Preposterous

A state of preposterousness appears to have descended on the Philippines in recent weeks and the prospects of it letting up in the near term do not seem to be very encouraging. Presidential son Paolo Duterte kicked off the whole thing by posting and then promptly taking down a list of supposed conspirators in a plot to oust his father, the president.

This set off a flurry of denials by those named. If I had been on the list, I would not have bothered to issue even the limpest of denials. The list itself was offered as its own cause for imploding. There were simply too many supposed conspirators -- a whole noisy battalion of them -- that the plot, if there was any, would have been exposed even before the plotters knew they were in a plot.

Forget about who the personalities were and how harmless and innocent some of them appear to be. Remember that looks and actions can be deceiving and many of the most successful plotters are those who do not call attention to themselves. In other words, anybody on the list cannot be ruled out on mere résumé alone.

My issue is the sheer number of those jostling for hiding space behind the wall. That should have been the dead giveaway on why the list was preposterous and not who were listed. Thankfully for Paolo Duterte, other preposterous occurrences came to shove his caper away.

The first major distraction was provided by no less than the American ambassador to the Philippines himself, Sung Kim. As soon as the Balangiga bells, taken by American soldiers as war booty in the Philippine-American War, landed on Philippine soil the US envoy described the return as a testament to the enduring ties between his country and ours.

Enduring ties, my ass. Sorry, Mr. Ambassador, but there is no way to look at the 117 intervening years before the bells were finally returned grudgingly as indeed enduring, but only in the worst possible meaning of the word. To talk of enduring ties that did not mean anything for 117 years is, of course, preposterous.

And then, as if on cue, the results of a survey were released that said six out of every 10 Filipinos actually expect the Americans to come to their aid if the Philippines was somehow attacked. What a preposterous assault on both credulity and the senses. America is no longer a boost to the confidence of its so-called allies and friends.

The Philippines must therefore limit itself to what realities there may exist on the ground and not get swept by the sweet talk of those who pander only to their own interests. Lists, no matter who made them or who are in them, are only as good as their own plausibility. And sweet talk is only as sweet as the factual sincerity of those who make them. Expectations? Preposterous.

‘Lists, no matter who made them or who are in them, are only as good as their own

plausibility.’