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<img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.kahimyang.com/resources-8/grace-poe-ll.webp" alt="Grace Poe" />
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(Grace Poe)
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After the House of Representatives Committee on Legislative Franchises overwhelmingly voted against the enactment of a new legislative franchise for the beleaguered ABS-CBN broadcasting empire July 10, 2020, Poe lost no time in hitting the administration of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte for what the House did.
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When Poe was asked by a newspaper reporter if the House vote on the ABS-CBN franchise was an attack against press freedom, she replied:
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"Maybe legally they did not put it on paper, but indications would point that some of their reasoning would really say that people now are being cautious of what they say, if it might be perceived as something that might be offensive to some people in the government."
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Actually, Poe's statement is a hybrid of speculation and nonsense. Her statement is based not on her actual knowledge but on her mere speculation based on some unidentified "indications" she cited. For Poe, what mattered is that her statement sounded serious and frightening enough to be quoted by the media and for gullible people to believe, even if it was manifestly speculative and devoid of any sense.
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It's like rumormongering on Poe's part, but luckily for her, rumormongering is no longer a criminal offense in this country, and her English is better than that of Vice President Leni Robredo.
Since Poe did not cite the basis for her sweeping conclusions against the government, her statement is another unsubstantiated accusation against the administration, one of many in her disinformation agenda.
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Poe also said that what happened to ABS-CBN shows that "the pandemic of intolerance has claimed another victim." In doing so, Poe insinuated that the Duterte administration is notoriously intolerant of criticism.
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She used the phrase "another victim" to stealthily say that the "intolerant" Duterte administration cracked down on somebody else before it trained its guns on ABS-CBN. Who can that "somebody else" be?
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If it's that egotistical Maria Ressa of the online news forum Rappler, who was recently convicted of cyber libel, then Poe is deliberately misleading the public.
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How can Ressa be a "victim" of an "intolerant" administration when a Manila court convicted Ressa of cyber libel in a criminal case instituted by a private businessman, and when Ressa is currently out on bail and still says nasty things in public against the government? For the record, Rappler was never shuttered by this administration and it continues to operate today.
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Ressa has expensive lawyers at her beck and call, and a local charity legal aid group representing her in court. One of her foreign lawyers, known for defending high-profile international crooks, charges $750 each hour.
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Poe's stealthy reference to Ressa underscores her lack of facts to substantiate her accusations and her inability to understand the consequences of her statements. It also shows that she will exploit every opportunity to discredit the Duterte administration, even to the point of making stealthy, unfounded accusations.
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Many voters believe the late cinema king Fernando Poe Jr. (FPJ) was cheated when he ran for president in 2004. That belief translated to millions of sympathy votes for FPJ's adopted daughter Grace Poe in the 2013 senatorial derby, enough to install her in first place among 12 winning candidates.
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Exploiting all that public sympathy and her ties to her popular late dad, the ambitious Grace Poe ran for president in 2016, but lost miserably to President Duterte. Political analysts opine that Poe is still aching from that embarrassing defeat, and is vengeful against the President.
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Back then, at least two veteran columnists (not from this newspaper) called Grace Poe a political opportunist.
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From the way Poe craves for political publicity, it looks like she wants to run again for president in 2022. She probably thinks that by criticizing President Duterte, the latter's enemies in the Liberal Party and from the politicized Catholic clerics may be hoodwinked into supporting her candidacy.
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If the Philippines remains favored by Divine Providence in 2022, Grace Poe, a former naturalized American citizen, will lose a second time around.
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<b>Source:</b>
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Grace Poe's disinformation agenda, August 1, 2020, <a href="https://tribune.net.ph/" class="news_link" target="_blank" title="source">Concept New Central</a>, The Daily Tribune
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Grace Poe's disinformation agenda: It looks like she wants to run again for president in 2022