Words matter

“And now you do what they told ya, now you’re under control.” – Killing in the Name, Rage Against the Machine

WORDS can have consequences especially when a hate-laden speech is spoken by an influential public figure. Words matter. These can rouse an apathetic crowd to action or an angry mob. These can even spur a solitary loon to action.

These can validate deep-seated biases and bigotry. Our freedom of expression is not absolute because along with that freedom comes the responsibility with what we espouse publicly. One cannot just spew hate rhetoric and wash their hands once their avid audience takes action on what they said.

As I was watching the news over the weekend, one particular item caught my attention. It was about the Pittsburgh Synagogue shooting. On Sunday morning, Robert Bowers opened fire at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburg, USA. He killed at least 11 people.

He was single-minded in purpose. Prior to the shooting, he wrote on a right-wing social network: “I can’t sit by and watch my people get slaughtered.” Apparently, Bowers is under the impression that a Jewish nonprofit organization that supports refugees have been smuggling in “invaders in that kill our people.”

World history taught us that toxic politics, along with the hate rhetoric and black propaganda that goes with it, never ends well. A hate speech told over and over again can escalate and, as we’ve seen in the past, result in mass murders.

Benjamin Wallace-Wells of The New Yorker hit the nail in the head when he wrote: “They are the toxic politics of the President (Donald Trump), and the racist, nationalist fervor that has been inflamed by his rise, and the success and the militancy of the gun lobby…”

“The moral inadequacy is vast. Murderous acts of hate have occurred, on a national scale, several times this week. It is a tragedy that the President is not able to see them for what they are,” Wallace-Wells concluded.

Here in the Philippines, also on Sunday, we witnessed a less dramatic but nevertheless equally reprehensible behavior from people who have sworn to protect us.

National Capital Region Police Office’s Director Guillermo Eleazar “reprimanded” Police Officer 1 Eduardo Valencia for allegedly raping a 15-year-old daughter of a couple arrested in an anti-drug operation.

Valencia responded by saying: “Sir, may pamilya po ako. Sir, hindi na po bago sa ‘ting mga operatiba ‘yung gano’n kapag may nahuhuli po tayong drug pusher, sir.”

When our President beams on stage saying: “Dapat mayor ang mauna” as a quip  to a jail rape of a foreigner in a hostage incident and the audience laugh at the morally corrupt joke (if you call it that), you can pretty much expect the police officer thought he could do it and get away with it.

What’s worse is that from Valencia’s response, raping minor children of drug suspects have been going on now since Oplan Tokhang started.

Hate speech fuels the culture of impunity. We should know better. Make no doubt about it but our President’s toxic politics will escalate into a full-on national rift between those who are in power and those whose rights have been trampled on. Sooner than later, this will happen. History has shown us that.

Free Myles!

“It’s hard to fight for my life when I feel that my life is not a life. It’s existence. Existence is not enough for me.” -Hector Garcia, Jr.

UNLIKE most of the tito and tita of Myles Albasin, who have expressed support on social media platforms, I was not a student activist. I have also not been a member of the College Editors’ Guild of the Philippines or the Anakbayan.

Some of them I have even mocked when I was studying in high school and college at Xavier University. They would form protest pickets in front of the main campus, rallying against increases in tuition and other school fees. My standard reply then was that nobody forced them to enroll at Xavier. They could always enroll in public schools.

That is the reason why I sort of understand those who join the bandwagon of hate speech against her and her family when the closest you have been to a farm or farm animal is at KFC or MacDonald’s. It is easy to join the vilification campaign against the likes of Myles when most of your concerns involve a small circle (read: domestic).

She decided to put to practice what she learned in school. She certainly does not deserve to be bashed online for what she did like nobody bashed you for posting photos of your super expensive meal when most people in the hinterlands haven’t even seen what a burger is.

Most of the hate post on Myles are anchored on why supposedly “wasted” the free education she got from UP. So let’s go back to the point of the supposed free education in public schools and state colleges and universities. I also thought it was. After sending all of my kids to public schools, I have realized it isn’t free at all. The Republic’s budget for education, year in, year out, can attest to that fact.

Social media platforms have made it easier for people to encapsulate their lives, ergo, the ease in objectifying people. On social media, it is easy to forget that the people who have been subjected to vilification campaigns like you also have mothers, fathers, relatives, and friends.

As I see it, Myles just had a wider lens on Philippine society. She can’t help it that she has been trained how to think and not what to think. Her concerns are not only defined within the confines of her immediate family. Wouldn’t you want your child to be as unselfish as Myles? I would.

I may not understand Myle’s decision to immerse herself in the lives of the marginalized farmers in Negros Oriental but it is hers. I respect that and she and her family, most certainly, does not deserve to be vilified on social media.

Choose kind

“When given the choice between being right and being kind, choose kind.” -RJ Palacio, Wonder [2012]

ON Saturday, I already monitored the news of the supposed capture of six alleged members of the New People’s Army by the 62nd Infantry Battalion in Mabinay, Negros Oriental. I just skimmed through the article on what was a breaking news that day because it happened in the Visayas and thus couldn’t be used on my Mindanao pages.

At about midnight of that day, I was told by a journalist-friend that among those arrested was Myles Albasin, daughter of a colleague and friend.

I scanned my Facebook newsfeed fishing for more information on the supposed arrest.

The first statement I saw was by University of the Philippines Cebu Chancellor Liza Corro who confirmed that Myles, indeed, studied at UP Cebu and that she graduated last June with a degree on Mass Communications.

“Right now she is entitled to due process and is considered innocent until proven otherwise,” the chancellor’s statement reads.

The next statement I saw was the progressive youth organization, Anakbayan. There I read that Myles used to be the chairperson of Anakbayan UP Cebu chapter.

“She was a student leader who was awakened and has been exposed (to) the worsening educational crisis involving the Filipino youth. She was also active in advancing the plight and struggle of the farmers, fisherfolk, and indigenous people, especially the (indigenes), through her immersions and integrations with them,” the Anakbayan statement reads in part.

What got my goat was the deluge of hate posts in the thread of Anakbayan’s post.

One commenter posted that Myles might be the very first NPA to be shot in her private parts. Another, still, said her limbs should be dismembered and be put on display in Luneta Park.

I had to stop reading the comments. They spoke as if they knew Myles and her comrades like they are evil and should be dealt with the harshest punishment.

I maintain that Myles and her comrades should still be afforded due process and equal protection of the law. The last time I checked, we were still a democracy. From what I understood in Anakbayan’s statement, Myles and her comrades might not even be members of the NPA. Could it be that they immersed with the farmers in Mabinay when they were captured after a supposed encounter between the NPA and government troops?

I thought to myself, the thing that I feared most ever since these hate mongering and brash talk coming from the highest office in the Republic kept coming has finally rubbed off on people. They even revel in it. It’s like “wrongful righteousness,” if you allow me an oxymoron.

In this supposed information age, it is ironic that we read mostly uninformed, bigoted, and downright stupid comments on social media.

I just could not understand the sheer hate in their posts, like they were directly victimized by the NPAs. Such a tragedy.