter to support us. She filed a revised campus press freedom bill two months after.
Bilang tagabitbit ni #StandeeLima, tbh, nagulat din ako sa dami ng padalang liham ni Sen. Leila na kumakampi at lumalaban para sa hanay ng mga aktibista.
Noong pinatay ng estado si Baby River, nagsulat si Ma'am ng 6-page letter.
Bilanggong politikal si Sen. Leila. Klaro 'yun.
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First place in News Writing!!!! As the only senior high school students in the midst of Journ university students, we felt the pressure huhuhu. Thank you, Varsi!
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Swiss Ambassador to the Philippines Dr. Nicolas Brühl says the ICC's arrest of former President Rodrigo Duterte is a "success" for the court.
He says the ICC has seen limited success in past years. "This case could prove ... that we can defend human rights." @philstarnews
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