#Nasaanangpangulo: Fact and fiction and why RJ Nieto needs to destroy Joyce Ramirez

ONE has to ask why the name “Joyce Ramirez” keeps popping up in the discursive universe of RJ Nieto. He writes to paint Ramirez as the enemy when they haven’t even personally met.

The answer to this is simple: the fact that publicist Joyce Ramirez is the key to eroding the credibility of RJ Nieto.

And for one whose fame is driven by his claim to having the reputation of a fearless buster of lies and checker of facts, the prospect of being shown to have peddled a lie himself must be too terrifying for the outspoken blogger.

The story that can challenge Nieto’s credibility is the one that appeared in his Thinking Pinoy blog on February 17, 2017 when he claimed that Ramirez worked #NasaanAngPangulo trend. The hashtag targeted then President Noynoy Aquino for his conspicuous absence in the immediate bloodbath. It went viral in the evening of January 29, 2015, and in a span of minutes became the No. 1 trending topic worldwide.

Anyone would have loved to break a scoop like this, more so Nieto who as Thinking Pinoy was known for making explosive revelations. The political damage it would bring to the unity of the Liberal Party would have been - ously supportive of the Aquino administration, was now allied with the so-called DDS as one of

On October 4, 2017, during the fake news hearing at the Senate, Nieto once again repeated the lie and this time he made it under oath.

However, the real story is far from what Nieto first wrote in his blog, and repeated in his Senate appearance.

or starting trending campaigns, through a digital agency called INTERXN, which she founded in publicist whose main expertise is - tertainment and celebrities. She pioneered the use of digital PR in the Philippines that capitalized on trending and amplifying topics, personalities and product placements online to champion her roster of clients.

At one point, Ramirez commanded approximately 50 influencers whom she had contracted to help her achieve the stunt of doing online trending campaigns. This enabled her to build a collective following with a reach of 45 million.

In 2015, at the height of the political landscape was rife with queries on the whereabouts of then President Aquino. At the same time, people were already elections, and political agents were actively looking around for possible operators.

Ramirez, whose reputation had been built on making commercial brands trend and had the numbers to drown out their competition online, was introduced by her lawyer to someone who wanted to explore the possibility of working as Ramirez’s agent for the 2016 presidential election. The broker (which we will identify as Broker 1) asked Joyce to present a “proof of concept,” or a trial trend, which he intended to present to then possible client.

At the time, Noynoy Aquino’s one of the most organically talked about issues, and the query “nasaan ang pangulo” was a popular question being asked by netizens. Ramirez found her golden opportunity and rode on this issue. She told them that if they could make a successful case study, there was a possibility that they would be hired and that the target client was Secretary Roxas.

came into the picture and volunteered to offer Ramirez’s services to then Vice President Jejomar Binay.

To prepare two separate presentations, Ramirez created a the number of media outlets that covered the proof of concept, or the trial trend, and its corresponding PR value.

This report was emailed by Ramirez to only two people on record: Broker 1 ( who wanted to approach Roxas) and Broker 2 (who promised to deal with Binay). Weeks and months passed and no deal materialized. Broker 1 told Ramirez that he was not able to close a deal because Roxas wanted to distance himself - sapano. Broker 2 was unable to sell the idea to Binay.

Nieto was led to believe that on the strength of the information fed to him by Broker 2 and alleged screenshots of an online chat between Ramirez and her former - tion Report emailed to the camp of VP Binay. He then assumed amounting to approximately P100 million plus worth of media coverage, was the total budget spent by Roxas to tarnish PNoy’s image.

Roxas funded the campaign was a clear misrepresentation of the facts and a smear campaign designed to divide the Liberal Party and to destroy Ramirez’s name and honor. The hashtag #NasaanAngPangulo was merely a proof of concept—a trial trend or case study requested by Broker 1 to show a potential client what Ramirez was capable of producing at the time.

Ramirez contacted Nieto in February 2017 to correct his story. He simply ignored her, and attacked her even more. Nieto even fomented the lie that Ramirez is a yellow, when in truth she ended up getting involved in the campaigns of Grace

It is clear why Nieto is set on destroying the reputation of Joyce Ramirez. Nieto will stop at nothing until Ramirez’s career is dead simply because she holds the whole truth. And for Nieto, the - ibility, and will prove that he perjured himself at the Senate.

It will make people ask. If he lied on this one, what other lies has he peddled?