By
Rolo B. Cena
Hushed
Poppies
Dumaguete
Star Informer
August
26, 2012
Manila,
Philippines
- They came in throng; in fact, about five buses were commissioned to ferry
them from the farms of northern and central Luzon to the far flung imperial
Manila for the planned and politically-designed move purportedly to thwart the
session. Orchestrated by the prime
movers of the industry, the trip was made in such a way that no one would ever
forget it; much less, regret he had joined.
Apologies
but they disturbed the night with their sheer naiveté and ignorance of the
troubled flesh-controlled commercial district of Ermita. They attacked the still of the night
everyone was enjoying since it had fallen including my somber sleep and of those
who have been in the hotel ahead of them.
They arrived in the middle of the night supposedly to cut through the
painstaking land trip to a different road show ever re-invented for them.
They
were made emissaries whom their handlers believed they could articulate the statements
in their behalf by their mere presence in the session. It was
not by happenstance; it was a planned participation, one that is controlled by
their respective biases and sentiments.
There were about three hundred of them whom their organizers believed
they could declare their own sense of nationalism more than their extensive
share of the issue at hand or patriotism more than economic condition their
respective families experience at the moment;
Arguably,
extensive wasn’t in fact the appropriate yardstick to measure the thing; it was
their scant share of the issue at hand that mobilized their intentions more
than their need or their curiosity more than their desire to be listed. I said scant because taking the whole picture
into play their participation is actually smaller than what they believed to be. The masters of the game, whose objective is
always anchored at the bottom figures this commercial world were made to
produce, wanted one and only one thing from them: business.
To
put it bluntly, the major players of the tobacco industry used and mobilized
the ordinary tobacco farmers to appear and participate in the Senate hearing of
the bill that would stop cultivating tobacco and consequently discontinue the
tobacco industry.
Bad
as it has labeled, smoking kills; and smokers, or those who produce filtered
sticks with tobacco shreds are actually killing them: Killing in the sense that their modest means
of living was interrupted with temporary economic relief of joining the
rally-for-a-fee with the perks of staying at the four-star hotel in the suburbs
of Manila.
In
the post-modern Philippines, where reality shows take control of the mindset of
the people, stealing the sixty-second spotlight from others in the show is
already an achievement. Whereas, to the
organizers, having these farmers moved from their modest mid-country farms to
the portico of the Senate just to deliver a clear and concise statement of
objection is gaining the first stronghold of the battlefield. Whereas to the farmers, having participated
in the once-in-a-lifetime event that could even make unfavorable twists and
turns in their socio-economic lives is already winning the battle.
Talking
to the farmers at the hotel lobby sans the smokes around twitted one and only
one question from an insider: How can
these farmers survive if farming is stopped?
For
the sake of argument, assuming that the bill is passed into law, the land these
farmers till would always lay flat on the surface of the earth. It goes without saying then that it is always
at their disposal; they can always plant anything that can grow and be a source
of living. Assuming further that this is
going to happen, the tobacco industry will be a goner and the social and
medical diseases smoking brings into humanity will literally and figuratively
be stopped.
Conversely,
these farmers don’t have to worry; the industry players do. This is precisely
the reason why these farmers are commissioned to appear behind the picket
fences to make it appear as if there is a potential problem on the part of the
farmers. But obviously, there is
none. Tobacco manufactures definitely do
have!
Very
evidently, there are dreams that are built on smokes; and these dreams
obviously lead to one and only one thing:
People die. No matter how
stringent the law would be, for as long as there are players, at the end of the
day, smoking still kills.
