Paradise lost

Netnet Camomot .

TWO mayors and one vice mayor killed within a week. By the third murder, my shocked brain could hardly say, What’s going on? Which was the same question asked by Sen. Kiko Pangilinan.

The shocking reaction, though, is the lack of reaction from the madlang pehpohl. There’s no People Power, no throngs a la Edsa in February 1986. “There’s a kind of hush/All over the world tonight”—sometimes it feels that way in Pinas.

And there’s some kind of purging in Pinas. Hopefully, we, the madlang pehpohl, will be satisfied with the answer once it’s all over and we’re asking, Why? Because when the Marcoses left in February 1986 and were allowed to return to Pinas five years later in 1991 by no less than Tita Cory, we did ask, Why?

Politics is reportedly, supposedly, allegedly a dirty game. So, when you comment about the government, at least one politician could be ROFL—Rolling On Floor Laughing—because you’ve seen only the tip of the iceberg, which gives you no idea of how monstrous that iceberg is. They’ll laugh at gullible you for focusing on that tip without seeing the whole story behind the headlines.

That’s why President Rody Duterte wants proof that God does exist. “If there is anyone of you there, the noisy ones, who would say that you have been to heaven, talked to God, saw him personally, and that He exists, the God that is yours, and if that is true, I will step down from the presidency tonight,” he said.

And he prefers a selfie as proof: “I just need one witness who will say, ‘Mayor, those fools at the Church ordered me to go to heaven and talk to God. God really exists. We have a picture together and I brought a selfie.”

To see is to believe, as the saying goes. “If you believed they put a man on the moon,” you should be that man on the Moon. 2,000 years ago when Jesus was born, you should be Jesus? Oh, that’s too much. Be one of the shepherds then. As for gossip, you can release that to the world only if you personally witnessed the alleged incident. What’s the truth then, how to recognize it once it’s there?

Duterte has also not been spared from gossip. But that’s part of being the country’s president. It’s simply another day in paradise for him.

And in the paradise that John Lloyd Cruz and Ellen Adarna have created for themselves away from the maddening crowd, a baby is born. A Lloydie fan can almost see the star hovering above the baby’s manger. Wait, why is this news inserted here? Because I’m that Lloydie fan—dili pa diay obvious? Hmmm.

That same star may also hover above the podium as Duterte delivers his State of the Nation Address (Sona), with his thought bubble probably going, Unsay diay nang presidential?

Well, we can only hope the basis of his Sona will be the truth and nothing but the truth.

The president himself does seem to keep the faith despite his declarations about God. When he threatened to deliver an extemporaneous Sona, that could be his Bahala na si Lord—with the Sona, that is. But he has decided to read a 35-minute prepared speech instead.

Duterte has been president for two years now. Expecting him to be politically correct in his speeches is like expecting Adarna to be “sweet sixteen and never been kissed.”

If accepting Duterte as he is can help the madlang pehpohl move forward and focus on important matters, then, “Whisper words of wisdom, let it be.”

Matters such as this gossip about mayors now afraid to attend flag ceremonies. Is this also the new normal? In addition to climate change?

All along we thought the Pinoy has become immune to extrajudicial killings. But three murders in one week is definitely not another day in paradise.

Well, Lloydie and Adarna’s paradise is in her hometown, Cebu, which happens to be our second home. Cebu and its lechon, chicharon, danggit, chorizo, mangos, and masi. No, that’s not masi as in masinahon, the hideous trait of the gossip girl. Masi is this yummy delicacy made of rice flour and peanuts. Yum! That’s why while in Cebu, my thought bubble is always, Unsa diay nang diet?