Netnet Camomot
GREEN trees, radio music, small electric fan to keep the desk area cool, newspapers and news clippings are again piling up in the room as I try to focus on Rotary work, with the resolve that once the Governor’s Monthly Letter details are with the layout artist, I can switch back to reading again and hopefully this time, with books included.
My only source of news: Facebook. Through Facebook Live and the live coverage of TV networks which they post on their FB accounts. There’s no TV set in this room. For one whose left knee has forced her to stay indoors, mostly inside the bedroom since last July 6, it’s a test of how far she can go without physically communicating with the outside world.
Well, so far, so good in the isolation department. Haha. Thanks to FB for keeping me company. And family and friends who bring food and good tidings.
Despite the limitations of these four walls, I’m now the outsider looking in, and can see how pathetic some people’s actions can be. The lady senator with a dilemma was leading the Senate investigation on extrajudicial killings last Monday, and it reached a point where the senator and the witness were kind of making chismis.
Senator: Anong nangyari?
Witness: Dinala po ‘yong tatay ko sa presinto.
Senator: Tapos?
Witness: Binugbog po nila ‘yong tatay ko.
Senator: Binugbog nila?
Witness: Opo. Senator: Paano binugbog?
Witness: Sa mukha, katawan, paa.
Senator: Nandoon ka ba habang binubugbog nila ‘yong ama mo?
Witness: Opo.
Then, cue tears, huhuhu, from the witness.
Nope, those were not the exact words, if you read the Senate’s transcript on this, I’m not sure if tatay and ama and mukha, katawan, and paa are there. But surely, there’s binugbog. And even worse—pinatay. The 100-percent sure word in the transcript, though, is this: Opo. Lots and lots of “Opo.”
An investigation in aid of legislation? Most probably, in aid of chismis. In aid of the grapevine. But still, not a waste of time, because we feel this investigation would somehow lead to a 180-degree turn back to the lady senator to give her more dilemma.
Its live coverage on Facebook inspired battalions of angry emojis for the lady senator. But when it was Philippine National Police Chief Bato dela Rosa talking yesterday, there was a kumbira of likes and heart emojis.
The Senate investigation should have included the victims of drug users, addicts, pushers and drug lords, too, because the thought bubble above their heads while watching the Senate investigation must be this: It’s unfair!
We did miss former Sen. Miriam Santiago and her “I eat death threats for breakfast,” which PNP Chief Bato could probably relate with by now.
These are the first two months of President Rody Duterte’s six-year term. How to sustain the momentum for the remaining five years and 10 months? That’s the question.
Can he continue having media briefings at midnight? Will the alleged extrajudicial killings continue? Should the Senate continue to conduct investigations, thereby “inadvertently” keeping PNP Chief Bato from catching more drug users, pushers, and drug lords?
Who has more rights in Pinas, by the way—the drug user/addict/pusher/lord, or the rest of the madlang pehpohl who have to hide from them?
President Duterte says the estimate some years ago was three million drug users, and his present estimate for this is 3.7 million. Only 600 thousand of those estimated 3.7 million drug users have surrendered so far. There are more than 102 million Pinoys, with the 3.7 million a mere four percent of the total Philippine population. Should we now dismiss the four percent as a minute fraction? But if drug use is not stopped, will that easily increase to eight percent, 16 percent, 32 percent? If everyone, including the president, sits back, relaxes, to watch the percentage increase, sure na.
There are things you can watch from afar. Like the snake that stabs you at the back—you watch him and see where it goes from there. You wait. And then you look back—no, not at your back—to some other time when you were not aware yet about the stabbing, and realize even then, the backstabber’s face was already dark, gray, black, thunderstorms and dark clouds overhead, typhoons poured down his face, his eyes always alert for some dark moment he could gleefully share with others. Sounds like a drug addict, eh? But even a drug addict would protest: Nope, I’m not that dark!
Drug users/addicts, pushers and drug lords do protect each other, loyalty is the key to the drug trade’s success. Until they sense a snitch. Loyalty is earned the hard way in their business, with one sacrificing everything to keep his family safe and intact. There will be sacrificial lambs falling one after the other.
The president’s war on drugs is not only his war and it’s not a war that started with him. It all began years and years ago when drugs became a lonely person’s best friend. There’s at least one drug addict who blames peer pressure if asked on the whys and hows. Well, unless there was a gun pointed at his head, no, it’s not peer pressure. He was lonely. Finally, he found this group of so-called friends who happened to be into drugs, and the war began—between him and his drug use which later worsened to an addiction. The high helps him accept his dark side. Like the backstabber whose high and escape from his dark side depend on the number of people who believe in his lies.
Anyone involved in drugs has a life you won’t like if you were in his shoes. So, before welcoming a heart heavy with envy for the drug lord’s mansions, cars, loads of cash, think first if you can handle the pressure. No, not peer pressure. Simply pressure.
But drugs will always find a way into these 7,107 PI—Philippine Islands, and not the president’s favorite P****g i**. All that beach and ocean can’t help but provide a warm welcome.
