Can Maria Ressa Use Her 2018 Golden Pen Of Freedom Award To Raise Her Credibility AMONG FILIPINOS?

Just recently, I was checking the idiotic PNoy Ako Blog now writes that Duterte supporters should cry over the fact that their fellow Dilawan, Maria Ressa, now has the 2018 Golden Pen of Freedom Award at the 70th World News Media Congress in Portugal. Hmmm... this does raise one question about the award that Ressa got -- can she use her award to raise her credibility among Filipinos through a foreign award? 

I remembered some time ago when I actually wrote about Ressa's appealing to Western media and another where Etta Rosales got the Progressive Alliance Award -- but does an award always mean something? Awards can mean something if the people who received the award actually deserve it. But does Ressa actually deserve the 2018 Golden Pen of Freedom or does Rosales deserve a human rights award? No. Not according to what Filipinos can certainly testify that those two don't deserve it yet they got the award anyway.

There's really the problem that a lot of people in the Philippines had suffered for years with the mindset of "if it's the West then it must be the best." Sure, I can't deny that I benefit from Westernization but only from what's good about it and the same goes with Asian culture. Nothing is wrong with getting Western affirmation in general that is as long as said affirmation is well-deserved or you're not addicted to it. If Atty. Harry Roque or Atty. Persida Rueda V. Acosta got a Nobel Peace Prize for fighting for human rights in the Philippines then so be it. The problem is that these western organizations are giving award while they are almost or even totally clueless about what's really going on in the Philippines -- while they seem to claim to be "experts of the Philippines" or even "experts of the world" while they can't even fix their own mess!

It's time for concerned Filipinos who know the ugly truth about Ressa to ask the organizers of #WNC18 if the latter really KNOW what's really going on in the Philippines. Did the organizers of #WNC18 bother to investigate the credibility of Rappler as a news organization before giving the award? Did they get other news sources aside from the mainstream media and did they even bother to investigate the REAL SITUATION themselves? I guess they just gave that prestigious award to Ressa because she is faithfully serving their common cause.