Willy the whale

The movie Free Willy – about an orphan boy and a whale separated from his family – highlights the plight of the endangered marine mammal.  In the Philippines, we have the butanding which visit the country’s shores, particularly in Southern Luzon Region and Central Philippines where there are plenty of plankton, whales’ favorite food.

Willy, of course, is the whale.  He was captured and put in a tank but because he is not a natural entertainer, his "owner" plans to sell him.  When somebody he trusts finally taught him how to "perform", the owner had decided that he is better off dead because of the insurance he will get.

The boy in the movie eventually learned about the evil plan and decided helped save the whale by releasing him back into the ocean, where he belongs.

It is sad to know that many people are oblivious about whales, their eating habit, and importance in maintaining a healthy marine ecosystem.

Like other marine mammals, whales deposit nutrients that make the ocean healthy. 

Floating dung left behind by whales are important fertilizers which help algae grow.  Algae produce are feeds to small fishes and other marine life.   Small fishes are prey to bigger fishes and the bigger fishes are what we, humans, catch to put food on the table.

One mayor, Nelson Garcia of Dumanjugin Cebu province, is actually advocating the slaughter of whales and dolphins, because he considers them as “pests” that eat fish and compete with small fishermen whose daily fish catch have dwindled over the past decades.

The mayor said “whale sharks and dolphins are pests, eating two tons of fish a day.”

Garcia even want commercial fishers to catch fish at the Tanon Strait, a protected seascape between the islands of Cebu and Negros called Tanon Strait Protected Seascape (TSPS).  The TSPS is under siege and various stakeholders, government, private sector, and communities are linking arms to ensure that stronger protection measure will be put in place. 

The TSPS is known as home to amazingcreatures of the sea and various stakeholders are closing ranks to protect it against illegal and destructive fishing activities.

Netizens, however, know better.  One FB user condemned the mayor’s statement and called on netizens to condemn Garcia’s pronouncement. 

Watching movies, like Free Willy, help promote better appreciation of whales who are victimized by greedy businessmen, who either catch them to be slaughtered for food, medicine or to catch them live only to put them in giant tanks and showcased as tourism attraction - for the profit.

But we need a better understanding about the importance of biodiversity which should be taught in schools to inculcate into our young children’s minds the importance of maintaining a healthy ecology.

After all, humans are on top of the food chain and with those below of the food chain vanishing because of biodiversity loss, we are surely doomed.

Finding Nemo, saving Dory

Finding Dory, the sequel to the animated movie, Finding Nemo would surely make you fall in love once again with these cute and adorable marine fishes.

But did you know the two movies are not just about the adventure and struggles of Nemo, Dory and their friends?

It is also about the plight of marine fishes who are taken away from their natural habitats to be put in artificial environment called aquarium.

Best Alternatives is leading the DefendDory campaign to help save Nemos and Dorys by leaving these marine fishes alone - in the ocean - where they belong, anticipating that the movie release will again result in, not saving the marine fishes, but catching more of them from the ocean to be condemned in aquaria.

Best Alternatives Campaign Leader Gregg Yan said there are more ways than one to help save Nemo and Dory.

■ ■ ■

These adorable marine fishes have important purpose in the marine ecosystem.

Lately, the DENR's top biodiversity official said Palawan's coral reefs, particularly along Honda Bay, are dying because of coral bleaching.

The bleaching, says DENR Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB) Chief Theresa Mundita S. Lim, is because of El Nino and the effects of climate change.

We can help stop coral bleaching, too, by defending our ocean against destructive human activities.

That is one sure way of saving Nemo, Dory and their cute liitle friends, too.


Image credit: Disney Pixar, RVS Fishworld

Philippine eagle in the brink of extinction


The Philippine eagle (Pithecophaga jefferyi) is the largest of all bird of prey in the world.  It can only be found in the Philippines.  This species is a national symbol and was declared as the National Bird of the Philippines.

A juvenile eagle rescued by a farmer inside a Protected Area 
in Aurora Province last June 1 
DENR-Strategic Communication and Initiatives Service

Until now, the "monkey-eating eagle" is critically endangered.  It is still being hunted in the wild. Considered as critically-endangered, the Philippine eagle has a unique way of breeding.  

Once paired, the male and female are forever attached to each other, and will not find another mate if one of them dies.  

That is perhaps the reason why breeding is a lot difficult for these "Noble Flyers".  
Another reason for their dwindling population is the fact that our forests are shrinking.  

These eagles are territorial and would not allow others of its kind, not even their offspring, to live within 13,000 hectares radius.

That is the reason why reforestation is needed if we are to save these eagles from extinction.

While it is prohibited to hunt or capture these birds of prey in the wild, they remain highly at risk because of poor law enforcement.  The country's Protected Areas, an area which is by law a no-take zone is being raided by hunters.  Some of these illegal acts are perpetrated by the people in the communities themselves.  Trapping animals sometimes accidentally catches the rare eagles as they hunt for food.  A snare intended for monkeys have once caught a juvenile eagle set up by hunters within a Protected Area in Aurora Province.  This demonstrate how hard-headed are hunters, if not people in the communities themselves - whoever they are.  

The eagle's natural habitats, the forests, are not safe from destructive human activities like illegal logging, irresponsible nature trip and mountain climbing which have, in the past, triggered disastrous fire such as the recent fire in Mount Apo, home to the Philippine eagle.  The destruction of their habitats are one of the leading cause of habitat loss.

The Philippine government has an on-going program to save the species but these are mainly anchored on the protection of the country's Protected Areas - some of which are known to be their nesting grounds.  

However, there are nests outside Protected Areas that need to be protected, too.

The DENR is looking at declaring them as Critical Habitat for the Philippine eagle to boost its protection against destructive human activities, including hunting for food, trophy or illegal wildlife trade.  

We can helps save the Philippine eagle by supporting the DENR's reforestation program and the campaign against hunting wildlife.

Ocean hero ready to die to protect Tanon Strait


'God forbid, I will not stop until I'm dead'

This was how ocean defender Norlan Pagal describes his passion to protect Tanon Strait, a Protected Area under the category of a Protected Seascape between Cebu and Negros.

Pagal, who is now bound to his wheel chair, is still recovering from his injury.  A bullet pierced his spinal column during an assassination attempt by still unidentified suspects.

He was among four protectors of the Tanon Strait who were conferred the Ocean Heroes Award, the first of its kind, organized by Oceana Philippines, a not-for-profit ocean conservation advocacy group, in partnership with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) - Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB) and Department of Agriculture (DA) - Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) as part of the celebration of World Oceans Day in Cebu City last June 8, 2016.

A few months after, he is back on the job to help protect the Tanon Strait Protected Seascape (TSPS), which is home to amazing creatures of the sea - dolphins, whales, sea cows or dugongs and marine turtles.

He said he is helping protect the Tanon Strait for the future generation.

"It is our duty and responsibility to our children to protect the ocean," he said.

Pagal said many species of fish are in the brink of extinction because of illegal fishing activities.

What is happening now in Tanon Strait, he said, can be stopped if the people will join hands in protecting it against illegal fishing activities, particularly the use of destructive dynamite and cyanide to catch more fish.

We can all help protect the ocean.  We can join the ocean clean-up activities in our towns, stop throwing garbage in our rivers, or report illegal fishing and other destructive human activities that destroy our marine ecosystems to authorities.  Take photos of them, post them on social network sites, report them to generate public awareness and hopefully, to rally the people behind the campaign to save our ocean.


  



 

High hopes for the tamaraw population

By Jonathan L. Mayuga

Published in the Business Mirror, June 5, 2015

http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/high-hopes-for-the-tamaraw-population/

 

The tamaraw

WITH its slightly increasing population—a trend observed in the last five years in Mindoro—environment officials believe there is a bright future for the endangered Philippine tamaraw.

Despite the threats, they believe that conservation effort at the Mounts Iglit-Baco National Park (MIBNP) for the Mindoro’s wild beast, also known as the Mindoro dwarf buffalo (Bubalus mindorensis), continues to gain ground, hopeful the dream that they will once be seen roaming free in the wild will become a reality.

Endemic to Oriental and Occidental Mindoro, an island in the Mimaropa region in southern Luzon, the tamaraw is amongthe proposed national symbols. In fact, Presidential Proclamation 273 of 2002 declares October of every year as a special month for the Conservation and Protection of the Tamaraw in Mindoro.

The tamaraw is currently considered a critically endangered species. Only a few hundreds remain of this unique species, which could only be found in the hinterlands of Mindoro Island.

Compared to the stocky or bigger native carabao (Bubalus bubalis carabanesis), the tamaraw bears V-shaped horns, has a shorter tail and a scraggly coat of chocolate to ebony fur.

It is wild and aggressive, unlike its domesticated cousin, the “beast of burden” and Filipino farmers’ best friend and most reliable farming companion.

A fully grown tamaraw stands about 4-feet tall and weighs about 300 kilograms (kg), significantly lighter by 200 kg to 300 kg than the ordinary native carabao.  

According to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Biodiversity Management Bureau (DENR-BMB), the remaining tamaraw population in Mindoro is concentrated atop grassy slopes and forest patches of Mounts Iglit and Baco, and a few other areas on Mounts Aruyan, Bongabong, Calavite and Halcon. 

Increasing population

The country’s top biodiversity official said the population of the tamaraw continues to increase over the past five years, basing the conclusion on the result of an annual population survey conducted in the MIBNP.

Director Theresa Mundita Lim of the DENR-BMB said that, based on the annual count conducted in April 2011, there are only 274 tamaraws left. This is the highest number since the annual count started in 2000. 

It was estimated that 10,000 of this rare animal thrive on the island of Mindoro in the early 1900s. Because of the cattle-killing rinderpest disease, its population was drastically reduced in the 1930s. 

Its population continues to shrink owing to logging and hunting until the 1970s, when the population fell below 100, prompting the government to launch the Tamaraw Conservation Program (TCP).

Despite a failed captive-breeding program that started in 1980s, the strong-protection measure that was used in the protected area saw the population of the tamaraw slowly increasing.

In 2012 the number went up to 327; 347 in 2013; 382 in 2014; and 405 in 2015. Rodel Boyles, head of TCP and Protected Area Superintendent (Pasu) of the MIBNP, said a total of 413 tamaraw was recorded this year. 

This year the tamaraw count was conducted between April 12 and April 19, with the DENR, through the Protected Area Management Board (PAMB), taking the lead. PAMB acts as the policy-making body in the management of the protected area, which is being enforced by the Office of the Pasu.

Boyles said, the tamaraw count was conducted in partnership with the Far Eastern University (FEU), local government units (LGUs), and DENR partner and volunteer organizations. 

A total of 65 volunteers took part in the count from 18 vantage points within the MIBNP, counting herds from a distance of 200 meters to 500 meters from identified tamaraw feeding grounds.

“The trend is increasing in the last five years. As far as counting is concerned, it was increasing. We conducted the count for five days and we spent a day for data analysis,” Boyles said.

He said the counting is synchronized in different areas. 

“There are many calves, so that means the population is increasing because of breeding.  But the size of our study is limited. We have to improve or expand our study areas,” he said, partly in Filipino.

Boyles said they intend to improve the system of counting the tamaraw to include other areas where the herds have been sighted.

Other areas, such as in Sablayan, which is already outside the protected area, could be included in the annual count, he said. “We are considering other areas, but we have to validate the potential areas first.” So far, Boyles noted that the area being observed as part of the annual tamaraw count is only about 14 percent of the total area of the MIBNP. 

“There are other areas where the tamaraw thrives. This means that the population may actually be higher than the number we are recording,” he said.

For her part, Lim said that, while the slight increase in this year’s annual tamaraw count may not be “impressive,” the growth in the population is, nevertheless, a significant development.

“It is safe to say that the population remains healthy and it is actually increasing,” she said.

“In fact, outside Mounts Iglit-Baco National Park in Mindoro, there are reported sightings of the tamaraw. This means that the population is slightly increasing,” Lim told the BusinessMirror.

She said in the future more areas should be included in the annual count to make a more accurate assessment of the tamaraw population trend.

Key biodiversity area

A protected area under the National Integrated Protected Areas System (Nipas) Act, MIBNP became a national park by virtue of Republic Act (RA) 6149 dated November 9, 1970. 

A key biodiversity area, the entire MIBNP is shared by the towns of Gloria, Bansud, Bongabong, Pinamalayan and Mansalay in the province of Oriental Mindoro; and the towns of Sablayan, Calintaan, Rizal and San Jose province in the province of Occidental Mindoro.

While the park is named after two prominent mountains—Mount Iglit (2,364 meters above sea level) and Mount Baco (2,488 meters above sea level)—there are two other mountains within the protected area, namely, Mount Wood (2,024 meters above sea level) and Mount Sinclair (1,842 above sea level).

The park is blessed with abundant water with five major river systems and several minor systems draining from the various peaks.

Grassland is the most predominant land cover of MIBNP, comprising around 72,811 hectares, or 38.25 percent, of the total land area, ideal for feeding ground of tamaraw, and a remaining forest area of about 29.83 percent of the park’s total land area.

According to a biological profile of MIBNP, 63 species of plants can be found in the area. The majority of the species are orchids and begonias. Aside from the wild tamaraw, the park is also home to monkeys, wild pigs, palm cat and Malay civet. 

Nine species of fruits and insect bats thrive in the park. A total of 104 species of birds also breed in the park, including the Mindoro Imperial Pigeon, Mindoro Bleeding Heart, Mindoro Scops Owl, Mindoro Flowerpecker, Mindoro Hornbill and the Black-hooded coucal. A total of 11 species of snakes were also recorded; 14 species of lizards and nine species of amphibians.

Hunting practices

Two known Mangyan tribes—the Buhid and Tau-Buhid, which are claiming vast portions of the park as their ancestral domain—live within the MIBNP, which continues to face various threats, such as logging, illegal-wildlife trade and hunting for food and trophy.

Boyles said hunting in the MIBNP remains a serious threat to the population of the tamaraw in the wild—a reason dispersal in other areas is not happening.

“Hunting is part of the culture of the Mangyans. For them, hunting tamaraw is subsistence; it’s food,” he said.

While there are national laws that protect the tamaraw, Boyles said there is also a law, specifically the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act (Ipra), that guarantees the protection and of the traditional way of life of the Mangyan.

Laws that protect the tamaraw against hunting include Commonwealth Act 73, RA 1086, RA 7586 or the Nipas Act, which establishes protected areas, and RA 9147, or the Wildlife Resources Conservation and Protection Act.

For Mangyans, Boyles said they have designated certain areas where hunting tamaraw is allowed. While he said there are designated areas for traditional hunting, he also sees the need for management intervention, such as restricting the hunt to fewer and smaller areas.

He said the PAMB is eyeing to tighten the regulation in hunting tamaraw which is exclusive for the Mangyan, it being part of their tradition and way of life. According to Boyles, the lowlanders’ unsustainable hunting methods are influencing the Mangyan. He noted that Mangyan now use guns instead of spears, nylons instead of vines for snare, and bigger traps. “Before, Mangyan use only spears in hunting tamaraws. Now they use guns. For snare, they used to use vines but now they use nylons,” he said. 

Using vines for snare, he explained, does not seriously injure a tamaraw, giving them a better chance of survival if they are able to escape. Nylons injure the tamaraw when it struggles to escape.

“If the tamaraw escapes from the snare, the chance of survival is low if it is injured,” he explained.

Being an endangered species, hunting of tamaraw is prohibited under the law but since it is part of the Mangyan tradition and way of life, “we are letting them to hunt but we want to enforce stricter rules,” he said.

Boyles said regulating the use of other animal traps, such as steel cages and pits, is being eyed.

“We want them to make small steel cages and smaller pits,” he said. Bigger cages or pits means catching more than one tamaraw, including juveniles, he said.

Another concern is that the lowlanders hunt in the MIBNP not just for food, but for trophies, and they target not just tamaraws, but other wildlife, too.

Biodiversity conservation

According to Boyles, they continue to engage the Mangyans living within and outside the protected area, with the hope of getting their complete support.

“We continuously hold our information, education and communication campaign. We want to show them that they will be affected if the tamaraw is gone in Mindoro,” he said partly in Filipino.

Besides moderating hunting practices, he said they are eyeing to encourage the Mangyans to become forest protectors in order to prevent the lowlanders from encroaching the protected area to cut trees and hunt wildlife.

“Since they said Mounts Iglit-Baco is their ancestral domain, we would like to encourage them to be part in protecting the area against the lowlanders,” he said in Filipino.

According to Boyles, the DENR, through the PAMB, is implementing livelihood programs, such as animal dispersal of carabaos and small ruminants. 

On the other hand, under the National Greening Program, people in the communities are also provided with jobs as partners of the massive reforestation activities, he added.

From its failed captive-breeding program in the 1900s, the TCP moved forward to strengthening protection and conservation in the wild to boost its population through natural breeding within the 75,445-hectare protected area.

Lim said protecting the entire MIBNP is protecting not only the tamaraw, but other endangered wildlife that takes shelter in the vast forest. 

She said the government is not alone in its endeavor for the MIBNP, but to save the tamaraw, the DENR-BMB will need all the help it can get, particularly from the LGUs and the people in the communities.

Lim said the LGUs, which has a seat in PAMB, must integrate development plans and programs in the MIBNP in the development agenda of their respective localities. 

Funding support for the protection of the MIBNP, she said, will boost biodiversity conservation that will help save the tamaraw against hunters.

Lim said the fact that tamaraw continues to thrive within the MIBNP is proof that the ecosystem remains healthy and must be protected against all threats.

A protected area, such as the MIBNP, she said, is hosting a diverse species of flora and fauna, including those classified as threatened and critically endangered like the tamaraw, which LGUs should help sustainably manage together with the national government.

Through the TCP, the DENR hopes to educate the communities, not only to become the protectors of the forest, but champions of the country’s rich biodiversity.

 

Duterte’s dirty ploy

Decency and humanity.  They are always felled ahead of truth and fairness.  

People have always prayed for change and better government.  Present day history will tell us how the media put a good fight with tyranny. 

How the Philippine media exposed tyrants from foreign invaders to Filipino presidents after the First Philippine Independence is a shining example of the vibrancy of the free press.

Today, truth is under siege and a popular leader elected by 16 million people – less than 20 per cent of the country’s total population – is making it worse; playfully joking his way to Malacanang. 

President-elect's crass words, his disrespect for the Roman Catholic Church, its leaders, politicians, and institutions including government, its officials and employees, the police, soldiers and lately, media, is alarming.

As if corruption is not corruption because he says so.  As if it is okay to kill people; and disrespect women because he says so, too.

He attacks and malign people as if his every word is the infallible truth.  He attacks people and institutions without even offering proof - except of his sad experience and tales only he can tell whether true or not.  

He accuses those who stand in his way as either corrupt or a hypocrite. 

He catcalls women and defends the act as a mere freedom of expression when a city ordinance he signed clearly says it is an act constituting sexual harassment.

He accepts gifts as mayor and says it is not corruption.  He hits media for being corrupt but admits giving money and durian to local media who asks for it as not corruption.

His supporters are worse by saying that those who do not support him are either drug addicts or drug pushers.  

And yes, they attack without mercy through the social media, during, before and yes, after the May 9 election.

President-elect Rodrigo Duterte’s statement on media killings during the two press conferences in Davao City on June 1 and June 2, 2016 were horrendous. 

He spoke as if he is justifying the death of hundreds of journalists because they were corrupt, and as such, they deserved to die.

The tough-talking mayor, known for hurling invective and using inane words and the sweeping generalization of his perception about Filipino journalists – followed by a statement that he cannot protect all journalists – contradict his own policy pronouncement and promise to end crime and corruption early on during the campaign is disturbing.

During the June 1 press conferences, his statement was in response to a question that goes like:  What will he do to address media killings.  Instead of answering the question.  He went to attack the profession and said journalists who were killed were corrupt. 

The statement, apparently, earned the ire of many in the profession.  Naturally, those who reacted admitted his statement rings with truth.  There are media men who are corrupt. 

There also calls by foreign media from the group Reporters without Borders to boycott him. 

There were mixed reactions.  I personally said boycotting him is reasonable but will not be in the best interest of the general public.  It will never be in the interest of profession, journalism being a public trust. Beside, without the media acting as watchdog, who will report abuses in government and the corruption that is happening 24/7?

We are bound to do our job, Mr. President, that’s why some Palace reporters, including members of the foreign press – including Filipino journalists and stringers from Manila and other parts of the country are now in Davao City to cover your policy pronouncements as incoming president.

On June 2, 2016, during a press conference, the president-elect started hurling invective and all sort of insulting words against journalists and the journalism profession... He lumped journalists with those he regularly deal with in Davao City. 

He went ballistic when asked to comment on calls for the media to boycott him.  

His usual PI, idiots, SOBs, mother f—ker words came out of his mouth many times that I lost count while shaking my head in in disbelief.  Yes, the press conference was being aired live by television networks.   

He said there are three kinds of media in the Philippines.  The crusaders, the mouthpieces, and lowlifes.

During the second press conference.  The crusaders, he said, are those who do not accept money and are interested only in reporting the truth; the mouthpiece, who serves vested interests, which include publicist and PR practitioners; and lastly, the lowlifes - or the biyaheros – whatever that means – which I surmised to be those AC/DC who attack and collect, defend and collect money from sources. 
Mr. President, ACDCs or the lowlifes you are referring to are the most abhorred in our midst.  They are usually the fake ones, those who pose as members of the media and sometimes use fake IDs and namedrop prominent media personalities to extort money from easy targets – mostly those involved in illegal activities.

He said the lowlifes are the ones who die, because they are greedy.  They ask for money, and will not stop asking for money from their subjects or sources. 

On the contrary, Mr. President, many of those killed from our ranks were dutifully fighting crime and corruption in government.  Immorality, included.  The crooked ones are still around and some may be among the crowd around you, begging for crumbs of the appointment party, hoping to get a juicy position or yes, ask for pamasahe and durian which you usually give to crusader-journalists - an act you say is not corruption.

.The incoming president said he has been in the public service long enough to know the media, and admitted that he himself experienced being the target of lowlifes.  Mr President, not all journalists are like the ones you came to know in your more than 20 years as mayor of Davao City. 

When asked by a lady reporter:  “Sir, earlier you admitted giving money to media.  Doesn’t it make you part of the corruption?  He responded casually: “I am a politician.  I give money to media.  For PR…  But I am telling the truth.  Pamasahe… its not corruption.”

Mr. President that is precisely the reason why you hated media yet you admitted tolerating that corruption.  You even had the gall to say that you were giving money to those who ask for money “as a human being” because they needed money? 

Corruption takes two to tango, Mr. President.  The giver and the taker.

The president-elect went on to defend his action as saying that he never asked for favor from any of the media he allegedly gave money or yes, durian???  Really??? 

Is that the reason why the killings in your city was embraced by people who used to be peace-loving?  Mr. President, it seemed they have lost faith in humanity and they have approved of the vigilante method of maintaining peace and order.

Ok.  So why the hate?  Your misplaced anger against the media is confusing, Mr. President.

I believe you never really hated the media.  And I believe you never really hated religion or the Catholic Church. 

Yes.  You may have succeeded in discrediting the Roman Catholic Church – attacking the bishops with stories of your sad childhood experience and what you describe as hypocrisy of priests for their cardinal sins.  Now you are starting to kill the media. 

The church and the media - two institutions with historical records of fighting tyranny. 

The church and the media are the twin pillars of democracy in the Philippines.  No, sir.  It’s not the government.  It is not the five pillars of justice.  And definitely not the people who were catapulted to power by the multitude who were moved by their desire for change and better government.  No, the pillars of democracy and not those people who surround you now, Mr. President. In fact, those who voted for you supports your mass murder advocacy.  If that is not tyranny, it is definitely not about decency and humanity.

The church and the media will continue to be the vanguards of society, Mr. President. 

The Philippine media is vibrant.  It had fought tyrants since the time of Jose Rizal, Mabini and Luna who moved people like Bonifacio to take a stand and fight for freedom. 

The vibrant Philippine media is the reason why this country and its people freed themselves from martial law and Marcos; it is the reason for the unseating of a corrupt Estrada; exposed the corrupt Gloria; and yes, the failures of the Aquino’s too.  Believe it or not, the Philippin media is partly to blame for clamoring change which you effectively used during your campaign.

Today, Duterte’s supporters, led by his keyboard warriors are taking the social media by storm.  

 They continue to attack the institutions that can expose abuses and yes, graft and corruption in government.

Attacking the church and the media, one after the other, is a dirty political ploy.  It will not work. 

Yes, even if your supporters blindly follow without realizing the ploy, Mr. President.

It will not succeed.  The Roman Catholic Church will not be silenced. 

And so is the Philippine media. Boycotting the media, Mr. President will not work, either.   The Philippine media is committed to the profession as vanguards of society.

You can never escape the Philippine media.   

Here is a piece of advice.  Be the president for the people.  Fight corruption.  Go after drug lords.  Stop crime.  Fix government.  Those were your promised change. 

Whatever you do, just be sure it is within the bounds of the law, the Philippine Constitution, which you will soon swear to protect and uphold as the highest official of the land.