I earlier wrote an article providing my viewpoint on the idea that there is such a notion as a “Philippine economy in the time of Marcos and Duterte”. This cites the topic of discussion in a symposium pitched using that title that features renowned PhD of Economics candidate and Rappler contributor JC Punongbayan.
The points I articulate are simple:
(1) Regard the Philippine whollistically and not taken out of context for political purposes (i.e. by correlating movements in economic indicators to specific presidents);
(2) Re-evaluate the conclusion that former and current presidents Ferdinand Marcos and Rodrigo Duterte respectively were the cause of the behaviour of economic indicators during their terms under the principle that correlation does not necessarily imply causation.
To these points made in the article, Punongbayan’s response was this:
Sa troll na nagsulat ng blog post against me, maraming salamat sa pag-promote ng @rapplerdotcom at @UsapangEcon!(Don’t bother looking for the post. Uhaw lang sa engagement ang troll na ito.)
One’s gotta wonder though. Is “troll!” a valid response to someone who offers a different point of view? You’d expect a bit more from an aspiring “PhD” of “economics” and a member of the student body of that famous university of so-called “dissent” — the University of the Philippines.
In Punongbayan’s attitude to those who disagree with him lies the fundamental problem of the Philippines’ intellectual landscape (if there is, indeed, something of that sort to begin with). To people like Punongbayan, those who disagree with one’s views are little short humanoids with big ears and ugly faces. Indeed, this is mirrored in the overall regard of the Opposition led by the Liberal Party (a.k.a. the Yellowtards) in the paraphernalia they use in their “protest” rallies. Much of these paraphernalia is marked by imagery of demons and defaced images of politicians they despise.
It is, in fact, the height of irony that the Yellowtards’ most revered blogger, the eminent Jover Laurio of Pinoy Ako Blog (PAB) is the Philippines’ foremost advocate of seeing past physical appearances and focusing on the message being conveyed by the messenger. Yet, even the images used in PAB also reflect this same ironic attitude towards dissent. The accompanying image used in a typical PAB post often involves use of defaced images of people — presumably to make them look ugly.
Ironic, considering this is Pinoy Ako Blog we are talking about, right?
That the idea that someone could be discredited simply by painting that person under an ugly light or suggesting that this person is the devil incarnate still resonates in 21st Century Philippine society is quite amusing. Laurio, to be fair, could be excused for this style of discourse considering that if you judge her book beyond its cover you’d still come up with not much to work with as far as critical thinking goes. However, with aspiring “doctors of economics” such as JC Punongbayan who leans on the academic creds of no less than the Philippines’ premiere State University, there is no excusing such anti-intellectual behaviour.
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