FOR SIGLA RESEARCH CENTER, HOPE IS A STUBBORN, UNENDING THING

In the comment section of every disappointing news headline, you will find hundreds of people summoning the faceless villain responsible for everything wrong in the country: the "bobotante."

- ANDREA PANALIGAN

Playing the blame game is a difficult habit to kick, especially in moments when we feel powerless to do anything but watch the world burn. "I told you so" is an addictive refrain. We may have lost the battle, but we still get a taste of moral victory.

The "bobotantes" are, of course, a myth. In 2016, voter polls revealed Rodrigo Duterte's sizable lead in the elite class, and globally, the Philippines had become known as "patient zero" of the disinformation epidemic.

Since then, we've adopted a new language to boost our understanding of our incomprehensible times: from the oxymoron "fake news" to the inflamed redefinition of "trolls." This is thanks to the work of Filipino researchers and organizers who named and studied what we were going through before we even knew we were going through something.

Now, these scholars and community organizers have come together, Avengers-style, and founded Sigla Research Center. I meet some members at a homey studio in Taguig; we sit around a small table, inuman-style.

"Academic papers, they're very boring," says JP Campos, Sigla's Communications Strategist. He's also a video producer and the founder of social media-first independent media or-

Dakila and Active Vista, which Sigla's head of Public Engagement Juan Felix is part of. The intent, he tells me, was to build solidarity and provide a collaborative environment. "A lot of us work in silos. Kung HIV/AIDS ang focus ko, ito lang ang gagawin ko. But when you take a step back, all (the work we do) are human rights, and we should be working together."

Commune enabled organizations to exchange skills and simply, get together as a community. "Maraming natuwa," Juan Felix says of the reception to the project. "They were always asking us kailan 'yung next, kaso given the funding freeze na nangyari, it's not looking good."