Thread by @olliekarp

In today's #dailysoup, I'll introduce a former Presidential spokesperson and current Manila Times columnist, Rigoberto Tiglao (@bobitiglao).

He's known for being an "investigative journalist" peddling conspiracies and disinfo, particularly pro-China and pro-Russia ones.

1/23

During the early years of Tiglao's journalistic career during the 1980s, he was an activist against the infamous Filipino dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr.

He also served as a journalist for Business Day during that time.

2/23

However, Tiglao was also the head of the Manila-Rizal chapter of the Communist Party of the Philippines, and he was arrested x placed under house arrest by the Marcos Sr. government.

3/23

Three years after Marcos was ousted during the 1986 EDSA Revolution, Tiglao became one of the nine journalists who founded the "Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism". He worked at the Far Eastern Economic Review in the 1990s.

4/23

Tiglao became the Presidential Spokesperson for infamous Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo from 2001-02.

However, Tiglao abruptly resigned in April 2002, with speculators pointing to his dissatisfaction with an Arroyo-linked political honcho named Dante Ang.

5/23

Tiglao became the Philippine Ambassador to Greece, but Filipino migrants in the country saw his performance as "dismal", especially cuz Tiglao was living lavishly in a high-end house at Athens while he failed to attend to Filipino migrants struggling to earn during the GFC.

6/23

Moreover, there was one time when 12 Filipino seafarers stranded at the MV Aetea Sierra, as well as a Filipina detained in Greece, were unable to get a call x visit from Tiglao. Hence, Filipino migrants called for Tiglao's ouster as PH's Ambassador to Greece.

7/23

After Tiglao's removal from his post as PH Ambassador to Greece, he claimed that he was "on leave" and wrote an article accusing Jose Valencia, the leader of the Filipino migrants who called for his ouster, for something along the lines of "not acting like a Filipino".

8/23

Then, as Tiglao's peeoptalking remark against Valencia was tagged by the Daily Inquirer as "slander" and "lies", this started his conversion from "investigative journalist" to "a peddler of disinformation".

9/23

During the 2010s, Tiglao has been mastering the art of spreading disinfo, with most of them attempting to discredit famous opposition figures in my country, favour my country's most infamous dictator, and spew pro-China and pro-Russia peepotalking.

10/23

Tiglao claimed that the overthrowing of pro-Russia Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych in 2014 was "started by outlets funded by US-headed organisations, Omidyar and NED". After some conspiratorial peepotalk, he claimed that Omidyar is Soros-linked and NED is CIA-linked.

11/23

Tiglao added that "Ukrainians have been brainwashed to demonise Russia", and he called Yanukovych a "highly popular Ukrainian president".

This #vatniksoup entry from @P_Kallioniemi debunks Tiglao's "Maidan-was-a-US-coup" peepotalks:


12/23

https://twitter.com/P_Kallioniemi/status/1635211581868085250?s=20

Tiglao questioned the claim that "al-Assad used chemical weapons against the Syrian people", suggesting something along the lines of "the West fabricated the al-Assad chemical attacks so that they could call him a monster".

13/23

Tiglao claimed that "the US created the Ukraine crisis by militarily encircling Russia and creating EDCA-style military-basing agreements with Eastern European countries while making them NATO members".

14/23

In another article, Tiglao referred the Russian invasion of Ukraine as a "special military operation" and then blamed "Biden's signing of the Charter on Strategic Partnership" for the invasion.

15/23

Then, Tiglao claimed that "the US broke its promise with Gorbachev to not take in Eastern European countries as members of NATO".

This #vatniksoup entry debunks Tiglao's "NATO-and-US-caused-the-Ukraine-war" peepotalks:

16/23

https://twitter.com/P_Kallioniemi/status/1616000266352078849?s=20

In Tiglao's book "Debacle", he claimed that the 2012 Scarborough Shoal incident happened cuz "the Philippines provoked China by calling Beijing an enemy".

In reality, China started the incident cuz its fishing vessels were hoarding fish in Philippine maritime territory.

17/23

Tiglao labelled the Philippines' victory in the 2016 SCS Arbitration as "one of the biggest blunders in international disputes", adding that "the arbitration just provoked China".

In reality, the arbitration ensured the SCS' defence from China's illegal claims.

18/23

After the recent 2023 Ayungin Shoal incident, Tiglao again accused the Philippines for "bringing the Ayungin Shoal to the so-called 2016 SCS arbitration blunder", blaming US media for "demonising China and romanticising the Ayungin Shoal to go against China's bullying".

19/23

Then, Tiglao accused the US for "using the Philippines as a proxy country to provoke China over the SCS and Taiwan issues, especially through creating more EDCA bases", claiming that "the US is using the same tactics it used in Ukraine to provoke Russia".

20/23

When Harris was visiting Palawan few months after Pelosi's visit to Taiwan in August 2022, Tiglao claimed that "the US is using the visits to raise tensions with China in the SCS and Taiwan".

In reality, the visits indicate the US' commitment to defend the Indo-Pacific.

21/23

When Tiglao got confronted by fact checkers due to his disinfo peddling, he claimed that they are "controlled by the CIA", and when he got banned from Facebook in May 2022, he claimed that "FB is controlled by the fact-checkers and the yellow opposition".

22/23

Tiglao's pro-China x pro-Russia peepotalks got cited by infamous Chinese media outlets like Global Times, and Filipino vatniks like Sass Sasot.

Tiglao even cited Jeffrey Sachs, a person from @P_Kallioniemi's #vatniksoup. Read more here:

23/23 https://t.co/c5PUsgci12

https://twitter.com/P_Kallioniemi/status/1652683683969527810?s=20

Support my work:

Related entries:
Pro-CCP peepotalking points - https://t.co/0UwyfHrhZn

South China Sea dispute - https://t.co/WSUt6Q9i8K

Russian narratives (from #vatniksoup) -https://t.co/45I1VWBoLT

Scarborough Shoal - https://t.co/EdtJG47XaMbuymeacoffee.com/olliekarp

https://twitter.com/olliekarp/status/1650225950024667136?s=20

https://twitter.com/olliekarp/status/1654762604278210560?s=20

https://twitter.com/P_Kallioniemi/status/1634168123074007043?s=20

https://twitter.com/olliekarp/status/1655631123739979776?s=20

Similar entries:
Seymour Hersh (from #vatniksoup) -

Shoutouts: @P_Kallioniemi, @Aaron_MatthewIL, @LukeShiga

This is Entry #72 of the #dailysoup. Feel free to read the previous entries here 👇
https://t.co/GQLO6k1pdK

https://twitter.com/P_Kallioniemi/status/1626211316087066624?s=20

bit.ly/thedailysoup

Correction to Tweet 19/23: 2021 Ayungin Shoal Incident

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