‘Walang forever’

Netnet Camomot

“WALANG forever” for Melason.

“Walang forever” morphed into a movie last year when the term became popular.

And it still proves to be true. Melai Cantiveros and Jason Francisco have separated. Well, what can you expect from a pair whose nickname has lason a.k.a. poison?

Their breakup is not exactly breaking news. But you would have wanted this relationship to last amidst recent separations–Ciara Sotto and her ex-hubby, Taylor Swift and the boyfriend before Tom Hiddleston, Rob Kardashian and his ex-fiancé.

President Rody Duterte has also been there, done that with separations but in his State of the Nation Address, however, he talked about another kind of separation: “Let me assure that while I’m a stickler for the principle of separation between the Church and State, I believe quite strongly that there should never be a separation between God and State.”

I wonder if the term extra-judicial killing now sounds familiar to every Pinoy. There’s at least one happening daily, and the Catholic Church in Pinas is among those totally against the idea of a death whose cause–drugs–is merely written on a cardboard, as if that’s enough to explain everything.

Each person has a family, friends, colleagues, acquaintances. The acquaintances may not be as affected as the family, still, when something happens to that person, these acquaintances and even strangers will search for his name through Facebook and Google to confirm his identity. Like what strangers did to Nestor Punzalan, the guy who was suspected of shooting a bike rider, no thanks to road rage.

Punzalan’s name was revealed through his car’s conduction sticker. The car in the CCTV footage was a Hyundai Eon, his FB photos seem to prove he owns one, and the conduction sticker was additional evidence.

He went to the National Bureau of Investigation to clear his name, and is now planning to file a case against Top Gear Philippines which posted screenshots of his car as posted on his FB account.

People will believe a source, even if the news has not been verified yet, because it sounds credible. This is true also in grapevine matters, when people will immediately believe the source because he’s pious and religious–Diosnon… Especially when the grapevine’s subject is maldita. Try asking aloud this: Nganong motuo man sila sa iya? Answer: Kay diosnon man siya, maldita man ka.

It doesn’t matter what the diosnon is saying, they will always believe him because he goes to Church, he hears Mass daily, he prays the Holy Rosary daily, he has his novenas, he reads the Bible.

While you, on the other hand, are maldita. And that’s enough for people to believe the other, he could tell them lies about you, destroy you, belittle you, put you down, and so on and so forth, ad infinitum, ad nauseam, and they will still believe him because he’s diosnon.

The diosnon is supposed to keep his mouth shut and wait for the coconut to fall on his head, right?

There’s a huge difference between religion and faith. You can be religious and still have no faith, always insecure with your strengths, talents, capabilities and abilities, so you belittle other’s efforts to make your own shine. Go consult a psychiatrist, psychologist, whatever scientific cure you need, before you can continue spreading negativity to the world. Yes, you have some kind of Midas touch, but it doesn’t turn things to gold–instead, the touch inspires dark clouds to hover overhead.

Woe to Punzalan and others who have become victims of mistaken identity. At least Punzalan has lived to tell the tale and can now file cases against his detractors if he wants to. Others have not been as fortunate. Still, his case proves there’s also walang forever in mistaken identities.

Now, is Jason’s reason for separating from Melai also a case of mistaken identity? Or a mistaken cause? He said Melai didn’t tell him about the role of her leading man in a teleserye to last longer than it should. ’Yon lang. Too shallow. But it could be the tip of the iceberg, the cherry on top of the icing on the cake, or the huff and puff that blew the house down after a series of misunderstandings. A person or a relationship can only take so much s#%t.