Breaking up a friendship is difficult

I’m burning my bridges with former Palawan Governor Joel Reyes.

To quote a scene from William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet: “Parting is such sweet sorrow.”

Sorrow, because ending a longstanding friendship is very hard to do.

Sweet, because I know that in cutting off my ties with him, I am following the dictates of my conscience and siding with the truth which is what journalism is all about.

To paraphrase President Manuel L. Quezon, my loyalty to my friends ends where my loyalty to my profession and country begins.

It’s very difficult to part ways with someone who talks my language, acts like me in my dealings with the opposite sex and drinks like a fish the way I do.

When Reyes gave parties I was almost always there, and vice versa.

When I wanted to have a couple of drinks after a hard day’s work, he was there.

Whenever I was in Puerto Princesa and he happened to be there, I would visit him at his home.

Reyes is responsible for my interest in raising goats in my farm, with him promising to provide me with the first hybrid goats.

When he felt lonely after breaking up with special female friends (sorry about that, Mrs. Fem Reyes), I was there to console him.

I was a consentidor to his dalliances, the same way he was to mine.

But this time around, I cannot be a consentidor in the taking of another person’s life, especially that of my brother in media.

Journalism is the only profession I know; to side with Reyes would be to betray the profession that has given my life much fulfillment.

* * *

I am taking a stand in the assassination of broadcaster and environmentalist Dr. Jerry Ortega.

I am joining the ranks of those who believe that Reyes was the mastermind in Ortega’s murder.

I am denouncing the dropping of murder charges against Reyes and his fellow suspects by the Department of Justice.

There is no way that money didn’t change hands in the dropping of the murder charges against Reyes et al.

I have stumbled upon some pieces of information, which I have yet to verify, that tend to link Reyes’ exoneration to the country’s extended family system that goes all the way to Malacañang.

You will know what I mean in subsequent columns when I talk about Ortega’s assassination.

* * *

The Court of Appeals has imposed stringent rules of conduct on its rank and file.

The appellate court justices are strict with their subordinates, but they look the other way when they see corruption being committed by fellow justices.

Many drug trafficking cases have been dismissed by the Court of Appeals after the appellants paid off some justices.

Before they find mote in the eyes of their subordinates, why don’t the honorable justices first remove the mote from their own eyes?

* * *

In last Saturday’s column, I mistakenly referred to Lieutenant General Roland Detabali as being retired.

Still in active service, Detabali is chief of the Armed Forces’ Unified Southern Command based in Lucena City.