The silent senators did not object to Davao Mayor Rudy Duterte’s remarkable pronunciamentos last Feb. 3, and are now dismissive of their implications. But:
• Way to go, probably said the youth watching and listening.
• The cruelest lies are often told in silence.—Stevenson.
• Saadi said two mistakes are irrevocable—speaking when the times require silence, and being silent when it is time to speak.
• Fuller, writing on Hitler’s era, said we should never forget the powerful effect of rhetoric on
human conduct.
• The commandment “Thou shalt not kill” should be taken more seriously by the senators who start every session with a prayer. Is it still the practice? It was in our time, when we had numerous human rights advocates. Today, not a single one?
Are human rights no longer in fashion, unlike in our Jurassic era?
—RENE A.V. SAGUISAG,
ravslaw@gmail.com