FOLLOWING the Varsitarian’s call on the officers of the UST Alumni Association Inc. (UAAI) to resign over “libelling” UST when it gave the “Outstanding UST Alumna in Government” award to Mocha Uson, there has been a spate of ignorant and infuriating comments on the V’s social media accounts. They claim that the publication has turned a blind eye on more pressing matters such as the cases on the hazing victim Horacio “Atio” Castillo III and Dengvaxia.
Critics claim that the “V” was not “this loud” with the other issues mentioned; that its reports and editorials on the Mocha Uson award made a big deal out of nothing. To them, the publication should “focus more on other national issues,” as if the awarding of a controversial public figure—and government official—did not concern the general public!
These critics must have been absent during the entire coverage of the 90-year-old publication of the Castillo incident. They must have been sleeping when the Varsitarian broke the news on the death
by apparent hazing of Castillo and missed out on the 20-page issue published last September, which featured a full coverage and a timeline of events by the V’s news team.
The trolls masquerading as critics were also absent when the publication constantly streamed online for viewing the Senate hearings and the preliminary investigation of the Department of Justice. Perhaps they were also nowhere to be found when the “V” published an editorial last September 2017 titled “Hazing tragedy: Culture of death is alive and well in and out of UST.”
In an opinion column, a “V” editor last November lamented how UST’s Office for Student Affairs appeared to have committed lapses in monitoring the activities of fraternities of the Faculty of Civil Law, especially their initiation activities.
At the height of the hazing row, the “V” was cited constantly by mainstream media for providing content enough to spark the anger and sympathy of Filipinos against its very own University.
On the notorious Dengvaxia issue, an editorial was released on the December issue of the Varsitarian criticizing how hasty the Aquino administration was on administering the supposed dengue vaccine on students when the formula was still on the trial stage.
“All efforts should now focus on arresting or checking the vaccine’s effects on the students. But of course, this should be done with the caveat that the authorities that would do this would be themselves the culprits of inefficiency, mismanagement and corruption—the DOH, FDA, and the overall bureaucracy,” the editorial said.
Obviously, critics such as these ignorant or shallow netizens lack the responsibility of handling their freedom in expressing their thoughts, as what they create is only a platform for more Filipinos to be in chaos and confusion, much like how Mocha Uson confuses the public with her fake news and crass pro-Duterte propaganda antics.
But these critcs are Mocha Uson’s own babies; they’re the Pavlovian lap dogs created by Duterte’s demagoguery and hate speech and rhetoric of violence. So the Varsitarian is not surprised. In fact, it is proud. These trolls and cretins up in arms against the “V” show that the “V” has been doing its job well.
