“May you live in interesting times.” This is a Chinese curse which is also said to have been based on the Chinese proverb “It’s better to be a dog in a peaceful time than be a man in a chaotic period.”
Indeed, the Philippines is in interesting times after the Quirino grandstand hostage taking. It is even difficult to be a Filipino right now especially for our OFWs in Hongkong.
Who pulled the trigger?
Fingers have been pointed in every direction. My anger is towards the PNP who, time and again, have proven how incompetent and corrupt they are. There was the torture and now the hostage-taking. It’s just unfortunate to those who do their job well.
Imagine, a man like Rolando Mendoza reached the rank of a Captain with the kind of psychological make up that he has? Don’t they have psycho test as a pre-requisite to promotion?
Some people say he did not mean to harm those hostages. First rule when you are learning to use a gun, never point at anyone, even if the gun is not loaded, unless you are prepared to shoot. So, was Mendoza prepared to kill? Of course he was! You don’t point an M-16 at people you are not ready to shoot.
His brother likewise leave a bad taste in my mouth. The arrest should never have been televised. You are an ordinary citizen, then you hear this policeman declaring that he will not go with the arresting officers because they will kill him. Wouldn’t you fear for your life? Coming from a policeman, that is like an admission that they are doing it, executing people they arrest.
Whoever draped the Philippine flag over the coffin of Mendoza should be ashamed. A friend said that if it is possible to strip him of his nationality then that should be done. The country lost its face in front of the world and just imagine how much we will be losing economically because of the incident.
If you were monitoring the hostage-taking then I’m sure you were appalled at the utter stupidity displayed by the supposed elite force SWAT. Imagine how an ordinary policeman would perform. Heads should roll.
They are innocent
As a nation, we are not the type to miss criticizing our government if we find it at fault. Press freedom is something we enjoy in the Philippines and sometimes to our own disadvantage. Our deficiency was there for the world to see because of this press freedom. Most of us are also disappointed with the way President Aquino handled the situation but his apology to the Chinese government is something we are all thankful for.
We, ordinary citizen, are condemning the horror of the killings and we condole with the families of those who lost a love one. Just like the Chinese, we are also tightly knit as a family and the loss of one at such a tragic incident, is something we can relate to.
But to take it out on our OFWs in Hongkong is unfair. They don’t have anything to do about the incident. They are there to work in order to support their family. Just because a fellow Filipino has done wrong, it does not make all Filipinos criminal.
Filipinos and Chinese have a long history. Way before the Spanish came and colonized the Philippines, even before we were even a country, our islands have been trading with the Chinese. Most Filipinos have Chinese in their blood and our culture has been deeply influenced by the Chinese.
We humbly apologized for the deplorable deed of one of our countrymen. We hope this incident will not have a lasting dent in the relationship of our countries.
{ 1 trackback }