Killings and more killings—on the streets, especially in squatter areas, even in chapels and churches—seem to be the norm today.
Manila Archbishop Cardinal Luis Tagle and Lingayen Archbishop Socrates Villegas said killings now appear to be the final solution to everything.
The tragedy is that people find it funny.
Is this the change we expect from President Duterte? Why are people like the three monkeys who hear, see or say nothing?
I may as well add: People may have been cowed into silence to what is happening to our country. Even some Catholics laugh and cheer when the President attacks the Church and its priests.
With all these killings, there is now a culture of impunity. Have we Filipinos lost our priorities?
The problem is that there does not seem to be a leader we can believe in, not even from the opposition. Yes, some oppositionists are making noise, but there is nobody among them who voices our true sentiments and reawakens our values.
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There was a time when the most revered members of the community were priests and teachers.
But are the criminals now emboldened by the President’s attacks on the Church, such that members of the clergy are being harmed?
I hope this is not the reason, but I cannot think of any other explanation. Yes, many decry the killings as a result of the President’s war on drugs. But God commanded his people: “Thou shall not kill.”
The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines is against members of the clergy arming themselves. This would only confuse the faithful. A priest must be ready at all times to be a martyr. In fact, when priests choose martyrdom, they become the victors over those who would like to destroy the Church.
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Arming barangay officials could be the biggest mistake that this President could ever make.
It is bad enough that there are so many loose firearms all over the country. We see this in cases of drug pushers and people involved in the illegal drug trade when they try to fire back at the police, resisting arrest. Where do you think they get their firearms if not through illegal gun runners?
By arming barangay officials, even gangland syndicates will now have their own private armies. This would mean greater impunity.
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In my existence as a journalist for almost seven decades, I have never seen so much incompetence and stupidity in a single agency—the Presidential Communications Operations Office under Secretary Martin Andanar.
And then came the series of blunders by Assistant Secretary Margaux “Mocha” Uson— using misleading photos in depicting the siege of Marawi, saying Mayon Volcano was in Naga, comparing the kiss given by President Duterte to an OFW in Korea to the kiss received by the late Senator Benigno Aquino Jr. just before he was assassinated.
The PCOO also said the Norwegian ambassador was from a country called Norwegia.
My gulay, there are hospitals for the sick, and jails for criminals, but there is no remedy for stupidity!
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The Lucio Tan group hails the fact that Tanduay Rum has become the biggest name in Philippine-made rum, ousting Bacardi from Puerto Rico.
When Manda Elizalde returned to the Philippines in 1987, he entered into a memorandum of understanding with the Metro Pacific Group under its chairman-president, Manny Pangilinan, for the purchase of Tanduay Rum for P800 million.
There was also an offer from the Lucio Tan group for Tanduay for P1 billion—lock, stock, and barrel. Elizalde found himself in a quandary since he had an MOU with Metro Pacific.
Manda called for a meeting with lawyer Art Panganiban who later became Supreme Court chief justice, former presidential aspirant Manuel Roxas II who had packaged the sale, Rod Reyes and myself representing Manila Standard (Elizalde had earlier put up the paper with Reyes and myself as editor-in-chief and chairman of the editorial board, respectively).
In that meeting, I was told to rake up allegations that Metro Pacific was not truly a Filipino firm but a company representing the Indonesian empire of Soedono Salim, a crony of the Indonesian President Suharto. Salim’s son, Anthony, was the classmate of Pangilinan.
I was ordered by Elizalde to come out with a series in the Standard that Metro Pacific was foreign controlled. I wrote it, and the Senate ordered an investigation into the company and its origins, giving Elizalde cause to withdraw the MOU with Pangilinan. The sale went to Lucio Tan—and the rest is history.
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I wrote about the tragedy of celebrating, every ninth of April, the Fall of Bataan and the Fall of Corregidor as national holidays. And yet, we do not remember the Battle of Bessang Pass that led to the surrender of Tomoyuki Yamashita.
I lamented our penchant to celebrate defeats instead of victories since the Battle of Bessang Pass was clearly a victory against the Japanese Imperial Forces.
The anniversary of this battle was on June 14, but only a motley group of veterans and their families went to Cervantes, Ilocos Sur to celebrate the occasion.
