Honesty, that lonely word

“Honesty is such a lonely word. Everyone is so untrue.” — Billy Joel, Honesty from the album 52nd Street

MANY raised their eyebrows a week ago when presidential daughter and Davao Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio told reporters that honesty is not an election issue.

Her attempt to downplay the lies of one of her Hugpong Pagbabago senatorial candidates boomeranged in the most spectacular way. She unwittingly declared that her party’s senatorial slate could not be trusted. So, in another attempt, she doubled down and blurted that all politicians, not just her slate, are liars.

If you come to think of it, there’s a tinge of truth to what she said. As George Carlin once said in one of his gigs: “You cannot introduce honesty in politics. Otherwise, the entire system would collapse.”

Had she provided the context on why she thinks all politicians are liars, I think people would understand her statement. Politicians have their own agenda and they would fight tooth and nail to advance it even if it takes a little lying to undermine their political foes’ agenda.

However, we need not worry about the “Inday Sara Show.” On Sunday, she told reporters that her mom, Elizabeth Zimmerman, reminded her that she may be the President’s daughter but that she is also hers. Her mom reprimanded her for “bullying” the opposition candidates and that she should be kind first and foremost.

“Sinabi nya na I should always be kind first before anything else. So, mag-pack up na po Inday Sara show. Wala na po sya. Sarado na po,” Philstar Global quoted her as saying.

So, that’s that. But a lie is still a lie, no matter the magnitude. Don’t take my word for it. It is enshrined in the 1987 Constitution. “The State shall maintain honesty and integrity in the public service and take positive and effective measures against graft and corruption,” Sec. 27, Art. II, 1987 Constitution.

It is mentioned again in Section 1, Article XI of our Constitution: “Public office is a public trust. Public officers and employees must, at all times, be accountable to the people, serve them with utmost responsibility, integrity, loyalty, and efficiency; act with patriotism and justice, and lead modest lives.”

No matter how the presidential daughter spins it now, the word is out that she has little, to no, regard for honesty in public service. As the party’s campaign manager, Sara Duterte-Carpio has her work cut out for her. It would be interesting to see how she is going to wiggle her way out of this one as campaign sorties progress.

Yes, she has declared that she will heed her mom’s advice and will stop bullying opposition candidates. However, she forgot to explicitly mention that she will stop lying for her senatorial candidates.

So, honesty, in her vocabulary, is still a lonely word.

Raising the level of discourse

METHINKS the biggest losers this election season will be politicos who hired trolls to either promote them or slander their opponents — like in the 2016 national elections — and ultimately, the voting public.

I admit I was among the netizens who were dumbstruck by the attack of the trolls in 2016. It was something new. People were actually silenced by the bullying of trolls.

However, more and more people, actual social media users, are getting back at the trolls. As I have observed in some city-based Facebook groups, people are directly calling out trolls.

I based this observation on the threads of local group “Bantay Kagay-an.” I have been a member of the group even when it was called “Bangon Kagay-an.” It sprang up as a direct response to the devastation of Typhoon Sendong.

I must say first that it is unfortunate that this group has become a cesspool of trolls and its owner has not been forthright with his group members. The group is supposed to be an independent group.

The owner is running for a seat in the city council. He filed for a mayoral position but withdrew and posted a statement of sorts on his reason for his withdrawal to the mayoral race. He said he was waiving his candidacy to a person who supposedly bedazzled him in a brief encounter at a hotel lobby.

In its declaration of group rules, Sec. C: Values and Principles #2, it states that members must “be fair and balanced (in contrast to lap-dogging or doing a PR for somebody).” A cursory scan of the group posts now will show that it has since broken this rule.

The group page is being held hostage by a troll named “Jose Ma. Guerrero.” Since the filing of certificates of candidacy, this troll has regularly and consistently posted slanderous statements against the incumbent administration while bolstering how immaculately clean its principal is.

The funny thing is, real users are openly commenting against the troll’s ad hominem and non sequitur posts. Before, it was unthinkable that you would berate a troll online considering they are masked in anonymity. I guess real social media users have had enough of the toxic discourse if you call it that.

Other Facebook groups are even worse. Case in point is the group called “Ang Baruganan.” If you scan the posts in the group page, you will realize that no real users are commenting or posting on the page. It has been completely taken over by the trolls of all candidates of the city and the province.

It seemed that raising the level of public discourse is becoming less likely on social media. We have to face the reality that it is a practice in futility to be debating with a person cloaked in anonymity. There is no accountability and responsibility with what they post on social media.

Fortunately, my editor-in-chief thought of something that will benefit the electorate. He decided to give all the local political parties a space in the opinion pages of this paper — one day for every group each week. He named it “100% Politics.” This new sub-section within this paper’s opinion pages aims to raise the level of issue-based and fact-based public discourse on matters of politics and governance while the competing political groups keep with good taste and propriety, things that have been lost and which many people no longer value in other public discussion social media groups recently.

All the political groups have agreed and picked a day for their group columns. “100% Politics” started yesterday with city administrator Teodoro Sabuga-a Jr. writing for the incumbent administration (as expected, of course). In the coming days, we, the electorate, would witness a battle of ideas sans ad hominems and non-sequiturs.

The political groups should be able to present their respective development plans and reform agenda. They will have to convince the voting public who deserves to be supported and why the other groups are less deserving.

In the end, the voting public will benefit from this healthy but highly competitive public discourse.

Letter for Myles

MYLES Albasin, the Cagayanon who was arrested on illegal firearms possession charge along with five others in Mabinay, Negros Oriental, turned 21 late last month.

Friends and relatives gathered here to celebrate her birthday. I would like to share a letter from one of her godmother in lieu of my regular My Wit’s End this week.

Felany Opiso-Williams is a godmother of Myles. She is now an accountant at Santa Clara County, California. She used to be a proofreader on one of the local daily newspapers in the city. Read on:

Dear Myles,

My kids think things work at the press of a button. Like most kids in the US, they don’t have a concept of what is a struggle. If you ask, they’ll say it’s homework.

At the water cooler at work, we Asian mothers worry that our kids don’t have survival skills. Our kids don’t even know how to cook rice, a must for us Asians. Will they survive living on their own in college? And what if God forbid war happens and pushing buttons don’t work? What if the microwave doesn’t work? The dishwasher? Or the washer and dryer? Will the future be safe enough for our kids to have a family of their own and a happy life?

One mom took her children back to China for a visit and her son said: “Don’t take me back here. It’s too hot! Why do we come here anyway?” It’s the same pattern for the other kids. “Why come here? It’s too poor, I don’t like it here.”

As a mom of action, I decided we’re going to spend this summer in the Philippines and my kids will learn how to cook rice using firewood and eat fish and vegetables instead of Panda Express takeout. I told them they are going to do a third world integration so they will learn the difference between a first world problem and a third world problem.

Then came the shocking news that my godchild, an activist integrating with peasant farmers in the Visayas, was caught by the Philippine military in a fake encounter, branded a terrorist and would have been shot in the vagina as ordered by a foul-mouthed misogynist who unfortunately happens to be the Philippine president, if not for media presence.

I could talk about the dichotomy in Philippine politics and its socioeconomic environment but that would be a very long soliloquy indeed. At least, picture shanties next to American style malls. Suffice to say to live in that place, in that culture, would be challenging for any person with liberal democratic ideals.

Ironically, that environment also fires youthful idealism. And I’ll say this in terms that my kids can understand: That environment challenges the youth to want to be superheroes. There is a reason why superhero movies make billions at the box office. Who doesn’t want to be Wonder Woman or Super Girl?  Or Katniss Everdeen? Youth activism is practically a rite of passage in the Philippines.

Unfortunately, while youth survivors in Florida, marching on Capitol Hill, were praised for their “incisive thinking and passion,” and considered “beautiful specimens of ideas and insightfulness,” by American novelist and Pulitzer Prize winner Marilynne Robinson who number former president Barack Obama among her fans, there is no such praise for the idealistic youth in the Philippines.

As a mother, I refuse to fail my children. I left the Philippines in my youth because it failed me. While I’m not surprised at the disturbing turn of events, I’m angry that after all these years, democratic ideals still struggle to take root in Philippine society. I’m angry at those who were given the public’s trust who then respond with viciousness instead of with a call for unity. And a public who, too often, surrender rational thought to divisive diatribe. Sadly, the Philippines has a degenerate form of democracy.

As a mother, I worry about my children and, more immediately, my godchild. Youth survivors in Florida chose to fight. Youth’s default. My godchild chose to do the same and be a voice for the poor. Oh to be young and unafraid!

Myles, we may be your absentee godmothers but please know we love you, we think of you,  we pray for you, and we are here to support you. No matter what everybody else says, you have the right to choose your path to follow. If you decide to choose a different path later in life, that is your right, too. But nobody, and I mean NOBODY on this Earth, has the right to play God and extinguish your light! While we are watching things unfold at your end, know that we are capable of taking action at our end. Remember, hell hath no fury like a mother defending her cub!

We may have angry tears in our eyes, but we do not cower! You, my child, are a reflection of who we were, of hopes long gone and dimmed, hopes we left behind for a better life somewhere else, but festering and unresolved. When they dehumanize you, our souls writhe in fury! You are our godchild! You are ours!

With so much love,

Your Ninang Felany

The Lorax

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”  -Dr. Seuss, The Lorax

I THINK the worst by-product of impunity is apathy. Unfortunately, I see it happening to our country down to the most basic unit of government.

Too many politicians, persons-in-authority, and government workers get away with the most atrocious attacks on basic human rights that people have become bitter, jaded and worse, apathetic.

I have had way too many depressing conversations with people who have espoused the why-should-I-care attitude to life. There are also people who think that as long as things do not affect them directly, it’s none of their business.

For instance, a friend asked: “If politicians get away with contract killings of rival politicians or steal from the public coffers, why should I be punished for the petty infractions I commit?” By the way, I have translated and rephrased my friend as the original quote was in the dialect and peppered with expletives.

I hear neighbors bark back at their transistor radios and TVs every time a news of a picket or rally is aired. At first, this reaction boggled my mind because I have lived the better part of my life in an urban poor community. I thought my neighbors, of all people, would understand the expressed rage of the people in the picket lines or rallies. These guys get the flack because they are fighting for higher wages, lower cost of living, and government transparency and accountability? I couldn’t wrap my head around that.

Yet, news of thieving, philandering, and genocidal politicians being outed for their crimes would not elicit the same response.

They would simply respond by saying that nothing will come out of the investigations. I certainly cannot blame them for this kind of response. When you’ve seen a number of crooked politicians waltz their way in and out of courthouses, you’d pretty much be jaded yourself.

As in the street slang: “Nothing can happen this.” I have never really grown accustomed to this type of response.

This phenomenon is also prevalent in the blogosphere, especially on social media platforms. The anonymity on the Internet has emboldened netizens with a double dose of the impunity-apathy phenomenon. And why not? If crooks who have been named in investigations can get away easily, how easy can you get away with trolling and inciting physical harm to other netizens?

Like my neighbors, there are netizens who feel their silence on the growing enmity in the blogosphere will not affect them as long as they stick to be in the middle.

However, democracy and governance, whether these be in the real or virtual society, is not a spectator sport. Everything is connected and everybody should participate.

Being a citizen does not end with voting. The Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections will push through this May. I enjoin you, my dear readers, not just turn up at the polling precincts blind.

Look, an apathetic response to cases of impunity is lazy. Impunity will never stop for as long as you stay jaded. Get involved in your community so you can have a truly independent and intelligent choice in leaders in the future.

I realize, of course, this is a big task to tackle. Why don’t we start small? Let’s start with our families, communities, and then eventually the society at large.