By Sass Rogando Sasot I am a Duterte supporter. This declaration exposes me to a barrage of insults from the Filipino disente society. I’ve been labelled a cuckoo, fascist, a Nazi, a Dutertard, an idiot, a fanatic, a blind follower, an apologist, and a High Priestess of the Cult of Duterte. Even benign tags have been weaponized against me, such as “just a student in The Hague” and “Mocha Uson with a diploma.” My Facebook Page has been ridiculed as the “slums of Facebook.” A professor in a true-blue elite university in Quezon City even stripped me of my nationality, uprooting me from my origin. He called me a “European Dutertian.” Its purpose is to discredit my participation in the political affairs of the Philippines, akin to how Michael Ignatieff’s US residency was successfully used against him by his opponents when he ran as Prime Minister of Canada in 2011. Their rationale is that since I’m educated, they cannot understand why I’m supporting the monster they call Duterte. For them, there’s no ethical standpoint that could justify my support; if there is, they dismiss any explanation as mere apologetics for Duterte. They simply refuse to understand. Period. They reconcile this “disconnect” by writing me off as a paid troll, part of a social media propaganda machine allegedly being financed by the national treasury. Some of them treat me as a lost lamb. And, they have self-righteously taken it upon themselves to shepherd me back to their flock. I have, also, been accused of having fake diplomas. My grammar was mocked; even my penmanship wasn’t spared from ridicule. Others have even gone to the extent of using my being transgender and/or Asian as the reasons why Leiden University accepted me. Someone informed me that some of these folks even tried to take hold of my teenage pre-transition pictures; they would like to use them to shame me. I pre-empted it by posting my HS graduation picture. Meanwhile, others are planning to write Leiden University, ECHO Foundation, and the World Professional Association for Transgender Health to divest me of my awards. For them, I’m a shame to the Filipino LGBT community and I have no right to call myself a gender activist or a human rights activist because they believe that Duterte is antithetical to both of that. They declared that my support for Duterte is a sacrilege to their own sacred cows. Yet this is all fair game for me. I am deeply aware that when one speaks in public, one must be courageous enough to face every kind of reaction. Life is not for the faint-hearted. Besides, freedom of speech doesn’t end with them; one can always fight back with speech. However, I’m not just being panned because I’m a Duterte supporter. I also happen to be a vocal Duterte supporter, with a strong social media presence who is not afraid to confront those who ridicule and insult me. I reciprocate whatever is hurled at me: insults, condescensions, sarcasms. But when I let these people get a taste of their own medicine, they play the victim card, retaliate viciously, mass report my Facebook, and turn into the very monster they profess to hate. Attacked on several fronts Since I started my Facebook Page in August, it has amassed around 92,000 followers; reached 22,253,712 people; received 10,470,896 post engagements. My Page has attracted both supporters and haters. Everyone was welcome in my Page, which endorses the most liberal version of freedom of speech. I tell my readers to be adult enough to be responsible for anything they say. When they bash people, expect to be bashed in return. I even told my readers that I don’t mind even if they cuss at me or hit me below the belt. I will not ban anyone except those who post anything meant to sell any product or service; those who issue death, physical or sexual assault threats to anyone, including public figures; and those who post porn. Other than that, readers can say anything they want. I have declared my Page to not be a safe space for anyone, even if you’re pro- or anti-Duterte. Yet this liberality isn’t enough even to those who are preaching democracy and freedom of speech. Several days ago, when I accessed my Public Page, this is what I saw.

Once again, my Personal FB account was suspended for 30 days - I could not post, comment, or reply to messages until November. The reason: I called out American hypocrisy.

Even my post informing my readers that my Personal FB account was suspended was removed by FB.

One of my readers told me that Facebook even deactivated his account after he commented on that post. When he woke up the morning after he commented, he couldn’t log in anymore in his account. FB asked him to supply a government-issued ID. However, that didn’t bring back his account. “Even though I already did what fb wants me to do in order for me to log back in to my account,” he said. “…still I can't log in…I can't believe people will go this far [to silence people].” Even while my Personal FB is suspended, I received a notification from FB about my Personal FB account “sending out spam.”

The posts reported as Spam includes: 1) A post criticising Human Rights Watch (HRW) meddling in political affairs of different countries; it was in reaction to a news implicating HRW to the failure of the peace agreement in Colombia; 2) A post about the apology Duterte made to the Jewish community, while visiting a Jewish synagogue in Makati; and 3) A post inviting my schoolmates here in the Netherlands to watch a video about the war on drugs of the Philippines that counters the apocalyptic image the international press is circulating.

Several days later, my Public Page was unpublished by Facebook. Since the 6th of October, my Public Page cannot be accessed. The notification says, “It looks like content posted on your Page doesn't follow the Facebook Terms and Community Standards, so your Page was unpublished.”

I appealed. But it was denied on the 7th of October.

The FB account I used to open the Page was also deactivated by FB, until I show a government ID reflecting the name on that account: Sass Den Haag.

But I can’t. That is not the name reflected on my ID. In the first place, my everyday name, Sass Rogando Sasot, doesn’t reflect the name on my ID, that requires my passport name, which still bears my male name. Second, I created “Sass Den Haag” for the purpose of opening a Public Page; and I opened a Public Page after my Personal FB account was suspended on the 18th of August for calling out an anti-Duterte Facebook Page for comparing the plight of prisoners in the Philippines to the tragic experience of the Jews during Hitler’s time.

Besides mass reporting my personal FB, some folks have been trying to hack into my account. I’ve received notifications that some people are trying to change my password, almost on a weekly basis, since I started amassing followers in July. I was one of the most vocal commentators who have a contrarian take on the South China Sea policy of the Aquino administration. I pointed out the conflict of interest of our previous Secretary of Foreign Affairs and how the Philippine oligarchy influences our foreign policy. Now, my Public Page has been unpublished and permanently deleted by Facebook because it has been mass reported as violating FB’s community standards. I know who did it and why. Silenced by a COCOFED beneficiary Several days ago, Clara Lobregat Balaguer, a prominent figure in the art scene in the Philippines, replied to my post supporting the appointment of Teddy Locsin Jr as the ambassador of the Philippines to the United Nations. Some factions are protesting his appointment for his controversial statements on twitter, including the one he made after Duterte made that statement contrasting himself with Hitler. He tweeted, “I believe that the Drug Menace is so big it needs a FINAL SOLUTION like the Nazis adopted. That I believe. NO REHAB.” Locsin already apologised for this tweet. My post was about lending perspective to the issue. I wrote in my post that the current ambassador of the United States, Samantha Power, is worse than Locsin. Power, after all, was one of the key figures who advocated military intervention in Libya. Until now, Libya is a mess and Obama has called it the “worst mistake” of his presidency. However, unlike Locsin’s tactless tweet, it’s a mistake that has cost actual lives, wreaked havoc on a sovereign country, and contributed to the flourishing of ISIL in Libya. I supported Locsin’s appointment because, for me, it’s about time that the Philippines has a UN representative who has the will to call out the inefficiencies, corruption, and lack of accountability of the United Nations.Balaguer commented and lambasted me for supporting “toxic masculinity.” She concluded that comment with this: “Perhaps you simply just haven't been fully identifiable as a woman long enough--and thus constantly privy to patriarchal abuse for merely being an identifiable woman--to get that toxic masculinity is a dangerous thing to justify.” Some of my readers called her out for questioning my womanhood. Balaguer apologised for the “poor wording.” Yet she continued to harangue me with judgments veiled as questions: “How can one be a gender activist, and support and endorse misogynistic behaviours from President and friends?” Because I have a very liberal commenting policy, I didn’t ban Balaguer. I let her rant and criticise me. Since my Page is a Public Page, it was inevitable that other people would chime in. Balaguer engaged in heated discussions with them, boasted of her high IQ, and divulged that she was actually on my Page because she is writing a book on trolling - I’m one of her subjects and my Page is her source of materials. “I have been studying you my dear,” Balanguer said. “You’re part of my research on trolls.” In the comment section, Balaguer was repeatedly brandishing her self-righteousness. Many of my readers were upset by her attitude and by being used as her subjects without properly being informed before she conducted her “research.” As a result, my readers also did their own research on Balaguer. One of them discovered Clara Lobregat Balaguer’s family connection. She’s the granddaughter of Maria Clara Lobregat, head of the Philippine Coconut Producers Federation (COCOFED). COCOFED was one of the organisations that received coconut levy funds, taxes imposed on coconut farmers during the time of Ferdinand Marcos. The taxes were supposed to be used for the benefit of coconut farmers and the development of the coconut industry in the Philippines. However, as Ambassador and former chairman of Philippine Coconut Authority Jose Romero said, ”the levies were used to buy insurance companies, commercial banks and oil mills, which were managed by the COCOFED officials and their allies for their own benefit. The profits derived from such activities never really trickled down to the farmers, who today are the most marginalized members of the agriculture sector.” I wrote a post about this. I told Balaguer to use her energies to encourage her family to return to the poor coconut farmers the funds. I hold her accountable because, as a granddaughter of Lobregat, she is a beneficiary from this plunder. I urged Balaguer to consider writing a book about how her grandmother plundered the nation. “We want to know first-hand from the [granddaughter]” how her grandmother did it, I said. Compared to her planned book on trolling, “that is a book worth reading,” I continued. I encouraged her to donate the sales of that book to coconut farmers. And since Balaguer wanted to write a book on trolling with me as its subject, I requested her to donate all the sales of that book to coconut farmers as well. Balaguer denied any culpability and responsibilty. “My grandmother is dead,” she said. In a separate post where she misinterpreted my article on shabu addicts being seen as monsters by their victims, Balaguer warned me that I’m just “digging my own grave” and called me a “violent troll.”

A lot of people commented on my post about Balaguer’s connection to the COCOFED scandal. Some of them were descendants of coconut farmers who died without finding justice. Balaguer couldn’t take the heat. She said that I was harassing her. Suddenly, a lot of my posts regarding her connection to COCOFED were being removed by Facebook.