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Batas Mauricio

IF President Duterte continues to curse and utter profanities in his public speeches, I guess Filipinos will have no one else to blame for this but themselves. Why? Almost all of those who listen to him speak invariably express strong approval of his cursing and uttering of expletives and profanities.

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People shout their joyous approval, give thunderous applauses, and raise the thumbs-up sign, everytime Duterte says “the mother is a whore” or “f*** you”, just like what happened when he spoke before women policemen in Davao City on Friday. So, knowing people become happy because of his curses and profanities, Duterte, as it were, obliges, and so he continues with the way he speaks.

Compare this with his speeches abroad. Did we hear him utter unsavory remarks in the presence of foreigners? I am sure there is no record of him swearing, cursing, or uttering profanities during the times that he spoke on official trips in other countries, right? So, the point here is, if he can avoid cursing when he is with foreigners, why can’t the President do that in the presence of Filipinos?

The way the President has been speaking in public is definitely having an impact on Filipinos, old and young, men and women. The problem here is that radio and TV networks no longer make any attempt to stop the airing of his curses and profanities. So, all listeners and viewers become exposed to this kind of speaking.

I believe and I am terribly afraid that, at this point, almost everybody in this country has already accepted this way of talking. Many Filipinos have become insensitive, and are no longer bothered by the “p***** ina” or by other styles of profane talking. Many of us are in fact starting to imitate it in our own speeches, whether deliberately or unwittingly.

Parents have found it difficult likewise to explain to their young and impressionable children that cursing and branding another, publicly yet, as the “child of a mother who is a whore”, is bad and invites bad vibes, when the highest official of the country is doing it himself very frequently. We are now in the midst of a new generation of cursing Filipinos.

Of course, many are saying that uttering profanities and invectives when one talks is just a matter of speaking style. Others may also point out that uttering invectives has already been clarified by the Supreme Court of the Philippines no less as a simple expression of anger or displeasure, and does not really dwell on anyone’s morality.

Unfortunately, however, there are still many Filipinos who grew up being taught that “the things coming out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them”, that “the mouth speaks what the heart is full of”, that “a good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart.”

Indeed, President Duterte may have been chosen by 16 million or so voters during the May 2016 elections precisely because of his “tough and curse-laden” talking. It is clear however that, “tough and curse-laden talking” was not the endeason why the people voted for him–people voted for him because they believed that, with his expletives and all, Duterte is the one who can effect beneficial changes to our country, including bringing back good and manners and right conduct among our citizens.

Did President Duterte really mean to question the existence of God during his speech before Malacanang journalists and press photographers and cameramen? Media accounts the day after said Duterte contested the existence of God, proving that he was someone who didn’t believe in God.

For the enlightenment of everyone, Duterte, in that same speech, emphasized he truly believes in God. What he meant to say was that, every Filipino who had been professing his faith in God actually did not have God at all. To me, Duterte was simply echoing what we have been saying in this column all along.

What have we been saying here in this column for so long a time now? That many Filipinos who say they believe in God are fake believers. Though they voice out their faith in God daily, God is not really in them. The proof is that many continue to be sinful, to be godless, and lacking in good manners and right conduct.

And so everybody can appreciate what Duterte truly said before Malacanang reporters, photographers and cameramen, let me reproduce here a portion of his speech (unedited): “As a matter of fact, we never executed except Echegaray–and that’s about it. Eh kasi wala. Then I can simply say, hindi tumalab iyong death penalty noon kasi hindi in-impose. Every president along the way would just say: one, because of the Catholic Church; second, the bleeding hearts, because only God can kill.

“Ang problema niyan, I ask you, what if there is no God? So you allow the criminals, and yet because there is a God in all… karamihan sa atin dito, eh ngayon kung walang Diyos and we are here in this Earth, in this planet supposedly made by God? So where is now God?

“When a one-year old–18 months year old baby taken from the mother’s arm, brought under a jeep and raped and killed. So, where is God? And in Syria, women and children and women who do not want to sex with the Isis, they are burned. So, where is God? My God, where are you? I believe in God, but that is my perpetual question to him. Where were you when we needed you?”

E-mail: batasmauricio@yahoo.com

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