Expletive as period

Dave Achondo

IS it just me or the week has just been one big trash-talking roller coaster ride, one after another, to the point I became sick of it.

Well, as you might have heard by now, our President has been surrounded by controversy following his “uncalled for” remarks against the United States of America and its President. Add to that was his conversation with his Indonesian counterpart who claimed to have been given the go-ahead by our President to execute Mary Jane Veloso, and…

To make it short, he’s going bananas.

I don’t really get it. Why is he behaving like this? To me, the first few weeks were negligible but now, he’s becoming a nuisance.

Maybe the pressure of being the most powerful man in the Philippines is affecting him, and he can’t cope with it. He is but a man after all.

As the President of this troubled country, he should understand that he’s no ordinary citizen any longer. When he cusses, everyone listens. Someone please suggest to him to do it in private or off camera, and not on live TV.

I get his point that he is expressing his frustration over countless problems that the previous administrations left him but it does not excuse him from babbling out bad words. He is the President, for crying out loud! The international media are just around the corner, trying to make sense of his statements. Every single time he blurts out cuss words during interviews, someone will be taking notes. The non-Filipino audience will find a way to get translations.

I guess ordinary people can cuss whenever they want to, and no one would bother because they’re a nobody. They can even cuss their heart out on social media. But for a President to do that without restrain, and to go back and forth with his statements–that makes things a bit more confusing. I understand some of his pronouncements were extemporaneous. Sometimes, it is okay to do that but still, he can express his anger without expletives. He can just raise his voice while making a point, para intense.

His behavior in the past couple of weeks has caused headaches, both internationally and locally, and people, including some of his supporters (not the “fanatics”), are starting to wonder why is he acting strange and without restrain.

Mr. President, a lot of us do support your war on drugs, (some) policy changes and your plan for a shift to a federal form of government. But please, if you have nothing else to add to a sentence, don’t use an expletive as period. Just pause or stop. It was kind of funny in the beginning but now, it has simply become annoying.