WE understand now that there are sacred cows in the Duterte administration after all.
Some officials may get away with anything and earn no more than a shrug of the presidential shoulder. In the end, it is the President’s prerogative to choose the men and women who work for him—but it is a choice that will have consequences for him down the road.
We do ask that when he makes excuses for errant officials, he not insult us with the notion that these officials are merely exercising their freedom of expression.
The case of Communication Assistant Secretary Mocha Uson was definitely not a case of free speech. It involved an official of the government—whose salary we as taxpayers pay – behaving in a manner unbecoming of a public servant.
Specifically, Assistant Secretary Uson used a woman’s privates and breasts as mnemonic devices for federalism, a cause the President has vowed to pursue.
In a video shot inside Malacanang and posted on her Facebook page, Uson is seen cheering as her effeminate co-host, Andrew Olivar, sings “I-pepe” and “I-dede”—referring to the vagina and breasts—while dancing and pointing to his crotch and chest, before exclaiming “I-pe-de-ralismo!”
With due respect to the President, that was no exercise in free speech. It was an exercise in vulgarity by people who are on the public payroll.
Communications Undersecretary Lorraine Badoy got it right when she said Uson breached ethical standards in relation to Republic Act 6713 or the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees.
But Badoy—perhaps realizing she was punching above her weight class—also defended Uson and excused her behavior in the same breath, suggesting outrageously that her actions performed some useful societal function.
“I think Asec Mocha reminds us of a lot of hypocrisies in our society and she makes us face them, the things inside ourselves, because we are such a hypocritical society.”
In this, Badoy is only half right.
Uson does expose hypocrisy—but it is a hypocrisy that claims we are all equal under the law, when one of its own can flout rules and regulations without any reasonable consequences.
The hypocrisy that she exposes is the use of free speech as an excuse for vulgarity and a complete lack of civility and accountability for one’s actions.
This kind of hypocrisy insults our intelligence. We prefer the simple honesty of a sign above Uson’s head that says: “Sacred cow—don’t touch.”