Speaking at the Philippine Social Science Council (PSSC)
When I read the email invitation, I was not in Cloud-9, I was exhausted from work and I still have homework from my UP Diliman Professors.
The forward of this Review was from Professor Jonathan Ong, the author of Architects of Networked Disinformation: Behind the Scenes of Troll Accounts and Fake News Production in the Philippines (2018). He is a Research Fellow at Harvard University’s Shorenstein Center for the Technology and Social Change Project. My papers in college often cite his works on shadow economies, humanitarian technologies, and mediated epistemologies, among others. To have him in the same review publication is so surreal. The other autohrs of this Review are Sir Gerard Martin Suarez, a PhD university researcher from the University of the Philippines National College of Public Administration and Governance and the Center for Local and Regional Governance, Professor Pamela Pauline Javier an Assistant Professor at the College of Arts and Sciences of the University of the Philippines Los Baños with a Masteral in Arts in Communication), Venice Micah D. Nieva an author in Rappler and former Chairperson of UP Baguio’s Council of Leaders, Ayra Dorine F. Gallema former UP Bagiuo Student Council and Editorial Board of Ex-Officio 2022, and Orville B. Tatcho, a PhD Fulbright Scholar who had had over 15 research articles published. To be the youngest speaker and writer on this Review meant a greater responsibility especially in locating a core Filipino psychology that might have been eroded by the many unsettling realities in the country. In my Research titled Kapwa: A phenomenological inquiry on the lived mediated communication practices of Anakbayan activists in the Philippines during the COVID-19 pandemic, I discussed and demonstarted that amidst rampant Red-tagging in the Philippines, Pakikipagkapwa in the cyberdialogues of Filipino Youth Activists from Anakbayan across Parallel Discursive arenas is still an unshakeable monolith. Witnessing how the culture and psychology of “Kapwa” is enshrined in Filipino activism at the height of former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s “Shoot-them-dead” order during the COVID-19 pandemic not only show Filipino resiliency but also demonstrates how the Filipino struggle to equality that is considered the social fabric that knit the National Identity of the Philippines and its people has not been lost in history.
This paper has been featured in The Manila Times Report and has also been presented at the Asian Congress for Media and Communication.
I remember my Grandfather Attorney Pineda ran as Congressman in Davao City and it is a canon event that I get to follow his footsteps in fighting for the principles of democracy and the rule of law.
At the end of my conclusion I wrote:
Finally, Anakbayan youth activists do not see cyberactivism as an alternative to offline activism, rather they see it as a part of the movement. The reliance on interpersonal mediated communication during the COVID-19 pandemic made activism narratives move from hating the 1% to emphasizing the tangible social actions needed by the 99%. This way, they invite more privileged moderates and the confused neutrals to participate in the movement against red-tagging and state oppression. In the Philippines, pakikipagkapwa is illustrated in the generation of community pantries that became the rally of the exploited working class and lower-class Filipinos.
Although former President Rodrigo Dutere criticized community pantries, his military attacks, intimidation, and red-tagging of this rally were not successful as Filipinos turned against him (Gotinga, 2021). Social media protests took over the Internet using #CommunityPantryPH and #Resistance to invite more supporters and to tell the administration to step up (Cepeda, 2021). In the end, former President Duterte saluted the people he once tagged as communists (Romero, 2021). For the first time, the strongman was silenced.
The PCS Review 2022 launch is on this Youtube link.
