Barangay tanods can’t spot UFOs in the sky

By Alex P. Vidal

 

“It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.”—Walt Disney

 

THE warning made on September 5 by Joint Task Force (JTF) COVID Shield chief Police Lt. Gen. Guillermo Eleazar that the police would “regularly monitor” various social media platforms in search of people who defied safety protocols, was tantamount to asking barangay tanods to spot UFOs (unidentified flying objects) in the sky.

With a limited workforce in the field, the Philippine National Police (PNP) can’t utilize their office personnel to spend more time on the computer or on their laptops and tablets to scour and keep track of pandemic protocol violators on social media.

The task is so difficult if not impossible to implement.

Not all cops are “friends” of social media account users.

Not all social media platforms are set in “public” view.

The PNP “big brothers” will end up facing a blank wall if a potential violator will set his account to “friends only” view.

 

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“The social media are full of photos and evidence of hardheaded people deliberately violating the quarantine protocols. These can be used as pieces of evidence to warn, to fine and to summon the people concerned in coordination with the barangay officials concerned,” Eleazar said in a statement.

With due respect to the PNP’s resources and expertise in technology, the rats will always laugh when there are holes nearby.

Also, not all potential protocol violators are active on social media.

Most of those who may violate the protocols while most parts of the country remain under some form of community quarantine, can be breadwinners or workers who regularly travel to make both ends meet.

They worry only how to put food on the table for their families and where to get the payment for their bills, not to tarry-hoot in the social media.

Some of those who eke out a living on a hand-to-mouth basis don’t even have social media accounts, or don’t have the time to log in if they have one because of the present economic hardship.

And even if they attend gatherings and other public activities that violate the quarantine rules and safety guidelines, they don’t and won’t necessarily upload their photos on social media platforms unless they do vlogging for a living.

Now that the PNP has telegraphed their punches, only stupids will incriminate themselves by advertising their misdemeanors.

 

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CAN the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) regulate the content of Netflix and other online streaming services in the Philippines?

“Netflix are media-on-demand platform and we have to regulate those platforms, we have to be sure that materials being shown on those platforms are in compliance with the MTRCB law,” said MTCRB legal affairs division chief Jonathan Presquito at a virtual public hearing by the Senate committee on trade, commerce and entrepreneurship September 3.

He added: “There is a necessity for us to proceed with the regulation, especially during the lockdown. Most of us, our sanity was maintained with streaming services like Netflix. The regulation will ensure three things, age-appropriate, no prohibited content and the movies or series were released with authority.”

Presquito said the MTRCB has been already engaged with its counterpart in different regions as well as with different stakeholders regarding the regulation of motion picture content distributed through Netflix, Amazon Prime, and other video-on-demand platforms as early as 2018.

Meanwhile, below is the 21 most sexually graphic films on Netflix.

 

1. Blue Is The Warmest Color (2013)
2. Nymphomaniac Vol 1 and 2 (2013)
3. Love (2015)
4. Y Tu Mamá También (2001)
5. Below Her Mouth (2016)
6. Under The Skin (2013)
7. Immortal Tales (1973)
8. Bad Match (2017)
9. Sex, Shame and Tears (1999)
10. Newness (2017)
11. Unfreedom (2014)
12. Much Loved (2015)
13. Duck Butter (2012)
14. A Perfect Ending (2012)
15. White Girl (2016)
16. High Society (2018)
17. Amar (2017)
18. 9 In A Half Weeks (1986)
19. B.A. Pass (2013)
20. The Little Hours (2017)
21. The Package (2018)

 

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two dailies in Iloilo)