As Congress met in joint session last Saturday to deliberate whether or not to extend martial law in Mindanao as requested by President Duterte, a small group of perhaps six to eight young people briefly disrupted the proceedings from the gallery, shouting slogans and displaying a banner proclaiming opposition to the issue at hand.
Newspaper reports described those involved as students. What a shame that they are, because they totally had no manners. It is not that they cannot protest. They are totally free to do so. This is still a free country despite what some people think of the president. But they did not have to do it while something important for the country was being discussed.
They could have protested outside. No one would have stopped them, not even if they protested until they became hoarse or dropped from exhaustion. That they had to employ deception and pretended to be nice, decent and regular people in order to hide their true intent and gain entry into Congress only served to expose the true nature of their persons and the shallowness of their cause.
Respect for institutions and the rights of others are never a deterrence to truly principled and courageous people who, if they cannot protest inside Congress, would still have gone on protesting wherever and whenever they can. It is the selfish and arrogant who, thinking the world owes them an audience, insist to be heard even if they are already out of line.
And how ironic that while the disruptive protesters had no qualms foisting their short-lived harangue against martial law, they were never in any way harmed on being escorted out. It would be interesting how others of similar ilk would fare doing the same thing in truly authoritarian regimes. Maybe these aspiring toughies should try honing their self-righteousness against the real toughies who rule their neighborhoods more toughly than martial rule.
In the end, for all that they supposedly espouse and stand for, what did they really achieve? Absolutely nothing. All they managed to eke out was 10 seconds max of noise and notoriety. It was over so quick most people in the building never even got what it was all about and had to second-guess everything. If the poor misguided kids got anything out of their caper, which was not even original, it was only pity or contempt.