Masked Savior: Raffy Tulfo

Raffy Tulfo, the controversial television host and journalist. With his massive program ¨Wanted sa Radyo.¨ is widely known and successful, his name has become a household name here in the Philippines. It is believed that his goal is to help his fellow Kababayans for free and help the poor who could not afford a lawyer for their own personal problems. His approaches have made people see him as ¨Champion of the Oppressed ¨ who fights again corruption and abused power.

 

However, is he really a crusader for justice or just a self-appointed judge?

 

Let´s give Raffy the points, he does help a few people to get through their problems with a camera in front of them for the public to make memes and humiliate and invalidate their shortcomings for Raffy Tulfo to keep profiting over this public humiliation. On top of that, many of our Filipino kababayan are all around the country, may it be from Luzon, Visayas, or Mindanao. They travel far and wide to go to the TV 5 facility just to ask for Raffy´s help, they line up under the hot scorching sun in the hopes that they will be one of the chosen ones that will be lent a hand and receive some help for their proclaimed savior, Raffy Tulfo. 

 

But oops, if your problem is not as interesting enough to be accepted or to be as fun for the public to like, they won´t give you a hand. Well, what do we expect? The justice system in the Philippines is so weak, people would just prefer to go to TV 5 even if it costs a lot of money just to get the ¨justice¨ they deserve. It´s a good laugh to consider a TV show to be giving out justice.

 

 Most of our Kababayans who do this are mostly the poor. Many people criticize the poor´s decisions and labeled them as gullible, however, the poor, or even most of us Filipinos don´t have that many options to begin with. It was either to wait for months or even years in small-claims courts or seek help from a program that pays you to show up and even hand-out prizes. Even if the poor manage to earn enough money to actually get their case into a real court, regardless of the facts that will be shown in the case, the other party wouldn´t be able to pursue the case because of the lack of money. 

 

In the end, in all these cases Raffy Tulfo is willing to take just to get the views for more sponsors. Well, is it not obvious?  Raffy Tulfo is the king of clickbait! 

 

Due to the economic and political injustice here in the Philippines, the people, especially the ones in-line in low-income households are disempowered as legal institutions failed to protect the individual rights of the people. To address this, the keyword is ¨empowering¨. Although many scholars and activists have been advocating for this empowerment, no government official really tries to. Economic reforms are best so those with lower-income families may have better access to education, health care, and basic services for their own justice. If only social and economic safety nets are set, then allocation and instability would not be a big problem in the country. It is easy to say but it is hard to do. Only if the government does prioritize feeding people and making services more affordable than lavish parties and useless building designs, the economic state of the Philippines would be so much better even at least a little for the people. 

 

I do conclude that Raffy Tulfo is not a crusader of justice, he is a self-appointed judge.