Hero to zero

about human rights as indicator of real development and democr acy.

Duterte may argue that the ties with China is historic and is in keeping with a strong Asian neighbor. And China does have billions to spend, with all its surplus profits from running sweatshops and factories.

But one wonders how this will hold amidst this tension in the global sphere, where China is exercising military power over Asia, and the US is tense with Russia, another Philippine partner, over their proxy war in Syria.

It seems amidst all this talks of loans, and rumors of wars, “Build, Build, Build”and TRAIN, where does the average Pinoy stand to gain in all t hi s?

And to go back to our theme, who needs heroes when money is the name of the game?

And let’s think about those phrases that said the working class is the hero. But recently, service workers in Jollibee and McDonalds are struggling against Endo. Some 670 CocaCola workers nationwide have been laid off through the agency hiring scheme.

They remember Duterte vowed to champion the workers’ cause by banning contractualization. That didn’t happen.

Let’s think about the farmers, who are also called heroes for toiling to bring us food. This week, a nationwide fact-finding mission that included three regions in Mindanao, showed farmers are being turned into fake NPA sur r ender er s.

It seems things have been turned upside down. If we call the working class, the toiling farmers, and we might as well call the teachers as heroes, we don’t give them the honor and dignity of a living wage that make them feel as such.

Who needs heroes nowadays? They only appear in Marvel and DC. And if that’s the case, the one who boasted about riding a jetski is just like a fictional Deadpool or a clown prince incarnate with a deadly joke.

— Tyrone Velez