The Philippine Online Chronicles

Twitter turned 5 years old on March 21. When I first used it in April 2007, I shared very trivial matters like my breakfast, gym routine, and links to my blog entries. A lot of people then scoffed at Twitter for these insignificant tweets. These days Twitter is embraced as a forum for sharing anything from a favorite spa, to violations of civil rights and calls for revolution. It served as a lifeline during Ondoy , the earthquake in Japan and “an organizing tool for champions of democracy.” As a long-time user, I have come a long way from just sharing mundane tweets. I use it now to share my opinions and articles on the current issues that are critical to our country. Twitter is one of the tools  that I use to monitor the work being done at the House of Representatives, the Senate and the Office of the President.

Tweeting with @congMP

I marked the fifth year of Twitter, curating twitter reactions on the impeachment proceedings of Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez at the House of Representatives. While going through my timeline , I spotted Congressman Manny Pacquiao (with his verified twitter account @CongMP) tweet “where he said that ” I’m watching impeachment trial very interesting topic good night everyone thanks.” Noting he was just watching the impeachment trial instead of being present at the House of Representatives, I asked him “Why are you not in plenary?” which led to @nerveending explanation that he is preparing for a fight. Still I did not find it a valid reason for his absence during this historical moment at the House of Representatives. Given the pride he has given to our country, I cut him some slack in the past during his absences in Congress but March 21 was no ordinary session.

My tweet prompted @RAandRAT to tweet back

“@nervending to hell with @congmp. Why the **** did you run for congress when you know you’d barely be present? @momblogger” .

I then replied back to @RAandRAT:

“wondering too RT @RAndRat: @nerveending to hell with @congmp. Why the **** did you run for congress when you know you’d barely be present”

@congMP tweeted back “@momblogger e di mag reklamo ka doon sa lolo mo hahahaha ”

His reply surprised me. I am aware he might have difficulty with English and perhaps Tagalog so I communicated in Cebuano so he might clarify his tweet.  Also, being “Tagalog-challenged” with idiomatic expressions, I was not sure what he meant. @RAandRat said ” it means “complain all you want, but there’s nothing you can do about it” ” The truth is, I was not offended . I thought the Congressman was just joking. I don’t understand though why he would retort to such language when my question was not hard to understand. Perhaps he got offended with @RAandRat’s tweet .

Twitter reactions on the 'lolo' tweet

Twitter followers did not take @congMP tweets too kindly. @randomsalt pointed out that "you may be trying to folksy and humorous, @CongMP, but the matter at hand is too serious to be flippant about. @jesterinexile added "because @CongMP is absent, saranggani province has no say in a national issue. that is irresponsible beyond belief.”

Curated tweet reactions show that his response is not appropriate for a public servant. Much has already been said in Twitter. I‘d like to make a few clarifications on the story picked up by mainstream media, It appears that Congressman Pacquaio was replying to my tweet when I retweeted @RAandRAT:

“wondering too RT @RAndRat: @nerveending to hell with @congmp. Why the **** did you run for congress when you know you'd barely be present”

He replied to both of us separately but the difference is the other twitter user had “lolo panot.” @marhgil pointed out that he might have been irked by that retweet. It is possible but as @jesterinexile pointed out “save for the expletive, @RAandRat had a valid question; @congmp answer was lolo mong panot non-answer.”

Granting he got peeved at my retweet of an expletive, most twitter users think that the tweet was unbecoming of a legislator.

The living legend and the legislator

I am not a boxing fan and have never watched Manny Pacquiao’s boxing matches. When I tweeted to @congMP, I addressed him as a congressman not as  boxing's living legend. I was  not out to humiliate him. Some can’t seem to differentiate between the two public roles in his life , that of a boxer and as a legislator.

There is over-reaction on both sides of the camp when a piqued Pacquiao threw in the towel in Twitter. Tweets of a knockout such as “seems like no person can take #MannyPacquiao @CongMP down. However, a bird know as #twitter finally knocked him out. how’s that.”  Some are furious and curse @RAandRAT and me. Being critical of legislators is not being hateful. Informed citizens hold politicians accountable.

Frederick Amiel , one of the congressman's constituents expresses his indignation:

as one of his constituents, let me just express my indignation here on two issues: first of all, manny is supposedly our representative to the congress. the term itself couldn't be any clearer as to what responsibility he is supposed to uphold: that of representing our interests in national issues. on a matter as important and as national a scope as they come as the impeachment of the ombudsman, i am mortified that our district became voiceless because our supposed representative couldn't be bothered to do the job he promised to do in the first place. i personally do not agree with his vote of no, but even that would have been better than him once again, having no presence in the plenary. how much longer are we going to be served by an absentee representative? it does not matter that he (MP) supposedly has a stand and can supposedly give due explanation for it. last i checked, the congress does not hold plenary on twitter.

There is no demolition campaign. There is nothing to be victorious as one pointed out. What is there to gloat about? I would have wanted to continue engaging with the congressman on Twitter just like I do with other legislators. Too bad, he chose the easy way out instead of clarifying  his tweet .

Calm down, it’s just a tweet

As we celebrate Twitter’s 5^th year, let’s just remember mistakes happen especially if one is new in Twitter. Like real life, if one makes mistakes in twitter, “you are forgiven once or twice, but if you try to repeat it over and over again, then nobody would be ready to forgive you and you will surely end up losing respect among your followers.” At five years old, Twitter is still a child full of promise and dreams of changing the world for the better.

If I had the chance, my message to @congMP was simply that we all make mistakes in Twitter. I made mistakes too and learned from it. It’s how we recover from them that we are judged.

Rep. Manny Pacquiao should have followed his last tweet before it was deleted.

“ganyan lang dapat dito sa Twitter relax lang”.