Some supporters of President Rodrigo Duterte came out to defend their fellow supporter, Communications Assistant Secretary Mocha Uson, against the criticisms leveled against her over her mistakes in her letter to her boss, Communications Secretary Martin Andanar.
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Mike Acebedo Lopez admitted to being a grammar nazi himself, but said that Uson’s critics merely focused on the letter’s form, not what Uson was requesting for.
“My friends know me to be somewhat of a grammar nazi and I did spot the errors in Mocha’s letter (I even pointed out in the comments section of my post yesterday how corps was misspelled–it says ‘corp’ in the letter–and that it’s good she didn’t put ‘corpse’ or Pia Ranada would’ve completely lost it and cried ‘death threat,’ Lol), but I still posted it anyway. You know why?” Lopez wrote in a Facebook post on November 8.
“Because what they just did, correcting her letter like that, focusing on the form and missing the substance of her query, is exactly the kind of intellectual snobbery and elitist superiority that’ve endeared Mocha to the masses,” he added.
Lopez said that the more critics “look down” on Uson, the more she becomes “influential.”
“Palibhasa hanggang grammar lang ang inaatupag niyo. You’re missing the bigger picture. It’s about communication and communicating to an audience. Kaya kayo talo,” Lopez said.
Another Duterte supporter, blogger Rey Joseph Nieto, also known as Thinking Pinoy, dared the University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication to proofread Senator Antonio Trillanes’ letter to the Anti-Money Laundering Council dated February 21, 2017. He also noted the erroneous phrase “expeditiously action” in his November 9 Facebook post.
Uson shared Nieto’s post on her own page, where she said that she was not offended that her grammar was corrected, citing as example how the Japanese are not that well-versed in English yet their economy is still doing well.
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“Hindi lang pala ako nagkakamali sa grammar. Ay bongga!” Uson wrote.
“Tanong ng ilan sa akin offended daw ba ako sa pag correct ng mga matatalino sa grammar ko??? NGEH! Mga Hapon nga hindi marunong mag english, konti lang marunong baluktot pa. Pero kamusta naman ang Japan? Pak Pak Japan!” she added.
Uson also hit the fluent English-speaking lawmakers who were not able to accomplish anything.
On the other hand, she encouraged her fellow Filipinos who are not that fluent in English to still do something for the country, seeing as how fluency in the foreign language is not a true measure of intelligence.
“Hindi po ako nagmamayabang. Gusto ko lang i-encourage din ang iba pa nating mga kababayan na mahina din sa English. Hindi yan ang basehan ng talino. At may magagawa ka pa rin para sa bayan kahit mahina ka sa english. Wag po tayo mahiya. Pilipino po tayo. Hindi po english ang ating lengwahe kaya natural lang na magkamali tayo. Yun lang po, labyu all,” Uson said.
Lopez and Nieto’s defense of Uson’s grammatical flaws came after UP associate professor Danilo Arao’s proofreading of Uson’s letter went viral.
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