Honesty is Such a Lonely Word

“Denial, but hey, who’s on trial?” - Interpol, “Evil”

A blizzard of denials: The Palace has nothing to do with the frenzied move for Con-Ass. The Palace has nothing to do with questionable mining activities and the recent abduction of Bayan Muna activists. The Palace had nothing to do with the stealthy whisking away of Daniel Smith, smashing protocols and making the DOJ look stupid.

If the GMA administration distances itself from all of these, washing its hands off these, having nothing to do with any of these, then what the frigging hell can this administration admit to doing? As it claims, nothing.

In recent history, 6 buses are razed to the ground, a Globe cellsite is bombed, a cop is taken as POW (prisoner of war), an oppressive landlord is slain, and just several days ago, a certain Evelyn Pitao, sister of an NPA commander in Southern Mindanao was sentenced by the Merardo Arce Command for her “blood debts,” selling information to the military being one of the major crimes.

The New People’s Army (NPA), in principle and practice, issues an official statement owning these acts, risking alienation and censure from the public. That’s a lot of balls.

What a difference in posturing. Sure, this sounds biased coming from me but whether or not you have an iota of sympathy to the revolutionary cause is out of the question. The naked truth screams: denial is not their thing. My respect soars.

Up until college, summers were spent in Carmen, Bohol. My grandparents could not afford books but they made up for it by regaling us with their recollection of the Japanese occupation, several variations of “The Lion and the Monkey,” fables of the spirit-world, and modern tales of “Tawo nga walay mga Tsinelas” (folks without slippers), referring to the NPAs.

Oh, the tales about rebels were more ludicrous than the ghost-stories – that they had supernatural power, that their bodies were bullet-proof protected by amulets, that they could be at 3 places at the same time, that they were shape-shifters and could transform on caprice, to a dog or a pig. Intriguingly fascinating.

The old folks repeatedly assured that these rebels only hurt bad people. Hence, there was nothing to fear.

When I was 11-12, a politician in my mother’s home-barrio was gunned down in broad daylight and the locals were not outraged as I expected. Instead, they blamed the politician for not heeding to the 3 warnings issued by the rebels.

Strange but when someone was killed, even the local police anticipated for the NPA’s official statement before they launched into an investigation of their own. If the NPA owned up to a killing, the case was closed. That’s how its honesty and credibility were appreciated on the ground, even by the cops.

Now, can we dare GMA to show some tinge of honesty? Show some balls, nga di-puga.