On Target
Second class citizens?
By Ramon Tulfo
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 02:29:00 12/30/2008
Filed Under: Local authorities
The mauling incident at the Valley Golf Club in Antipolo involving the mayor-son of Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman is not surprising given the arrogance of some officials who belong to a cultural minority group.
The abuse of power by some Muslim officials is abetted by the administration of President Gloria.
Have we forgotten the incident at the Batasang Pambansa where a congresswoman from Lanao del Sur slapped and poked a kitchen knife at a poor waitress who inadvertently served the Muslim lawmaker pancit with pork?
And who is this local official of a Muslim province who rode in a four-convoy vehicle with sirens blaring in Davao City recently as if there was an emergency when he and his family were only going to a mall?
“They’re always like that, Sir, always going in a convoy making a lot of noise like they own the city,” a man who was driving for me said of the Muslim official and his family.
Davao City Mayor Rudy Duterte doesn’t go around the city in a convoy with sirens blaring and lights blazing, so why does this Muslim official do it when he’s not in his own territory?
Our brother and sister Muslims complain they are looked down upon as “second class citizens.”
But have they bothered to ask why their non-Muslim compatriots look at some of them with contempt?
There’s a saying that if one wants respect from his fellowmen, he should respect them first.
* * *
Why would a father with two children in tow, a 14-year-old boy and an 18-year-old girl, get into a fight with burly men the likes of Pangandaman, his two sons and their bodyguards?
I have a hot temper myself, but I will never get into a fight I would surely lose in front of my children.
Which stupid father would get into a fight and involve his children who are young and helpless?
Why would businessman Delfin de la Paz pick a fight with the Pangadamans – the agrarian reform secretary, his son Mayor Nasser Jr. of Masiu, Lanao del Sur, and another son Hussein – who had bodyguards with them?
Secretary Pangandaman’s statement that De la Paz started the fight strains people’s credulity to the breaking point.
* * *
Don’t be surprised if the mauling incident in Antipolo ends in a whitewash.
The incident will go the way of the “euro generals” scandal where police generals and their wives, one of them the wife of Philippine National Police chief Jess Verzosa, were apprehended in Moscow for carrying hundreds of thousands of euros.
The huge amount would have been spent for shopping by the generals and their wives in Europe.
No official who gets involved in a crime or irregularity ever gets punished in this administration.
* * *
Is golf a game for decent people?
Then why are there contemptible people the likes of you-know-who who play that game?
Corrupt government deals, like the ZTE-NBN, were closed at the golf course.
* * *
Please don’t fire your gun into the air during the New Year’s Eve revelry as the bullets might just hit innocent people.
But those who insist in doing so, I suggest you aim the gun at your temple during your drunken stupor.
There’s a better way to do it – put the muzzle of the gun in your mouth, pointing upwards.
You won’t feel any pain as the gun goes off. Promise.
* * *
Why is Davao City Mayor Rudy Duterte able to prevent New Year’s Eve revelers from exploding firecrackers while the other mayors in the country aren’t?
What’s the difference between Duterte and the other mayors?
Cooperation from constituents.
If mayors talk to their constituents to explain the dangers of exploding firecrackers, like Duterte does, people will cooperate.
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