The big question
TAKE it from two armchair analysts, we Filipinos shouldn’t be afraid of President Duterte’s rabid fans. Mr. Duterte throws around statements like “I will kill you” and “Don’t f*ck with me!” And that scares the caviar out of every one of us. Ooh, aren’t we scared.
Filipinos like to talk, whether in media or just at neighborhood drinking sessions. We talk about everything under the sun. And we can do it for hours.
But lately we’ve all been tightlipped. We’ve become mute. Out of fear. We don’t know who’s listening. As the expression goes: The walls have ears.
Mr. Duterte has scared us sh*tless, to use an American street expression. Two outspoken “analysts” in my neighborhood don’t understand why suddenly we’ve all become cowards.
Recently, as the two friends huddled together for “one drinks” as twilight crept over the neighborhood, they got to talking about the current state of politics.
“Wow,” one guy started, “I’ve never seen this before, everybody is so damned scared.”
“But why not,” the other guy replied as he took a big gulp of his Red Horse. “The new President is a toughie, and I think he means business. He wants to scare us all by ordering the police to shoot to kill.” (They were talking in Tagalog, of course, and I’m doing my best to translate.)
“Okay, okay,” the first guy allowed. “Nandun na’ko, the crime and the drug menace have to stop,” he said, mimicking the President’s way of saying the word “stop.” “But do they have to go on a killing spree?”
“Maybe that’s the only way,” the second guy conjectured.
“What about those killed by accident, the bystanders?”
“Well, a bright guy in the Cabinet, a Mr. Pernia, has said that’s a ‘necessary evil.’”
The first guy gave out a big sigh. “I don’t know if it’s all necessary, all that killing. The police claim people feel safer now but I think people are more scared. They’re not used to people’s lives becoming so cheap. What if they’re next, they become collateral damage and they die, and that’s it. They become mere statistics. You know what, just between us two tambays, you just don’t kill people without due process. That’s murder! And yet, not too many people are raising their voices in protest.”
“Takot nga sila eh,” the second guy said. “Pati nga ako takot din,” he added, temporarily shedding his machismo. “And many people seem to approve of all the killings.”
“How, because most people are keeping quiet?” the first guy asked.
“You got it,” the second guy responded. “And not only that, the President’s fans are solidly behind him. Remember 16 million voted for him.”
“Oh, so that’s it, we’re all afraid of the 16 million?” “Yup.” “Don’t you realize,” the first guy said, “that there are more of us than them?”
“What do you mean?” asked the second guy.
“Okay, there are 16 million of them. But there are more than 25 million of us who didn’t vote for him.” “Huh?” “Do the math, man,” said the first guy. “Sixteen million voted for the President. But 25.3 million didn’t.”
“You mean, that’s the total of Filipinos who voted for Mar Roxas, Grace Poe, Jojo Binay, and Miriam Santiago?”
“Now you’re catching up!” the first guy said. “And we can even give Miriam’s vote of 1.4 million to the President,” he continued, “and that would still be 24 million of us who didn’t vote for the Du.”
“And that’s almost 11 million of us more than the President’s 16 million!”
“There you go,” the first guy said, “I knew you’re brighter than you look.” “Oo nga ano?” “See?” “Eh bakit takot na takot tayo eh mas marami pala tayo kaysa sa kanila?”
“That’s the big question.”