On the Aquino-Cojuangco viral video

The viral video may have started to blow over when Baron Buchokoy posted Aquino Cojuangco: Facts they didn’t want you to know at the Get Real Philippines Community on Friday, November 4. It was uploaded on Youtube last October 21 but it reached 231,000 views as of this writing from the initial 7,000+ views on Sunday morning. Carlo Ople described the video as containing “a lot of alleged damaging information against the Aquino-Cojuangco family and it’s presented it a very modern, understandable, and hip kind of way.”

The 15-minute video delivers a brief overview of the Aquino-Cojuangco’s family tree and their rise and stay in power and comes in 4 parts:

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I : Cojuangco Wealth - how the Cojuangcos aquired their fortune
II: Hacienda Luisita - the acquisition and conditions behind the land
III: Killing Spree - the Hacienda Luisita Massacre
IV: Aquino-Cojuangco Forever - how local media portrays the family

Social Media Reactions

Pinoy Exchange Forum and Get Real Philippines Community showed spirited discussion on the possible truth and doubts of the video claims while Anton Dulce, Partricio Burgos and Xiao Chua provided contrasting views. Benign0 points out that those who cry “foul” over what is nothing more than a presentation of alternative views completely miss the point. The point is that there is an alternative take on history.

Twitter reactions found it sad, shocking, disturbing or creepy and one even compared it to a horror film. Sandina David thought the end gets a little bit "conspiracy theory." Micki Roldan “ was never interested in politics, but damn this one's striking “ and added “ there's truth to the Cojuangco-Aquino video since my grandparents told me so. Even my anti-Marcos parents don't support the Aquinos. Toni Marie Paner doesn’t “want to comment about that! Cause we don't know the real truth.” Though the video was well made, Joanne noted that the backmasking thing "subtracted plenty of credibility points."

Random Salt asks “ is spreading pseudo-history part of the mandate” of Blog Watch? I find it illogical how Random Salt is questioning Blog Watch motives instead of discussing the video. Figo Santos hits it right . “Striking against "those people behind it" rather than the material itself is a manifestation how strong baron's video is. can't they just say "this video is a lie, and here's why..."?

The post on BlogWatch.TV is just plain news, presenting the video of Baron Buchokoy and the contrary opinion of Philippine historian Michael Charleston Briones Chua . I left it to the readers to discern if the video shows the truth, the half-truths or falsehood. However, Xiao Chua thinks the “video is propaganda, as is the other propaganda (depicting that Ninoy and Cory are total saints, if you want to call it “yellow”) . You will note that some twitter users were actually skeptical about the truthfulness of the video.

Carlos Conde “may find this anti-Cojuangco-Aquino video a little too strident but it's hard to argue against its central points.”

Patricia Nellas cries out “there are more pressing matters at hand here. Hacienda Luisita, anyone? And they chose SantaKlaus? Jesus, talk about being evasive.”

Two issues seem to be apparent from the reactions: Hacienda Luisita and the Aquino-Conjuangco clan. Let me elaborate on why these two issues are constantly being raised.

Hacienda Luisita

The Hacienda Luisita has been written in the past even prior to the May 2010 elections. GMA News featured a five part series , Hacienda Luisita’s past haunts Noynoy’s Future with Part 2 , Part 3, Part 4 and Part 5. When Hacienda Luisita appeared in New York Times, Presidential candidate Noynoy Aquino cried unfair but Carlos Conde issued a statement that he stood by his story . Bulatlat documentary video tackled Hacienda Luisita and how this agrarian dispute became an issue of competence for the presidential candidate. There is a comprehensive list of articles on Hacienda Luisita in Bulatlat.com and Blog Watch.

hacienda_luisita

It is a fact that the “violent dispersal of the strike of Hacienda Luisita farm workers on Nov. 16 led to the death of 14 farmers including women and children and the wounding of 200 others.”

The glaring fact remains that President Aquino’s family has occupied the 6,453-hectare Hacienda Luisita for decades despite successive agrarian reform programs. The “occupation” has also been blessed lately by a number of Supreme Court rulings, which upheld the stock distribution option over land distribution to the agrarian reform beneficiaries.

To make things more bitter for farmers, the Cojuangco-Aquino clan has shared the occupation of the sprawling estate with malls, banks and industrial facilities, further displacing the farmers and workers living there.

Last month, Luisita workers under the Alyansa ng Magbubukid sa Hacienda Luisita (AMBALA) filed a petition before the high court opposing the sale of the 500-hectare portion of Luisita to Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC).

Isn’t it about time that the farmers get their lands?

Aquino Cojuangco Clan

Presidential Candidate shared a table of the Aquino Cojuangco clan since a family member held office in 1898. The note added that the “Aquino family has been in public office for a total of 209 years for the last 112 years from Servillano Aquino, who was a Representative of Samar to the Malolos Congress in 1898, to Benigno Q. Aguino, Sr., who was a congressman, senator, and vice president during the Japanese occupation, to Benigno Aquino, Jr., to Corazon Aquino, Jose "Peping" Cojuangco, to Jesli A. Lapus, to Margarita "Tingting" Cojuangco, to Agapito "Butz" Aquino, to Hermie Aquino, Gilbert Teodoro, Nikki Teodoro and Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III. “

oligarch

These figures do not include distant members of the Aquino-Cojuangco clan that have held posts outside of Tarlac.

Since the presidential candidate was running on a platform of fighting poverty and corruption, the question now raised was “if this is the case, why then is there still corruption and poverty in our country? How is Tarlac? “

Isn’t that a fair question to ask?

True or False?

While the video claims that it is based on facts, the Ysidra Cojuangco and Antonio Luna connection “is based on family lore circulating with the elites of Tarlac but nobody can be one hundred percent sure”. Xiao Chua adds that “linking SCTEX as the Noynoy Superhighway is a distortion of history. It was PGMA’s projects based on plans by the previous administrations including Marcos. “ Many agreed that the video gave a creepy feeling towards the end. “The last part on backmasking Noy’s jingle, is good for conspiracy theorists but doesn’t make any sense as history.. “ adds Chua.

Carlo Ople concludes that “regardless if all the data there is true or not, (I find the backplaying and the “Infinity Ribbon” absurd), you still have to give whoever made this props for the quality of the video.” The feelings of fear, shock and dismay may cloud the viewer’s perspective especially towards the end of the video (starting at 13:01).

Even though Baron Buchokoy discloses that the video is a documentary/commentary for EDUCATIONAL purpose only, you would still need to verify the facts” as people continue to question the motives behind an unknown videographer. Patricio Bergest enjoins all to " learn to accept certain truths without believing the whole manufactured idea. We can know the whole thing by just examining its little parts. Because, no matter how intelligent we are, without correct political orientation, everything comes useless. "

L.E.Laurente asserts “ truth or black propaganda? you decide.”

In the end, the viewer must exercise their judgment and discretion whether they believe or not. It is wrong to assume that the Filipino public is stupid and gullible and cannot exercise proper judgment when presented with two contrasting views. I believe the Filipino public can discern the truth.

Screencaps from PinoyMonkeyPride youtube video. Aquino Cojuangco clan table from Dick Gordon Facebook note.

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Disclaimer: Comments posted here reflect our readers’ views and not the opinion of The Philippine Online Chronicles.

tvopameister 07 November 11, 01:33 PM

Three points on the video:

1. Genuine agrarian reform (socialized land distribution to farmers and farm cooperatives) is a must.
...
2. The conflict is among classes. Iisa lang sina Cojuangco, Aquino, Villar, Marcos, Arroyo, Lopez, Pangilinan, Sy, Tan, and other members of the one percent. Kung ano ang baho ng mga Cojuangco ay baho rin ng mga kapitalista.

3. Genuine democracy. We are not experiencing it under Aquino, at hindi rin natin ito maaasahan by electing other trapos in 2016. The key here: System change. Not toward federalism, parliamentary system, (na isinusulong ng ilang anti-P-noy kuno) but toward socialism--a political and economic system by the masses and for the masses.

rojan88 07 November 11, 02:04 PM

yes there may be truth in some facts but the execution is somewhat questionable. should the creator not include Villar, it may seemed more credible. but having that towards the end it seemed like a bitter propaganda against aquinos.

Dean Lozarie 08 November 11, 01:42 AM

We had quite a spirited albeit short-lived discussion about your BlogWatch post about the video on Twitter, Noemi. Unfortunately, you apparently blocked me (for reasons I don't know) and so our chat was cut short.

Sadly you've continued to evade the issue of the lack of "fairness and balance" in your post, which you yourself said you wrote in the name of those two values. You repeatedly challenge those who think the video is inaccurate to elaborate on their claims. But Professor Chua's comments on the video did include many counterpoints to what it was asserting. You did not make mention of these counterpoints in your original post. In fact, you only copied the excerpts of Chua's comments that talked mostly about the video's high production value.

This is the reason I found it necessary to call you out on the post. It was completely devoid of the "fairness and balance" that you said you wrote it for the sake of.

Additionally, I have to say that your premise of "lay it all out there, let the people decide" is a flawed one. It's a haphazard way to run a "citizen media" site like BlogWatch, and it is a disservice to your readers, who rely on you to feed them accurate, verified and contextualized information from all points of view, which they can then use to come to their own conclusions.

I do share your notions of oligarchy and feudalism in the country, but the want of fair politics and equitable distribution of lands does not excuse irresponsible reporting.

As you suggested to me on Twitter, I wrote about my gripe with your post here: http://www.deantastic.com/2011/11/on-fairness-balance-and-worldwide.html

In a nutshell, I am disturbed that your post, which you wrote for an online news blog, is so devoid of balance, especially since you said you wrote it in the interest of fairness and balance.

I hope you can find time to go through my post and respond to the things I pointed out in it, in the spirit of constructive debate. Thank you.

Kenzei 09 November 11, 02:42 PM

Seriously? it took you 8 flowery paragraphs just to tell the author, "why aren't you bashing this video and defending the aquino-cojuangco clan?".

Dean Lozarie 09 November 11, 03:26 PM

Julie 11 November 11, 07:15 PM

There is some truth behind it unlike Noynoy's SONA that is full of misleading figures, hate speech and credit grabbing.

Opinion_union 13 January 12, 12:20 PM

This is true, 100%.

Pres. Abnoy is our downfall.

Very sad for Pinoys to have this guy presides Philippines.

How's Tarlac?

John 03 April 12, 01:33 PM

It's about time for us Filipinos to open our eyes to the truth. Cojuangco-Aquinos claim to be good people but their money are all stolen from the Filipino people.

I don't understand why a lot of people voted for pnoy when it was very obvious that he was a freak.