Unremitting and unrelenting

Netnet Camomot

WE were as usual stuck in traffic for 45 minutes at downtown Cagayan de Oro last Saturday afternoon. This had an unusual part, though—the traffic was inside SM CDO Downtown Premier’s parking building. If cars are hardly moving along Osmena Street where the cars exit, for sure, cars rushing out of SM Downtown can do anything and everything except rush. And it wasn’t even raining.

Rain may regress to floods at Osmena and CM Recto Avenue, requiring a dainty car to wait it out inside the parking building until the waters subside to dainty-car manageable level. Yes, there is that flood which only AUVs, SUVs, and their kind can wade through.

The rule now is to leave SM Downtown once it starts to rain. But while inside the mall, will you even notice the rain?

There was a time when SM Downtown was this place that would hopefully grow on you. And it has—for me, anyway. I’ve been to its fifth floor for, hmmm, many times, and have tried five of that floor’s restos. There are 11 restos there, so, five is almost half! Six more to go!

Whenever I see a vacant space in any mall, I’m always hoping it’s a future resto or a Booksale branch. Between shopping and food, shopping and books, I won’t choose shopping at all especially for a body size that has gone from small to medium to large to XL to 2XL, and even Free Size—the size that fits all except me.

Wait, has this body ever reduced to Small? I don’t remember.

Meanwhile, Pinoys are having Sona hangover, thanks to President Rody Duterte’s latest Sona. I took notes while watching him deliver his two-hour speech, and there was this line that I do remember, so, I Googled his speech’s full text, and—voila!—here’s that line: “Sadly, although we knew years ago that what was needed or ought to do, we did not do (them) because our idea of government was parochial and we could not rise above family, ethnic and clan loyalties as well as loyalty to friends and co-workers.”

In other words, the country could not move forward due to blind loyalty.

Here’s more from his Sona: “Look beyond your biases, your prejudices, your ambition (and) your political agenda. The search for change will begin and end only when we look into ourselves and find it within.”

In other words, don’t be judgmental—be discerning.

Sen. Leila de Lima was still present and free—not in jail—when the president delivered his first Sona last year. They were never friendly with each other, but they shook hands then, before his speech. And this surprised de Lima who later said, “Siyempre nagulat ako… Di ko naman siya napansin na talagang halos tumitingin. Medyo sumulyap lang. And then I didn’t even know also how to show my face so ngumiti lang ako nang konti and then lumagpas na nga siya nang kaunti. Bumalik (siya) at he extended his hand. Siyempre nagulat ako.”

And that was it. In February 2017, she was arrested for allegedly receiving drugelated funds. Yup, so many things can happen in, hmmm, seven months.

Of course, President Duterte remains committed to his campaign against drugs, and his Sona says it all: “I believed then, as I believe still, that progress and development will sputter if criminals, illegal drugs, illegal users of drugs are allowed to roam the streets freely, victimizing seeming with impunity, the innocent and the helpless. Worse yet, there were times in the past when the protectors of the people were themselves the perpetrators of the very crimes they were tasked to prevent or suppress. It is ironic as it is madness.”

In case you’re not yet convinced of the president’s commitment, here’s more: “That is why, I have resolved that no matter how long it takes, the fight against illegal drugs will continue because that is the root cause of so much evil and so much suffering that weakens the social fabric and deters foreign investments from pouring in. The fight will be unremitting as it will be unrelenting.”

Do we see drug users, pushers, dealers and financiers quivering in their seats?

The latest Sona also included the Marawi siege which may continue to keep going and going like an Energizer Bunny on a perpetual sugar rush until all extremists have left the building.

Accountants and auditors make flowcharts to help them see if a system needs improvements and controls. I gotta feeling the president already has a flowchart that connects the siege to drugs. Well, it’s not a feeling—it’s already in some breaking news which you can Google anytime.

Everything is somehow connected to each other, and the connection is as clear as blue skies if you’re discerning enough.

Now, if only someone has the patience to figure out a flowchart of SM Downtown’s traffic problem.