In defense of Uncle Jovy

I call Sen. Jovito R. Salonga “uncle.” My lola was barren of milk so my Daddy sucked from the breasts of Lola Talia’s first cousin, Uncle Jovy’s ma, Lola Dinang. They lived in the same looban in San Miguel, Pasig, where I spent my carefree youth as a student of Rizal High (Uncle’s alma mater also) and as a young lawyer.

He was reported on May 7 as facing arrest. Jailed for resisting the Japanese and Ferdinand Marcos, I muttered, not again, please, at 92. Senile. I e-mailed cousin Steve to ask what it was all about. He e-mailed back: “Insan (cousin), sorry to alarm you, but this is a nuisance ‘resbak’ from a disgruntled Dr. Restituto Buenviaje.”

Having seen prisons all over the land—

where one goes in a human being and goes out a brute—from when I was a law student, I have been for gentle treatment of all detainees. Arresting Uncle now may hasten his departure for a better world. The “Fire-Aim-Ready!” authorities should have made an effort to verify where he is, given the news blackout all this time on him. Government should have stayed its enthusiasm given Uncle’s health, accomplishments and feats that have redounded to the best interests of the country—and his current silence for the longest time. Suddenly the press was all over last May 7 to cover his arrest.

That Monday, I was in the police precinct in Port Area to visit a client who had spent the night there. The gendarmes were helpful, true pros, but the squalor disappointed, along with what was left of the streets as an underground economy thrives there. Where we live in Palanan, Makati, some days there are four wakes on the streets! And when one reads that almost 5 million families experience having nothing to eat, our leaders—to paraphrase John F. Kennedy—had better help the many who are poor in our society or we cannot save the few who are rich.

—RENE A.V. SAGUISAG,

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