Rappler is at it again.
After getting its license back just a few months ago, I thought that it would have learned to be responsible enough, but no.
Just days ago, it came up with an article which is obviously a highly PR job for a mayoral candidate in Manila. No matter how apparent its bias is, it seemingly did not care enough to protect whatever little credibility is left of it.
The article made it appear that Mayor Honey Lacuna is battling an uphill climb because her opponent is leading by a big margin, based on a supposedly ‘confidential’ survey.
The story was overstretched with but one purpose: promote the candidacy of their preferred candidate and put down Mayor Honey. Nearly every paragraph of it. Funnily, the ending even promoted a restaurant owned by their preferred candidate. Where is this online outfit’s shame???
We all know that surveys are paid to favor a certain candidate— the one paying it or the one being supported by the one who commissioned it for a fee.
Even genuine surveys cannot be relied on as truly indicative of what the majority of the voters really want. In Manila for instance, the number of respondents which is usually just a thousand or less, cannot be reflective of the will of its voters numbering over 800,000.
The results will also depend on where the survey is made. If it is done on the bailiwick of the candidate paying for the survey, of course that candidate will emerge on top. But that would be fooling not only the people but the candidate himself, something of which Mayor Honey’s opponent is an expert.
Rappler, which claims to be a news website, could not even be fair enough in its reporting. Publishing a fake survey and making it appear like a candidate has already won, this early, is one way of engaging in the wrongdoing of advertising for a candidate and conditioning the minds of its readers, no matter how few.
It is probably unaware that this act is punishable and prohibited under Comelec rules and the surveyor it is quoting may even be questioned.
Rappler, which faced legal charges for violation of the Constitution for being foreign-owned when the law dictates that media outfits must be wholly owned by Filipinos, even faced tax evasion charges during the time of President Duterte,who also called out the same organization for its biased reporting.
Its officials were accused of having violated the “Anti-Dummy Law” which prohibits Filipinos from acting as proxies for non-citizens just to circumvent legal restrictions.
Who are they to conclude that a certain candidate is leading or not? What happens then if the final election results turns out to be otherwise?
I suggest that we all wait for the legitimate results.
Now, if the election results did not go the way that such organization presented or projected, may I also suggest that those responsible for the ‘mind-conditioning’ article be ‘honorable’ enough to rectiy themselves by committing ‘harakiri’?
It is no secret that the runningmate of Mayor Honey’s political rival has a brother whose Taiwanese wife was named as one of Rappler’s financiers during the time of President Duterte, Thus, the bias against Mayor Honey.
Foreigners must never be allowed to influence the outcome of our country’s elections and those claiming to be media outfits must not allow themselves to become tools for propaganda. That is, if those running them still cares about credibility or even plain shame.
