[Be The Good] In Dumaguete, we launch #CorruptionWatch

2026-02-04 - 10:06

Maayong buntag! It’s a drizzly day here in Dumaguete City’s Silliman University. But the weather has not dampened the Rappler team’s excitement about launching this year’s roadshow in this lovely coastal city. Together with investigative editor and training head Chay Hofileña, civic engagement head Sam Bagayas, reporter Patrick Cruz, researcher Shay Du, and civic engagement specialist Joan Alindogan, we begin our first full day of workshops on equipping citizens with the tools to investigate corruption. THE PAPER TRAIL. Rappler reporter Patrick Cruz shows Dumaguete City Movers how to get information from contracts and Securities and Exchange Commission documents that could point to conflict of interest. Photo by Pia Ranada/Rappler We’ve entitled this year’s roadshow #CorruptionWatch, with the goal of training Movers, or civic engagement volunteers, to spot, verify, and report abuse of power. In these workshops, conducted over three days, they will learn how to do research, analyze documents, interview sources, and produce compelling videos about governance and accountability. To bolster these efforts, we’ve renamed our FloodControlPH chat room into CorruptionWatch, to signal that our citizen crowdsourcing initiative now covers any type of abuse of public funds, not just corruption in flood control projects. Apart from Movers’ workshops, there will be a town hall on Thursday, February 5, where local elected officials and civil society leaders will speak during panel discussions, and take questions from the audience. Some of the action will take place in the Liveable Cities chat room on the Rappler app. We’ll be using this chat room for the Q&A portion of the town hall. The week began on a high note for me: My Dumaguete City lecture for the 2024 Marshall McLuhan Fellowship took place on Monday, February 2, at the beautiful Luce Auditorium within the Silliman University campus. The annual lecture, made possible by the Canadian embassy in the Philippines, is a highlight for student journalists and students of the College of Mass Communication, I was told. I’m honored that my lecture takes place as the college celebrates its 60th anniversary. For around half of its lifetime, a McLuhan lecture has been held on campus yearly. To be part of this history is incredible. On another historic note, for the first time, we’ve included a special RappLearn AI workshop in our roadshow. Rappler’s head of digital services Gemma Mendoza and The Nerve’s head of data and innovation Don Kevin Hapal join the Rappler team here in Dumaguete City to lead a paid workshop on how educators and the private sector can make the most of AI in the classroom and the workplace. Our participants are members of the Negros Oriental Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Would you be interested in attending such a workshop in the future? How about your company or staff? We have upcoming workshops on February 28 and March 7 — learn more here. While in Dumaguete, I’ve learned a lot speaking with students, faculty members, and local media. There is frustration with infrastructure projects, such as seemingly endless road repairs. Local journalists are also frustrated with online personalities who present themselves as journalists, yet spread propaganda and disinformation. News outlets here, like in many parts of the country, struggle to make ends meet. How can beleaguered and resource-strapped newsrooms compete with the barrage of content and noise online, and platforms designed to amplify this barrage, instead of journalism? This was the topic of my McLuhan lecture. As we dove into workshops with the nine Movers, a majority of whom are student journalists, I saw a glimmer of hope. These are young people with curiosity and a drive to tell stories that matter to their communities. They give life to my speech’s main message: that journalism will survive because journalism is a deeply human craft. No AI bot can visit typhoon-stricken communities and help tell the story of their survival or suffering. No AI bot can fully capture the grievances of a community and ask questions about them during a press conference with a public official. I believe that humans ultimately want to connect with other humans. And though technology can be a useful tool, it cannot replace the profound joy and meaning we experience when we connect with another human being. Journalism’s job is to be true to this human need. Even the Ombudsman can’t get lawmakers’ SALNs. Here’s why. Even the head of the government’s primary anti-graft body has a hard time getting SALNs of House members Behind OnlyFans: Filipino workers edit, sell sex content for foreign models Researcher Shay Du brings us into the world of OnlyFans, an adults-only platform for explicit content, and the remote Filipino workers who keep the platform going behind the scenes Marcos impeachment cases undergo House substance test The vote on the sufficiency in substance of the two impeachment complaints was held today, February 4 Hontiveros wants probe into sanitary landfills after Binaliw incident What’s a viable alternative to landfills? Duterte at the ICC: Key dates to remember If you want to follow the former president’s case closely, here are dates to remember – Rappler.com Be the Good is a newsletter that comes out every other Wednesday. We deliver updates straight to your inbox on how journalism and communities can work together for impact. To subscribe, follow the #FactsFirstPH movement or visit rappler.com/newsletters.