A senator who was linked to illegal drugs a couple of administrations ago may have inadvertently found the phrase that captures the character of the present dispensation: “dumb and cruel.”
Clearly, the dumbness and cruelty goes higher than the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, all the way to the palace by the Pasig, but — heaven help us — it might also apply to most of our people.
How else to explain the persistently high trust and approval ratings after many months of international condemnation?
China sees this dumbness and cruelty and finds it useful. China is nonstop building permanent structures in the West Philippine Sea — while announcing future investments in the Philippines and sending aid to Marawi. Now it has deployed cruise missiles.
What about the cruelty? How does it serve China’s objectives? Any strongman knows it achieves many things. In the Philippines, it perpetuates the “reign of dumbness.”
ATIS ALTAMIRANO, atis.altamirano77@gmail.com