Prophetic words

I REMEMBER when Edsa People Power toppled the Marcos dictatorship 30 years ago like it only happened Friday.

I covered the historic event from start to finish.

I remember the rejoicing among the multitudes gathered on Edsa when news broke out that President Ferdinand Marcos and his family left the country.

I also remember the words of my friend and colleague, the late Teddy Africa of Times Journal, now a defunct newspaper: “Mon, the oppressed will soon become the oppressors. They will become corrupt like the one they just drove out.”

Teddy was referring to some members of the opposition who were harassed by the Marcos dictatorship.

How prophetic Teddy’s words were.

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Despite all the bad things attributed to the Marcos martial law years, policemen then were less abusive than they are now.

I am talking from a perspective of a police reporter that I was then.

Reports about abuses committed by law enforcers against civilians or police inefficiency were acted upon with dispatch by the authorities.

I can say without batting an eyelash that the PC-Integrated National Police or PC-INP was a much more disciplined organization than the present Philippine National Police is now.

Back then, policemen and PC soldiers were afraid of their superiors who had the power to immediately put them in jail or dismiss them outright when they committed abuses.

PC soldiers and policemen were subject to military discipline.

In contrast, the civilian character of the PNP today makes a policeman seek refuge in “due process” when there’s a complaint against him.

Complaints against policemen take many years before these are resolved while they continue to go on with their corrupt and abusive ways.

* * *

The Unlimited Networking Opportunities or UNO, which claims to be the country’s largest networking company, has an outlandish way of training its new members.

But first, here’s how UNO, which sells cosmetics and food supplements, recruits its members.

A member recruits four members into the company; each of the four new members, in turn, recruits four other members, and so on down the line.

A new member is required to buy P7,998 worth of products from the company which he either sells or keeps for himself.

Now, let’s talk about the outlandish way UNO trains its new members.

UNO’s new member, Ailyn Cuadero, 24, came to “Isumbong mo kay Tulfo” on Wednesday, practically in tears.

She said she and 40 other new UNO recruits were humiliated and demeaned by their recruiters during their training in Antipolo City.

Cuadero couldn’t tell the number of male and female participants, but said they were all in their 20s and 30s like her.

According to Cuadero, during the seminar they were made to take off their clothes and do “dirty dancing” in front of their trainers and fellow participants.

When some of them didn’t disrobe, they were cussed by their trainers.

“Hiyang-hiya ako sa nangyari. Para akong pokpok na nag-aaplay para abroad (I was so humiliated by what happened. I felt like a prostitute applying to work abroad),” Cuadero said.

The seminar was called “body and soul training.”

If true, UNO chose the right title for the seminar because the participants were made to bare their bodies—and more.