‘People like us no longer give a hoot about legal niceties’

THE MARCH 8 Inquirer editorial (“Don‘t laugh”) on Donald Trump, one of the Republican candidates for US president, was no laughing matter. Obviously not in the tank for Trump who, it pointed out, many have called “a clown and a buffoon.” The way it looked as of last count in the primaries, the American people don’t think he is a joke.

Consider what the American people may be agonizing over:  More of President Barack Obama’s hypocrisy and “political correctness” through his surrogates now vying for the Democratic nomination as against Trump’s “saying it like it is”—or calling a spade a spade! At the top of their priorities, the American people want to feel and be safe from Muslim terrorist attacks. Obama wants to let into American soil as many Muslim refugees as possible, never mind the strong likelihood that they may be infiltrated by jihadists intent on slaughtering more Americans! Trump wants to keep them out until “we know what the hell is going on” and the stringent vetting process is firmly in place! In light of all the recent mayhem around the world and in their own land, can anyone blame the Americans for rolling the dice on Trump?

We have our own “Donald Trump” here, also running for president. An ersatz clone,

Rodrigo Duterte is similarly curmudgeonly, uncouth, vulgar, shallow, gung-ho, “clownish and buffoonish”—you name it, it is said he is it! But the people lap up everything that comes out of his mouth because they are sick and tired of those who try to be “politically correct,” accomplishing nothing.

When Duterte says he will rid this country of criminals with extreme prejudice, no one really thinks he will have them shot on sight. But what the heck, the people just like the sound and the thought of it! Blame it all on our miserable excuse for “due process,” on our justice system that takes eons  to put criminals in jail—more than enough time for them to pile up more crimes in their rap sheets while on bail!

Like Trump who may not really succeed in blocking all Muslims from entering his country, Duterte may not also succeed in putting all criminals to “rest in pieces.” But with criminality getting so rampant and criminals having no more respect for the law, people are just so desperate to see anyone really try or die trying.

People like us, who experienced first-hand the pain and anguish of having a beloved member of their family gunned down with impunity in broad daylight by thugs riding tandem on motorcycles, no longer give a hoot about legal niceties or “human rights for criminals”! We cry for a Duterte to make things right. His rivals are too polite to speak of even half of the things that Duterte is spewing out like lava from a billowing volcano. Kung sa salita lang takot na, ano pa kaya sa gawa?

—STEPHEN L. MONSANTO, Monsanto Law Office, Loyola Heights, Quezon City,[email protected]