Raising the young on swear words

Ever since our beloved President Duterte started cursing at his critics when he assumed office a year ago, I was worried that his habit would influence our younger generation to speak the same way.

But I did not anticipate that Duterte-speak would also infect Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar. I was flabbergasted when I read this headline in the Inquirer: “They’re noisy because they can’t have enough sex — Andanar to EU critics” (Inquirer.net, 10/25/17).

Andanar was speaking to overseas Filipino workers in the United Kingdom.

What has sex got to do with being critical? For the life of me, I cannot see the connection. Unless Andanar was just trying to imitate his boss in making his audience laugh, even if some of them were uneasy. And then he said afterwards — just like his boss — that he was just joking. My advice to Andanar: Stop it. This style does not fit you. There is only one Rodrigo Duterte.

This is one of my concerns with the way the President speaks, now being imitated and popularized by his chief communicator. His liberal use of “p*tang ina” which translates into “ s.o.b,” might be imitated by the younger generation. When I was a young boy a long time ago, my lola would make us eat small hot peppers (sili) every time she heard us saying anything close to a swear word.

Today, with our President speaking like that, what authority would our lolo and lola have to tell their grandchildren to speak nicely? I challenge our mass communication researchers to do research in this area. How is our President and his language influencing the way our younger generation speak? Are we raising a new generation of youth who swear and curse as a matter of course? Heaven forbid!

CRISPIN C. MASLOG