Around that time as well I was introduced to the concept of Korean popular music, more known as K-pop, at the time Super Junior, 2NE1 and BIGBANG were the major acts you had to know and their songs got played in Davao local contemporary hit radio (CHR). Debutantes like BTS and EXO started knocking on my door around the same time, and I got wind of it thru one of my caretakers, however, that didn't last long as I quickly grew up and my parents thought there was no need for it anymore. So was my phase for K-pop, at the young age of 9 I already had some knowledge about these groups. My mom prohibited me from listening to this stuff until I got back around it in 2017. We meet BTS and EXO again. I decided to take the ARMY route.

I quickly had a friend group in Grade 7 because of my allegiance to K-pop instead of Anime, which for starters I had abandoned as I was basically just relying on terrestrial TV to watch Fairytale, Detective Conan, One Punch Man, My Hero Academia, etc., anyway this was the jumping pad. 2017 was a reintroduction to what I think I was destined for, music, specifically just listening. I love when that beat drops, however corny that may sound. Music was my escape for the harsh battles I was experiencing as I got thrown into campus journalism, science research, and even masculinity. Nothing short of an identity crisis right? One thing was certain, my faith in the auditory landscape. I was so alienated by Western pop music at this point, I felt like the songs coming out of the radio were trendy messes or just minimalist nonsense that felt easy and had to be easy to get the least common denominator audience. 21 Guns is not better than Thinking Out Loud, for crying out loud.

This fandom path was also apparent with my politics, I was such a fan of Rodrigo Duterte, back in 2009 when my aunties from Aklan visited in Davao my mother would turn on the TV and listen to what Mayor had to say at his weekly Sunday morning V-LIVE called 'Gikan sa Masa, Para sa Masa' it aired on ABS-CBN Channel 4. My aunties would be astonished at how brave the Mayor was, little did I even know what mess that would be a decade later. I only got into politics because of my parents' parasocialism to Duterte. I mean how can they dissociate from that when we are settlers living on stolen land? My mom is not indigenous to Davao and so was my dad, what made them come here is the 'promise' of a better future because Mindanao was 'virgin' land. Look at what happened to that in 2026...

I am proud to be born and raised on fandom. I will defend fandom forever, I continue to believe in the potential of the fandom. This conglomeration built upon from the structural disassembly of ostracized minoritized groups (i.e. women, queers, disabled, and indigenous peoples) forever will be a revolutionary thing. The fact that meta-modernity brought about this construct thru the paradox of neoliberalism, in such a peripheral state as the Philippines, is a testament to the reformulation of ontology as we decipher it, projecting from particles, and emanating from the weight it rests upon this perceptive experience of living. It such pains me that in 2026, we have yet to acknowledge the political nature of it at least within the mainstream left. With that and by establishing it as that and by understanding that we are in the meta-modern paradigm, we must grapple and confront how the far-right has been modelling our death within the trappings of our misreadings.

My first Twitter account was made in 2018, it was made in hopes of finding spaces where K-pop discourse is alive and I learn something. I never saw Twitter as a battleground of which I had to participate and get agency until 2019, where I berated an EXO-L for things they said about BTS and their place in the music industry. I was definite in my faith on the bottom-up nature of success BTS had. I mean Big Hit was the David, the Big 5 (SM, YG, JYP, LOEN and CJ E&M) were hegemons. My reality of Duterte and the constant repetition of his remarks on television, echoed by broadcasters on the radio every morning of my 14 year life back then, just mirrored and reinforced the frame I had on K-pop, it clicked in late 2018 that I had to defend BTS to defend the artistic integrity of the industry and abolish the oligopoly in South Korea.

When Martial Law was declared in Mindanao back in 2017, I was quite confused because it didn't seem necessary even if an incursion was happening in Marawi, Freedom Park bombing happened, and NCCC set ablaze. It took quite a few steps for me to realize and verbalize this internal rebellion I had when school had to be cut short due to the Martial Law being in effect meaning there were curfews in Davao and class ended at 2pm sharply. 45 minute classes, DepEd was worse back in Briones' time and we all forgot about that because of Sara Duterte.

“June 10, 2019. I was coming home from a day full of uncertainties in my life. I was scared of doing research and my thesis because of our professor who was so critical and thorough in every step of the way. I was casting doubt upon myself and my abilities. Can I still go through this course that I am about to take? Can I still take it? Can I still graduate? Those words were really scaring, despair was just in my mind. Walking towards the pedestrian and going to the bus stop, I decided to pluck my cheap earphones, listen to some new music from a group I wasn’t sure about with their last comeback, and listened WAVE, first out of all. It was unforgettable, how I met my eventual love for ATEEZ and this song. It was full of doubt and scepticism but I just rushed towards the wave of faith and it worked.” — excerpt from K-Pop Songs of The Summer: ATEEZ – WAVE (deforestedmusic, 2021)

I also had to grapple that SM City Davao was the new 'it' mall which was also a symbolic change for me since I had personal attachments to the 'bazaar' feel of the mall. That of course didn't stop crime from still occuring in Davao but the perception and confidence of being in a middle class family gave me this impression/assurance, that it was safe. I even noticed a lot of social mobility fast since 2018-19 marked a time where people rapidly got an iPhone and a new car, things that I thought were so lucrative you had to have a mansion to afford. Turns out it was just Ponzi schemes — popping up.

Aside from that my obsession with stan culture was taking me everywhere, partly as my medication to crisis. I was pretty much fond of exploring new groups while continuing to display utmost importance to BTS as ever, I found ATEEZ, Stray Kids and OnlyOneOf at a time where my identity crisis took the biggest of my time. My junior high school (elementary—even worse) experience being absolute toxic as waterboarding could ever get, I still got the privilege of being a son of a teacher there. I keep on gaslighting myself the system was fair, but everything materialized out of it just wasn't. Davao teachers are some of the most misanthropic individuals out there, I adjusted so hard to college because I couldn't believe instructors can be humans instead of tyrants.

Fandom saved me. Fandom saved a lot of us. Unfortunately, even that can ostracize us. I got lambasted and red-tagged in late 2020 for speaking up on human rights causes, school administration interventions and supporting community pantries. Fandom is so potent in its incubation of narratives that when a user suddenly gains all clout from the space, they become hegemons that reinforce and perpetuate harmful and sectarian viewpoints. In 2019, I still defended Duterte but my opposition to a certain policy and this sudden backlash ultimately drove them to exile me. Some even confronted me as the News Editor to retract an article, which I did not do and of course they tried to pin it onto me. However, fandom still lingered as I entered the pandemic unsure if I was going to graduate Grade 10 at all with music and now boys' love.

My acceptance of being an aromantic bisexual was because of 2gether the Series, Sarawat and Tine really bought down my guard and I surrendered to 'sin'. Catholic guilt reigned heavily for me, but I learned to finally break the cycle. I soon just went ahead and watched SOTUS, I Told Sunset About You, and Light On Me, thanks to that one gay friend I still had. Soon enough I got into that fandom, the BL television fandom. The shutdown of ABS-CBN, Black Lives Matter, COVID-19 pandemic response and raging authoritarianism, added by the Twitter news (which algorithmically was heavily liberal at the time), finally pushed me to denounce Rodrigo Duterte. Vaush, Hasanabi, PhilosophyTube, hbomberguy, Big Joel, Shaun, a lot of Western philosophy and video essays saved me. Fandom again at work.

Now, how come I say that “the far-right has been modelling our death within the trappings of our misreadings.” Simple. The bots, the paid actors, the decentralized system, the 'horizontal' vibe, the accessibility paid off. The psyop had worked, Epstein in hell laughed as the population constant getting into identity politics, 'feminism', and 'woke'. Distraction and permission. The HYBE that had been formed was simply the logical conclusion of late-stage capitalism, competition has to replace forms, faces, structure, and logic. The oligopoly still exists but so does HYBE. Capital won over the proletariat and we, the fandom, have been used.

Korean pop artists under contractualization in wage-labor face immense structural fealty to serve their fans and the corporation, in the sense that the fans have invested unpaid visibility and marketing, and in addition to paid (while some could be other avenues of fanwork) purchase of their music plus the 'investment' system that the Korean industry fosters to 'produce' talent. In that sense a certain division has risen particularly in political relations. A subset of fans demand visibility to marginalized peoples often conflicting with neoliberal status-quo institutions like corporate social responsibility gimmicks from coporations and the like (i.e. Boycott, Divestment and Sanction calls for the artist), while the other set keeping the neoliberal status-quo to function in order to conserve the accessibility of the artist to the lowest common denominator audience (i.e. forgiving and supporting work for Zionists). This is summing the tyranny to the artist from corporations, which remember still do operate under this service. For some groups that have amassed cultural significance like BTS, they do have agency in terms of saying things on parasocial platforms (i.e. Weverse, YouTube, TikTok) especially under more liberal-minded corporations like HYBE.

This economic agency amassed by performing wage-labor and proper compensation of the industry creates a powerful space wherein revolutionary action can spark in some creative ways. Example of which is an artist calling out fans for stalking or for engaging in untenable behavior. Revolutionary in the context of the proletariat fighting back and asserting space within a highly arboreal containment. Although only BTS and BLACKPINK have received this kind of treatment due to the ubiquitous, larger than life legacy they have inculcated within the system itself, which if given without any compensation to the act, will abolish the credibility of the industry.

Political acts have copied this parasocialism today, however, Duterte really beat them by two decades as ABS-CBN Davao allowed a blocktime lease to occur with the City Information Office. It is indeed in this revisionist, highly traitorous but logical gamble that operators can perpetuate territories of surveillance, harm, and re-education. Narratives coordinated and coming out of neatly contained fandom spaces which are posted by a sizeable chunk of users are the best vessels for this obfuscation that the enemy is within. Divide and conquer.

We must recognize that fandom is not static, it is dynamic. It can be captured and taken. Misread and be repurposed. It cannot be conquered but it can be a part of something beyond its construct. The far-right can capture it, but can never survive the autophagy. We must now move within our own fandoms, transcend that construct, create the stolons, bloom from it and assemble. Opening up to neighbors and being authentic is necessary to fight fascism, to fight statism, to fight obfuscation devices. Use its rhizomatic nature to be the smokescreen deluding the elite. The rich 1% can try to take away humanity, but we the 99% will struggle to conserve it.

ftrcbl6521

When the early ages of the internet was unraveling, there was an understanding that a great potential had unfolded given a lot of activists have used it as a platform to organize much effectively and much succinctly in ways that physical activity limited the reach of socialism. There was also the reimagination of what working class politics could look like in the aftermath of the fall of the Soviet Union, the complete reformulation of the Chinese Communist Party, 9/11, and increasing connectivity. Underneath our collective consciousness there was also brewing tensions as to how the right can be refounded and in ways that even conservatism hasn't dared exploring. For instance take the sudden rise of academics who criticized the foundational politicizing of their own field but not in ways you'd expect. In the aftermath of modernity, science has definitely been scrutinized as some have used it to further authoritarian entrenchment and institutional power to the point where the scientists had no choice but to call out the irreverent experiments of John Money and the uncovered tests that the US government had done to indigenous people and even everyday Americans. Right-wing academia has basically learned from postmodern Marxist theory that building alternative structures to the status quo politically aware ones albeit liberal are good to bolster the revitalization of their project. Of course the right could only do this insofar as they literally are the status quo, the economy, the hegemony, the apparatus, the narrative.

It's not shocking to see how Sara Duterte operates because it literally is just copy paste from what we all learned in the 4chan-era of the West. This internet rabbit hole inoculation of the most insanely absurd but highly intriguing topics ranging from transvestigations, aliens, spiritualism, and alternatives are all avenues that both the left and the right are trying to take space at the same time at everything. It speaks to how wildly our terms of service have changed from small meetup discussions in the postmodern era we have been trying to pigeonhole ourselves to this echo chamber of esoteric knowledge, inoculating paradoxical but unique ways of bringing something new that hopefully answers a time old question. How do we make a better place for humans?

I think genuinely some have been baffled at the hypocrisy of those front and center in the “left” and the right has been exploiting a lot of these thru doublespeak which some liberal governments continue to do and basically obfuscates socialism with liberalism and gives ammunition to the right. The major failing of the right ultimately will be the same as the “left” (the optics of what the right sees as communist or socialist), the inability to fully integrate what was deconstructed. The current hypocrisy of anti-imperialism will eventually come biting back the right as well, in terms of multipolarity although in ways we have all been familiar — evasion of international crimes.

The revelation that Epstein facilitated a multinational network of politicos engaging in the DaVinci Code-esque secret society antics just posits that the right always just exposes what it is, post-ironically. This new genre of comedy is what probably drives the facilitation of continued support for authoritarians like Duterte, Xi, Trump, Orban, Putin, Khomeinei, Maduro and Netanyahu but it also serves to the public's interest in actually seeing thru hypocrisy. People are in their hiveminds not because of choice although they may understand and agree that they did choose it, but rather thru the ways that the Social Contract has toyed with them either intentionally, unintentionally, by virtue or by manipulation.

Sara Duterte wants to appear like the savior that she is to the Bisaya population, a very strong ethnic group that thrives on standing head up and proving their own worth. But honestly isn't all of this tiring? I know it is because even Dabawenyos can't be bothered to read anymore on any issue, if Sara is the one harassed the only possible logic is she's being casted in the garbage bin of an elitist hegemony that is Imperial Manila. Can Sara Duterte sustain her promises and not reduce the Bisaya into this box, because clearly she has failed to deliver and her only catch is the dramatic revenge. People love revenge and it's because of how ABS-CBN has embedded the idea that revenge is the only way to exact justice thru any protagonist they like, exactly the problem of liberalism facilitating fascist rhetoric.

The fight is to reframe what we want. Instead of battling corruption, say gut the ropes of clientelism. Instead of battling China, say open up the commons for humanity. Stand firm by who we are. The only thing we are good at is to be consistent and authentic. It's all vibes, performance and optics, however, by following thru the performance we enact the hope that there are still willing humans to try a better future. It is radical, it is open, but it never succumbs to external and hegemonic capture. We are many, we are also one in the overarching sense of appreciation for the beauty of humanity.

Sara will definitely try to appeal to the most unheard-of and unspoken individuals. We must be ahead of the curve, outnumber the narratives and outflank the extremism she possesses. This is our call, this is the turning point for our own survival.

ftrcbl6521

If these side-effects of infrastructure and economic progress are not sustainably addressed, antagonistic effects on the system will occur (Pires et al., 2018). Pires et al. (2018) simulated temperature change and diversity loss in tank bromeliad ecosystems. They incontestably showed that maintaining biodiversity can decrease ecosystem sensitivity to climate change, that climate change can switch the mechanisms underlying biodiversity-function relationships, which climate change and biodiversity loss can have antagonistic effects on ecosystem functioning. There are interactive effects between climate change and biodiversity loss on this tropical ecosystem. However, such interactive effects were restricted to specific processes (Pires et al., 2018). Without dramatic and immediate changes focused on varying policy and practice, the losses of the many species and any dominance by early successional and alien species are doubtless (Hughes, 2017). Aquatic systems have suffered significant losses from invasive plants inflicting preventative waterways and numerous alien fishes that have out-competed native species and remodeled aquatic ecosystems (Hughes, 2017). This comparatively sizable number of invasive species results from the relatively poor implementation of the government's environmental programs and the lack of thence laws to implement them. For the most part, Philippine Local Government Units (LGUs) are unaware of their roles in managing municipal waters, the maximum amount as they are unacquainted with concerning the roles of state establishments task to help them. In contrast, resource management generally receives low LGU prioritization (Gonzales et al., 2021). There are also weak policies, not implemented laws, or unenforced rules about minimizing invasive species' introduction within the Philippines (Ejares, 2021). Implementation of environmental protection at the bottom level is littered with lack of participation and engagement, lack of accountability, low transparency, lack of awareness of active citizens, the weak role of civil society, and gender difference (PIN, 2017). Moreover, Taylor (2016) emphasizes that the quality of call-making accountability processes conjointly influences the protection of the environment. Additionally, native attitudes and behaviors (Cameron, 2016), political will, legislation, stakeholders' participation, and priority of outsourced funds (Gonzales, 2011) should be crucial in protecting the environment.

In response to the present clamor for the resolution of issues in transportation and sustainably addressing the environmental impacts of the mass industrialization the country experienced, the current government has arranged the plan labeled as Build, Build, Build (Lusterio-Rico, 2021). In 2016, President Rodrigo Duterte appointed Gina Lopez as the Department of Natural Resources Secretary (Ranada, 2016). This landmark political move in environmental focus has been the primary of its kind within the Philippines. Gina Lopez ordered the mass closure of mines, the ban on open-pit mining, the transition of the Philippines to renewable energy, and the end of inequality in Mindanao (Ranada, 2016). However, thanks to varied problems raised by the mining sector and the alleged incompetence of Gina Lopez, the Commission on Appointments headed by the House of Representatives and the Senate rejected Gina Lopez's appointment (Santos, 2017). With Lopez gone, the President appointed Roy Cimatu to be the DENR Secretary (ABS-CBN News, 2017) aboard the already confirmed Department of Transportation (DOTr) head Arthur Tugade (Ager, 2016) and Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) chief Mark Villar (Cayabyab, 2016). Tugade, Villar, and Cimatu spearheaded the Build, Build, Build program of the administration. Cimatu started the cleanup of Boracay in 2018, with the promise of resolving the crisis in six months. DENR deployed a “mission team” that may address the environmental issues in Boracay island (Geronimo, 2018). Divided into six teams, they will be tasked with rehabilitating and fixing the waste treatment of the island (Geronimo, 2018). Environmental rehabilitation is the centerpiece of the Build, Build, Build program, just like the Manila Bay redevelopment, which drew controversy over the dumping of dolomite on the shore to “beautify the landscape” (Malasig, 2019). Elgaali, Ziadat, and Alzyoud (2019) argued that accretion and erosion of the beaches are one in each of the significant impacts known within the geo-engineering of Dubai. The water quality in the town was impacted, high salinities and the large-scale desalinization activity in the neighborhood is predicted to extend the salinity levels by discharging a significant amount of brine into the ocean (Elgaali, Ziadat, & Alzyoud, 2019). The degree of total organic matter content, the natural gas demand, total nitrogen, and phosphoric rose (Elgaali, Ziada, & Alzyoud, 2019). It will be aforementioned that environmental issues were the facade of the infrastructure project. The main achievements were developing and extending numerous bridges, roadways, and public transportation within the Philippines. This program is no different from the industrialization and modernization that resulted in the ultimate environmental loss for the country. Presumptuous that these do not overlap with priority infrastructure, the combining total fund necessities of the program total to PHP 7.25 trillion. This Brobdingnagian sum results in ninety-one percent of the calculable total price to realize the nation's ultimate goal of beating the Golden Age of Infrastructure (Cuenca, 2021). This agenda conjointly interprets the development of the Pasig River Expressway, designed by the San Miguel Corporation. As mentioned earlier, the project aims to alleviate and solve the continuing traffic crisis in railway line Manila (DENR-EMB-EIA, 2021). The project drew criticism because it was erected within the Pasig River (Lago, 2021). San Miguel plans to dredge the “dead” Pasig River to construct the nineteen-kilometer, six-lane, all-elevated state highway (DENR-EMB-EIA, 2021). In comparison, several studies have advised the environmental impact of dredging (Manap & Voulvoulis, 2016; Jayaraju, Reddy, B.S.R & Reddy, K.R., 2010; Sandirasegaran & Manap, 2016). Stryjecki et al. (2021) argued that dredging a tiny low river displayed higher diverseness and served as a species catalyst in Krapiel River, Poland. The response of individual teams of invertebrates to the intervention was powerfully influenced by the role of the terrestrial introduce their life cycle: the more significant the role of the terrestrial phase within the life cycle, the more chances of the cluster being full of changes in the terrestrial surroundings following the intervention (Stryjecki et al., 2021). However, even the study was conclusive enough to indicate that dredging will affect animals; this was seen in the devastation and collapse of the Odonata insect species compared to the previous ecosystem (Stryjecki et al., 2021).

Instead of constructing the Pasig River Expressway, it would be better if the authorities prioritized mass public transportation instead of non-public roadworks. Public transportation carried out with the Six Sigma DMAIC technique lessened road injuries and promoted much less road congestion (Kuvvetli & Firuzan, 2017). The imply of each day injuries reduced from 1.95 to 1.57, and the wide variety of injuries in line with 100,000 km additionally reduced from 4.73 to 3.77 (Kuvvetli & Firuzan, 2017). Kuvvetli and Firuzan endorsed that increasing the application citywide and presenting its sustainability are desired in presenting a hit public transportation system. It is noteworthy that the Six Sigma technique is an effective business method that can enhance the best initiatives in many industries worldwide (Kuvvetli & Firuzan, 2017). Therefore, private people can nonetheless assist the authorities to form their transportation gadget as opposed to the authorities counting on corporate sponsorship. Another trouble of PAREX is the opportunity of it develop the Braess Paradox. The Braess Paradox is a strange occurrence in congested city transportation networks (Nagurney A. & Nagurney L., 2020). In particular, the Braess Paradox happens best in networks wherein the customers function independently and noncooperatively in a decentralized manner (Nagurney A. & Nagurney L., 2020). The counterintuitive phenomenon is that a brand-new road might also bring about the growth of travel cost/time for all drivers within the network. A real-life instance of the Braess paradox is quite uncannily much like PAREX. The rehabilitation of Cheonggyecheon, a city that circulates in downtown Seoul, South Korea, became a world focus when first introduced in 2002 and finished in 2005 (Kim & Jung, 2018). Between 1958 and 1977, the Cheonggyecheon Freeway was built. Concrete was poured over the stream to assemble a 50-meter-wide arterial road that ran six kilometers; and in 1976 was improved by an elevated highway that reached 5.9 kilometers and was constructed above the street to serve the swiftly growing traffic among downtown and outskirts of Seoul (Kim & Jung, 2018). This project shares the similar goal of creating transport infrastructure in a “dead” river, which even exacerbated the traffic clogs in Seoul. Kim and Jung (2018) said that the Seoul Metropolitan Government provided a rehabilitation challenge to repair the Cheonggyecheon River. The new Cheonggyecheon was opened to the general public on 1 October 2005 after 28 months of labor supported with the aid of using the sturdy involvement of the Seoul Metropolitan Government during the entire process (Kim & Jung, 2018). Structures established withinside the industrialization length had been removed, and direct daylight shed mild at the hibernating circulate underneath the bloodless concrete slabs and pillars (Kim & Jung, 2018). Today, it flows from west to east in valuable Seoul, passing via 13 neighborhoods in four city districts (Kim & Jung, 2018). Consequently, it is compelling that the PAREX challenge needs to be replaced with the neighborhood authorities' intensive and systematic rehabilitation plan. According to Kim and Jung (2018), awareness around the scale of maintenance of surroundings and biodiversity, water best and recharge, and mitigation of world warming can construct fee to rehabilitating ecosystems.

Information dissemination and focus group discussions are important ways to contribute solutions, critiques, and research on the sustainability of infrastructure projects. A STEM student must use proper communication to reach out to planners effectively, government institutions, architects, and private individuals to solve this progress dilemma. We must innovate in transportation, quality of life, and services without sacrificing gender equality, social justice, and the environment. Biodiversity is a vital area of the ecosystem. Environmental awareness and advocacy are areas where we need focus and attention as much as we do in governance, crime, justice, and education.

ftrcbl6521