404 filipinos not found
Yesterday marked a historic day in Philippine politics – former president Rodrigo Duterte was arrested for crimes against humanity by orders of the ICC, in the wake of his deadly drug war that claimed thousands of lives.
I woke up to the news and had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. You see, stuff like this rarely happens in the Philippines. The thought of Duterte getting arrested and tried at the Hague is but wishful thinking, a brief optimism reduced to a running joke, eight years since the case was filed — until yesterday. Justice is served? What’s next? The guillotine? One can only hope.
But enough about politics. What I really wanted to talk about is the absence of an active Filipino community in Mastodon and Bluesky, the two places I flocked to once the news broke out. I frantically searched ‘Duterte’ on both sites in the hopes of reposting the news and seeing the collective reaction from my fellow countrymen. But only the former elicited results, forcing me to reactivate my Twitter/X account to celebrate this event with a thriving online Filipino community.
I have since sold my soul to the Fediverse and Bluesky ever since X proved itself unusable over the past year. As soon as I created accounts, I desperately searched for Pinoys to follow other than my friends, and was met with a scarcity I fairly expected. Maybe I'm not looking hard enough but the thing is, I shouldn't have to look far and wide! Social media has woven itself into the fabric of Filipino culture – so much that it helped elect presidents of questionable morals, competence, and histories, via rampant disinformation on social channels. One would think Filipinos won't think twice about expanding to other platforms but the claws of Meta and X are buried deep, and it will take more than two unfamiliar social networks to pluck them off.
So what’s next? Do I ditch the greener grass and climb back up the fence? Do I let my X account fester for moments like this? Do I eliminate the need for online banter when a funny thing happens? Do I resign myself to how western these platforms and their users are? Only time will tell, but right now I’m leaning into the comfort and breathing room that Mastodon, Bluesky, and this personal blog provides. Maybe I should withdraw from online interactions in favor of offline ones, which I had neglected as of late. One thing won't change though, Duterte's on his way to the Hague!