A Tagalog saying

I am ashamed to admit that I have difficulty carrying on an ordinary conversation in Tagalog. My Bisaya tongue always comes into play and exposes my regional orientation. But, even with that affliction, I tend to recognize and memorize, whenever I can, quotable Tagalog quotes although I never fail to ask for an explanation from my lady, Carmen, who was born in Tondo, Manila, each time I come across one.

Many years ago, I heard what, to me, sounded like an old and cherished Tagalog saying. It appealed to me instantly as I immediately thought it was something profound. Someone uttered it during a mass action against a sitting president. Despite the brevity of the sentence, I, in all honesty, had only a blurred idea what "Ang sinungaling ay kapatid ng magnanakaw" meant. So, I went to my proverbial lifeline, Carmen.

The words key to understanding the saying obviously are sinungaling, magnanakaw and kapatid. On one hand, this Tagalog term sinungaling refers to one who tells falsehoods or lies. In other words, he is a liar who is a "sinungaling". On the other hand, the English term for "magnanakaw" is thief or robber. Well, the other word in the Tagalog saying, "kapatid" means a sibling. So, it is perhaps acceptable if I translate, rather roughly, what I heard in that mass action years ago into "a liar is a sibling of a thief ".

I remembered this Tagalog quote when a prominent Manila lawyer commented on an admission by President Rodrigo Roa Duterte that he only drew from his imagination the bank accounts of Sen.Antonio F. Trillanes, IV.According to him, President Duterte's admission made him a liar.

To recall, President Duterte, earlier on, mentioned that Sen. Trillanes maintained foreign exchange accounts in offshore banks. Later, the president stated that the senator opened such dollar deposits when the lawmaker served as a "back channel negotiator" (whatever that phrase means) with China on our country's dispute over the islands located in the West Philippine Sea. Then, to add weight to his cargoes, President Duterte, cited details by mentioning the depositors, depositary banks, corresponding accounts, and deposit balances.

I believed the president. Being in command of the country's intelligence services, he must have obtained such terrible information and the volumes of supporting documents. It was his patriotic duty to make it public.

The exposé he made against the legislator was ponderous. In accusing the senator of acting like Judas, he revealed the odious bottom line -the lawmaker was guilty not only of a despicable form corruption in apparently exchanging the interest of our country for thousands of dollars but of high treason.

I could not then help but condemn Trillanes. Perhaps, millions of Filipinos hated him too. Sure, the lawmaker denied the assertions of the president and in fact challenged him to sign waivers to his incalculable bank deposits so that we, the citizens would know who was lying. But between the president and the senator, the country had to believe in the president.

The few days ago, Duterte declared that he only made up his accusation against Sen. Trillanes. That he only "invented" (his words) the story. That it was not true that Sen. Trillanes maintained foreign bank accounts. Such revelation led that Manila lawyer to assign him such an ignominious word as liar.

The most damaging consequence of the president's admission is on his credibility. In relation to Trillanes, it now appears that the senator wields the truth. Since the senator has alluded corruption against his nemesis, is "ang sinungaling ay kapatid ng magnanakaw" applicable here?