Photo credit: gloc-9

Katrina Santiago, writer and cultural critic known for her no-nonsense takes, just dropped a post that perfectly captures the chaos surrounding Gloc-9’s so-called “cancellation” over the UP Fair banner incident—and honestly, it needs to be heard.

“So Gloc-9’s being cancelled,” she wrote, “for purportedly having a banner saying ‘Duterte Panagutin, Marcos Singilin’ taken down before he performs on stage at the UP Fair.”

From there, she lays it out as clearly as anyone has:

First, Gloc-9 didn’t ask for the banner to be removed. That decision? It came from his management. And even then, it wasn’t even about his performance night. The request was made for another day entirely—one featuring younger, less mainstream rappers who may not have had the same level of platform, protection, or experience.

But as Katrina points out, facts don’t seem to matter when the angry mob has already made up its mind.

What really struck a chord in her post wasn’t just the clarification—it was the mirror she held up to the online progressive community, the same one now swarming Gloc-9’s social media with hate. And yes, those vile messages? Being screencapped. Archived. Because it’s not just trolling anymore—it’s character assassination dressed up as “activism.”

And here’s the kicker: Katrina reminds us that had Gloc-9 performed under that banner, he’d be getting the exact same kind of hate—just from a different camp. He’d be getting ripped to shreds by DDS and Marcos loyalists instead.

So what now? Do we want artists to stand with the people, or do we just want them to survive an ever-shifting set of purity tests?
Katrina’s final mic drop is a sobering one:

“When you mirror THAT [Duterte-Marcos-style trolling], maybe it’s time to rethink what the hell it is we’re doing on social media.”
Because if cancel culture has reached the point where even a Gloc-9—someone whose music has long spoken truth to power—isn’t safe, then maybe the problem isn’t him. Maybe it’s us.

Let’s sit with that for a while.