RJ Nieto


Rey Joseph "RJ" P. Nieto is a controversial pro-Duterte Filipino blogger who is better known by his pen name "Thinking Pinoy", which is also the title of his blog site. His blogs focuses on partisan politics. He has drawn controversies and faced legal consequences due to his vocal support of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's polarizing policies and personal attacks against the latter's critics.

Background

Work and education

Nieto currently serves as a co-host of the podcast of Karambola sa DWIZ 882, a radio and internet podcast program tackling political issues, together with Jonathan dela Cruz, Trixie Cruz Angeles, Conrad Banal and Larry Gadon.
Rey Joseph finished high school in 2002 at St. Mary's College of Baliuag. He attended the University of the Philippines Diliman majoring in Mathematics but later dropped from school in 2005.
He worked as a reporter at the Sunstar Davao local newspaper in 2010.
He worked for a brief time at the Department of Foreign Affairs of the Philippines from July to October 2017.

Blogging career

Nieto established his blog site, "Thinking Pinoy" in November 2015. He initially began to write his own political opinions after realizing that he usually does not agree with political views he reads online. When the campaign period for the 2016 Philippine elections began, he decided to start the blog after noting that "there was something different in the air". He initially expected a readership of 500 people a week.
Nieto claimed that his first article registered 10-15 thousand hits and said that his blog's readership ballooned in December 2015 when he made a post tackling the issue of Senator Mar Roxas' degree from University of Pennsylvania. He said that his site crashed 21 times and that particular post registered at least a million hits. Most of the pro-Duterte bloggers register similarly large numbers of engagement. There has been some debate on whether the numbers for pundits such as Nieto were organic/unadulterated or the fruit of astroturfing and white glove weaponization tactics offered by Facebook to political clients.

Notable posts

;Aquino and P10.6-B senior citizens’ funds
On January 5, 2018, The Manila Times journalist Rigoberto Tiglao wrote in his column regarding alleged corruption of the administration of former President Benigno Aquino III citing ThinkingPinoy's articles which he verified from his own sources. It was alleged that Aquino along with budget secretary Florencio Abad, and health secretary, Janette Garin conspired to embezzle P10.6 billion fund meant for the insurance premium of senior citizens and reallocated it to dubious health department projects not sanctioned by the congress which was alleged to be done "at best" to boost the Liberal Party's campaign in the 2016 elections. Rigoberto Tiglao is an opinion columnist who has been accused of red-baiting, promoting fake news, allowing personal vendettas to find their way into his opinion column, and favoring unsubstantiated conspiracy theories. Tiglao is a known apologist of the Marcos family and their regime, despite the fact that the Marcoses are extensively referred to by journalists, reputable researchers, and other empirically reliable sources as one of the most corrupt leaders in the world in recent history. The Manila Times also publishes several of the most prominent and relevant pro-Duterte "Die Hard" supporters, raising suspicions amongst pro-democracy, press freedom, and human rights activists and thinkers about the paper's ability to provide non-propagandist coverage of current events in the Philippines.

Fake news and misinformation

Nieto has posted fake news and misinformation multiple times on his blog and Facebook page.
On November 3, 2017, Nieto on his radio program Karambola on DWIZ urged then Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque to throw a concrete hollow block at journalist Pia Ranada. The NUJP denounced Nieto for threatening Ranada on air and added that Nieto may have committed a crime. The Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas reprimanded Nieto for making a personal attack against Ranada and found him guity of violating the Broadcast Code, in which Article 4, Section 1 states: "Personal attacks, that is, attacks on the honesty, integrity or personal qualities of an identified person, institution or group on matters that have no bearing on public interest are prohibited." The KBP also called out Aliw Broadcasting Corporation which runs DWIZ for allowing Nieto to go on air even if he lacked KBP accreditation.

Legal Cases

Nieto has been allegedly involved in doxxing, and a cyberlibel case has been filed against him by blogger Jover Laurio, the author of Pinoy Ako Blog.
In 2018, Nieto was also indicted for libel for posting on his blog that U.S. President Donald Trump called former opposition senator Antonio Trillanes a narco or drug lord. Nieto filed a not guilty plea and refused to comment on the case, telling reporters, "Let's just wait for the trial."

Government involvement

Bases Conversion and Development Authority

The Bases Conversion and Development Authority reportedly offered Nieto a consultancy post to help it promote its projects especially the major endeavours under the Duterte administration's Build! Build! Build! infrastructure program but the blogger declined the offer.

Department of Foreign Affairs

RJ Nieto was hired in July 2017 by the Department of Foreign Affairs as its social media consultant and was tasked to be its "head of strategic communications for migrant workers' affairs". He reportedly resigned in November 2017, a week after attending a Senate hearing which discussed fake news.

Cultural Criticism

It has been noted by Filipino academics such as Jonathan Corpus Ong and Jason Cabanes that the Duterte regime counts on many members of the LGBTQI+ community as cheerleaders because they possess a control of popular vernacular language and codes, as well as an ability to code-switch easily, from high to low language, between genders on multiple social media accounts, between socialist and extreme right policies. The report also states, in its ethnographic profile of a "chief disinformation architect," a quote that summarized much of the criticism hurled at RJ Nieto: "It is interesting how corruption in mainstream media is used as a moral justification to dispose of institutionalized practice by replacing it with another version—equally lacking in scruples, and ultimately benefiting themselves. By expressing statements that normalize or even exaggerate evil or corruption in existing public institutions, these ambitious workers imagine themselves as self-styled agents of positive change." It could be reliably argued that RJ Nieto fits the bill as a "chief architect of disinformation," as per the qualifications in this report and as per Nieto's touting of his own relevance as a political opinion maker within to assert its positions.
Nieto stated at a senate hearing in 2018 that the Department of Foreign Affairs, where he briefly occupied a position before resigning, , clearly stating that he are more important than the government institutions that they serve. It has become standard practice in the Duterte administration to reward loyalists with government positions, despite public outcry on all levels at the lack of professional qualifications for the posts they are appointed to. Duterte himself stated that he appointed Nieto's close associate and now government official, Mocha Uson, to her position at the Presidential Communications Operations Office because he owed it her for offering her services for free during his campaign period. This casts a shadow on Nieto's own appointment to a position at the Department for Foreign Affairs, a post for which he did not possess previous experience or sector-specific understanding of career civil service in the department.

External Links