[Rappler’s Best] The charlatans in our midst

You could be forgiven for assuming, up until last week when he was caught red-handed, that Franco Mabanta actually cared for “free speech” — as what his Peanut Gallery Media Network (PGMN) proclaims — and that he brought together the “best and most viral voices” to his platform. 

His mastery of algorithms and expertise in laundering reputations have helped shape your online habits, so that what you see when you doomscroll are what he wanted you to know about his flashy “media” channel. It churns out curated content that targets you, but in reality, serves not your interest, but the interest of its high-paying clients.

Mabanta is not alone in a content business wrapped in click-bait language, fueled by algorithms, protected by pseudonyms and glossy names, and botoxed with “scoops” and “analysis” carved out from facts gathered and published by actual journalists. Yet, these media pretenders are really just a peanut gallery, a gaggle of hecklers exploiting your short attention spans and insatiable appetite for hate and LOLs — and earning from it.

They thrive because you don’t know any better and because the social media platforms where you live want to keep you that way. So let me tell it like it is: take control of what you read, watch, like, and share. You are what you consume — whether on your table or online.

Mabanta’s arrest proves that foul actions do have consequences, as Earl Parreño points out. 

Nicholas Kaufman is a cautionary tale. In his botched defense of Rodrigo Duterte at the International Criminal Court (ICC), he used the former strongman’s populist messaging — the Duterte narrative that the likes of Mabanta have embedded in the online space — which was met with glee by the Duterte base but was not acceptable to the judges. 

• Kaufman quit as Duterte’s chief counsel last week, along with associate counsel Dov Jacobs. The former president is, after all, gearing up for his trial after Kaufman and Jacobs failed to stop the ICC from pushing through with it.
• Duterte’s alleged co-conspirator in the drug war, national police chief-turned-senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, has been in hiding since last year. Over the weekend, however, public officials leaked information that the ICC had already transmitted to the government the arrest warrant against him. Jairo Bolledo gives us the score in this story.
• Ombudsman Boying Remulla announced in November 2025 that the ICC had already issued a warrant against Dela Rosa. But whether that’s been transmitted to the Philippine Center on Transnational Crime is unclear at this point.

Dela Rosa is the current buzz because the House is expected to take the vote to impeach Vice President Sara Duterte today, May 11. 

• At least 215 members of the House have committed to vote yes to impeachment. Dwight de Leon says it’s no longer a question of if but how broad the impeachment coalition will be. 
• If this happens, the House will immediately transmit the Articles of Impeachment to the Senate, which is mandated to convene as an impeachment court.
• Senate President Tito Sotto has committed there will be no delays in the process. But his slim majority — 15 senators in a 24-member institution — is constantly threatened with coup plots by the Duterte faction, which needs Senator Dela Rosa to tip the balance.
• Even if the Duterte camp is able to recruit the Villars and the Cayetanos to their side, and maybe Senator Loren Legarda (whose congressman-son is now a die-hard loyalist of the Vice President), they are still short of 13 votes without Dela Rosa. Will he save Sara or his own skin? 

It was so noisy last week that you must have missed the fact that we hosted leaders from Southeast Asia in Cebu for the 48th ASEAN Summit and Related Meetings from Wednesday, May 6, to Friday, May 8. Check the highlights here.

Hang tight for more dizzying days ahead!

Here are some of Rappler’s bests that you shouldn’t miss:

• Iya Gozum spent days in Central Mindanao to talk to former rebels who are now governing the Bangsamoro autonomous region, and as they are preparing for their first parliamentary elections in September. In this special report, she profiles Mohaqer Iqbal within the context of his unfinished business and visits Camp Darapanan to listen to the hopes and woes of former guerrilla Abdul Padding and 77-year-old seamstress Lambaina Ebrahim, among others. In her third story, Iya highlights the plight of the Teduray women who live in Upi, Maguindanao del Norte.
• James Patrick Cruz shows us the damage done to communities and people by the Navotas landfill fire.
• Lala Rimando reviews regulatory filings related to the Lopez family feud and discovers how investors found out about the controversial details in the deal with the Razon group 60 days later. 

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