Confusion and division

This is really the first time I have seen and heard a President of a country openly and even proudly admitting that he lied and made up a story. It is quite embarrassing and shameful that such country happens to be my own country, the Philippines. More disturbing in this unfortunate revelation is its adverse effect on the children of our land who look up to their leaders as the best example to emulate in their life especially in the fulfilling the time honored and noble axiom that “honesty is the best policy”. The President of a country is supposed to lead by example but with the kind of example being shown by our present President, the country’s future appears to be getting darker and darker.

The fake statement here was made in connection with current tussle between President Duterte and Senator Antonio Trillanes IV about the bank deposits each of them maintains in banks which are beyond the amounts declared in their Statement of Assets and Liabilities. Trillanes revealed that Digong has billions of pesos deposited in the Bank of the Philippine Islands. Digong countered and accused Trillanes of also maintaining excessive amounts of deposits in banks abroad. In view of the existing Bank Secrecy Law, the best way to settle the controversy is for each of them to issue a bank waiver allowing the inspection of said deposits. Trillanes readily issued his bank waiver and dared Digong to do the same. But Digong did not and instead exposed Trillanes’ bank account numbers abroad. When Trillanes was able to show that no such accounts exist, Digong admitted that he just fabricated the bank account numbers allegedly to make a fool out of Trillanes.

Obviously, Digong’s credibility has been further eroded by this admission. All his declarations and policies will henceforth be received with a grain of salt especially considering his previous contradictory and fluctuating declarations that are even laced with obscene and vulgar language. Furthermore, people are now entertaining a well founded belief that he resorted to this falsity and fabrication because he does not want to admit his mistake in wrongly charging Trillanes about the latter’s huge bank deposits. And on top of all these conclusions, people are now convinced that Digong is hiding something from them and diverting their attention from the alleged existence of huge deposits in his name particularly in the BPI. The best way he could erase all doubts about these bank deposits is to issue a bank waiver which he adamantly refuses to do so up to now. It is not enough for him to just threaten that he will resign if it can be shown that these charges against him have some semblance of truth. Such statement will not convince people that he is really clean.

More unfortunate in this regard is that Digong’s sense of self-righteousness has filtered down to his supporters and social media trolls. They have become so belligerent and troublesome by picking up a fight against those who point out the mistakes of their “Tatay” Digong. Instead of accepting these criticisms as a means of helping Digong in running the government, they hurl personal insults and invectives against these critics, defame them, and accuse them of belonging to certain “cults” called the “yellowtards” out to destabilize their Tatay’s government and oust him from office. Undoubtedly this attitude has sown so much divisiveness and dissension in our country. Our present situation now is not conducive to the attainment of peace and progress. Already, some countries have manifested apprehension to invest and do business here.

Also quite perturbing in this regard is that even the other political leaders of our country particularly in Congress have also become so divisive and troublesome. Supporters of Duterte in both Chambers are becoming more belligerent in their effort to defend and clear him from various corrupt and anomalous transactions in government currently under investigation. Most notable here are the antics and aggressive posture of Senator Richard Gordon, the Chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee. It is quite disappointing to see him so biased and so one sided in the current probe on the smuggling of illegal drugs from China worth P6.4 billion. His belligerence against those who are trying to implicate Duterte and family in this illegal importation is quite obvious especially against Trillanes and some witnesses who have dragged Digong’s son and relatives into the anomaly. He even sought the removal of Trillanes from the Senate by filing a complaint against him before the Ethics Committee. And as the probe comes to an end, it is already so predictable that Digong and son will be cleared from any involvement.

It is really so sad to note the behavior of some Senators and Congressmen especially those belonging to the “super majority.” They appear to be so drunk with power as they adopt measures against the critics of the administration like removing or reducing the budget of some government agencies whose heads are perceived to be undermining Digong’s government and its actions. Various impeachment complaints have also been filed to get rid of these government officials particularly against the Vice President and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

Indeed this is the first time in our country’s history when our government has been riddled with so many impeachment complaints as well as other complaints and counter-complaints by and among government officials. Most notable in this connection is the belligerent reaction particularly of House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez against critics and oppositionists. He has threatened them with that all sorts of complaints and actions to be taken by the House of Representatives if they don’t stop their criticisms. Then there is also Senator Tito Sotto’s recent non-sensical statement that those in the government who is against Duterte or do not like Duterte should leave the government.

With so many falsehoods, duplicity, double talk, evasiveness, divisiveness and troublesome attitudes prevalent in our country, now is the time indeed to pray and ask the help of the merciful and compassionate God almighty.

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