{"id":121312,"date":"2017-10-04T06:21:41","date_gmt":"2017-10-04T10:21:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=121312"},"modified":"2017-10-04T06:21:41","modified_gmt":"2017-10-04T10:21:41","slug":"binay-to-mocha-are-you-an-asec-or-blogger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/10\/04\/binay-to-mocha-are-you-an-asec-or-blogger\/","title":{"rendered":"Binay to Mocha: Are you an ASEC or blogger?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\""I<\/a>
“I am not journalist. I am a blogger” Mocha said. (Photo <\/a>by Alex Nuevaespa\u00f1a via Senate of the Philippines\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A heated exchange between senators and Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Assistant Secretary Margaux \u201cMocha\u201d Uson erupted during a Wednesday hearing of the Senate committee on public information and mass media on\u00a0on the proliferation of fake and misleading news and false information.<\/p>\n

United Nationalist Alliance Senator Nancy Binay said that it is high time for Uson to decide if she wants to take the path of being an Assistant Secretary or that of a blogger.<\/p>\n

Citing Republic Act 6713 under section 4, Binay said that government officials can’t use the excuse of doing things in their capacity as private individuals.<\/p>\n

“Para malinaw na malinaw na<\/em> [Just to be very clear] at this point in time hindi mo na pwedeng ihiwalay yung pagiging<\/em> blogger\u00a0mo\u00a0sa pagiging<\/em> Asec. mo<\/em> [you can\u2019t separate your profession as a blogger and as an Asec.],\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Uson who is known as a vocal supporter of President Rodrigo Duterte, defended herself in front of lawmakers, saying that she is just exercising her freedom of speech.<\/p>\n

\u201cLahat naman po tayo ay may karapatang ipahayag ang ating mga sarili <\/em>[Everyone of us has the right to express ourselves],\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnang-una po, karapatan po ng <\/em>blogger yun\u00a0sa kanyang <\/em>opinion, <\/em>madam chair kung, gusto po n\u2019yang hingin ang <\/em>side ng isang tao<\/em>. Opinion po ang\u00a0<\/em>blogging unlike po sa <\/em>mainstream media [First of all, it is the right of a blogger in her opinion, madam chair, if he\/she wants to ask for the side of a person. Blogging is an opinion unlike mainstream media],\u201d\u00a0Uson added.<\/p>\n

Undersecretary Joel Egco who also attended the hearing explained that Uson was the PCOO Assistant Secretary for social media. He\u00a0clarified\u00a0if they still have their right to express their opinions despite holding government positions.<\/p>\n

Poe responded,\u00a0\u201c <\/em><\/strong>Yes you have, If you speak officially on a government\u00a0side, you have.,unless you clarify that it\u2019s your personal opinion but you should not use the government portal.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Assistant Secretary who regularly expresses her opinions in her social media account stressed that she was also a victim of fake news.<\/p>\n

She recalled how she was attacked by ‘bashers’ online due to a report that said that she has been appointed as social media consultant for the Bureau of Customs, a claim then Customs chief Nicanor Faeldon denied.<\/p>\n

‘Fairness’<\/strong><\/p>\n

Uson also said that it is the duty of a journalist to get both sides of a story, a statement Senator Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino slammed.<\/p>\n

\u201cSa dinami-dami ng mga blog mo tungkol sa amin dito. May isang beses ba na humingi ka ng side naming<\/em> [With all your blogs about us here. Did you ask for our side (of the story), even once]?\u201d Aquino said<\/p>\n

\u201cWith all due respect, your honor, I am not journalist. I am a blogger,\u201d Uson replied.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes or no, may isang beses ba na humingi ka ng<\/em> side namin<\/em> [did you ask anyone here atleast once]?\u201d Aquino reiterated.<\/p>\n

Uson refused to answer and said, \u201cI invoke my right against self-incrimination.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo fairness ang hinihingi mo<\/em> Asec Mocha. You\u2019re asking that these organizations be fair to you so ang sinasabi ko lang hinihingi mo yung<\/em> fairness pwedeng bang bigyan mo rin kami ng <\/em>fairness [So you demand fairness Asec. Mocha. You\u2019re asking that these organizations be fair to you, what I\u2019m just saying, if you are asking for it can you give us fairness as well]?\u201d Aquino pressed on.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A heated exchange between senators and Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Assistant Secretary Margaux \u201cMocha\u201d Uson erupted during a Wednesday …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":121326,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,1145,95],"tags":[26055,3239,12568,26056,19632],"class_list":["post-121312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-headline","category-news-ph","tag-assistant-secretary-margaux-mocha-uson","tag-bam-aquino","tag-fake-news","tag-senate-committee-on-public-information-and-mass-media","tag-senator-nancy-binay","mauthors-michealina-vallarta-david","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121312\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}