Bad people, even "badder" ones
Some well-meaning friends have asked why I tend to side with or defend bad, or at least unpopular, people. Among the names mentioned are the Marcoses, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Rodrigo Duterte, and even Donald Trump. Actually, I have never sided or defended these people. This can easily be verified by a careful rereading of any of my articles in question.
I plead guilty, however, to taking issue with the criticisms and the critics of these people. But first let me say that just like many of the critics, I too have been very vocal in my opposition to some of these people, in particular Ferdinand Marcos Sr. and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. And again this is verifiable.
In fact, in Cebu where I started my career as a journalist, I made a name for myself in the early 1980s as one of the most hard-hitting critics of Marcos, at a time when it was still dangerous to be one, martial law still freshly haunting despite its having been supposedly lifted.
The same with Arroyo. Just as many did, I too had been harshly critical of her. But I eventually moved on, not just because I cannot devote my entire life to espousing just one cause but, more importantly, I cannot continue being a judge of other people without having to be ultimately judged myself.
And this is where I and the other critics differ. I am fully aware of my own shortcomings. I have my own failings. And the more I continue to dwell on the faults of those whom I harshly criticize, the more acutely I feel inadequate to sit in judgment of anyone. Being a sinner myself, I began to see the hypocrisy of it all.
And this was when I began to take issue with the critics and their unrelenting and unforgiving criticisms. Being themselves as surely sinful as the rest of mankind, I began to resent their hypocrisy. And I speak of everyone, of anyone who has ever said anything bad about anyone, even if, in their saying it, they may be actually correct.
Along this line I can think of no more greater and concrete example than Mr. Jim Paredes. Listening to how harsh and unforgiving he is when criticizing some of the names mentioned above, one is tempted to think the guy must be spotless, must be a saint.
And then bam! His glass house came crashing down and not all his protestations of privacy being violated can alter the fact that he did what he did. And what he did gives most people the creeps. What I am trying to say is it is perfectly all right to criticize but that eventually we have to give those we criticize room for their dignity and humanity or we lose both ourselves.
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