Courage January 8, 2007
I GOT THE TEXT MESSAGES IN THE MIDDLE of last week: My good friend, Harry Roque, had just got a number of death threats via his cell phone.
One text message read (I’ve spelled out the text abbreviations and added punctuations; otherwise I’ve retained the original sentence constructions) “Dura lex sed lex, our law may be harsh but it’s still our law. Not all the time are you lucky. Your end is near and your family.” Another read: “Atty. Roque RIP. Kami sa Bagong Hukbong Bayan ay patuloy ang pagmamanman sa mga ginagawa mong kataksilan sa bayan. Muli kaming magbabala to shut your fishy mouth. (Atty. Roque. RIP. We, the New Army of the Nation, have noted your treacherous acts against the nation. We repeat our warning: Shut your fishy mouth).”
And yet another message read: “To all interested parties: We are giving away P5 million/$100,000 reward for the capture of Atty. Harry Roque, dead or alive. Atty. Roque is lawyer of terrorist communist group in the Philippines. A destabilizer, insurgent, an anti-American. Caution: He’s armed and dangerous.”
I can imagine how unnerved my friend must be. I saw him on TV last Thursday, a little subdued, which is saying a lot in light of Harry being normally bouncy and full of energy. He has already reported the incident to the police, though I doubt that he expects to get any results. Indeed, though I doubt that he hasn’t thought that the police might be more sympathetic to the issuers of the threats than to him. But like I said, I can imagine how it must weigh on him: Never mind the death threats to one’s self, mind only the mention of family.
Who might want to do Harry harm? Well, as all the world’s sleuths say, who stands most to gain from it? The messages accuse Harry of betraying the nation. I do know that he has figured prominently in two particular cases. One is the “Joc-joc” Bolante case, where he has been busy trying to get a deposition from the former Department of Agriculture official charged with supplying administration congressional candidates, even those in the pit of urban jungles, with fertilizer funds. Bolante is currently being held in an American jail apparently for violating US immigration rules. He is wanted by the Philippine Senate, whose summons he has repeatedly spurned. Harry has monitored his whereabouts in the United States with the doggedness of a bloodhound.
Two is the class suit against Mike Arroyo—also called, for reasons that do violence to the English language, the First Gentleman—filed by the 43 journalists he has filed libel suits against. It’s the first class suit of its kind filed anywhere in the world. The plaintiffs are suing Arroyo for abuse of power, among many other abuses, professional and existential. It is the brainchild of Harry, and he himself prepared the brief for it. He filed it only a couple of weeks ago, which was much publicized in the media.
I agree with the people who sent the text messages: Harry is armed and dangerous. But he is armed only with the weapons of his principles and convictions, and he is dangerous only to people with neither. His accusers accuse him of betraying the nation. Pray, what do they hold as being true to the nation? Ruling without an electoral mandate? Using the money that belongs to dirt-poor farmers to give to tongressmen so that they can pay off officials to cheat for them? Defending a rule that has turned lying, cheating, stealing—and now murder—into instruments of national policy?
Of course, one cannot discount the possibility that the threat is the handiwork of pranksters who have nothing better to do, or annoyers-for-hire who routinely call up TV stations and write letters to the editors to express their undying support to an occupation government. But even if so, the text messages to Harry may not be so blithely dismissed as of little consequence. It is a humongous crime, which I lay at the doorstep of the illegal occupants of Malacañang.
What makes it so is the climate of murder that, more than El Niño and La Niña, has this country in its grip, a climate of murder that the current illegal occupants of Malacañang have caused directly or indirectly, tacitly or expressly, by commission or by commission. This country isn’t just becoming the murder capital of the world, it has become so. At least it has become the political-murder capital of the world.
The murders have spread from journalists and political activists in the countryside to political public figures themselves. Last December alone, we saw the murder of a congressman (Luis Bersamin) and the near-murder of another (Dudut Jaworski). With none of these murders being greeted by the shock and violent outrage they deserve. Certainly, with none of them finding government unduly embarrassed. Murder has not just become prevalent in this country, it has become an acceptable political option for dealing with “the enemy” in this country. And it is escalating daily, the violence being as much real in the threat as in the execution. The rules, written or unwritten, no longer apply. They are being broken as we speak. Nothing is inconceivable anymore.
During Cory’s (President Cory Aquino), Ramos’ (President Fidel V. Ramos) and (President Joseph Estrada) Erap’s time, somebody threatens you with bodily harm, you laughed it off. During GMA’s (President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo) time, somebody threatens you with death, you take it deathly seriously.
I don’t know though that it will stop Harry from doing what he finds himself compelled to do. Yes, compelled, as in morally compelled, as in needing to do what is right, amid adversity, amid derision, amid the threat to life itself. Some people have that capacity: the only thing they find more odious than betraying the nation is betraying themselves.
The courageous ones are not those who are afraid of nothing. They are those who push on despite their fears.
http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view_article.php?article_id=42157
One text message read (I’ve spelled out the text abbreviations and added punctuations; otherwise I’ve retained the original sentence constructions) “Dura lex sed lex, our law may be harsh but it’s still our law. Not all the time are you lucky. Your end is near and your family.” Another read: “Atty. Roque RIP. Kami sa Bagong Hukbong Bayan ay patuloy ang pagmamanman sa mga ginagawa mong kataksilan sa bayan. Muli kaming magbabala to shut your fishy mouth. (Atty. Roque. RIP. We, the New Army of the Nation, have noted your treacherous acts against the nation. We repeat our warning: Shut your fishy mouth).”
And yet another message read: “To all interested parties: We are giving away P5 million/$100,000 reward for the capture of Atty. Harry Roque, dead or alive. Atty. Roque is lawyer of terrorist communist group in the Philippines. A destabilizer, insurgent, an anti-American. Caution: He’s armed and dangerous.”
I can imagine how unnerved my friend must be. I saw him on TV last Thursday, a little subdued, which is saying a lot in light of Harry being normally bouncy and full of energy. He has already reported the incident to the police, though I doubt that he expects to get any results. Indeed, though I doubt that he hasn’t thought that the police might be more sympathetic to the issuers of the threats than to him. But like I said, I can imagine how it must weigh on him: Never mind the death threats to one’s self, mind only the mention of family.
Who might want to do Harry harm? Well, as all the world’s sleuths say, who stands most to gain from it? The messages accuse Harry of betraying the nation. I do know that he has figured prominently in two particular cases. One is the “Joc-joc” Bolante case, where he has been busy trying to get a deposition from the former Department of Agriculture official charged with supplying administration congressional candidates, even those in the pit of urban jungles, with fertilizer funds. Bolante is currently being held in an American jail apparently for violating US immigration rules. He is wanted by the Philippine Senate, whose summons he has repeatedly spurned. Harry has monitored his whereabouts in the United States with the doggedness of a bloodhound.
Two is the class suit against Mike Arroyo—also called, for reasons that do violence to the English language, the First Gentleman—filed by the 43 journalists he has filed libel suits against. It’s the first class suit of its kind filed anywhere in the world. The plaintiffs are suing Arroyo for abuse of power, among many other abuses, professional and existential. It is the brainchild of Harry, and he himself prepared the brief for it. He filed it only a couple of weeks ago, which was much publicized in the media.
I agree with the people who sent the text messages: Harry is armed and dangerous. But he is armed only with the weapons of his principles and convictions, and he is dangerous only to people with neither. His accusers accuse him of betraying the nation. Pray, what do they hold as being true to the nation? Ruling without an electoral mandate? Using the money that belongs to dirt-poor farmers to give to tongressmen so that they can pay off officials to cheat for them? Defending a rule that has turned lying, cheating, stealing—and now murder—into instruments of national policy?
Of course, one cannot discount the possibility that the threat is the handiwork of pranksters who have nothing better to do, or annoyers-for-hire who routinely call up TV stations and write letters to the editors to express their undying support to an occupation government. But even if so, the text messages to Harry may not be so blithely dismissed as of little consequence. It is a humongous crime, which I lay at the doorstep of the illegal occupants of Malacañang.
What makes it so is the climate of murder that, more than El Niño and La Niña, has this country in its grip, a climate of murder that the current illegal occupants of Malacañang have caused directly or indirectly, tacitly or expressly, by commission or by commission. This country isn’t just becoming the murder capital of the world, it has become so. At least it has become the political-murder capital of the world.
The murders have spread from journalists and political activists in the countryside to political public figures themselves. Last December alone, we saw the murder of a congressman (Luis Bersamin) and the near-murder of another (Dudut Jaworski). With none of these murders being greeted by the shock and violent outrage they deserve. Certainly, with none of them finding government unduly embarrassed. Murder has not just become prevalent in this country, it has become an acceptable political option for dealing with “the enemy” in this country. And it is escalating daily, the violence being as much real in the threat as in the execution. The rules, written or unwritten, no longer apply. They are being broken as we speak. Nothing is inconceivable anymore.
During Cory’s (President Cory Aquino), Ramos’ (President Fidel V. Ramos) and (President Joseph Estrada) Erap’s time, somebody threatens you with bodily harm, you laughed it off. During GMA’s (President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo) time, somebody threatens you with death, you take it deathly seriously.
I don’t know though that it will stop Harry from doing what he finds himself compelled to do. Yes, compelled, as in morally compelled, as in needing to do what is right, amid adversity, amid derision, amid the threat to life itself. Some people have that capacity: the only thing they find more odious than betraying the nation is betraying themselves.
The courageous ones are not those who are afraid of nothing. They are those who push on despite their fears.
http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view_article.php?article_id=42157
posted by dqfan06 @ 9:54 AM
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