A terrible presidential act
The news that President Rodrigo Duterte, together with his common-law wife, went on an unannounced shopping spree in Hong Kong few days ago impacted differently among our people.
To the moralists. We trumpet to the world that the Philippines is a predominantly Catholic country. In addition, there are the Philippine Independent Church (Aglipayans, to many); the United Church of Christ in the Philippines, one of the oldest protestant groups hereabouts; the Baptist Church; the Seventh Day Adventists; the Methodists and many other Christian groups. All of these religious denominations, I assume, embrace and uphold the sanctity of marriage. It must be doctrinaire to them that before a man and a woman live as a couple and act as husband and wife, they must have the blessing of God in matrimonial ceremony. Differently said, the act of the president’s parading, in an international setting at that, a woman who is not his wife assaults the dignity of marriage. This perceptively immoral life of the president is a terribly bad example.
To the educators. I was in the academe for 40 years. In my discipline, Constitutional Law, we always give due emphasis to the constitutional and statutory importance of marriage as an inviolable social institution. Let us highlight on an aspect of the word inviolable. A more serious study of this word can yield into a profound dissertation concluding in a frown upon the “live-in” situation that our president is in, to say the least. Personally, it is good that i have retired from teaching because i cannot anymore explain the fundamentals of these legal provisions without being contradicted by the president’s life style. It does not affect me if you call it “sweet lemon.”
To the youth. The situation that our president is in promotes “living in only” kind of a family structure. In this form of cohabitation, there is no more need of marriage and no legal bond more than civil law form of partnership. The resulting parties are not addressed as Mr. and Mrs. just Mr. X and Ms Y. Okay ra diay ang puyo-puyo! This is what our youth can see. They will no longer be ashamed to live under one roof as husband and wife without being married to each other. People justify it as new normal. The woman, not being the wife, keeps her family name and the man, not being the husband has no such legal responsibility to provide support to his partner, among others. Their children are generally called illegitimate. This easily chastise-able situation is best exemplified by no less than the president of the republic.
To the less privileged in our society. Our president ascended to power on the strength of his pro-poor stance. In the 2016 election campaign, his speech voiced the aspirations of the poor amongst us. This is the very sector that, at present, finds the price of commercial rice beyond reach. While we do not comprehend the rudiments of economy, we feel that our economic situation is unquestionably one of hardship. If we can hardly afford many of the basic commodities, the shopping spree of the president is more an insult than a display of callousness to our depravity.
To the best minds. Inflation has breached the charts. We are experiencing the worst in decades. Economy is in doldrums. Our financial experts have been waiting for leadership in the last many days. The president has miserably failed. Malacañang is ominously silent with the only salvos we continue to hear coming from the guns of our policemen trained at suspected denizens of the supposed underworld. Instead of providing our people with hopeful economic directives, our president went on a luxurious foreign trip. Oh what a cruel and insensitive move.
If I sound contrary to my optimist self, I am only expressing my dismay on the misrule of our president.
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