Twittering Malu Fernandez

Posted by in Blogging | 11 comments


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Though MAHADERANG MATAPOBRE SA OFWS is one of the first blogs (now with over 1,400 comments) to post on Malu Fernandez last August 8, it was Nick’s blog that called for action. I read Nick’s entry on Malu Fernandez at around 10:00 p.m. of August 16. I commented “I will see what I can do.”

It seemed like a formidable task. Should I blog about it? I hemmed and hawed. It doesn’t seem to belong to my niche. While thinking of a strategy, I thought of the Twitter. I sent this Twitter message because I knew around 100 followers would read it right away.

Jeric and Benj were one of the first to comment on Nick’s call to action against the Malu Fernandez article.

Ederic soon posted:

Pero ngayong gabi, muntik na yata akong ma-highblood. Kasi naman, si Noemi, nag-twit ng “Boycott Manila Standard. [tag]Malu Fernandez[/tag] reminds me of someone.” Na-curious tuloy ako kaya pinuntahan ko ang link na kasama ng twit niya.

Napadpad ako sa Tingog.com, naintindihan ko ang twit ni Noemi, bumilis ang tibok ng puso ko at medyo nanikip ang dibdib ko.

I showed Cathy and Lorna my blog entry and without hesitation contacted their journalist friends.

And who knows what happened next?


Annalyn remarked that if there’s one thing that the Malu Fernandez issue has taught us, it is the viral capability of blogs and assorted online media, to make things happen.

Even if Nick’s tingog.com is a relatively new blog, his call to action echoed throughout the blogosphere. Tingog is the Visayan word for Voice. Yes, at the start it was a tiny voice. Not many journalists picked up the story until it blew into wide-scale proportions. Or until the time that Malu Fernandez apologized and resigned.

Do not underestimate the power of the blog even if the blog is relatively new.

Because of the Malu Fernandez issue, no one can deny the growing popularity and influence of blogs as a source of information and opinion. Name-calling such as Litson , biatch piggy wannabee etc. is not part of this information. Maybe it is high time to start discussing ethical standards, not as a way stifling the free spirits online, but in order to provide guideposts of conduct and morality in the wild-west landscape of cyberspace.



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  • http://www.brinknotes.org Jeric

    Now that Malu resigned from People Asia and Manila Standard, would this “Malu Fernandez” issue stop? Would people forgive Malu Fernandez?

    Best of all, could I read Manila Standard again since Malu already resigned? :D

    Thanks for making me a part of this post!

  • http://aboutmyrecovery.com Noemi

    @jeric- It is time to move on. If her apology is sincere and she is remorseful, I am sure people will forgive her. So far, she hasn’t apologized in public.

  • http://feistymomma.com dexie

    I really don’t see the need to “forgive”. She apologized in her own way. She resigned. Good, done and over with. Maybe the OFW she very much insulted will “forgive” her. I dunno. I just have a different notion on the word “forgive” that I can’t seem to explain on this comment. Kinda like an annoying flea. Forgive is not the word I would associate as a closure on this matter. It’s just done. There you go. WTG bloggers.

  • http://www.janep.org AJ [janep.org]

    sabi nga sa mga message boards…

    “World Wide Web Justice! FTW!!”

  • http://reynaelena.com/2007/08/26/10-things-that-came-out-of-the-malu-fernandez-debacle/ reyna elena

    hey Angelic MOM,

    thanks for visiting ma maison! i read your post… hmmm… maybe my post with my ubiquitous 4 letter words would not be good as well hehehe, but i don’t really care, to me she deserves every raw c_ap that comes out of my mouth. hahaha!

    thanks for the visit anyway!!! come back soon mom!

  • http://tesstermulo.com Prudence

    Actually, I do not want Malu Fernandez to resign from the magazine writing staff. I’d rather that she stayed, issued an apology if she wanted or a statement saying that she stands by what she said and why she said them. I don’t think we have the right to make her stop writing just because we don’t like what she said. But we do all have the right to show her how dismayed we are with what she wrote.

  • http://aboutmyrecovery.com Noemi

    @dexie-forgiveness will just follow . Maybe Malu will redeem herself one day. And all will be forgotten.

    @AJ-Justice will run its course.

    @reynaelena- you listed a number of lessons we learned from this fiasco

    @Prudence- for the issue to be spread around the bloggers, one needed to make a stand. The only firm action I saw was Nick’s tingog.com. If you had started the stand, maybe we would not have clamored for the resignation/firing. She will learn a lot from this experince and I don’t think she will stop writing . Maybe she can even blog.

  • http://tesstermulo.com Prudence

    @noemi: But if the news about her resignation is true, then isn’t it because of what the bloggers and the groups of OFWs did that forced her to do that? I don’t think we really have the right to ask for her resignation. To show much dismay, in the most decent and civil way possible, would be more like it.

    I think it would be better if we still see her write for the same magazine, so we would know if she’s really sincere in her apology.

  • http://aboutmyrecovery.com Noemi

    @Prudence- well she resigned and there’s nothing more that can be done to change that fact. However, that shouldn’t stop her from writing in other publications. It’s her choice to write in People Asia if the editors will accept her back.

  • lyn

    abaw , ga renew ka gali sang imo nga tikal Miss Malou! amo gali!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Ysabel

    She co owns a store called Lucious the shop at Gateway Mall in Cubao. I hope people dont patronize this store.

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