This is coming from a woman who just days ago was an anonymous blogger named Pinoy Ako Blog who slandered and maligned seven senators. She is the same anonymous blogger who called DSWD assistant secretary Lorraine Badoy “retokada” and Sass Rogando Sasot a sex worker in the Netherlands. And this is just a sample of the vitriol that she has unleashed.
This woman owes me big time. Just because she disagreed with my politics, she libeled me.
When I said, “So what if Mocha Uson was appointed assistant secretary? e, si Leni Robredo nga naging Bise Presidente,” this woman retorted: “So what if Mocha Uson was appointed assistant secretary. Si Antonio Contreras nga naging professor, e balahura naman ang bibig.”
And this is the big difference.
There are those who make political commentary without committing libel. Jover Laurio is not of that species. I would have not minded if she just ended with “Si Antonio Contreras nga naging professor.” After all, if I can question the credentials of Leni Robredo to become Vice President, I cannot deny anyone the right to question my credentials to become a professor.
But Jover Laurio went beyond her constitutionally guaranteed free speech, and assaulted my character by alleging that “balahura ang bibig ko,” meaning I have a filthy mouth.
And this is the woman who appears to have become the overnight sensation of the opposition, their new poster girl of sorts, a rallying point for their allegation that the Duterte government, enabled by his social media army, is out to curtail their freedoms.
And the succession of events just prove how orchestrated the spin was. The PR of the opposition must have been very busy, sending Cocoy Dayao to flee and hide, and shifting the focus on Jover Laurio.
And there she was, in a dizzying public exposure, promoted by memes in social media and accolades from former Solicitor General Florin Hilbay to journalist John Nery to jailed senator Leila de Lima.
Rappler did not lose time interviewing her. Mainstream media, which was eerily silent when Nieto, Sasot and VOV PH broke the story on #CocoyGate, suddenly found interest on this comely UPLB graduate who is taking up law and who lives a double life by moonlighting as an anonymous writer of libel. They gave her dramatic coming out a prominent coverage. Inquirer’s John Nery invited her to a forum at the Ateneo. She was even awarded a certificate of appreciation which she gleefully posted in her social media page. And she was interviewed live on BBC
Jover Laurio is now playing the victim card, of how her privacy was violated, her pictures wearing a bikini being displayed without her permission, and her life being turned upside down, forcing her to leave work and school.
She should be reminded that it is nothing but karma, as a form of payback for publicly maligning the reputation of people from the comfort of her anonymity. It is pure justice in a beautiful and poetic way. She inflicted harm by being anonymous. Now, it is her privacy that is being punished.
There is no doubt that she is now being spun and re-imaged by the political opposition as the new Leila de Lima to represent their imagined oppressions in the hands of what they see as a tyrannical president.
Leila de Lima even painted her as an enabler of critical thinking and constructive discussions.
But really, this pathetic effort to launch Jover Laurio as a poster girl for press freedom simply reveals the state of desperation the opposition is in right now.
I echo Darwin Canete, a prosecutor who has been vocal in his support for President Duterte, when I say that it is really amazing how people who have been chastising Mocha Uson for the content of her speech without due regard for her right to it are now celebrating Jover Laurio’s right to free speech, effectively ignoring the libelous content of her posts.
Jover is not even writing satire, like Charlie Hebdo. Her prose is not impeccable or deep. Contrary to the glowing accolades being showered on her, her posts are bereft of any serious political analysis. Her investigative skills are non-existent in comparison to RJ Nieto’s. She does not engage in discourse. Her composition style is at best sophomoric, if not atrocious. She attacks and insults from the cowardice of her anonymity.
Should the opposition insist in celebrating Jover Laurio as the new face of their struggle, then they must be ready to accept the fact that she also reflects their politics. Shallow, negative, devious, devoid of substance and pregnant with personal attacks, things that made the Pinoy Ako Blog what it was, an anonymous blight that tainted the celebration of free speech.
There is one way Jover Laurio can still recover. I would surmise that it would be less sinful if she confesses that it was all just a job for which she was paid for.
But how could she.
There is no doubt that Jover is a person deeply in bed with the opposition. It is not only her posts. It is also found in the gallery of pictures which RJ Nieto has discovered, which just proves everything there is to allege. She posed with prominent opposition figures: Mar Roxas, Leni Robredo, Risa Hontiveros, Bam Aquino, Edwin Lacierda, Abigail Valte and Manolo Quezon, among others. She even received personal greeting cards from some of them.
This woman is yellow through and through. She is not just a fan. She is one of them.
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