Duterte making Quezon’s ‘hell’ come true?

I would rather have a government run like hell by Filipinos, than a government run like heaven by Americans.” Manuel L. Quezon, the second president of the Philippines, is said to have made this statement in a moment of pique and frustration while seeking some concessions from the Americans.

Who believes this to be true?

Apparently President Duterte. He has spewed out the worst expletives against an American president and insulted an American ambassador by calling him out to be “bakla” (gay).

American diplomats, out of propriety, may have civilly ignored Du30’s cantankerous behavior, claiming it did not affect in any way Philippine-American relations.

For many Filipinos, such events evoke levity and humor.

For this observer, Quezon’s “hell” these days stirs in the imagination a graphic video clip of Duterte holding a trident as he chairs Cabinet meetings, occasionally stroking his horns to ease his migraine. To press home his anger at the Americans, the United Nations and the Catholic Church, he swishes his tail vigorously.

The video shows the Cabinet secretaries, with horns as well, and tails protruding from the hems of their barong or signature gowns; then the legislators in demonic attires, many of them gathered in separate groups (of two to three), each creating its own senseless chatter, or moving around from one colleague to another—all this while in session and the acting speaker talking to the microphone; and finally the Supreme Court justices, seated en banc, locking horns over a system of justice so highly criticized for being defective. A virtual glimpse of Dante’s Inferno?

Did Quezon foresee the deviltry of our officials and the infernal situation the nation is in right now? Or did he mean that Filipinos will perpetually live under a government that makes hell out of a country, as a mark of accomplishment in public service? But then, was Quezon intentionally using the term “hell” as an understatement?

MARK E. PARAS JR.

and RAMON DIÑO,

[email protected]