Slowly but surely

Netnet Camomot

THE House Speaker wants to extend martial law to five years. But the military generally believes that’s way too long.

How about four years and 11 months? At least that’s not five years.

The terrorists and extremists’ mantra must be this: Where there’s a will, there’s a way. Or where’s there’s dinero, there’s “Despacito”? Oops! Lost in translation. Despacito means “slowly.”

But that’s exactly what happened in the Marawi siege. Slowly but surely. Well, according to one captured extremist. That the recruiting began in 2009 when he was still 10 years old, a blank white paper that anyone could “write” on.

What were you doing at that age? Playing hide and seek, patintero, jackstones, bato-lata, Chinese garter… Uh, that’s for our generation. Throwback much. Nowadays, 10-year-olds have iPads.

The captured extremist, however, was allegedly lured by lies and promises. Hmmm. Let’s listen to Mark Twain again: “Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn’t.”

But what could have sealed the deal for the young recruits was the salary that could be as much as P50,000 per month. Well, you can also wave that same moolah in front of an adult after he has been brainwashed to believe the lies of the money-waver, and sure na. Promises are not the exclusive property of extremists, they’re also given to non-extremists for some other form of extremism that doesn’t require weapons of mass destruction.

The captured extremist also revealed that they delivered weapons to some Marawi houses in preparation for the siege.

There’s the overnight sensation, the artist or celebrity who seems to sprout out of nowhere. Until of course you learn he has been on Youtube for many years. That’s what happened to the siege. You thought it was a sudden attack. Until you learn it has been brewing for many years. And then, you look at the military and wonder, Intel, anyone?

Now that you know the reason why the extremists are not running out of weapons, somehow you also now know why President Rody Duterte immediately declared martial law and the military decided to annihilate the extremists with airstrikes.

We will never know, though, how Marawians could have dealt with this sans martial law and the airstrikes. Could they have contained the damage had they been allowed to fight this on their own? You know, face-to-face combat in an urban area most familiar to them.

The military has been using their unfamiliarity with Marawi and urban warfare as one of the reasons why the siege keeps on going and going like an Energizer Bunny on a perpetual sugar rush.

But the madlang pehpohl can’t help suspect there must be something more to this than that unfamiliarity.

Even “Despacito” has this in its lyrics: “take it slow so we can last long.”

The last Spanish song that topped Billboard’s Hot 100 was “Macarena” in 1996. That was 21 years ago. Yup, also slowly but surely you’ll remember these songs because their topping any list happens only once in a blue moon. No one remembers the second place. Only the first place. But once it happens too often, all these Spanish songs topping all the lists all over the world, you won’t care anymore. Ho-hum. Like, unsa daw? Yeah, right. Whatever.

Notoriety should also be one of a kind. Say, if you’re one of the two notorious gossipmongers in the group, you’ll still be remembered for that notoriety, so that each time you’re around, people will stop talking and only listen to the latest gossip you’re now revealing. But if everyone in the group is a gossipmonger, you’ll be talking all at the same time as each tries to be the bearer of the most incredible gossip ever. The one that can tell lies in the most believable way, wins in this game. That believable way should include a religious life. Short of that, people would start to question her credibility in telling lies. This doesn’t mean, though, that all religious people are gossipmongers. There are simply some who use their religious practices as a wall against people who question their credibility.

See how religion plays a role even in a gossipmonger’s life? The selfighteous who judges everyone else to be bad unless they’re on her side, and who believes only she has the truth, when in fact she doesn’t have the truth at all. And here you are, the survivor of her lies, wondering when her lies will end, and when people will wake up and stop believing in her lies. Because, for now, they’re acting like the young white paper being recruited by extremists.

Religion is also blamed for an extremist’s way of life. An ideology gone awry. And how awry it has become, reducing not only some parts of Marawi but also Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria to rubble. Destroying lives all because of lies offered as the truth.

President Duterte will deliver his first State of the Nation Address (Sona) soon. With all the things that have been happening in Pinas since he took office, you have to pause and ask, His first Sona? Yup, his first. It has been only a year. Whew.