A TRAGEDY NAMED RJ NIETO

IT was extremely disturbing news. A friend on Facebook related to me how one otherwise sane and rational pro- Duterte blogger gave the advice not to court the ire of RJ Nieto, and that we should all just be grateful to him for his service to the country.

My social media friends, who in private expressed their disagreement with Nieto’s antics, nevertheless told me to just ignore him and be the better person. It is no secret that I have a personal spat with him, that only recently erupted into the open, but had started during my radio program I used to co-host.

Openly, however, you see these sharing Nieto’s vitriolic assault on his enemies. Worse, some of them even liked his posts attacking me.

RJ Nieto arrived like a remarkable phenomenon in our political landscape, one at least has to grant him that. Despite being handicapped by not having a formal college degree, Nieto has put to shame not only professional journalists but even academics with his tenacious research skills, and his audacity to confront under the cloak of anonymity as Thinking Pinoy, but later on revealed himself to the public.

I honestly admire Nieto for his blogging skills. He has so much talent which the country can benefit from, if used properly and ethically.

I watched him with admiration as he made mincemeat of the LP senators during the Cocoygate hearings. His witty and fearless retorts, in fact, endeared him to a public that treated him as the personification of their hero, like a Fernando Poe Jr. punching the bad guys in old movies that drew the collective approbation, and adulation of the crowd. After that hearing, in a matter of days, Nieto’s social media following surpassed the one million mark.

Sadly, instead of using the momentum as an impetus to further inflict damage on the enemies of the President, he turned his ire on just anyone, including on many of us who are his al- lies. Nieto suddenly personified a premature representation of what could go wrong in a Duterte revolution. He started devouring his own kind.

Speculations are rife on what drives his combativeness with fellow Duterte enablers and bloggers. But only Nieto would know the real reason. What is certain is that his actions have also gradually chipped into his image as a crusading blogger. His demeanor caused his boldness and audacity to transmogrify into arrogance and hubris.

Perhaps, it was the Senate hearing, where he openly challenged the LP senators with an air of crusading mortal to behaving as if he is an infallible demi-god.

Nieto uses social media like