Humiliation & brutality

The incident at BF Homes-Las Piñas, where a security guard was beaten up, made to kneel down and kicked by a congressman’s son and his bodyguards continues to be not only the talk of the town but of the entire country.

Comments from netizens about Negros Oriental Rep. Arnolfo Teves and his son, Kurt, who pulled off the caper, might affect the reelection bid of the elder Teves.

The following are some of the noteworthy comments:

“Tapos ganyang lider ang binoboto ng mga Pinoy. Talagang nabobo na o slave mentality lang siguro (That’s the leader we vote for. Either Pinoys are stupid or suffering from slave mentality).”

“A case of ‘what are we in power for’,’’ an apparent reference to post-war senator Jose Avelino, who made that infamous statement.

“The Teves father and son are midgets. This is the root of their insecurity. What they lack in height they make up for with their big hardware and big toys. And more importantly, they seem to have gotten on the good graces of Tatay Digz (President Duterte’s moniker) to be able to go on a crime spree with impunity. When pressed by the media, Duterte’s DOJ (Department of Justice) chief (Menardo) Guevarra refused to comment on the Teves matter, deflecting attention from it all by calling it a personal matter.”

“Nakakahiya kayong mag-ama. Sana makakita kayo ng katapat (Shame on you, father and son. I hope you find your match).”

“Mga demonyo at hayop ang gumagawa na ng ganyan. Luluhod ka kanila, parang inalis na nila ang dignidad ng isang tao (Only demons and animals do that: making people kneel removes the dignity of the victim).”

The most humiliating thing that happened to the guard, Jomar Pajares, was for him to kneel down before his assailants and then be kicked while kneeling.

As the last comment above says, Kurt Teves and his bodyguards deprived Pajares of his dignity.

In civilized society, when a person pleads for his life – as Pajares did by kneeling down before his assailants – he’s left alone. Kneeling is more degrading than raising one’s hands in surrender.

But this columnist was told that being made to kneel before them was not the first time that Kurt and his bodyguards did this to their victim.

A woman suffered the same humiliation in Negros Oriental. Even worse, the victim was made to bite the muzzle of a pistol.

If you’ve read previous articles in this space about the incident, you will note that I’ve been repeating the kneeling gesture by the victims. That’s because this is the first time that I’ve come across that kind of brutality to a human being in my career as a police reporter and tribune in media as host of Isumbong mo kay Tulfo radio program.

I don’t know about my readers and followers of Isumbong, but I find that incident disturbing.

If you’re not disturbed by that scene at the gate of BF Homes-Las Piñas, you must be jaded; your reaction is depressing.

What is more depressing is Congressman Teves defending his son’s action, by saying that the guard was probably rude and that the news about the incident was “politically motivated.”

The legislator was not acting like a politician, but a thug like Al Capone of Chicago in the “Roaring 20’s.”

Now that voters of Negros Oriental’s third district, which Teves represents in Congress, have witnessed their congressman’s cavalier disregard for his son’s victim, I don’t know if they’ll even think of reelecting him. If they do, then something must be wrong with them and again, that’s disturbing.

Hombres like Teves have no place in the House of Representatives even if the body is sometimes called a “den of thieves.” A thief, at least, is better than a thug.

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Bishop Mylo Hubert Vergara of the Diocese of Pasig should stick to serving the spiritual needs of his flock instead of involving himself in mundane matters of which he is not an expert.

Vergara says the construction of the 19.37-kilometer elevated expressway on the banks of the Pasig River is “detrimental” to the river and its surrounding communities in Metro Manila.

Where did the good bishop get the lamebrained idea that the about-to-be constructed expressway will “worsen our future” and worsen the traffic congestion in Metro Manila?

In fact, the expressway will even considerably ease the traffic congestion in the metropolis and even resurrect the Pasig River from the dead. San Miguel Corp. (SMC), which is undertaking the ambitious project, is dredging tens of thousands of tons of debris and silt in the moribund waterway.

Proof that the expressway will benefit Metro Manila is the participation of Felino “Jun” Palafox, world-renowned architect and urban planner, in the project.

Palafox would have been the first one to oppose the project, given his intense criticism of the construction of the Aurora Pacific Ecozone and Freeport (APECO), which got him into trouble with the Angara father-son tandem, composed of the late senator Edgardo Angara and Sen. Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara.

Palafox said that the site of APECO is prone to liquefaction (ground becoming liquid during earthquakes), storm surges (tsunami) and severe flooding during typhoons.

“For PAREX (Pasig River Expressway) project, our approach will be the same, we are designing not just infrastructure, but an urban landscape. We are promoting sustainability through architecture, with a holistic vision,” said Palafox.

The project is a brainchild of SMC president and CEO Ramon S. Ang, who also built the recently-opened SMC Skyway from Quezon Avenue in Quezon City to the service road in Bicutan in Parañaque, a distance of 18.9 kilometers.

The fastest travel time from end to end of the Skyway is 15 minutes.