2011|PUBLIKASYON

Mindanews' COMMENTARY: Filthier than that Dirty Finger

COMMENTARY: Filthier than that Dirty Finger

DAVAO CITY (11 July) — Preposterous!

That should somehow describe the spending of government funds just because a vice mayor in this part of the country flashed that dirty finger sign. In the graduation of issues between Rody Duterte’s middle finger and the ever-growing number of killings, it is so obvious, even to the most ordinary person, that the latter should be the concern of the Commission on Human Rights.

Commission on Human Rights Chairperson Etta Rosales urged the Department of Interior and Local Government to punish Vice Mayor Rody Duterte for flashing his middle finger in an interview on national television. Etta is noticeably going gaga over that middle finger while she has been very silent on the fact that state terror rages throughout the country without letup.

Karapatan (Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights) has reported that there have already been 45 victims of political killings and four enforced disappearances since Aquino assumed power last year. The human rights group has attributed this to the present regime’s security operational plan Oplan Bayanihan.

The commission, on the other hand, has clearly become an instrument in the perpetration of state terrorism and human rights violations. This was clearly manifested in the case of Filipino-American Melissa Roxas who was tortured by the Armed Forces of the Philippines two years ago. The McCarthyist Etta Rosales denied her justice by ruling that “there is insufficient evidence to support this conclusion, and insufficient evidence to pinpoint individual members of the AFP as the possible or probable perpetrators.”

Etta, to justify her appointment to the commission, picked on the Dutertes. She saw a chance to grandstand. She had to. Due to the fact that she has not made good account of herself as chair of the constitutional commission, she now had to impress and show that she is doing something to defend the human rights of each and every Filipino. The truth is she does not have any credibility to do that.
She herself has caused the witch-hunting of members of progressive organizations such as Kilusang Mayo Uno and Bagong Alyansang Makabayan. She has actively accused them as fronts of the Communist Party of the Philippines making all of their members fair game to whoever would want to “neutralize” them.

Etta Rosales’ appointment is political accommodation. Rosales and her pseudo-progressive group Akbayan have supported and campaigned for Aquino in the last elections. She is also acceptable to the AFP as she is not going to breathe on its neck as it delivers its deadly blows to the main stakeholders of the human rights issue.

There is no use telling her to stop grandstanding and focus her energies on the graver issues of human rights rather than pick on a dirty finger. After all, this is her time to “shine.”

Etta capitalizes on the fact that she suffered during Martial Law. She has actively projected herself as a champion of human rights but the fact is she has no qualms, and will never have qualms, rubbing elbows with those who carry out human rights violations in the present times.

An animal which brandishes itself as a sheep but is actually a wolf is a very dangerous and filthy creature. At the end of the day, Etta and her intentions are filthier than that of Rody Duterte’s dirty finger. (Omar Bantayan is a former labor leader and street parliamentarian who is who is now preoccupied with trying to make ends meet.)

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Angela Librado-Trinidad's Class Bias

Everything about the unfortunate incident in Soliman Agdao was predictable, although the punching incident was exceptionally one for the books.

In the eyes of the law, it is the landowner who was dispossessed and denied of a property right. It was therefore, incumbent upon the judicial system to declare a status quo ante bellum (the way things were before) and decree the eviction of the urban poor. Whether or not stealth, trickery and fraud characterized the titling and registration of the land is of no moment, what matters only is evidence - that which the moneyed always have and will try to have no matter what.

Surely, the urban poor would never give up their homes willingly and without a fight especially when they know that former President Magsaysay was lying and the only hand that they could rely on is theirs. For them, it is not a matter of comfort and safety. It is an issue of human rights. And while the law was supposed to equalize and provide substantial protection to those who have less in life, it has once again proven to be a potent tool for aggression. At the risk of being uprooted, people had to defend themselves no matter what.

That functionalism has been embraced by the legal system to the core is compounding their insecurity and strengthening their resolve to close ranks and fight hard. When they created that human chain and resisted demolition forces with whatever available resources on the ground, they were not putting the law into their hands, they were shaking it off, collectively. For how can they take advantage of the law that was crafted to disadvantage them in the first place?

With two diametrically opposing interests and a relationship that is inherently antagonistic, conflict was inevitable and violence was certain to erupt. Because the implementers of the eviction order exploited hapless youths, people tried to even the score with the only defense they know- themselves. It was not only necessary, it was justified. Just like protest actions and people's assemblies are sanctioned by the bill of rights and in the same way that a full blown revolution is justified under our preamble (according to my former professor now Regional State Prosecutor of Region XI)

Similarly, the position taken by each sector was expected. No, it was not hasty. It was pre-disposed.

So when professionals ( lawyers, included) , some technocrats , most people in government and journalists from outside of Davao City were crying foul over the incident calling the Mayor different names and labeling her act as barbaric, unbecoming and uncouth, they were either showing an inclination towards or reflecting their genre .

These are the people who sit idly on almost every public issue and quickly whine of protest-engendered traffic congestion. Except when their individual interests are threatened, they would rather leave the fighting to those who are already accustomed to it. For them, it is an issue of comfort and decorum and to stir the boat to an unpopular direction is not in style.

These are the coffee table warmers who criticize government and condemn violence but do nothing to challenge it and eliminate it, respectively. They quickly lambasted a Mayor for punching one sheriff, but kept mum on the brutality that characterized the demolition. They demanded an investigation on Mayor Inday's reaction to the violence in Soliman but said nothing about other city mayors’ inaction on the violent demolitions that are happening in urban poor communities all over the country.

Pseudo human rights advocates who reconfigured human rights violations into mere pecuniary damage, consequently bidding out the souls of political detainees and martyrs during the Marcos era. They say the punching was inhuman, while affirming the killing of Filipinos by Filipinos as just consequential?

They are the the learned whose intellectual arrogance and gender bias are beyond compare. Apparently while it takes almost a decade to debate on whether a philandering counsel can be held guilty for gross misconduct, a few hours is all it takes to tag a punching by a lady lawyer as conduct unbecoming.

They who insist that as an officer of the court, Mayor Inday should have followed the law no matter how harsh , but what about the sheriff who did not follow the law on demolition to the letter when he tried to implement an order despite the weather condition and without the presence of government officials?

They are the landed and the owners of capital, some of them occupying high government/political positions, who called the mayor’s, style of leadership a thuggery but whose political histories smell of blood debts. One’s participation in a popular uprising does not effectively exonerate one for engineering Martial Law that claimed thousands of innocent people, including women and youths.

They denounce the punching as an act of violence but rely on the power of the guns, goons and gold to win Philippine elections.

Historically, they are the middle and ruling class from whom Jose Rizal owes his status and popularity. They lauded Rizal’s conspiratorial secessionist proposal but downplayed Bonifacio’s brand of nationalism. They disapproved of Bonifacio’s mode of struggle but wasted no time in collaborating with the landed and the moneyed in seizing political power from the masses whose hands were bloodied in fighting colonial Spain.

Thereafter, they made friends and collaborated with the Americans and Japanese in drafting laws and formulating legal principles to ensure that their interests are protected and upheld. They made sure that through the legal system, their capital and resources are maintained if not multiplied. And they did it effectively and for centuries.

Such a vacillating, dangerous breed, indeed. They take on issues according to what hurts them the most.

When they castigated the Mayor's act last Friday, they were not actually angry. They were afraid that it would constitute a precedence making it doubly difficult for them to recover their properties or their friends’ when their time comes.

They were frustrated because the Mayor threw punches not only at the sheriff but at the legal system system. And by throwing right hook punches at the legal system, Mayor Inday was punching their own.

They were panicky because the Mayor showed she was ready to burn bridges and betray her social class in defense of her constituency. Mayor Inday did not place the law in her hands, she slammed it for its anti-people character.

On the other, the urban poor families and the rest of the marginalized sectors cheered not because Mayor saved the day. They clapped because they know that the Mayor understood the cause they are fighting for and acknowledged its justness.

While they do not entertain the illusion that the Mayor will join them in each and every fight, they take comfort in the fact that the Mayor will protect them from any and every unreasonable act.

Ultimately, the line has been drawn. When the modern day illustrados and hacienderos called for Mayor Inday’s prosecution, it was not a call for order, it was an act of self-preservation. Understandably, they were representing their class . And when Mayor did what she thought was best and embraced the people's cause, she was repudiating hers.

In medical lingo, it is called genetic predisposition. In this case, it is called class bias.