Oh no, not another newsletter
(Or an attempt at creating what the world probably needs less of right now).
Feel free to steal this. But before you do, think about whether or not it’s worth reading or replicating. Here goes nothing:
In Bulacan, four workers passed out and later died of suffocation inside an "abandoned" concrete tank that presumably stored fish sauce. All four tried to rescue a co-worker who had similarly passed out inside the structure, which is twelve-feet deep.[1] • On EDSA, an ambulance driver got a ticket for using an exclusive bus lane after his vehicle was found to carry seven passengers, including "a child who appeared to be returning from an excursion."[2] • In Quezon City, a bill was filed asking government to allow Elon Musk's Starlink to build and manage ground facilities, including "large dish space stations" for better internet connectivity.[3] The bill was filed by a lawmaker of the party-list group KABAYAN whose previous congressional representative was Harry Roque, a spokesperson of former president Rodrigo Duterte.[4] Roque is currently at large after four joint committees of the House of Representatives issued orders that cited him in contempt and called for his detention.[5] • "I pray that we can all move forward with compassion in our hearts," singer/actress Julie Anne San Jose said in an apology posted on her Instagram stories after she sang Abba's Dancing Queen, among other songs, during a performance inside a church. [6] • In Manila, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said that less than 6,000 Filipinos were able to contribute to its voluntary retirement savings program, which was launched eight years ago. It’s very difficult to open a [Personal Equity and Retirement Account], an economist interviewed about the program said. [7] • In the Visayas, 77 persons who marked their 100th birthdays in the third quarter of this year received cash gifts worth Php 100,000 each. The centenarians also received "a felicitation letter from the Philippine president, a posthumous recognition for those who died after their birthday, and incentives from their local government unit. [8]"
The text above was paraphrased from online news items I read from October 5 to 12 this year. It was inspired by Harper's Weekly Review, an email newsletter of the magazine (not to be confused with Harper's Bazaar). The newsletter, which I've subscribed to, provides “a weekly dispatch taking aim at the relentless absurdity of the 24-hour news cycle.”
Based on a rudimentary search of Weekly Reviews on the Harper's Magazine website, the Philippines was mentioned twice.
The first was in October 2021 when Duterte announced his retirement from politics and the candidacy of his daughter who later became vice-president. The second was in January 2024 when Ferdinand Marcos Jr. “used a taxpayer-funded helicopter to fly to a Coldplay concert.”
For a limited time this year, I considered doing a similar newsletter with a Filipino flavor but later decided against it.
To collect and rephrase reports from local mainstream and social media, I had to sit in front of my computer for several hours everyday and publish the so-called newsletter every week on a regular basis.
In short, it looked like it was way too much work.
So why bother, right?
FROM THE HINTS AND ALLEGATIONS DEPT. News item No. 3 was written by Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio (no relation) who I hope has an infinitely better time at that media company than I did. News item No. 7 was written by former co-worker and friend Cai Ordinario of BusinessMirror. As we say on birthdays of people we like, may we have more of these soon.