If her “panic attack” was contrived or feigned, then this is comical. If real, then by all means, let a doctor see her and give her immediate, necessary and appropriate medical care. But the hoity-toity are not the only children of a greater god. We really need to hold a medical convention of experts to validate the direct correlation between detention and worrisome illnesses and health disorders that affect only the rich and famous. This is alarming already.
There are scores of poor and destitute Filipinos, many charged with lesser or petty crimes, literally languishing inside jails; yet this government couldn’t care any less. Dirt-poor creatures like pregnant Andrea Rosal had to go through undeserved perdition because they were no Gigi Reyes, well-coiffed aristocrat on a pedestal, who is used to a life of comfort if not ostentation like her former principal who spurned her just to save his own skin.
Her “panic attack” was out of touch with reality and seems delusional. If she sees her own demons in the company of principled, rational and honorable women-political prisoners she pejoratively labels as NPAs (New People’s Army) all, then she should really seek some professional help. They should not be the ones in jail in the first place.
But she might be jolted and humbled if she eventually discovers that these people she disdains and looks down on could probably be the most level-headed, humane, merciful and selfless people she can find. She might even be enlightened about the proximate cause of how jails become decrepit, filthy, infernal and squalid, though she fights tooth and nail to not even breathe the same air in these little hells.
—EDRE U. OLALIA,
secretary general,
National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers