Opening the Floodgates: How Free Facebook Changed the Campaign

June 26, 2024

Part 2 of 3 It used to be that campaigning for a candidate meant relying on the “holy grail” of tri-media: print (broadsheets, tabloids, magazines), radio, and TV. Traditional media was my expertise — it’s my background. But the times were changing. As I described in Part 1, when we first tested a possible Duterte candidacy, I was also feeling the pulse of an emerging field: social media, and how it could be used not just to get your message out, but to amplify it. Social media wasn’t new, of course. But by 2016, one thing in particular had become the game-changer — free Facebook. Globe had first rolled out free Facebook access back in 2013, and Facebook expanded it through Free Basics in 2015;

Feeling the Pulse: Was the Nation Ready for a Duterte Presidency?

June 19, 2024

Part 1 of 3 I remember back in 2014, Lito Banayo showed me a presentation prepared by a member of Mr. Bong Go’s staff. The objective was to test public reaction to a possible Duterte candidacy in the 2016 elections. I remember thinking it was an interesting proposition. Finally, a Mindanaon candidate who could truly represent the interests of the region! After what Lito showed me, I drew up a budget and told him that the right kind of exposure would cost ₱40 million. But we found ways to trim it down to eight — and here’s how we did it. It’s a story from more than a decade ago, but the principle behind it is one I’d still hand any strategist working today: the

The Benevolent Dictator: Lessons from Political Campaigning in the Pre-Social Media Era

June 5, 2024

“You should get this man.” That’s what Boo Chanco — then vice president of the news division at ABS-CBN — said to Sergio “Serge” Osmeña III sometime in the 1990s, while pointing directly at me. I still don’t know if Boo was serious or just enjoying himself at my expense. But Serge took him at his word. That offhand introduction turned into one of the defining professional relationships of my career, one that would take me from the newsroom into the war rooms of some of the most consequential campaigns in modern Philippine political history — including the campaign that put Noynoy Aquino in Malacañang in 2010. Understand who Serge Osmeña III was before you understand what he taught me. Born December 13, 1943, he

The ABS-CBN Shutdown, 4 Years Later: An Insider’s Honest Reckoning

May 8, 2024

It is now, four years after it happened, that I’ve finally made peace with what it means for one of the largest networks in the country to lose its franchise. ABS-CBN has, and continues to have, a place very dear to my heart. And I can’t say I was totally blindsided by the events of May 5, 2020. Unknown to most, the seeds were sown long before Mayor Digong ever thought about running for President — and I watched it happen from inside two worlds that were about to collide. How the ABS-CBN Franchise Fight Actually Started Here’s something most retrospectives on the ABS-CBN shutdown get wrong: this didn’t start with Duterte. The renewal process actually began under President Noynoy Aquino, all the way back

The Manilay Mansion – A Glimpse to our Past in GenSan

March 27, 2024

Its been years since I had a chance to go around General Santos. In one of those trips, I happen to visit a mansion in Purok Malakas at the back of SaveMore. The folks around call it the Manilay Mansion. I was informed that the Manilay Mansion is a miniature version (although it is by no means small, as it is an actual mansion) of the original house in Batangas City. It is owned by the family of Warren Manilay, a businessman, who used to live in Batangas. When Manilay and his family moved to General Santos City, he wanted to take a part of his home with him. He did not just bring furniture from his home – he brought his entire house!

Death Don’t Live Here, Anymore – Davao’s Transformation from Murder City to one of Asia’s Most Liveable Cities

February 14, 2024

Killings, robberies, thefts, rapes, kidnappings, and even urban warfare between cops, soldiers, and communist guerillas; Davao City used to have all of that. Lawless would be the perfect word to describe the city in the 80s, and the foreign press even called it the “Murder Capital” of the Philippines.

This is a far cry from what Davao City is today. Resurgent contributor, Aurelio A. Pena, tells a tale of a city disentangled from its dark roots.