It doesn’t take rocket science or any “joint” or “third-party probe” to determine exactly what happened to our fishermen at Recto Bank. The bedraggled condition of the fishermen, their testimonies, their damaged boat and the conditions at sea would have sufficed.
If, while waiting for the traffic light to change at an intersection, I got rammed from behind by another car, would that car be at fault? Certainly! Would establishing a motivation for the ramming be necessary before a penalty could be meted out? Not at all! What if the car hit me and sped away, leaving me reeling on the asphalt? Would that be a clear sign of guilt? As clear as day!—and a dastardly deed that ramps up the heinousness of the act. Res ipsa loquitur (the thing speaks for itself).
If I posed these questions to my 6-year-old grandson, he’d put all these politicians to shame by answering it’s a no-brainer.
So what’s all this hemming and hawing and hedging around the Recto Bank issue? Have we all taken leave of our senses? No, only the morally blind — those who care nothing for the truth — would trivialize it and insist on the .01 percent smidgen of a “possibility” that the ramming was “accidental” and split hairs over whether it was an “allision” or a “collision” in a frantic effort to absolve a powerful bully-nation of blame, rather than face the 99.99 percent extreme probability (that’s staring them in the eye) that a crime at sea had been committed.
Furthermore, what’s conveniently overlooked is the fact that the ramming happened right in our own backyard, making the incident a deliberate act of aggression. “Minor” incident? Not when it’s one of so many in a litany of similar incidents! Then it becomes the latest in an indubitable and grim pattern of intimidation and harassment. What’s “minor” about that?
But who in this administration is brave enough to say so? Who will tie the bell around the cat? Who will speak of the elephant in the room? Who will tell the emperor he has no clothes?
Poor Filipino fishermen! — for being pressured by their own government to sing a different and broken tune. Poor Filipino nation! — for being lied to, and taught wrongly how to see, think and act, and judge a matter crookedly. Poor Filipino people — for slowly transmogrifying into a people of the lie.
Who will stem the tide? How to stem the tide?
No, it doesn’t take rocket science at all—just a modicum of God-given common sense, and the moral backbone and moral fiber to name things as they are and stand up for the truth—all of which are in short supply in this administration. Indeed, we have less backbone in our skeleton than the water in Angat Dam now draining at an alarming rate. God help us before it’s too late.
LESLIE LOFRANCO-BERBANO
Fairview, Quezon City