The impact of words

Dave Achondo

I AM baffled by our President’s statements yet again although, somehow, I find myself immune to the fact that he uses vulgarity just to make a point.

Digging up the past, bullying a senator to a corner and trash-talking his US counterpart… It’s as if these aren’t enough.

I guess he has forgotten his campaign promise. If I recall it correctly, he was hell bent in reclaiming Scarborough during the campaign period, and I even lauded his guts. But he has now given up on a stronger approach towards China and now plans to make it an ally, and to top it all, he even threatened to turn his back on the United States, a country that has long been an ally of the Philippines.

Isn’t that a form of surrendering to China? For me, it is. I understand that an armed conflict between this country and China won’t end well for us. So now, the solution is to concede?

So, former President Aquino just wasted his time in trying to convince the United Nations tribunal that China’s claim wasn’t valid, and it was backed by the committee’s ruling in which China refused to accept.

Now, Duterte wants to be allies with China. I have no problems with that whatsoever. The more the merrier, right? But should we kiss that a part of our territory goodbye?

Using my “creative imagination,” I guess it’s safe to assume that this is just all “bluff,” a “misunderstanding,” and he doesn’t mean what he said when he threatened the United States, the United Nations and the European Union. What he probably meant was, he just wants them to respect and see that regardless of its economic standing in this world, the country has something to offer them which will be a tremendous loss on their part if they don’t respect him like an equal and stop intefering with the way he does things here.

Meanwhile, Agot Isidro’s recent rant has some merit to it except for the part where she called Duterte a “psychopath.”

Here’s what she stated: “Unang-una, walang umaaway sa iyo. As a matter of fact, ikaw ang nang-aaway.” She has a point. I really haven’t heard Obama bashing Duterte on live television the way PRDD does in public. (If there was, please point me to that video).

Then Agot concluded her rant by saying the President is a psychopath. “Pangatlo, may kilala akong psychiatrist. Patingin ka. Hindi ka bipolar. You are a psychopath.” In my opinion, if you want to be better than the President himself when it comes to manners and ethics, then you should not behave like him. If you wound an individual you despise, then haven’t you become like the man you dislike?