Piercing Pens

Below is a Technorati Where’s the Fire? (WTF) on Malu Fernandez. Technorati defines WTFs as “short blurbs that explain the buzz around people, things, or events—why the hot topics are so hot—and you can vote the best ones to the top.”

Society columnist Malu Fernandez of the Philippines, in her now-controversial People Asia article “From Boracay to Greece,” insulted overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) that she encountered in a plane trip to Greece.

Fernandez wrote that she “wanted to slash [her] wrist at the thought of being trapped in a plane with all of them,” referring to the OFWs at a duty-free shop in Dubai, UAE. She also wrote that the OFWs were noisy and that her “Jo Malone [perfume] evaporated into thin air” while they smelled of cheap perfume brands. (more…)

Ellen Tordesillas’ blog reposted a report on the launch of “Trillanes, Paglingkurin!” movement, which included former Vice President Guingona and former UP President Francisco Nemenzo.

The group will do a nationwide campaign to exert pressure on the Arroyo government “to allow detained senator Antonio Trillanes IV to perform his duties as a lawmaker.” Trillanes, Paglingkurin! movement’s unity statement is reposted on Tinig.com, and the group could be contacted at trillanespaglingkurin@gmail.com. (more…)

Online news sources abs-cbnNEWS.com and GMANews.tv reported that Malu Fernandez has resigned and apologized over her People Asia article that insulted the overseas filipino workers (OFWs).

Anti-Malu Fernandez sentiments filled the Philippine blogosphere the past few weeks as a reaction to her controversial column “From Boracay to Greece” where she wrote that she “wanted to slash [her] wrist at the thought of being trapped in a plane with all of them,” referring to the OFWs in Dubai.

The Filipino Press Club-Dubai, group of Filipino professional journalists from the print, broadcast and web-based media in the United Arab Emirates, has also issued a statement calling for an apology and disciplinary action against Fernandez.

“We strongly demand that the publishers of People Asia and Manila Standard Today to take full responsibility and do the right thing: give Ms Fernandez and her editors a disciplinary action and apologise to the people insulted by these articles,” the group said.

(more…)

Congratulations to the winners of Digital Filipino‘s Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs [in the Philippines] for 2007:

1. An Apple a Day
   The Philosophical Bastard
2. The D Spot
3. CokskiBlue
4. Make Money Online with a 13-Year Old
5. Culture Shiok!
   Utakgago
6. Kubiertos
7. FruityOaty
   PinoyBlogero
8. The Dork Factor
   The Anitokid Chronikos
9. Gibbs Cadiz
10. Confessions of a Hopeless Romantic

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First we saw this:

Now, this just came out:

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President Arroyo yesterday appointed Court of Appeals Presiding Justice Ruben Reyes as newest Supreme Court associate justice.

I was pleased to hear this news as it I think it is just fair that the CA presiding justice should be promoted to the High Court before anyone else. I was about to say maybe the President is becoming more prudent in appointing people–then I remembered that Lito Atienza took his oath as environment secretary just this week.

Ibon’s latest survey revealed that 77% of Filipinos consider themselves poor.

According to Ibon, 76.8% of respondents to the IBON July 2007 Survey said they thought of themselves as poor. This is an increase from 67.6% in January and 69.3% in the same period last year.

IBON executive editor Rosario Bella Guzman, said the survey results are not surprising considering that there are still insufficient livelihood opportunities in the country. (more…)