Google users unite to help Filipinos

Tulong Pinoy Movement

Various nationalities are using popular search engines and social networks in helping Filipinos cope with the recent Typhoon Ondoy calamity. Facebook has been swamped with information on ongoing relief efforts.

I, along with my friends, am uniting every one over at Facebook to do their level best to help victims of the typhoon. Now that another one is coming, we need to shore up more support especially in giving relief goods so that every one survives this.

Tulong Pinoy is a personal initiative. And it is working to help relief agencies, albeit, without much fanfare, because I believe that if you help, don’t publicize it. Don’t emulate Erap, who went to Cainta just to have some photo ops.

Pinoy Scandal: Vicki Belo gets one from Facebook user (update)

Dr. Vicki Belo, the alleged unlicensed doctor of beauty in the Philippines, is again, involved in another controversy which has the explosive nature of a nuclear bomb.

Belo probably thinks that she owns the world after surviving that sex scandal brouhaha. By the way, I am asking the NBI again—where’s the complaint against Belo who was identified by Katrina Halili as part of the group who distributed the nefarious Hayden Kho-Katrina Halili sex tapes?

Facebook user and activist-lawyer Argee Guevarra today welcomed the libel suit filed by the Belo Medical Group and Dr..Vicki Belo against him at the Office of the City Prosecutor in Taytay, Rizal, Philippines, for his status updates and shout-outs in his private Facebook account.

Guevarra, who acts as counsel for Belo victim Josefina Norcio over two botched butt augmentation procedures performed by the Belo Medical Group using the banned substance Hydrogel, was sued for libel over status update posts in his Facebook account where Guevarra called for a national patients’ boycott of Belo Clinics and for referring to Dr. Belo as “Reyna ng Kaplastikan, Reyna ng Kapalpakan” (Queen of False Pretenses, Queen of Incompetence).

Dr.Vicki Belo is a celebrity doctor previously involved in a video sex scandal.  She operates upscale plastic and cosmetic surgery clinics frequented by this impoverished nation’s elite and owns various offshore clinics and booking offices in Thailand, South Korea and the United States.  Dr. Belo, however, is not licensed by the Philippine Association of Plastic Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons (PAPRAS) to perform cosmetic surgery procedures.  She presides over a multi-million dollar empire consisting of plastic surgery clinics, beauty salons and manufactures health and beauty products.

The suit is the first Facebook libel case in the world where the complainant does not even belong to the defendant’s network of Facebook friends.  A previous Facebook libel case was,  however, filed in UK where businessman Mathew Firsht sued a former school friend over a false personal profile on the site that included private information about him and untrue allegations about his sexual orientation.

The libel suit  against Guevarra was commenced vicariously through Dr. Belo’s general  manager who managed to add herself to Guevarra’s network of 1,472 friends.

Guevarra, a political activist previously jailed by the Arroyo regime for his participation in two failed uprisings, similarly faced a Php 300 million ($6 million) libel suit from former First Lady Imelda Marcos 13 years ago after Guevarra wrote in his erstwhile column in BusinessWorld, a series of commentaries accusing the former strongman’s wife of widespread plunder during the reign of the Marcos dictatorship.

The libel suit was eventually dismissed.

Guevarra welcomes the libel suit as an opportunity to invite public attention to the hazards and dangers of cosmetic surgery clinics performing surgeries with untrained, unskilled, incompetent and unlicensed medical practitioners and advertising such services as safe and hopes to ring alarm bells at the Health Department against the proliferation of such colorum clinics which is destroying the country’s medical tourism industry and earning for the country the moniker of being Asia’s No. 1 Chop Shop. More than this, Guevarra seeks to defend himself all the way to the Supreme Court in order to elicit jurisprudence regarding internet-based libels.

Guevarra reacted to the libel suit in his Facebook status update which states:

“A wannabe mortician masquerading as a cosmetic surgeon will never be able to stitch up the difference between formalin or botox, between free speech or slander when suing for libel a Facebook user for his shout outs and status updates. Such surgical stupidity results in mistaking Facebook for Erasebook”.

For his part, Atty.Guevarra’s counsel, Atty. J.V. Bautista, a U.P. classmate of Dr. Belo, laughed off the libel suit and pointed out its material defects –

“The libel case filed by Dr. Belo needs a serious facelift before it could even be dignified in any court of law.  The pleading itself reads and looks like a failed surgery on the laws of libel …

First, the venue is improperly laid. It should not have been filed before the Taytay Prosecutor Office  and instead filed before Makati City Prosecutor’s Office which is the place of the offended party (Dr. Belo) and where Facebook, Philippines holds Office.  The filing of the case in Taytay may have sinister motives.  What is so special about filing the case in Taytay?

Second, the libelous statements were printed and published by Dr. Belo’s own general manager and upon the authority given her by Dr. Belo’s estranged husband and Belo Medical Group Corporate Secretary Atom Henares, which should make said general manager a co-respondent of Atty. Guevarra.  In effect, Dr. Belo should be suing her own general manager;

Third, the alleged defamatory statements are privileged communication and are per se, not libelous.  Said statements of Atty.Guevarra fall under constitutionally protected exercise of free speech;

Finally, the analogous libel case of Alfonso Yuchengco/Pacific Plans vs. Philip Piccio, arising from a blog written  by Mr. Piccio against Pacific Plans was ordered dismissed by the Department of Justice which ruled that there is no such thing as internet libel since Art. 355 of the Revised Penal Code strictly provides that libel can only be committed  by means set forth therein (writing, printing, radio etc.) and does not include the internet.  Furthermore, criminal statutes are construed strictly in favor of the accused.”

       The preliminary investigation is set on Sept. 24, 2009 at the Taytay Hall of Justice, Taytay, Rizal before Asst. City Prosecutor Cheloy Garrafil.

Vicki Belo needs a legal facelift and fast. And probably Vicki Belo should fire her General Manager. Probably they thought that the public already forgot about the sex scandal involving her. The sex scandal is still very fresh.

Facebook user charged for libel

Atty. Argee Guevarra was charged with libel by Dr. Vicki Belo, remember of the Hayden Kho sex tapes fame? Argee reportedly wrote disparaging remarks against Dr. Belo over Facebook, a popular social networking site.

The suit, filed by no less than the General Manager of the Belo Medical Group (which, by the way this medical group is involved in at least three boltched surgeries, one of which is their butt operation to one of their clients, Ms. Josie Norcio) says that Argee committed libel last August 3, 2009.

Libel, if Ms. Agnes Ballesteros and the Belo Group’s battery of lawyers do not know, is an act committed when a person intentionally attributed or imputed a crime against another which caused serious damage to image and reputation. While I’m reading the complaint, I found nothing libelous there. Argee was simply reacting to a (1) rally staged by some Belo Medical Group victims and (2) sharing information that some of his relatives got bad service from the Group. (Read the complaint over at pinoybuzz.blogspot.com).

Now, when Argee postulated that maybe the “payola” machinery of the Belo Group worked when no TV coverage or print article appeared after the rally, is it still libelous? No. It was a view shared to many. Argee did not categorically state that there was indeed payola given by the Belo Group to journalists who covered the rally.

Anyway, if Argee was merely stating facts which already happened, what is so libelous about that? Besides, how can you charge libel against a Facebook user when there is no law in the Revised Penal Code (RPC) nor special laws prohibiting somebody from commenting negatively against anybody over at Facebook, an online social networking site? If there is no single provision in the RPC penalizing or criminalizing Facebook remarks, then, where’s libel?

Facebook & a Filipino Journalist

Facebook is one of my favorite social networks. Aside from the wonderful apps, Facebook allows one to really enjoy talking with people you don’t know or friends you have not seen for a long time.

Unlike Plurk, Facebook is fun to use. You don’t feel that the platform is intrusive. In fact, you enjoy it too much, most of the times you really feel free sharing personal info and views over there.

That’s what happened to fellow blogger RG Cruz. RG is my colleague over at FilipinoVoices. He’s very active in blogging, Facebook-ing and Plurk-ing. He’s always around. Same as Sandra Aguinaldo, Nelson Lubao and some other journalists. They’re very active.

Recently, however, they’re nowhere to be found. Even their blogs have become inactive. Why?

Maybe they heard what happened to RG Cruz? RG, if you still don’t know, was reportedly admonished by Korina Sanchez for his alleged disparaging remarks online.  In a letter with the heading ” A Letter to Management”, Korina Sanchez put RG to task for publishing those comments against her while Mar was announcing his withdrawal from the presidential race.

Or, if that letter over at Atty. Marichu Lambino’s blog is to be believed, it was Korina who is asking for RG’s head.

Korina reportedly wrote that letter which if you read, does not entirely or directly call for RG’s head. There is an insinuation that RG will leave this world as inconsequentially as he entered it. Here’s a snipnet of what Korina wrote:

“So to you,  RG Cruz, I say, I hope that — as your Facebook entry  narrated — as you were “eating chocolate” and  indulging your gastronomical cravings while events at Club  Filipino on  the 2^nd of  September 2009 were unfolding and all  you could think of and delight in, as written in your  Facebook, are your cruel attacks, pettiness, inanities and  insensitivities to the sacrifice of others and, horror of  horrors, make these public — you will, henceforth, attempt  to save yourself from the very real prospect of  disappearing, leaving this world without a trace, no better  and even worse than when you found it.”

What’s Korina’s point?

That RG has the responsibility not to express his thoughts online since its public domain? That, because they’re colleagues, RG should take the responsibility of  keeping his mouth shut when a colleague is involved?

As a responsible journalist, Korina should have instead, took RG to task for his views by not resorting to pressuring management to have his head served on a platter. I mean, we’re not living in feudal times anymore, right?

This issue is between Korina and RG—not management and RG.If there is a regulation that prohibits ABS-CBN employees from engaging in social networks, it should be expressly stated in their Code of Ethics or Corporate Manual. This is much as can be gleaned from Korina’s words, again, let me quote:

“ In the  interest of sound policy covering such misdemeanors to protect its employees and talents and maintain the civility  required of us all to achieve company goals — as  painlessly as humanly possibly — I have inquired with  management and have urged them to take a closer look at the  cyberworld as public domain and which is a potent instrument  for destruction and unwarranted personal aggravation of its  victims, especially in the hands of co-employees.”

So, for Korina, RG’s remarks are “misdemeanors” acted out in the “cyberworld”. In Korina’s world, journalists are not supposed to interact with other people particularly online because “that’s public domain”.

Journalists are human beings. They’re entitled to a life, right? What they do outside their off-office hours are theirs and theirs alone.

Now, this issue boils down to rights. Does RG Cruz have the right to express his views for or against a colleague of his online or offline? He does, as far as I know, because we’re still living in a democratic society, yes? Of course, views are to be tempered by decency and ethics, right?

In this case, what RG committed was not a misdemeanor; rather RG Cruz only lacked the acuity of judgment. He failed to be a team member. He failed in his obligation to be actually fair. And fairness dictates that after telling Korina that “she’s a queen without a crown”, RG should have qualified that to mean, otherwise?

Korina Sanchez wants ABS-CBN reporter RG Cruz’s head over Facebook remarks

Korina Sanchez, erstwhile fiance of Senator Mar Roxas, is again on the warpath. After Mar lost the Liberal Party nomination, Korina went on a rampage. She first engaged Inquirer columnist Conrad de Quiros, accusing him of disparaging Mar thru his daily column. Then, she trained her guns against Senator Kiko Pangilinan, practically accusing the senator of kawalang utang na loob.

I thought that that was the last of Korina’s outburst. However, today, I chanced upon Atty. Marichu Lambino’s blog, with a glaring scoop on Korina Sanchez’ letter to the ABS-CBN management, asking for RG Cruz’s head.

RG Cruz, one of the most active traditional journalist in the web and a colleague here at FilipinoVoices, is being accused by Korina of writing negative remarks against her in his Facebook account. Read the letter over at Lambino’s blog and you’ll sense how bitter and acerbic Korina is.

She virtually described RG Cruz as a relative unknown, a guy with dubious fashion taste and with a cloak and dagger personality. To my mind, Korina is entitled to comment on RG Cruz’s fashion sense. That’s her right.

But, to ask for that poor guy’s head over some personal remarks over Facebook reflects the true nature of Korina as a domineering mayordoma in that household called Kapamilya channel.

RG Cruz is entitled to his own opinions and views. For Korina to stifle his right to free expression shows you how stupid Korina is. Let me rephrase this—it shows how fake Korina is.

She demands that government respects every right of each and every citizen, when deep down inside her lurks a dictator ready to pounce on hapless journalists like RG Cruz and Conrad de Quiros. It’s downright okey if Korina just wrote a letter to RG Cruz asking him why he thinks about her that way. But, for her to use her “enormous powers and influence” and breath down on this guy just because of what he believes in, that’s too much.

I thank God that He allowed Noynoy to snatch the Liberal Party nomination away from Mar. Kung hindi, baka naging accessory pa tayo in bringing to the palace, another Imelda Marcos.