Just like the boomers warned us: Gibran's digital past haunts

Hello friends!

Yesterday I joined two friends and 700,000-ish Timorese and others at Tasi Tolu beach to watch (“watch”) Pope Francis deliver what has surely got to be one of his biggest Masses ever. It was a remarkable day, the crowd was massive and endless and so welcoming and good-natured. There is a lot to say about the entire event, but my legs are still sore. 

It’s been a very busy few days, but there are three developments I’ve been keeping an eye on from Cambodia, Indonesia and, of course, the Philippines. I hope to return to more regular scheduled newsletters from next week, assuming Telkmosel coverage helps me out in East Indonesia!

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See you then,

Erin Cook

🇮🇩 Online goes offline for Gibran

Gibran Rakabuming Raka, the son of Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo, isn’t yet ready for inauguration next month but if he was hoping for things to go smoothly he’s got another thing coming. An account under the name Fufufafa on the message board Kaskus dating from 2017-2018 is believed to belong to the vice president-elect and: oof. It features a whole bunch of homophobia (some targeting Prabowo Subianto’s son) and a hell of a lot of misogyny. Friend of the letter Andra Nasrie has an excellent write-up over on his Beehiiv newsletter here (sign up!). 

Gibran has denied the account is his, and his father has warned of ‘fake news’ and ‘misinformation.’ But, as Andra notes, wily watchers have compared the posts to others he’s made in the past and it does kinda fit! Gibran is, I think, one of the world’s first terminally online millennial leaders and the benefit of the doubt is not in his favour. 

What’s very intriguing to me here is why was all this released now and by who? This sort of material would’ve been dug up either by his own backers or opposition teams during the election, but holding off to now — just weeks after dad’s popularity plummeted for the first major time — is interesting. A split between the soon-to-be-president Prabowo Subianto and the Jokowi camp has been seen as an inevitability, would be very interested to know if this is a starter gun. 

🇰🇭 No movement on Funan Techo Canal

A very intriguing update from CamboJA on the Funan Techo Canal construction. That kicked off in August to much fanfare — and nothing has happened since. CamboJA reports residents said construction equipment was wheeled out of the area after the event and no work has taken place. 

Local resident Ry Sineath told the outlet that shortly after the groundbreaking, residents were interviewed by officials from the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the Ministry of Public Works and Transport about land usage. Some residents have been promised compensation for losing land to the project but worry it will fall short. 

Another resident, Eng Veasna, says his family is concerned about planting crops. They were told not to plant after the groundbreaking, but the lack of any progress on the project has them wondering why: “We depend 100% on farming, yet we can’t plant after the groundbreaking, where there has been no progress so far. If we want to plant crops, we are afraid that they will say that the project has broken ground, so why are we still planting. That’s why we continue to wait.”  

Another great must-read from CamboJA on this. 

🇵🇭 Apollo goes down

Hot off the back of snagging ex-mayor Alice Guo, preacher and suspected human trafficker Apollo Quiboloy is in custody. His arrest on Sunday — or his “ultimate sacrifice” as his lawyer put it — brings to an end a weeks-long face-off between law enforcement and adherents of Quiboloy’s Kingdom of Jesus Christ in the south of the country. 

President Bongbong Marcos appears to be playing this well. Quiboloy is a deviant who has used religion to victimise untold people, but the fact remains that he is wildly popular among a cohort of the country. “He said his followers were willing to die for him. He did not want that to happen, so to his credit, he was still displaying a modicum of leadership,” the President said after the arrest, as per Reuters. 

Quiboloy also faces major charges in the US, where he features on the FBI’s most wanted list, but Manila is keen to see him tried and serve time in the Philippines before they even think about extradition. He’ll face charges of child abuse and human trafficking, but the US have him already indicted by a federal grand jury on ‘conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion and sex trafficking of children; conspiracy; and bulk cash smuggling,’ the government-backed Phillpine News Agency reports. At this stage, the US haven’t filed a request for extradition. 

There is a bit of a tiff emerging over who keeps him in custody. The Inquirer reports the court in Quezon City has said turn him and one of his five coaccused over to the male dorms at New Quezon City jail, with the other coaccused to be housed at a female dorm in another institution. Nah, says the Philippine National Police, he’s staying in their custody at Camp Crame as ruled by a separate court in Pasig City. 

Meanwhile, Quiboloy’s lawyer Israelito Torreon says he should be held in the custody of the Armed Forces of the Philippines citing health and security worries. Marcos conceded the point on Monday that Quiboloy has lost trust in the police after the compound searches, as per the Inquirer.  

It looks like the Philippines might be going three for three on its most high-profile cases. Cast your mind back: Arnolfo Teves Jr. is the former representative Negros Occidental believed to be inextricably linked to the Pamplona massacre in March last year that left 10 dead, including the province’s former governor Roel Degamo. 

He made a run for it to Timor-Leste and tried to claim political asylum, a move rejected in Dili where he has been subject to house arrest for months. Efforts to deport or extradite him have been stalled but Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla says he expects to see him in Manila “within the month” and a plan has been hatched to use the Air Force to bring him back. This wouldn’t be the first time the DOJ has said Teves’ return is imminent, so we will wait and see.