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Robert Blair Carabuena mauls MMDA Saturnino Fabros

On tape, it was very clear. Carabuena went overboard in his anger over being flagged down by MMDA traffic enforcer Fabros. That is what most of us saw.

I understand the anger that viewers felt against Carabuena. I also understand that many will vent out their outrage at him. But some reactions went overboard, forcing Carabuena to shut down his online accounts.

Aside from the cyber-bullying, I also was appalled that many Netizens immediately casted Carabuena as “bad” and Fabros as “good,” as if the whole story could be simplified in black and white, rich versus poor, Nora/Sharon versus the world terms. But instead of in glorious Widescreen Stereophonic, the story is byte-sized, viral-ready, and primed for snap-judgement.

But the video only showed the physical abuse. Where’s the rest of the story? That some people made extreme snap judgements after seeing an incomplete picture is what worries me the most. Didn’t it occur to people to ask first if there really was a violation or not? And would people have reacted the same if the situation were different? What if the traffic enforcer was seen trying to extort money, causing the driver to flare up? I even wonder exactly to what extent of the situation did the TV5 crew witness.

Yes, the truth of what happened may be as simple as what was already reported: a driver commits a violation, an enforcer flags him down, an altercation and over-reaction occurs. Yes, Carabuena should be taken to task for his behavior. It was uncivilized and unthinking, and what I find alarming is that certain netizens reacted likewise.

Tito Sotto plagiarizes US blogger

First, I will not bore you with a blow-by-blow retelling of the events.

Second, the issue of plagiarism is different from the issue of whether the RH Bill should be passed or not. I will discuss only the former here.

When it was first pointed out that parts of Sotto’s speech were plagiarized, I was still open to the idea that maybe Sotto and his staff didn’t have any malicious intent of passing off someone else’s words as their own. Perhaps in their haste they merely forgot to cite their sources.

But the subsequent non-apologies and statements of Sotto and his children wiped out any possibility that they made a mistake. Instead, their backpedalling and arrogance made it clear that they do not grasp the crux of the plagiarism issue, which is intellectual dishonesty. Furthermore, their reaction shows a severe lack of humility and courage to admit wrongdoing. Worse, if they truly believe that their excuses are valid, then it shows a serious lapse in, uhm, basic logic.

I find such behavior unworthy of a senator, which is why I’ve stopped calling Sotto as such. For me he was always the weakest comedian in the TVJ triumvirate, and given his performance in the past few days, he should also retire from comedy.