Bite your tongue

What was that our mothers taught us? “Bite your tongue.” Before saying something harsh, indelicate, or stupid, think twice—indeed, bite your tongue lest it get you into trouble.

I don’t know if Du30’s mother, a formidable woman by most accounts, ever had occasion to counsel her son to bite his tongue—or to wash out his mouth with soap. But it seems he never learned. And now, in the exalted position of president of the land, he has infected the public discourse with his penchant not just for cuss words and salty metaphors but also for giving voice to thoughts better left in the gutter. I swear, in my long years on this earth, this is the first time I have ever heard the president of my country utter the term “chukchak” in public. This is, if you must know, a crude vulgarity for the sexual act. That he mentioned it in the context of a woman senator’s private life only brings it to new depths of sleaze.

But that’s not even the worst of it. In the course of coarsening the public discourse, Du30 has also spread the virus to most everyone in his official family. Most prominent of them, mainly because he is constantly in the limelight due to the “war on drugs,” is Philippine National Police Director General Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, the President’s main man charged with eradicating the drug menace.

To his credit, Dela Rosa has worked hard to earn public approval, or even just acceptance, through friendly TV appearances to “aw-shucks,” off-the-cuff statements designed, it seems, to paint him as an innocent, a probinsyano  lost among the sophisticates of Manila. But it seems he has adopted his boss’ tough demeanor, or at least his attempt to appear tough and uncompromising. “Bato” is sounding more and more like a “mini-me” of the President, including issuing nuggets of truly frightful orders and advice to the men and women of the PNP.

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Meeting with former drug addicts in Bacolod a few days ago, Dela Rosa told them that the best way to get back at those who truly profited from the drug trade was to “pay them a visit, pour gasoline on their homes and set these on fire.” By doing so, he added, the victims of drugs would be “registering your anger.”

But he was just getting started. “They’re all enjoying your money, money that destroyed your brain,” he added. “You know who the drug lords are. Would you like to kill them? Go ahead. Killing them is allowed because you are the victim.”

So incendiary were his remarks that they caught the attention of the international media. BBC Radio, in fact, even called this columnist to comment on what Dela Rosa said, padding its current story line of how the Philippine drug war is getting out of hand.

But the day after his remarks were broadcast around the world, the man, it seems, realized the error of his ways. He apologized for his dangerous suggestion, saying his emotions had gotten the better of him.

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This is all of a piece with his boss, the President, who has had to backtrack, or have his spokesmen do so, to minimize the damage his words have inflicted. When his careless, impulsive threat to leave the United Nations drew flak, Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay was reduced to explaining the President’s physical and mental exhaustion at the time and even blamed the media for posing questions long past Du30’s bedtime.

Well here’s a piece of advice to the President: Just say no. Or “no comment.” When your brain is frazzled and you’re tempted to vent your frustration and anger by issuing vulgarities, bite your tongue and go to bed.

As someone commented on FB, neither the President nor General Bato should have it both ways, “us[ing] the force of their position to encourage people to commit crimes, and then rationalize their vile and arrogant acts by telling everyone that they are ‘human’ like everyone else.”

But these two grown men, responsible officials with years of experience in government, “are NOT like all others,” points out the observer. “They may actually be monsters in disguise.”

Come to think of it, they may simply be playing us for fools. They give voice to the most outrageous and reckless ideas, planting them in the minds of their underlings, followers and the general public, only to apologize in the face of adverse reactions. Clever and devious, indeed!

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Perhaps these senior officials can learn from a young legislator, Pangasinan Rep. Christopher de Venecia, who, in a recent privilege speech, called for addressing the drug problem not through mass killings but through “softer” measures like “prevention of drug use, rehabilitation of drug addicts and reintegration and monitoring of reformed drug abusers.”

“The war on drugs should not only be a war by the President or the PNP. It should be a multisectoral battle that hinges on multisectoral cooperation—from the barangay, the health sector, the church, our educational institutions, civil society, and even mass media,” De Venecia said.

The young legislator also called for convening the Badac, or the Barangay Anti-Drug Abuse Council, as “the first line of defense in the war against drugs,” while batting for the inclusion of drug education in the school curriculum. He also called for the establishment of more rehab centers in all regions and the expansion of existing treatment centers such as the ones found in Davao, Pangasinan, Cebu, Zamboanga, Albay, Camarines Sur, Iloilo, Negros Occidental and Leyte. He also advocated that portions of military camps and unused public buildings be converted into interim rehab and drug assessment centers, pending the completion and expansion of new rehab centers.

Doesn’t this make more sense than burning down the houses of alleged drug lords?