Neither Mocha nor Kris

IAGREE with what UP Professor and cultural critic Rolando Tolentino said that when we are left to choose between Mocha Uson and Kris Aquino in their word war, we are not in a good place.

Indeed, because this word war between them two, which started over a kiss, is fodder and distraction on our daily concerns such as the high prices of goods because of Train, the reality that a P10,000 monthly budget is not enough, and the threat of a nationwide emergency rule.

But let us indulge for once about this debate. On one side, here’s Krisy, defender of his father, the martyred Senator Ninoy Aquino, whose legacy is being mocked by Mocha. On the other side, there’s Mocha, defender of Tatay Digong, the kissing, cussing and working Digong.

Kris has a valid point against Mocha. It is tasteless to resurrect the footage of the late senator being kissed by co-passengers minutes before he was assassinated. Ninoy got kissed, but we don’t remember that. We remembered he felled on the tarmac, bloodied and all. And all Mocha cared about that footage is to show he got kissed, and that every politician gets kissed. That’s just pointless, it doesn’t justify Digong’s antics, which compared to Aquino’s martyrdom, is good for the backpages of history.

But this doesn’t mean we side with Kris all the time. Learners of history and politics note how the Cory Aquino presidency squandered the people’s dream of a post-Marcos democracy, and the Noynoy Aquino presidency is a failure still, and worse, a disconnect to the problems the people face day to day, from poverty to war to disasters. And we will also remember Kris Aquino as the perennial distraction.

But for now, the distraction we have is Mocha, whose defense for the president is characterzied by throwing offensive dirt, and also logic and facts, against detractors. For Mocha, the world is just a shade between Duterte’s green jokes and dilawan.

Which goes back to Tolentino’s point, we are still not in a good place at all when we are left with two camps fighting over a failed history and a flailing, flirty presidency.

And the worse is, these two just mirrors each other, in that they are unapologetic and unabashed and wants to drag everything to their vortex and distract us from our own struggles. It would be better if we have popcorn for this show.