Digong vs. Tomas

Social media is feasting on that part of President Duterte’s speech in Mandaue City the other night wherein he roasted Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmena. One reason for the social media feasting is the large presence of Duterte supporters in social media. It’s a built in force that can easily be unleashed by administration propagandists when given the issue.

First the speech. I don’t know what pissed the president but it is most probably Osmeña’s tirades against the police and his strained relationship with Cebu City Police Office Chief Royina Garma and Police Regional Office 7 Chief Debold Sinas. And Duterte must have been told of something that pissed him only now because he allowed himself to be photographed with Osmeña in a previous visit here.

I think that before this, the mayor thought it would still be possible to sidle close to the president and, by extension his daughter Sara, the Davao City mayor, even if the chairman of the PDP-Laban in Cebu is Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella of the opposition. Talks of the Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK) forging an alliance with Sara’s Hugpong ng Pagbabago were even floated.

That apparently is no longer possible now with the president’s harsh verbal attack on Osmeña, punctuated with threats of physical abuse (“tamparoson”). That should prod the mayor to steer clear of the president when they are in one venue or when the president visits Cebu. Duterte is known to make good a slapping threat, if rumors going around are to be believed.

That the president was harsh on Osmeña is not surprising. He is usually harsh on people he dislikes. Consider his continuing tirades against Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and Daanbantayan Mayor Vicente Loot. Woe to those who are targets of those tirades because these are not done in private but in the president’s own bully pulpit: his speeches.

Osmeña possibly deserved what he got from the president considering his also obnoxious ways against his political opponents and those he has a personal grudge with. But I would have wanted the verbal exchange to be on the level and not go down the gutter. Still, what would you expect, especially from his horde of propagandists in social media?

By on the level, I mean that the attacks should be based on issues and not on personalities, a rule that we professional journalists cherish. It’s not good, for example, to make fun of the mayor’s current predicament, a by product of his having survived gallbladder cancer a few years back. He is suffering enough and the taunting was like rubbing salt on a wound.

When I criticize, I always put myself in the shoes of the person criticized. I won’t go on a kind of verbal assault that I myself don’t want to be a recipient of. That’s why when a friend starts talking about that “thing” that the mayor carries in his waist, I won’t add anything to it and instead shift to another topic. In short, I want us to retain our humanity even if we are angry.

Now, can an old dog learn new tricks? In the case of Osmeña, I hope so. This should be a lesson for him to purge himself of all the harshness circulating in his veins.