Whomever the gods wish to destroy

The prolonged quarantine imposed on senior citizens like me, has, no thanks to COVID-19, brought almost unbearable multi-faceted stress. Really, it has not been easy for us to be virtually locked at home for more than a year. Some of us have, in fact, been so mentally imbalanced that we do not even know what usual house chores to attend to first. To fight against the grotesque impacts of this pandemic, I alternately read back books that I have not touched for years, search the internet for interesting topics, detail-wash my cars, play old vinyl long playing records and best of all, plant trees.

From the net, I came, rather randomly, upon two mind-stimulating statements. I believed that it was not just coincidental (sulagma) that I read these statements one right after the other. Without having to be superstitious. I sensed some kind of a message when I tied them together.

The first statement was a report that President Rodrigo Duterte, while apparently speaking to a crowd where the Chinese ambassador was present, suggested to Communist China to make our country, the Philippines, its province. Since I can hardly speak Tagalog, I took effort to copy from the internet, the declaration President Duterte reportedly made. “Gawin na lang ninyo kami ng province of China, di wala na tayong problema.” What a skewed sense of nationalism! His words constituted a betrayal of public trust and indisputably treason. The president must be out of his mind. It was shocking to have heard an utterance from a president with a seemingly confused mind. When he uttered those words, the YouTube flashed the face of the Chinese diplomat, who was smiling in complete approval. Believe me, neither was the Chinaman’s smile a joke.

It was later explained by the Malacañang publicist that President Duterte was only joking. Was he? A song of The Bee Gees “I Started a Joke” supplied a probable answer. He began a joke and we all ended up crying. To be honest, I don’t find the subject of Philippine territorial integrity a jesting matter. No right thinking Filipino laughs when our sovereignty is threatened by any buffoon even if the clown is the president. The number one citizen of this country cannot and should not take this issue irreverently.

Ironically, I read the “joke” of the president last Friday, “Araw ng Kagitingan”, a public holiday and that’s why I said above that it was not sulagma. Friday was a day dedicated to the Filipino valor when we commemorate yearly the death of the tens of thousands of Filipino and American soldiers who struggled for the independence of our country. No one, much less the president, has any right to offer the Philippines to become a province of Communist China. Our liberty is the product of the sacrifices of our heroes and their martyrdom. “Yo muero cuando veo que el cielo si colora” wrote Dr. Jose Rizal referring to the dawning of Philippine independence. Duterte could never joke about our freedom.

The second statement is taken from a work that I do not remember having read at all even if it sounds quite familiar. It is centered on the phrase “Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad". For the purpose of this article, let me superimpose crazy over the word mad. According to the internet, those whom God wishes to destroy, he first deprives him of reason. I maybe alone to opine that what President Duterte uttered was not a joke, yet I proceed to say that he made a statement without reason.