Hushed puppies

By Rolo B. Cena
The Gulf files
Dumaguete Star Informer
20 February 2011

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – Since the death of the former AFP Chief-of-Staff and DILG Secretary Angelo Reyes and after George Rabusa and Heidi Mendoza sung their classical music in the halls of the Senate, some contenders keep on playing their own hullabaloos on air attempting to steal a sixty-minute spotlight. Some do it for information and wisdom; others for publicity; and still some for camouflage.

Such was the case of Senator Panfilo Lacson who recently remained at large for nearly one year to avoid arrest for the alleged murder of PR Strategist Bobby Dacer and his driver. In his press release lately, he recommended to widen the Senate investigation on the alleged corruption in the Armed Forces to cover the Philippine National Police where he once served as chief.

Now, look who’s talking!

People opine that Reyes was guilty. Which is why, he took his own life in an attempt to silence all these hum-drums that disturbed his state of mind. People say that it was heroic of him to abort his life which is why he was buried in the “Libingan ng mga Bayani.”

Putting my two-cents in, it was more heroic of him to stay alive, reveal the truth who’s behind him and Garcia, lead the persecution of The One and stop these hullabaloos at once. And how does Reyes differ from the greatest dictator and former president Ferdinand Marcos if they were saying that Reyes was guilty? Doesn’t Marcos deserve the same 19-gun salute ceremony and burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani?

Flipping the other side of the coin, it was not Reyes who killed himself; neither was it corruption. It was the system that has been plaguing the entire republic. Reyes was believed to be genuine in his program to eradicate corruption in the armed forces. However, when he was failing to do so, he danced the way the Romans do instead. And because there was no longer escaping from reality, he chose to end his life.

Reyes may have been corrupted in which case he is corruption by itself. Reyes maybe the Truth for he can be the truth that he buried along with him in his grave.

People accused Lacson, the ardent ally and supporter of the then deposed President Estrada, of murder and other consequential criminalities along with it. During the height of the investigations, several whistleblowers risked their lives in an attempt to support the claim and contradict Lacson’s episode of truth. In his hiding until the order from the appropriate Court, the truth was buried in his silence.

In his press release, he challenged the media to wait until he document and reveal his own side of the story in due time. And when this time comes, will The One be ever ready to face the move? Stated differently, will Lacson be ever ready to defend himself from the twists and turns of political chess game?

Ombudsman Gutierrez was just another story to anticipate. Her long attachment to the former president now Pampanga Representative Gloria Arroyo has been drawing ire; it even sparked demands for impeachment. The decision of the Supreme Court approving impeachment proceedings may eventually lead to another basket of truth. As defiant as she used to be, will she ever submit herself to detail more of what she knows?

Will Gutierrez herself become another truth? Will she pave the way to the persecution of The One?

With the kind of political entertainment that we have, would these bits and pieces of hullabaloos and classical music, after being briefly read and beautifully rendered in regaled assemblies of the chosen few, be able to capture the public trust again? For decades now, Filipino people are victims of injustice: Injustice from unfair treatment of witnesses of truth, from biased disposition of truth, and from bad governance.

Injustice from unfair treatment of witnesses of truth because our politics has only aged; it has not matured. People in politics and in the government still struggle to manage the truth and the owners of these truth; from biased disposition of truth because the legendary Denarius that killed the Savior still controls the insatiable needs of people and in which case contaminates the truth; and from bad governance because to date, our government has only aged; it has not grown by wisdom accordingly.

From the way the truth is laid down on the table, Lacson, Reyes,and Gutierrez are all silenced by the powers of their respective Political Masters who controlled their greed for money, desperate desire for power and fame, and unimaginable want for stature and symbol. They, along with their Masters, have superimposed greed over their human being and gradually ushered themselves to the path of perdition called corruption; the same path that would eventually bring them eternal damnation.

They are hushed puppies caged at the backyard of personal insecurity that only their masters can dispose of or tame.

Long before, the Catholic Church disallows euthanasia; the society does!