Notes: Duterte Sending off 17 Vietnamese Fishermen

These notes are taken from this video:

https://www.facebook.com/presidentialcom/videos/1492223000807356/

Opening Prayer
* * * * *

Welcome remarks by Mayor Roberto Arcinue

He was teary-eyed in expressing his joy that they were visited by President Duterte despite his busy schedule.  Mayor Arcine said that people came to see President Duterte and they want to go near him because he was their idol.  Furthermore, he said that the gesture shows that the diplomatic ties between the Philippines and Vietnam will become closer.

Unlike other towns that are named after saints, the town of Sual is named after the Arabic word that meant “seaport”. The Arabs docked there and traded with the islands before it was named Philippines.  It was a sub-port of Manila and in 1856, the Spanish government declared it as an international seaport.

Sual in was a 4^th class municipality until 2004; and 3 years ago became first class.  Sual is fortunate. It hosts the biggest power plant (1218 MW) in the Philippines operated by Team Sual-Tokyo Electric and Marubeni.

Sual just had a MOA with TransAsia and PhinMa Corporation to construct another 900MW plant in Sual that will supply the Luzon grid, bringing the total capacity to 2118 MW.

To protect and preserve the environment in Sual, a MOA was signed with the San Miguel Energy Corporation and the Philippine Coconut Authority to plant 1 million trees; another MOA with the DENR to plant 150,000 trees this year to be completed in December.

The send-off ceremonies are being conducted on the newly constructed causeway 280 meters long x 11 meters wide. The dream of the people of Sual in the future is to have an international seaport.  But due to lack of funds Sual only managed to construct a causeway.  There is a plan to extend this to 300 meters so that big ships can dock here.  When this will be realized, I am already inviting you to inaugurate it.

(PRRD responded: Inshah Allah. God willing.)

We wish you good health; we pray to God that he will always protect and guide you in all your undertakings.

* * * * * *

18:10 SecJudy, DSWD

Greets every one and the servants of the people.

DSWD is tasked to initiate acts of compassion.  The fishermen were forced to enter our shores to escape the storm.  We hope that the assistance will be accepted in the spirit that they are being given; with friendship.

In our politically charged times, it is important for us to unite and show solidarity over issues and concerns concerning humanity.

Vietnam is our kapitbahay (neighbor). Vietnam and the Philippines share common histories of colonial oppression and anti-colonial revolutions.

We were able to survive the horrors of war through unity and determination. We hope we can look back to this shared history and work together to build strong ties of unity that will benefit our peoples especially the poor.

21:42 Our message today must be one of diplomacy, unity and solidarity. Let us always exercise compassion even as we implement our laws. Let us stand united as members of ASEAN and as Asians.  The Philippines and Vietnam are sovereign countries.  We deal with each other on the principles of mutual respect, mutual benefit and non-interference in our internal affairs. 

* * * * *

Background Briefing from BI Commissioner Jaime Morente:

On September 8, 17 Vietnamese nationals (16 adults 1 minor) on board 3 vessels were intercepted and apprehended by the Philippine Coast Guard on alleged poaching offshore Sta Catalina, Ilocos Sur, a violation of Sec 21 of Republic Act 8550. They were charged with poaching under the BFAR; and was for deportation under the Bureau of Immigration and Deportation (BID).

During the investigation, it was found out that they got lost and by necessity had to save themselves from the incoming storm Ferdie and Habagat.

They have been certified to have no legal impediments.  For humanitarian considerations the Department of Justice issued a memo allowing them to go back to their countries without being blacklisted.

The original plan was to fly them to Vietnam, but they requested that they go home on board their fishing vessels.  We wish our brothers well, who sought refuge in our shores in time of imminent danger.

* * * * *

Vietnamese Ambassador Truong Trieu Duong was deeply moved with what he saw.  He said that when PRRD visited Viet Nam, he was requested by the Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang to let the fishermen return home safely (voice breaks).

The Vietnamese President conveys his profound gratitude for the swift fulfilment of his promise; the kind and humanitarian gesture by President Duterte and the Filipino people; the concerted efforts of the Bureau of Immigration and Deportation (BID); Department of Justice (DOJ); Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR); the authorities of Ilocos Sur and Sual; to the people of Sual for allowing them to stay in your houses.  

All of you are true reflections of compassion. Wish you all the best and great success / noble cause and prosperity for your people.

* * * * * *

PRRD Speech

Greets everyone.  Bureau of Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente used to be the City Police Director of Davao City.  He was also charged with Extrajudicial Killings.  He is Ilocano – soldiers are mostly either Ilonggo or Ilocano because they have no qualms in going to war.  There’s only a few Boholanos and Cebuanos.

Notes how the World Trade Organizations (WTO) imposition on smaller countries.  One thing we should not forget, self-respect and dignity is very important.  Our respect for other human beings is very strong.  When we talk we do it almost in whispers.  We are not prone to tigbasay (hacking each other); we talk first.  Although we sort of forgot that a bit in Mindanao.   

When you hear about a child being raped, your blood boils. Were it not for the laws of god and and the laws of man we would have killed the rapists ourselves.

PRRD tells the fishermen that the next time they encounter a storm they are welcome to Mindanao and take a vacation there.  He even shared that one fisherman who was said to have found a sweetheart in Sual.

Vietnam drove the Americans away in humiliation. The Americans stayed in the Philippines for 50 years; cut all the trees; got all the minerals and the gold veins (pinaka-nanay “mother” ng gold). 

If you reprimand me now, be careful with your tongue because you are insulting my own country.  You treat us like we are patay-gutom (dead or dying from hunger); like dogs on a leash.

If somebody could tell me that what the US did to Syria is good, I will resign.  They [the US] are destroying our country.  If we will not act now the next generation will be destroyed.

So the sale of the 26,000 rifles is canceled? Who cares?  We have a lot of airguns here. (Puts tongue in cheek).

The 17 fishermen will be accompanied by the coast guard up to the boundary of the territorial waters.  So that they will reach their homeland safely.
* * * * *

Distribution of Tokens:

From the Office of the President: 123 kgs of vegetables, 10 kgs beef, 3 gals oil, 3 tanks LPG, 20 bottles drinking water, 2 tons fresh water, 3 cavans rice, (x) blocks of ice and diesel fuel.

From the DSWD:  Hygiene Kits – Tissue paper, toothpaste, mouthwash, shampoo, alcohol, shave, toothbrush, bath soap, comb, laundry soap.

Coffee, rice, mineral water, cooking oil, malong noodles water repellant jacket

The emcee shares that it is a Filipino custom to give send-off gifts to visitors.  He even joked that those who want to go to Viet Nam may join the queue.

(The sight of the boat leaving is heart-rending).

1:04:00 you can hear PRRD’s voice in the background saying: “Kawawa naman (My heart feels for them).”

Maawain si Tatay Digong. Kitang-kita naman ng karamihan yan.

* * * * *

Repetitions and Cultural Sensitivity

My article for OpinYon Mindanao

Column: Lupa Ng Araw

31 October 2016

*****

A couple of weeks ago, Al Jazeera interviewed President Duterte.  There was nothing really new in that interview that this headline-hogging third world country leader has not said in his speeches, both during the campaign and in his first 100 days as the 16th president of a supposedly sovereign country.

Nothing really new -- meaning, PRRD’s (one of President Duterte's monickers) topics basically revolved around drugs, crime and corruption, albeit to different audiences.

It is said that repetition is the mother of all learning; in the same way that people who devoted at least 10,000[1] hours to what they loved to do are said to eventually become experts on it.  

The same principle also applies to TV ads being aired as often as viewers can get jaded on.  Only this time the repeated messages are not recorded.  It is The President himself talking about it as often as his audience is willing to listen. Hopefully it hammers back the message of collective good and love of country.

Those who follow these speeches closely do not anymore mind the oft-repeated topics -- but are on the edge of their seats for new, often deconstructive pronouncements.

There are some people though who are annoyed with the repetitions as if someone compelled them to listen.  It would probably help to know that these repetitions are for not for those who have already heard it, but for a) those who have not heard; and b) for those who have already heard but would not listen.

This time however, in "Talk To Al Jazeera" The President mentioned one particular new word.

At 09:01 of the interview, President Duterte says: "As orientals, we say you just be courteous.  We are not used to being bamboozled and [told]: ‘You know Mr Duterte that the serious violations could result to the cutting of aid’.  That is not acceptable to us actually.  We call it in our dialect 'buyboy'".

He grapples for its Tagalog equivalent, to which Al Jazeera Reporter Jamela Alindogan volunteers: “sumbat”.

PRRD further illustrates by saying, “You’re giving me these things[2] but [you are telling me] I am not doing what you want.  That is a very serious mistake.”

That word "buyboy" must have not registered to the other Al Jazeera Reporter Wayne Hay.  He proceeded to ask about contradictory statements among members of the government. Or at least that's how the video as it was edited seemed to convey.

* * * * *

Buyboy is actually a bisaya word.  I cannot find a direct English translation of this word.  Wikapinoy defines it as “take to task”; Binisaya.com says it is the recounting of favors; and sandayong.com says it in bisaya: sudya sa nahatag nga utang kabubut-on.

It is also spoken as pamuyboy or panumboy, or the act of making buyboy.

As a true-blue bisdak (bisayang dako), I know the word by heart.  Buyboy is best described indeed as the act of counting the favors one has given to another person.  The context in which it is said is a little short of making you throw up what you ate because you have not returned the favor to the one who gave you the food.

The word itself is rarely mentioned; but the act is seen in many circumstances.  For example, teleseryes (TV series) often depict characters enumerating, usually in anger, the good things they have done or given to another person, especially when they feel their gestures of good intentions were not reciprocated the way they expected it.

Whether it reflects real life or real life imitates it depends largely on individual experiences.

What made President Duterte mention "buyboy"? Let me guess.

The 16M who catapulted him to office in a way approved his approaches of solving these festering social problems.  Judging by the negative publicity[3] a handful of newspapers and television outfits are muddling his pronouncements instead of helping its audience understand, we can say that there seems to be just one concerted effort to blast his image of being a no-nonsense problem solver.

This concerted effort not to seek clarification on President Duterte's statements seems to also affect the donor community with the way they gave veiled threats to cut off aid if he will not address the issue of extrajudicial killings.

Question: Is threatening to cut off aid the right support donor countries can give to a fellow sovereign country beset with problems of drugs, crime and corruption?  Do they really expect a no-nonsense problem solver to give in to these veiled threats just so donor money will not stop coming?

Culturally, being told in the face how benevolent they are just so we should give in to the pressure -- well, this is how we Filipinos feel: they make us want to vomit. It's a wonder if previous leaders swallowed their pride at the slightest hint of donor pullout.

Any country who claims they respect the culture and sovereignty of other nations should now start reviewing their own lofty definitions of the word "respect" because a nobody from a small nation is now telling them something in a language they have not yet encountered in the history of diplomacy.

Hopefully it's one good lesson on cultural sensitivity.

*****

Cotabato City

24 October 2016

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[1] http://gladwell.com/outliers/the-10000-hour-rule/

[2] PRRD was referring to aid

[3] https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/world/2016/12/15/cuts-aid-package-philippines/XZ792YL8ebRiws6h16wfjO/story.html

Spam Ma Ling Adobo

My Article for Resurgent.Ph
Due 23 Oct 2016

* * * * *

We had a happy discussion in one FB Group as to whether we are pro-Spam, pro-Ma Ling or pro-Adobo.

As we all know, Spam is American; Ma Ling is Chinese; and Adobo is Filipino.  Spam and Ma Ling are canned luncheon meats; while adobo is a dish made of either chicken, pork, or chicken and pork together.  These conversation pieces came up in the wake of President Duterte’s expressing his displeasure towards the way Filipinos are treated by Americans – many times on a personal level and generally at the policy level.

Although I know most of us would devour the canned meats when it is available, we chorused "pro-Adobo!" and tried to justify our answers the silliest we can.  Say, the meats of Spam and Ma Ling are trapped inside cans for months at a time; while adobo is freshly cooked.  Or, if those canned stuff are way beyond their expiry date, these are sold at big discounts just to get them off the shelves and consumers still look satisfied.  Who cares about nitrates and MSG anyway?

But someone thought adobo is a Spanish dish.  Another one thought it could be Chinese because toyo (soy sauce) is Chinese. Then one chimed it must be Filipino because both the chicken and the pork are native.  But what if the chicken is force-fed with hormones and antibiotics, much less dried innards of other animals, does that make it less native thus less Filipino? Nitpickers.

Nah. I'm sure I read somewhere that adobo is authentically Filipino.

As an afterthought, I know we cook almost everything adobo-style: kangkong, sitaw, talong, kabibe, tahong, palaka, name it.

Seriously, as I am Bisaya, the adobo I knew as a child was different from how it is now widely known.  We also say adobawo (shortcut for adobado) for i.e. adobawng tangkong, adobawng uhong etc.  But somehow the usage of adobawo has somewhat disappeared. 

Adobo to us then was actually big chunks of pork, approximately 2 inches square; parboiled in water, vinegar, salt and garlic; dripped dry and deep fried in oil until brown.  It is then sliced in bite-sized pieces and dipped in toyo-kalamansi sauce.  My father prefers it dipped in ginamos.   

Growing up in Bukidnon in the 60s and the 70s was idyllic.  We grew many things around us (we did not even call it a garden) – bananas, papayas, gabi, cassava, camote etc.  Other plants just grew on its own so we just harvested it – wild ampalaya, kangkong, bamboos, what have you.   We raised our own pigs, chickens, goats and cows too. 

Whenever Tatay slaughtered a pig, most of the meat are preserved without a refrigerator (we did not even have one until the late 70s).  Nanay would slather some of the meat in salt and packed it in wide-mouthed glass jars, and later, Tupperware – the only plastic ware I knew then.  She would smoke some; the rest became hams and sausages. 

Tatay would also cook adobo the way I described it above; and he would bury these in the same lard it was fried in.  These would then be stowed away in kerosene cans and I believe it lasted until the next pig was scheduled. 

Then we had what I say is close to the Tagalog adobo – we called it humba.  I thought it is a bisaya spelling of jumba – but there’s no such thing as jumba in google except for that balloon-like character in Lilo and Stitch.  And accordingly, there is a Chinese dish called hong-ba, which looks like the bisaya humba.  Here the pork chunks are stewed in vinegar, toyo, garlic, peppercorns and laurel leaves.  I tell you humba wiggles in a way that adobo does not.

Tatay said it was his grandfather who taught him how to handle meat – from the slaughtering to the cooking to the preservation.  This grandfather was half-Spanish who was brought to the Diocese of Cagayan de Oro and spent the rest of his life in Carcar, Cebu where he was the caretaker of the Friar Lands.  He was also a butcher (matansero) on the side.

Now going back to the pros: It’s good to know how our food evolved as it is also a significant part of how our identity as Filipinos evolved.  Would Spam, Ma Ling and adobo have figured in a nationalism-filled discussion if President Duterte did not express his utmost displeasure of America’s shabby treatment towards us as a people?

Shallow as it may seem, but I doubt it.

* * * * * *  

Change Topic

(My article for Lupa Ng Araw, my column on OpinYon September 30, 2016 issue)

Change Topic

For the longest time we really had nothing much to talk about as a nation.  There was just politics, showbiz; more of politics, more of showbiz there was not even a gray line separating them.  Peppered all over were news about killings – and the media told the people what type of killing it was: riding in tandem, hold up, carnap, kidnap, rape, love triangle, ambush, harassment, lumad.  Nobody was really saying anything whether something was being done about it or whether there were even results.  Media was in its prime: more sensational news, more money.

Filipinos were the captive audience, the reluctant consumer.  Government allowed commercial television to take over education’s role.  People were force-fed with no-brainer quizzes on equally no-brainer noontime shows; illusion-filled reality shows, amateur hours with fancy talent names and rehashed teleseryes occupied primetime; and supposedly factual documentaries were aired in the dead of the night.  The few who had access to cable TV and the internet had a spectrum of choices – but to each his own topic.  Nothing held the Filipino spirit together. 

Then about this time last year people were abuzz with Heneral Luna and Rodrigo Duterte.  Born 79 years apart, both captured the public attention about the same time: Luna as a movie and Duterte as a potential presidential candidate.  The former was an ilustrado; the latter a provinciano.  Luna the person was found in some outdated elementary school classroom picture; Duterte in memes and videos on Facebook and YouTube.

Luna did not have the time to be popular during his time or even after his death. Luna’s fellow illustrados did not like his brazen bravery and his concept of independence from Americans.  After he died, Filipinos were fed with everything good about the Americans through massive education and movies.  There was no hint that local blood and gore was discussed.  Duterte was popular only in his hometown but was creating ripples that maybe he could be the one who could hack people’s woes nationwide.

Both had legendary tempers manifested in their cuss words: Luna had punyeta; Duterte putang ina.  In a previous blog which also appeared in MindaNews, I wrote that “Unless we shed our misplaced loyalties to family, clan, tribe, party or organization, I’m afraid The Fiery General would still be shouting[1] ‘Punyeta’!”

Come to think of it, just within the neighborhood, Duterte is still spewing ‘Putang Ina’ to show his disgust for drugs, crime and corruption.  Quite a few still could not tell that these words were not directed at them. Unless of course they are involved in drugs, crime and corruption or – they are protecting someone involved in drugs, crime and corruption.  It could only be that.  If they say they are protecting the innocent, so are the many who want to stop drugs, crime and corruption.

While Heneral Luna the movie reportedly earned P256M in the box office, it seems that Duterte’s putang ina meant more than a thousand pesos to charity every time he uttered it.

Now there’s the catch: it is not only charity that is benefiting from the curses.  Everywhere he goes, Duterte is distributing millions of pesos, money that rightfully belongs to the people.  Benefits for veterans, their widows; renovation, refurbishing and building of hospitals; benefits for fallen soldiers and policemen; financial assistance for returning OFWs and victims of terrorism; Glocs for those in active duty (this one I have yet to see in the news but yes, it’s there in the videos) – the list goes on.  Where he cannot physically visit, his messengers are doing it for him: farm & fishing implements, health facilities, schools, etc.  Cuss words are being translated into tangible things! 

Three months into the Duterte Presidency, people are still being fed with news about killings on TV and newspapers – at least by those that are already identified as mainstream media, controlled by oligarchs and elites who don’t want their powers given to anybody outside their clique. Unfortunately this media can no longer distinguish which killings are by riding in tandems, hold up, carnap, kidnap, rape, love triangle, ambush, harassment, lumad.  They attribute everything to Duterte and lump everything up into extrajudicial killings[2] despite the fact that there is already a legal definition of the term.

So notoriously hardheaded this media has become that they came up with their own term: Kill List.  Instead of helping the reading public thresh out which ones were killed by whom, media has helped in making things more tangled and confusing than ever! As it is said in Tagalog, pinaghalo ng media ang balat sa tinalupan. (Literally, mixing the peelings with the fruit; figuratively, media got it all mixed up).

Or is it only media that is confused?  As I keep asking myself – “What is it that 16M++ understand that media cannot?” I use the 16M++ as a reference, as many of us already know, to those declared by the COMELEC to have voted for Duterte as President.  We have no way of knowing how many more were not counted; how many more did not vote but supported Duterte (4 out of 5 in my own family alone); plus the family members of the 16M++; plus those who voted for someone else but are directly employed by government they have no choice but trust that they get their salaries and benefits intact.  So that’s my layperson illustration of the 16M++.  Will that explain the 91% trust rating of Duterte as President? Technical explanations are already available elsewhere, so look it up there. 

Congress has already come up with a more appropriate term, Deaths Under Investigation[3] (DUI).  Would media insist on their misplaced freedom of the press by insisting on their people-unfriendly terms?

Tables have turned. People are now talking about how mainstream media have them had. Change has come. Thanks to Duterte, thanks to social media.  We have changed topics.

* * * * *

19 September 2016

Cotabato City

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[1] http://aveensblog.blogspot.com/2015/09/heneral-luna-reflections.html

[2] the killing of a person by governmental authorities without the sanction of any judicial proceeding or legal process.

[3] http://www.congress.gov.ph/press/details.php?pressid=9779

Transcript: GMA's Howie Severino Interviews Prof Clarita Carlos of UP Diliman about Duterte

This is a transcript of the video published on September 12, 2016

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biBfi9tc00c

Howie Severino (HS): Sinadya ni Pangulong Duterte na hindi dumalo sa ASEAN-US meeting, taliwas sa sinabi ng kanyang kampo na hindi maganda ang kanyang pakiramdam noon. Ano po kaya ang implikasyon nito?

Clarita Carlos (CC): Wala naman siguro. Let’s not second-guess the President. Motivation is one of the most challenging areas for study. We don’t know, then let it be. Kung ano man yung rason nya ay tanggapin natin. How it will affect relations I don’t think it will affect our relations na nakabaon sa napakaraming legal instruments: mutual defense treaty, visiting forces agreement, edca, etc.

HS: Kaso may sinasabi sya ngayon na dapat mag-pull out daw yung US troops – he’s shown quite a bit of anti-American sentiment lately. Pero sabi nyo nga, nakabaon sya sa mga agreement. Ano ba talaga yung wiggle room or space ng ating pangulo para baguhin ang ating foreign policy kaugnay ng America?

CC: The president, as the Chief Executive, is the chief articulator of our foreign policy. But he’s not the only one. I’m sure you know you have legislation, you have the legislature and you have the courts. Yung VFA ni-ratify yan kahit hindi yan tratado. Ang EDCA iI’ sure you have heard na kaka-declare lang ng Supreme Court na constitutional siya. All these are legal instruments which any declaration cannot immediately (what’s the term) delete, or make inoperational. Yung kanyang order na ang mga American so-called advisers leave Mindanao, this is not to complicate operations happening there. Cause I can just imagine if meron silang mamamatay na kasamahan nila, may casualties – and that’s an open secret. Everybody knows that they have been there. They have been embedded in our AFP. Andaming AFP na nagsasabi sa atin nyan. Let us remember that ang mga Amerikano o mga Australiano for that matter with whom we have Status of Forces Agreement cannot come here without our permission. Repeat: without or permission.  Whatever is happening in our country, whether it was the previous administration or the present one, it is with our permission. So, siguro kung yung sinasabi ni Presidente kamakailan, for them to get out is really to make the operations there less complicated. Even when they become part of the casualty. 

HS: But Maam he’s not saying make it less complicated, gusto nyang ipa-pull out. What would it take for the US troops to be pulled out?

CC: Here I’m interpreting him. Because I know on the ground certain things which are not made public for security reasons, okay? Pag sinabi nyang i-pull out, yung mga advisers, alam ng afp natin na nandiyan sila. And following constitutional strictures, nandiyan sila on a rotational basis. Which means theoretically, they are not here on a continuing basis. That said, pag ini-square mo sya dun sa kaka-declare na [State of] Lawless Violence, then you are saying that – pinagsanib nga nya ang pwersa ng PNPat AFP para tumugis dito sa dissident groups, ang nakikita nya siguro – ito ang interpretation ko is makaka-complicate yun if there are foreign elements, whoever they are, whichever country they come from.  And im sure he has been informed by his defense people, security people that they are there.  Alam na natin. Alam nga natin na meron silang almost permanent base dyan somewhere in Mindanao. Let us not close our eyes to the fact that we allowed them to be here, diba? Even while we had abrogated the military bases agreement we, in 1999 agreed to the visiting forces agreement. And the same with Australians. Ang mga Amerkano po at Australiano hindi po yan makakagalaw sa bansa natin kung hindi po natin pinapayagan. As a matter of fact on a personal note, my research team helped the Visiting Forces Commission with the IRR [Implementing Rules and Regulations].  Isipin ninyo 1999 pa yang Visiting Forces Agreement ngayon pa dadating yung IRR.  And to be fair to the Americans, susunod lang sila sa patakaran natin. Pag sinabi natin na “lahat ng laman ng kargo ng barko nyo ha, dapat bago kayo dumating dito, makita muna namin”, sumusunod sila. When I interviewed them, they simply told me “Dr Carlos you know, whatever you tell us to do, kasi bansa nyo yan, susundin lang namin.  Huwag lang yung nandito na kami saka nyo sasabihin na, oy, baka yang surgeon ninyo, baka naman nagtitinda ng taho lang yan…?” Of course Im exaggerating to make a point. The point is bago dumating yung kanilang medical team, ayusin muna yung accreditation, hindi ba? And huwag natin kalimutan ho na allies ho natin ito. We’re training with them, because in the future, we will fight with them. Hindi naman natin enemies ‘to, allies po natin ito.

HS: Yes Maam. Yun nga, sinasabi nyo nga – pinapayagan natin, kung ayaw na natin kailangan na nating sabihin sa kanila. At the same time Maam, sinabi nyo na si Pangulong Duterte ay sya yung chief articulator ng foreign policy. It was quite clear na sinasabi nya po ay pull out. Pero ang interpretation nyo po ngayon ay sinasabi he doesn’t really mean kick out the US troops from Mindanao.

CC: No no. He knows certain things on the ground kaya nakukuha ko yung pinanggagalingan nya. I hope I’m right, no? I’m not second guessing him. I know where he’s coming from. By the way ha, I’m not apologizing for him. I don’t know him, he doesn’t know me. I’m just an observer of politics. You ask me, I’m giving you my view.

HS: Yes of course. Unfortunately most people Maam don’t have the kind of inside information that you have so you’re able to interpret him in this way but, most people listening to him, in the public, when he says kailangan nang mag pull out o kailangan nang umalis ang mga US troops sa Mindanao, well they are taking that at face value without trying to interpret it any other way kasi medyo delikado rin yun if we try to interpret it the way you’re trying to interpret it.

CC: Yeah, why are we asking this President to be circumspect about his articulation? And tayo hindi tayo nag-aaral. Please magkalkal ho kayo ng kasaysayan. Magbasa po kayo. Yung IRR po na tinapos ng Visiting Forces Commission ay public document po yan. Basahin nyo po. Believe me. Kahit yung mga pinakamaliit-liit na bagay no, yung dadalhin nila na medicine dito for example: hindi na sila pinapayagan – yung mga Australiano at mga Amerikano – ngayon kailangang bumili sila sa ating mga drugstores. Hanggang dyan sa kaliit-liit na detalye na yan nandun sa IRR. So medyo magkalkal lang po tayo ng kasaysayan and let’s not shoot off our mouths na wala tayo pong alam. Talagang magkakamali tayo sa conclusion natin.

HS: We’re not really shooting our mouths Maam. We’re just listening to the President on this. But Maam yung sinasabi nya, does it signify a major foreign policy shift on the part of the Philippines. Dahil he seems to be trying mark out a more independent policy – is that your interpretation or – ang sinasabi nyo rin we’re locked in to the agreements from the past so there’s not really much we can do in terms of our foreign policy.

CC: 8:00 Well independence is not [inaudible]. Independence is not what Burma did and we’re not going there.  Independent means we are going to identify which are good for us, and then we’ll see. If it means you know, getting closer to Russia, let it be.  Which means you know, telling off China, let it be. That is what independent means. Meaning, giving us the final determination of what is good for us. Remember by rotation tayo ang magiging chairman next year di baga? Then let us push the ASEAN regional integration because this is the one that will really lift or the likelihood for 27M of our poor people to have a higher level of life, you know, not to be poor. Dapat ganun natin itinda yung ASEAN economic community and all the other aspect of ASEAN 2020. Let’s not lose fight of that opportunity. Ni wala nga ngayong leader ang ASEAN. Aba, malay mo si Duterte ang maging leader nyan. You remember nung time ni Marcos hindi nga makasingit yan si Lee Kwan Yew because we were the leader at that time. Ngayon wala na namang leader. I mean o, i-enumerate nyo yang lahat ng sampung yan. O di sya? After all he believes in himself and he is his own person.

HS: Ok Maam just to clarify just this one last point about the statement of President Duterte – kahit sinasabi nyang ayaw na nya sa US troops kailangan nang umalis for whatever reason sinasabi nya, where there’s also principle, there’s some practical reasons. Sinasabi nyo na kahit sinasabi ng Pangulong Duterte he cannot just tell the US troops to leave, especially for people living in Mindanao listening: you’re saying na the US troops will not be leaving Mindanao anytime soon?

CC: Well, let me put it this way: kasi hindi ko alam ang tactical and operational aspect nyan. I’m sure – sino bang head ng DND ngayon, I forgot his name no. I’m sure binibigyan nya ng giya ang president. Ang sinasabi nya “Mr President alam mo, merong maraming naka embed na mga Amerkano dyan who are training with our troops. Tinitingnan ko lang kung anong pinanggalingan ng estorya ha, pinanggalingan ng kanyang declaration na yan. And I think that’s part of tactical and operational na mag pull out muna sila, dahil baka masali sila sa ano sa casualty. Yun ang nakita kong implikasyon. But you know, for us to, mag-atras tayo sa Mutual Defense Treaty -- treaty yun. Visiting Forces Agreement? Niratify yun ng senate. EDCA? I mean, I already noted what these legal instruments are. And you know, just a simple declaration will not in fact render them inutile.

HS: Ok. You did say that the President is the chief articulator of our foreign policy but you’re also saying that what he’s saying may not even be possible because of our agreements with the United States.

CC: Yes! But that’s because there are limits to what you can declare. Suppose Teresa May the new Prime Minister of Britain tells us that you know, Brexit this is not going to happen. So we say, no, it’s going to happen because that’s the result of a referendum. In other words she is the prime minister, she articulates British foreign policy but there has been no referendum and a decision has been made. This is what I mean. There are parameters to what he can and what he cannot do. But he can articulate anything of course at a later time maybe, under advisement of certain people the DFA or wherever, then he would say na, “Hey ok, these are the things I can do and I cannot do.” Our president is an intelligent person and I think he knows where he’s going.

HS: Ok Professor speaking of which, what the president can and cannot do. Punta naman po tayo dun sa issue ni Mary Jane Veloso na nasa death row sa Indonesia. Ano po baa ng pwede at hindi pwedeng gawin ni Pangulong Duterte kaugnay sa kaso ni Mary Jane?

CC: Remember The President just declared na ayaw nya na nangingialam yung ibang bansa. Di ba kaya nga nagkaroon ng napakalaking brouhaha dyan sa sagot nya dun sa human rights na nasabit si Barack Obama ay dahil nga dyan. So palagay mo ba makikisawsaw sya dun sa desisyon dito sa isang – si Veloso? Binabasa ko kasi yung sinabi daw nya. Sabi nya “follow your laws”. I’m sure he cannot say otherwise. I cannot say otherwise. Magagalit si Jokowi sa kanya pag nagsabi sya. Dahil nagdaan na yan sa napakalawak at malalim na ano court procedure sa Jakarta, sa Indonesia.

HS: Indonesian Pres Widodo though has been quoted in the media as saying that Duterte gave a go signal or green light for the execution. Pero kina-clarify ngayon ng DFA at Malacanang na iba yung dapat na translation.

CC: Well I guess if you translate “follow your laws” and then you push it, you extrapolate – it will lead to that?  I don’t know. Did The President declare that? Let Malacanang give the explanation. As far as I can see as far as I can read, pag sinabi nyang “follow your laws” he was just being consistent. Now wag kang mangialam dahil pinakialaman na ng kanilang justice system yan and meron nang conviction like that, for sure mapapahiya sya pag sa harap ni Jokowi sinabihan nya na, “pwede mo bang baguhin to?” we don’t know what backchannelling looks like at all if there was back channeling. (End of interview)

* * * * *

I Love The Philippines

I Love The Philippines[1]

“It is the land of my birth.  It is the home of my people.”

These words have long stayed in the recesses of my memory until the man who broke the stereotypes of a national leader ran for the highest office of the land.  In his campaign speeches, Rodrigo Duterte often stated the first three sentences of the Patriotic Oath, better known in its Filipino translation, to remind everyone his reasons for running.

Panatang Makabayan[2], if we recall, has been recited in schools. I still think the version adapted since 2001 did not trigger the nationalistic spirit the way the 1955 version did.

Who defined what a national leader should be anyway? Duterte is very much a Filipino, having been born in the Visayas and living the rest of his life in Mindanao – places that are also in a country where Luzon belongs: The Philippines.  For many decades Filipinos have been brainwashed into believing that for someone to qualify for a national post he should be from or have lived in Metro Manila.  

Days into the new administration, let me count what I see as breakthroughs. Kindly take note that my perspective is being an ordinary citizen – not from the academe, not from the media, not from the development or humanitarian community, not from business – but just an ordinary citizen.  Okay, let’s just say my perspective is that of a housewife and mother, also an end recipient of government services. 

I realized that if I post my own confusion on social media, it generated confusion.    I think I’m better at face-to-face rather than online debates.  I am just amazed at how people can actually spend hours on end debating online, nit-picking and splitting hairs they can easily put up beauty salons anytime.

I told myself: Why not post something that helped myself understand the issues?  Quite self-serving really, so I post the answers on social media the moment I get them.  True enough, I got more positive exchanges which consequently helped me understand Duterte more.    

The enumeration in this article is by no means comprehensive, as I believe that what Duterte has accomplished until these past few days cannot be put in one column. 

When you’re doing good, you become a brand.  Not the other way around.

This is the exact opposite of the conventional approach of branding first then working on it second.  Once they assume office, politicians immediately think of how to brand themselves, how to package themselves, how to make themselves look good.  Their terms are so consumed with communication activities that did not actually connect with the Filipino people even if they flooded the public with press releases, press conferences, media exposures, photo ops, epals, lofty messaging, fancy launches – and especially during elections – lies, intrigues and black propaganda. 

We can just imagine how much money is poured into what is deceitfully packaged as “public relations” with nothing really happening to establish relations with the public and make their lives better.  In short, the branding never really stuck because there were no results to back it up with in the first place.  No real accomplishments. 

In Duterte’s case, he has Exhibit A.  Davao City was transformed from the backwaters to a thriving society where government takes care of the weak, the vulnerable and the oppressed. 

Needless to say Duterte was a hands-on leader, did his job as a public servant without fanfare.  When nobody knew what to do or everybody claiming they can do it, he was already doing it and in the process produced desirable results.  He did not show any drudgery in dispensing his duties because he knows it is his duty to serve and he knows how to serve.  (I like his phrase: “I hold it as an article of faith…”)

Duterte did not have to spend money to design a brand for himself because his work is already etched in the hearts and minds of the people whose lives he touched.   Come campaign season, it was up to the people to convey to others in their own creative ways that Duterte was the man.  There was no specific campaign design, no specific color, no specific jingle, etc. It was all about Duterte, DU30 and being Filipino.  With substance like that, style never posed a problem.

The cries of the voiceless as advocated by civil society were answered by a man who happened to have listened to it all

The proliferation of non-government organizations (NGOs) and cause-oriented groups must have been the people’s way of coping where government forgot its duties. They cried about every right imaginable along with the dire need for basic services – in the streets, in forums, symposia, dialogues, courts, senate or congressional hearings, name it.  Many times it is paid with the lives of advocates themselves, aside from so much money (donated, private, aid) going down the drain.  I say going down the drain because again this money just plugs the gaps in a system where another leak would crack up somewhere anytime.  

If indeed a functioning government would make NGOs irrelevant if not minimized, people can then redirect their energies on more productive endeavors.

If there is an area where Duterte is an expert, it is in listening.  His radars are fine tuned to the needs of the people and where to look for help to address these needs.  The voice of the people is not necessarily the loudest. For example: aren’t children people too?  Aren’t lumads people too? Doesn’t the environment have rights too? Who will shout for them?                                                                                                   

In short, Duterte knows how to listen especially to those who cannot even express themselves in a society that has forgotten to take care of the weak.  Past administrations just passed laws without necessarily implementing it.

With Duterte now as chief implementer of the law, it seems that the greatest surprise among the most skeptic in the NGO community is that the answers to their causes came with the most unexpected person in a most unexpected time. 

Corruption in the media was exposed by Duterte.

The question is like: If media exposes corruption in government; if media exposes corruption in the private sector a.k.a business; if media exposes corruption in the church – who exposes corruption in the media?

The spat highlighted the reputation of Manila being the gossip capital of the Philippines courtesy, as I like to say, of the oligarch-controlled nazional medyas. Oligarch-controlled because it is the oligarchs who are financing newspapers and television and dictated what kind of news should come out; nazi because like Hitler’s time, these oligarchs take evil pleasure in controlling the minds of the public; medyas because like used socks, this type of media who churn out unverified information to make it look like news is not only dirty but they actually stink with their reputation.

A foreign media watchdog sent out an unheeded call to boycott Duterte, to which Duterte responded by turning tables on the media – something really unexpected in a society that felt compelled to be subservient to this monolith.  Well, if you keep on clarifying a message to someone who does not take time to understand what is being explained to him, why grant an interview at all?

As a consumer of news, we listeners, readers, and viewers deserve quality products.  For these products to be of high quality it must be objective, giving as much as possible factual, timely and relevant information.  Good for merchandise because it is our right as consumers to return defective products.  How then, can we as the end-users, return defective news? 

How, as Duterte put it, could you ever make profits out of destroying the dignity of a person?  He said something like we must have forgotten that for the Filipino, honor is almost equivalent to life.  If you take away honor, you take away life.  Clearly he has a way of saying that if you want to be respected, give respect first. 

He has also classified media practitioners into three – the crusaders, the mouthpieces, and the vultures.  Journalists who excel in their profession should be able to tell that that Duterte did not lump them along with the mouthpieces and the vultures.

When Duterte said that corruption must stop, it was not directed only to government, the church and business; but to the media too.

The masculinity crisis in government has ended. 

It ended when Rodrigo Duterte took his oath as the 16^th President of the Republic of the Philippines. 

It ended when the men and women he appointed into office, like President Duterte himself, had their reputation ahead of them.  Reputation that revolved around values of integrity, people-centered work ethic and excellence in their chosen fields. 

In March of this year I wrote about Masculinity Crisis in Government in my blog which also appeared in Mindanews.[3] It described how the Philippines was going through a crisis that is rarely, if not at all, discussed.  Call it leadership crisis, leadership vacuum, but interestingly to me it is a crisis of masculinity – a crisis of men who “transcended their egos, fears and selfishness; and made sacrifices of themselves as a gift for those they have been called to protect.”

The newly appointed President’s men and women possess the supposedly masculine traits of protecting the weak, the vulnerable and the oppressed.  They are the sheepdogs who will protect the sheep from the wolves, so to speak. 

The masculinity crisis also ended when Duterte not only emphasized the role of the police and the military, but gave them so much importance with compensation they have long deserved.  In his words, these men obey orders “without a whimper” in the name of God and Country.   Indeed, how can you better take care of men who pay their dues even with their lives. 

In a sense, 16 million voters ended the masculinity crisis by voting Duterte into office.

Spirituality over religiosity

Thanks to Facebook and YouTube, people now had a glimpse of how their candidates lived their lives long before they said they were running.  I haven’t seen any government servant, much less a president, who has been prayed over as much as Duterte.  Duterte invoked God’s will in his speeches the way other candidates did a litany of their self-appreciated accomplishments.  One may squirm upon hearing God’s name in the speeches, but it’s just impossible to miss. 

Looking Forward

In an earlier blog entry I said: “…before he [Duterte] disappears from the local governance scene, I hope the culture of efficiency and service is no longer personality-dependent but ingrained as a way of life of Davaoenos.  And hopefully radiate to the rest of the country[4].”

While allegations of Duterte’s extra-judicial killings still have to be proven, his track record for wholehearted service to his people is already proven.  Had the claims that he had killed at least a thousand people been true, Davao Gulf would have already been colored red.  And besides, any streetsmart logic would have already answered his rhetorical question, “Asa man nako na ilubong?” (Where would I bury those? Referring to the thousand dead bodies). 

If Duterte is the country’s last card, his administration is about second chances.  Now that he has moved from local towards national governance, second chances would mean that people can have the protection of the government if they lead drug-free, corruption-free, and crime-free lives on a national scale. Second chance also for Duterte to prove that beyond the words and the bickering, is appropriate action and moving forward.

For the rest of us it is also the chance to regain our pride as a country, reclaim our identity as a nation.  Confusing indeed, for example, to find foreign sounding food being served on official functions in a country that produces a whole range not found in other places.  Who then, can endorse the country’s products better than the country’s President himself? 

It is no longer the time to preach to the choir, so to speak.  Walang iwanan (No one is left behind).  If each of the 16 million Filipinos who sealed their confidence through a vote for Duterte reach out to one other person each, that would mean another 16 million more, theoretically.  There’s no need to even debate in order to convince those who are still in disbelief as actions speak louder than words.  Listen to the complaints, even those left unsaid; and convey to the rightful agency for the necessary action and feedback.  Isn’t that reward enough for a Duterte supporter to see fellow Filipinos enjoying the services of government, even if they considered Duterte insignificant at the start?            

And because the Panatang Makabayan tears up many Filipinos who have longed to regain their country back from the oligarchs, may we indeed strive hard to be a true Filipino in the land of our people --

Sa isip, sa salita, at sa gawa.

* * * * * * *

Cotabato City

6 July 2016

Aveen Acuña-Gulo posts herself on Facebook as a Monumental Operations Manager (MOM).  She is a Bukidnon-born Cebuano mother of three (3) Maguindanao-Ilonggo-Cotabateño children; who will always be a child at heart even if she is a hundred years old.

She wrote a column “The Voice” for the Mindanao Cross from 1991-2006. 

She likes to challenge stereotypes.  “Don’t worry about my opinions.  It won’t make a dent to the conventional,” she says.

---

[1] Patriotic Oath

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriotic_Oath_(Philippines)

[3] http://www.mindanews.com/mindaviews/2016/03/20/the-voice-masculinity-crisis-in-government/

[4] http://aveensblog.blogspot.com/2014/03/davao-in-my-mind.html

Masculinity Crisis in Government

First and foremost, this piece is about Rodrigo Duterte and Women's Month.  About Duterte because I see him as a sign that the masculinity crisis in government would be over once he takes his oath as President.  About Women’s Month because – well, some women don’t like him but a lot more, do. 

I’d like to tell you in advance that what you will read is just some light Sunday banter kasi mahina ako sa debate haha.  Halaka debate na man diay karong hapon sa Cebu. 

If my words don’t make history, just call it Hard Core Poetry[1].

The question is like: Why have women’s groups mushroomed?  My street person answer is simple: It’s because the men in government did not take good care of the women!

You know the issues: early marriage, rape, trafficking, unfair labor practices, poor health services, lack of education, having to work abroad leaving the family behind – name it.  The men in government just did not give a damn about the security and protection of women.  Pasensya na, men.  Nagkataon lang talaga that you held powerful positions in this country for the longest time and things just went from bad to worse for us women.

Let me share with you my favorite quote from Dr Philip J Mango, President of St Michael's Institute for Psychological Sciences (www.stmichael.net):  "There is a masculinity crisis in society today.  Men are not doing what they are supposed to do, because we are not training boys to be the men they are supposed to be.  Men have to be heroes, persons who transcend their egos, fears and selfishness, and make sacrifices of themselves as a gift for those they have been called to protect." (Why We Need Heroes, Faith & Family Magazine, Spring 2003).

While Dr Mango talks about the masculinity crisis in society, let us just focus on the masculinity crisis in the Philippine context; and narrow it down further to the masculinity crisis in Philippine government.  We can’t really tackle everything in five pages, you think so?  And while it is true some women possess these traits attributed to men, for now let’s just zero in on men in government.  Mamaya may mag-a-out of topic na naman dyan J.

How did the men in government fare in the way they ran the country’s affairs?  If Dr Mango illustrates masculine men as persons who “transcend their egos, fears and selfishness, and make sacrifices of themselves as a gift for those they have been called to protect” – surely we have a masculinity crisis!  What then do you call men who cannot transcend their egos, make sacrifices as a gift for those they have been called to protect?  Bayot[2] noh?!

If those men in government where what Dr Mango described, would there have been a proliferation of women’s advocacy groups? Advocacy groups for Children’s Rights? Human Rights? Workers’ Rights?  Indigenous Peoples’ Rights?  Etc Rights? Were these men in government listening to the countless cries these groups dished out on paper and on the streets? Were they even able to listen to those who could not cry?  Maybe they heard but refused to listen? Bayot gyud.

When no one was man enough to take over the place of Ferdinand Marcos (yeah, that prominent egocentric government man who made a new batch of elites happy and old elites green with envy while the rest of us suffered immensely), the men tossed an elite housewife to do a government man’s job. 

Then these men all around her continued to secure their haciendas, their cartels, and their monopolies while (hold your breath) being in government at the same time!  They even squeezed themselves into coming up with a constitution that will cloak favors unto the usual elite and big business. Talk about corporate greed and sense of entitlement nga naman.

When one elite government man did not have the guts to handle the peace process, he sent women to the frontlines.  While many expressed exuberant hopes that these women will deliver, having men to decide under so many layers in the communication channel still proved to be disastrous.

While men bickered in congress and senate, they didn’t realize how many men, women and old people waited for them to decide and not just sit on their balls.  When laws were indeed drafted (and sometimes with insertions) where were the men who were supposed to implement it?

How can there be transcendence of the ego when all you see around you are faces of politicians plastered everywhere announcing to all and sundry what they think they have accomplished? There’s so many of these faces[3] all around no one could really tell what they were there for other than pollution.  Bayots can only raise their eyebrows toward a fellow government man who does not want to have his name and face splashed in every government project and property.[4]        

Funny that while I’m in the middle of writing this article, a survey (na naman???) comes up showing Duterte to have a macho vote[5].  Labeling it as a macho vote is I think a sneaky way of an elite-controlled TV network to divide public opinion once more in another angle.  Macho ha. Makita na nato karon kinsa tong mga bayot.

The analyst in the news says that maybe people no longer wanted a woman president, among other reasons.  She also says that it could also mean that Duterte is the embodiment of willfulness and decisiveness. 

Oh, so men deeply identify themselves with willfulness and decisiveness.  Thing is, they are not in government.  Or if they are, those who have lost their masculinity are in the decision-making positions. Or – did they lose their masculinity when they joined the ranks of the decision makers?

Of course Duterte is macho:  he smoked, drank, rode bikes, drove inexpensive (sometimes badass vehicles like a taxi, yes?), flew light aircraft, loved guns, shot lawbreakers, read tons of books, knew the law, taught the law, didn’t mince words – maginoo pero medyo bastos[6]. 

He is also masculine.  He did not need any imaging stylist to be groomed and photographed, to be made to reply to media questions like a movie actor.  He was not lured to the trappings of power (houses, cars, businesses, high-society functions, travels) and had that character strong enough to live within his means.  Many bayots in government transacted businesses from their own budgets to provide shopping money to their wives, send their progeny to expensive schools here and abroad, and bask in money that could have fed and educated countless other children.    

Beneath Duterte’s Binisayȃ is his good command of the English language that nobody would really want to make the mistake of lashing incomprehensible adjectives towards him.

While the macho traits must have made him attractive to men, the masculine traits, I’d like to believe, made him very attractive to women which makes him a contradiction in more ways than one.  What woman indeed, cannot love a man who takes good care of women?  What woman indeed, would not love a man na walang arte?   Be it known that yeah, women honor this type of man, also known as the honorary woman. 

Those who can’t stand his personality perceive his having had women in his life as womanizing.  I remember a conversation between two women where one woman despised Duterte for having had many relationships with women.  The other one quipped, “You are looking for a president, not a husband! Cmon…”

Whatever his flaws, he put to good use.  When he saw how smoking affected one’s health by getting sick himself, he banned smoking in public.  As a night owl he saw how the underground world operated so he set curfews.  He made parents responsible for their own children (ang ginikanan ang presohon kung madakpan sa gawas sa balay ang ilang mga anak inig ka gabii).  By imposing a curfew on alcoholic drinks he actually looked after the welfare of ordinary people who have to work nights.  Really now, how can one yuppie be productive at work during the day after drinking till dawn? If this can’t be called taking collective care of families and human resources I wonder what it is. 

Duterte used his love for guns (if that is indeed a flaw) for eradicating criminals and the public felt safer.  Who now, among the presidential candidates actually knows police operations, procedures, rules of engagement and face criminals in a running gun battle?  Some people mouth extrajudicial killings and due process like they can melt druglords and kidnappers with their intellectual sophistication.

Without him going around listening about the prospects of Federalism do you really think there wouldn’t be another bloody confrontation in Mindanao with the collapse of the BBL? 

His marital life was far from ideal but his collective concern over women is proven by passing the country’s first gender code among others, free legal support for victims of domestic violence, free day-care services for children of working single moms, dignified facilities for women prisoners, to name a few.  (At this point I am trying to figure out why some women’s rights advocates still abhor him when his programs on women and children are actual translations of their advocacies). 

His track record on both in legislation and actual implementation is accessible with communications technology for those who are really bent on finding out. 

He keeps his spirituality to himself but can you really miss it when he mentions that his bid for the Presidency is only by God’s will whether he makes it or not?  Can you really miss out the fact that he is the only presidential candidate who mentions love of God and Country in his speeches?  And without squirming?  Can you really miss how deeply respected he is among religious organizations but never renounced his own?  Can you really miss out the tears he shed after seeing the human toll on Yolanda?  He refused to be interviewed providing relief services saying “Mahibal-an ra ninyo na unya (You will know about it later).”  

I remember one Sunday sermon saying: A man shall be judged by the results of his work; not his work[7].  Any government man of lesser masculine stuff would grab at the opportunity to be interviewed on TV even without having accomplished anything; and worse, when they do, they look blah. Papogi lang bisag wa pa’y agi.  Actually, di na na papogi.  Binayot na na. Sige na la’g paporma.  In English, those things are only for wimps.

It takes a man with strong masculine characteristics to bring out the masculinity in other men.  Duterte’s strategy of providing decent salaries to the police and the armed forces is not picked out of thin air.  It is putting back the dignity of a security force that had to resort all these years to sidelines just to keep body and soul together.  Decent salaries would already free them from worrying where to look for the means to feed their family as their main mandate is to protect a bigger community of people. 

Why are some people afraid of giving decent salaries to police and soldiers?  Shouldn’t we all be happy for each other’s blessings knowing that it’s just a matter of time that our turn will come?

It takes a man with strong masculine characteristics to bring the men out of boys and pull them out of virtual war rooms.   How indeed can you have a defense system without real men to man them with? 

I gotta stop now.  There’s more to discuss in a Duterte presidency. 

In parting, let me leave with you this quote from a movie.  We owe the next generation the protection they need by ending the masculinity crisis.

Happy Palm Sunday!

* * * *

“There are three types of people in this world.  Sheep, wolves and sheepdogs.  Now, some people prefer to believe that evil doesn’t exist in the world.  And if it ever darkened their doorstep, they wouldn’t know how to protect themselves.  Those are the sheep. 

And then you got predators.  They use violence to prey on the weak.  They are the wolves. 

And then there are those who have been blessed with the gift of aggression; and the overpowering need to protect the flock.  These men are a rare breed that live to confront the wolf.  They are the sheepdog. 

We’re not raising any sheep in this family.  I will whip your ass if you turn into a wolf.  But we protect our own.  If someone tries to fight you, or tries to bully your little brother, you have my permission to finish it.”

Wayne Kyle to son Cris, The American Sniper.

* * * * *

Aveen Acuña-Gulo posts herself on Facebook as a Monumental Operations Manager (MOM).  She is a Bukidnon-born Cebuano mother of three (3) Maguindanao-Ilonggo-Cotabateño children; who will always be a child at heart even if she is a hundred years old.

She wrote a column “The Voice” for the Mindanao Cross from 1991-2006. 

She likes to challenge stereotypes.  “Don’t worry about my opinions.  It won’t make a dent to the conventional,” she says.

---

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjH2-BMIKHE&ebc=ANyPxKoGB3OIK3owMDHeoxxOXtSbcUAXFHnDYe6-g-dLq70IEKu1BvIDHUtMwptt11OmXukaOvRgPGbgTndRghQRhXRJYHihbg

[2] Bayot in bisayȃ means either of two things: a) a male who is attracted to another male; or b) sissy, coward, wimp, indecisive.  This article is about the second definition. If you think you belong to the first definition, take heart: the second definition actually spells global doom than the first.

[3] http://www.mindanews.com/mindaviews/2012/12/04/the-voice-why-peace-campaigns-didnt-work/

[4] EPAL – a person who strongly believes his face and name is loved by everyone else except others.

[5] http://news.abs-cbn.com/halalan2016/video/nation/03/16/16/pulse-asia-survey-shows-duterte-has-macho-vote

[6] In Bisaya, bastos can either mean lewd or foul-mouthed.  Duterte fits into the second definition.

[7] I also remember Bianca Gonzalez tweeting: Talk about the Eiffel Tower after you’ve been there (something like that).