Try again, Cayetano

“Truth was unimportant and entirely subordinate to tactics and psychology.” -Joseph Goebbels, Nazi party propagandist

APPARENTLY, only Sen. Allan Peter Cayetano believed in his presentation of the human rights situation in the country before the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland.

On May 8, Cayetano faced the rights council in Geneva for the country’s Universal Periodic Review. As state-member of the United Nations, each member country’s human rights record is reviewed every four years.

Without batting an eyelash, Cayetano lied through his teeth when he said that the more than 7,000 killings, most of whom belong to the urban poor sector, happened because they tried to shoot it out with authorities (read: nanlaban).

Picture this: A man living in the slums, armed with a rusty caliber .38 “paltik” revolver, shooting it out with a squad of anti-drug special unit with assault rifles in tow and clad in bullet proof vests. Does that ring true to you? If it does, then I’m a monkey’s cousin.

Let’s go back to Cayetano who is clearly in denial. Nobody… err… except of course the president’s new bestie, China, believed in his obvious lie.

What was he thinking? Did Cayetano really think the member countries of the council didn’t have cable news or Internet, and so be gullible as to believe his report?

His principal has been quoted numerous times, goading his gestapos to kill and even assured them he has their backs when the “pesky” human rights advocates come a-calling. His principal’s hate-mongering is on tape which have been transcribed for chrissakes!

Some 45 member countries expressed concern and recommended an inquiry into the extrajudicial killings in the country. As to what countries these are, trolls, you’ll have to Google that on your own. I don’t have the space in this column for such list.

So it is not surprising that 45 member countries of the UN human rights council didn’t believe Cayetano. By the way, what a way to start his career as a foreign diplomat, huh?

As the “pesky” Human Rights Watch Geneva director John Fisher puts it: “The government’s denial and deflection of criticism shows it has no intention of complying with its international obligations.”

“The Human Rights Council should establish an international inquiry and, if killings without accountability continue, reconsider the Philippines’ council membership,” Fisher further recommends.

Now that Cayetano is the country’s foreign affairs secretary, he might want to change his tact at diplomacy. He wouldn’t want to be the foreign affairs secretary  of the Philippines when it is unlisted from the United Nations. Pfft.

Read, understand, react

“You can fool some people sometimes. But you can’t fool all the people, all the time.” -Bob Marley, Get up Stand up

I AM not a member of the national directorate of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines anymore. However, as a member of the union in the province, I am moved to reply to the responses of the Duterte siblings to the union’s statement.

In the statement, the union merely admonished Davao Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio and Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte on their personal attacks and veiled threats against a member of media, who in turn, only reminded colleagues of how to handle news of the death of the lone casualty of the attacks of Maoist rebels against facilities of Lapanday Foods Corp last week.

It would do well for the siblings to be reminded they’re not just spoiled brats of a kingpin mayor anymore. They are no ordinary persons for they are not only persons of power in their fiefdom, nay city, they are also presidential children.

“As a public official, she is subject to commentaries and criticisms especially from the press and should not respond with personal attacks and threats,” reads part of NUJP’s statement.

Hours after the release of the statement, Duterte-Carpio took to her social media again and responded: “National Union of Journalists in the Philippines. I too have a constitutionally protected right to freedom of speech and expression. The NUJP, my husband (Manases ‘Mans’ Carpio, Lapanday legal counsel), or even the President (Rodrigo Duterte) cannot shut me down. I will speak when I want to. Hahaha. Mamatay na kayo sa inis, sasagot pa rin ako.”

That response puzzled me since nowhere in the union’s statement did it state nor try to “shut down” the Davao mayor. I don’t know where the mayor got confused in the message considering most parts of the statement consisted of a direct quotation of the sibling’s tirade against a broadcaster.

As for her hot-headed macho brother, the vice mayor also took to his social media account and unfurled a string of off-tangent barely comprehensive tirade that sounded like a kid stripped of his favorite toy in the park by a bully.

“And again, let me reiterate ? Imo pakauwawan akoang pamilya, imong hilabtan nga wa man intawoy sala ninyo o sa publiko, bukbukon taka? Media man ka o bisan unsa ka pa. And dili tungod media ka, hawod na ka ug di na ka pwede hilabtan. Ayaw kabalaka kay di ko pareha anang uban nga momasaker,” the vice mayor response to the union’s statement.

Again, I am appalled at the response. I assume these public officials, elected servants at that, would know how to react to dissent or a public rebuke. Again, nowhere in the statement of the union did it try to shame the presidential family.

It called on their public statements which were uncalled for.

At first, I was tempted to chalk their off-tangent responses to poor comprehension skills. But, I realized there is something more sinister at play here.

It is something deliberate, something conscious, and something you develop through one’s years growing up–attitude.

It’s the attitude of entitlement which betrayed the siblings’ petulance and insolence veiled under the supposedly “masa” language. What is being displayed here is the attitude of the nouveau royalty. The impertinence of a fief lord against a serf.

It’s the attitude that bore such unfortunately popular lines: Do not bite the hand that feeds you and how dare you question the boss.

It’s a manipulative attitude. Goading their serfs to attack their fellow serfs by using the language of the serfs. It’s introspective victimization.

Filipinos are known to be melodramatic. The reason why teleseryes, where a muchacha is being ganged upon by the alta sociedad, thrive. This has worked so many times in our history. Erap used it but we all know how his administration ended, right?

So here’s an unsolicited advice: You can manipulate the people with your brand of rhetoric but you certainly cannot do that to all, all the time. Review history, ma’am and sir, and you’ll see it never ends well with despotic tyrants.

The zombies are back

“LIKE a horde of zombies, last-minute voter-registrants dogged election workers at the mall, clawing at the window panes as they scrambled to get their biometrics validated or get registered for the first time here in the early hours of Saturday, the last day for voters’ registration and biometrics validation.”

I wrote that news article lede two years ago. It is not surprising that we witnessed the exact same thing on Saturday, the last day of voters’ registration for the October Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections.

This has been a recurring phenomena as far as I can care to remember.

The Commission on Elections’ initiative to conduct satellite registrations in far-flung villages only did a fraction of improvement. I remember my son, who works with the commission’s city office, going out of the house early and coming home late in the evening because of the satellite registrations in hinterland barangays in the city. When we do get the chance to talk, he’d tell me their satellite registration in the boondocks was “gilangaw.”

Even Comelec commissioner Luie Guia posted on his Facebook wall last week that he “is afraid that applicants for registration will again crowd Comelec offices on the last day, April 29.”

I understand Guia’s concern because I have witnessed these last-minute registrations for far too many times. Emotions would run high as these last-minute registrants jockey for priority numbers. Worse, they almost always end up insulting the commission’s employees.

I remember election assistant Lailani Nazi almost losing her cool blurting: “Where were they when we visited their barangays?” She opined then that this phenomena is “the perfect reflection of the state of our society.”

So, is it procrastination that ills these voter-registrants?

Methinks it is not procrastination, laziness or the seemingly apathetic attitude towards elections. I believe these people know how important elections are. Why, it’s the country’s national pastime–it’s almost like a cottage industry.

These people register late because their patrons and benefactors release their budgets late. Last-minute registrants know this is moment when their patrons and benefactors “need” them. It is the only occasion where the roles are reversed because after every election, they know they will see the politicos again in the next election season.

Of course, no self-respecting politico will release funds until they are sure who will vote for them. It is the old-time “padrino system” that is at work here.

These last-minute registrants were just waiting for their “tiam-tiam.” So, cut them some slack. Pfft.