By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS
WE wish these three reports were April Fools Day jokes:
One, Spinbusters saying goodbye.
In Its April 1 entry titled “Silly blog concedes writes 30”, the media watchdog wrote, “There’s no going around it, beating around the bush, and running in circles. With bitterness, sadness, and deep regret, we have decided to shut down The Spin Busters. For good.”
Except for the fact that the persons behind the witty blog were anonymous (and therefore deliberately avoiding accountability) I like their scathing criticisms of media.
I will miss it.
Two, BIR request to block Facebook, Twitter over tax.
An April 1 entry in Yugatech’s blog said the Bureau of Internal Revenue sent a request to the National Telecommunications Commission and Internet Service Providers to block several international websites for failure to remit proper taxes from operating within the Philippine internet domain.
Facebook and Twitter are among the top destinations of Filipinos earning for the Philippines the description as “the social media capital of the world.”
BIR Commissioner Kim Henares is not happy that P350 million in advertising and other businesses have been transacted thru Facebook and Twitter since 2009 have escaped their collection net.
Henares was quoted to have said,”The Bureau has been monitoring Facebook and Twitter for the last three fiscal years. It is within our authority to look into their operation and request the proper agencies like NTC to block them if they do not cooperate.”
Please tell me, it’s an April Fools Day joke.
Three, President Aquino chastising the captor of Delfin Lee, Globe Asiatique founder who turned into nightmares the dreams of many working middle class Filipinos to have their own house.
The President, with his usual pasaring(sniping, making a sly or petty verbal attack which only fishwives do) said at the Philippine National Police’s Araw ng Parangal sa Kapulisan:
“This person was not getting a bad position. At sabihin na natin nagpakita siya ng gilas, which he should be rewarded and acknowledged. But at the same time, pumasok sa kaisipan ko: ‘Aba, OK to, goes out on media, says this and that, keeps quiet then goes out again on a media tour. “
Everybody knows that he was referring to Senior Supt. Conrad Capa, who was sacked as head of Task Force Tugis a week after his men arrested Lee .
Capa was excluded from the list of police personnel honored at Camp Crame on Tuesday.
Lee, accused of syndicated estafa for allegedly defrauding the Pag-ibig Fund of P7-billion in housing loans through fake documents and applicants (his name was removed from the PNP’s list of wanted criminals for mysterious reasons), had eluded arrest despite a long standing warrant of arrest until March 6 when he was arrested by Capa’s team at the Hyatt Hotel in Malate, Manila.
After Lee’s arrest Capa was re-assigned to Cebu Regional Police Office to serve as a deputy regional chief for operations. Capa said it was not a promotion and he is being sent there to “rot.”
It was revealed later that Oriental Mindoro Governor Alfonso Umali, a close ally of the President and treasurer of the Liberal Party, tried to block Lee’s arrest.
Aquino said the police officer whom he didn’t name “does the service a disservice. Pinahamak niya yung institusyon na pagka tagal-tagal ng buhay niya at pinaglingkuran niya.”
Huh??? An April Fools day joke?
