One of the recent political drama 
that circulated around the media and caused the netizens, involving some politicians with official social media accounts to take sides is the amnesty granted to Senator Antonio Trillanes IV by the previous administration being revoked by the President of the Philippines. Last August 31, 2018, President Rodrigo Duterte signed Proclamation 572, declaring the amnesty granted for Trillanes as “void ab initio” or void from the beginning because of his failure to comply with the necessary and minimum requirements such as the following: 1) he never admitted his guilt, 2) the copy of his application of amnesty could not be found. This happening triggered the need of some politician siding with Trillanes, such as Senator Bam Aquino to tweet the statement seen above. As we scroll up to the reply section of the said tweet or thread, we can conclude that the opinions of the netizens, or the Filipino people concerned about this matter vary. Some wished well for Senator Trillanes while others stated that it is only necessary for Senator Trillanes to be jailed again as a form of a ‘little sacrifice’ to make this country better
Senator Bam’s tweet seemed to be casual and personal at first, but if you come to think of it, it is more than just saying Sen. Trillanes is at ease despite everything that is happening. Sen. Aquino’s particular statement aims to send a warning not only to his co-minority leaders but also to those that are against this administration. The mere fact that the present administration can jail a state leader sends a message to every Filipino that no one can be exempted to what this administration; especially the president is up to. This however was not properly accepted by some netizens and sent bad or rather opposing tweets to the Senator’s statement. This only shows how Twitter and other social media platforms are not very suitable for rhetoric discourse especially one with a public figure involved. When venting out ideas and emotions on Twitter, there is no doubt that some would throw the “dilawan” card to anyone that is opposing the administration’s actions. And thus invalidates their stands because of throwing Ad Hominem to the person or persons involved. Also, given that you could only type 280 characters, it is very hard to sum up ideas and discussions given that limited number.
As of the moment, this tweet from Sen. Aquino has reached a total of only 41 retweets and 276 likes. However, this reach does not necessarily equate to the credibility of the speaker. Being a senator who has passed bills that are a big help to every Filipino, the actions that the senator have done weighs more than the number of retweets and likes. The only thing that is reflected by the reach of a particular post is the number of people that has seen and read the post. Moreover, if the tweet was published in an offline media such as newspaper and magazines, the persuasiveness of the statement of the Senator might change given that there is no word count and he could have expressed his sentiments in a more formal manner. When it comes to the audiences, however, it is expected that there will be changes given that offline media reaches a different range of readers. To be specific, in Twitter, or any social media platform, everyone could, and by everyone, all ages, from the generation of Baby Boomers up to the Generation Z, can access or read the tweet given that the profile is public.
References:
Maglinong, D. (2018, Sep 30). Explained: The story and history behind Sen Trillanes’ amnesty revocation. Retrieved from http://www.interaksyon.com/explained-the-story-and-history-behind-sen-antonio-trillanes-amnesty-revocation/
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