THE PARODY OF A POISON LETTER

lage chief position. To some, it is their way to power and popularity.

Not Sabtana. She is of genuine desire and passion to serve Kwidao.

The road to being the village chief, however, would not be a smooth one for Sabtana despite her impeccable track record and vast popularity. There were a few unkind souls who had other plans and wanted to stop her at all cost.

“By all means necessary.” The opposing camp declared.

As support to Sabtana snowballed, the unhappy campers hatched a plan.

They met one night and agreed to poison the villagers’ minds by spreading nasty lies. Hiding behind an anonymous letter, Sabtana’s foes spun a yarn depicting Sabtana as a woman with mangled morals and lack of education.

Some unhappy campers couldn’t fathom being away from the limelight, obviously eaten up by delusions of grandeur. They struck hard to bring her down.

Unfortunately, the demolition job was discovered. It also did not help that the character used to concoct the poison letter did not have the best reputation in the community and was involved in several anomalous transactions in the past. The bomb exploded right on the faces of Sabtana’s foes.

The story being told here is fictional. A parody to be exact.

However, it has a lot of semblance of truth in our lives. I am sure many can relate to this in their own experiences. It is not uncommon that we hear stories like this here and there. It happens for as long as their is envy, hate, and greed for power. Add to that, delusions of grandeur.

People try to politicize things for their own selfish ends, to the point of lying to their teeth. They tell and retell the lies, one poison letter to another, believing that lies, when told repeatedly, become truths.

Envy, my friends, is a very demanding customer. It eats you up. Forces you to do the unthinkable and drives you to the limits of rationality. There is nothing wrong with ambition. Essentially, nothing wrong. It’s human nature.

But when ambition is borne out of envy, it can become the mother of crimes.

“Take a chance. All life is a chance. The man who goes farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare.” - DALE CARNEGIE.

In the Senate hearing of the committee on justice, a delegation from the EU parliament sat down to discuss the EJK issues during the past administration.

Expressing their “deep concern” about the human rights violations, EU delegation head Hannah Neumann said they were “quite worried about the war on drugs and the extra judicial killings.”

Neumann, the chair of the EU subcommittee on human rights, shifted gears in her next statement, saying “we are relieved to hear that right now the Philippines is working towards rehabilitation and prevention.”

Neumann observed though that the prosecution is too slow because out of the 6,000 victims of EJK killings, only 20 cases have been filed and only 3 were convicted.

An intense atmosphere occurred when a Spanish lawmaker and member of the EU questioned the resolutrion authored by Sen. Jinggoy Estrada that opposed the ICC probe on former president Rodrigo Duterte.

Dela Rosa did not like the interfering attitude of the Spanish EU member which he deemed off-tangent.

“Bakit naman pati yung resolution ni Sen. Jinggoy pinakikialaman pa. Too much na yan,” De la Rosa told senate reporters.

The senator from Davao was visibly offended and his reaction was innately Pinoy, right?

“Who is this guy who dares lecture us on human rights?”

De la Rosa reminisced about the more than 300 years of cruel colonization of Spain in the Philippines.

As a sovereign nation, our leaders - in the executive, legislative and the judiciary - should exhibit independent attitudes and invoke the democratic way of life our government has been practicing since many decades ago.

The imposing attitude of foreigners who still think we are in our civilized infancy should conclusively end.

“How dare you” should now be our mantra when foreigners question our ability to govern and to dispene justice even if we accept the reality that ours is not a perfect society.

I guess we are just too hospitable and kind to a fault.

Pinoys have always displayed their Christian moral values even when our freedoms and our human dignity are being trampled in the process.

Who said Pinoy have short memories?

The Chinese, Koreans and all other Asian countries subjugated by Japan before and during the Pacific War never forgot what the barbaric conquering Kempetais did to their country.

Well, i’m just recollect- ing and not really digging up what the sordid past has been.

We roll out the red carpet to every visiting dignitary, serve him/her the best reception, food and entertainment and all the amenities available.

And yet, we allow them to spat on our backs, kick our butts and bad mouth us when we are not looking.

Sen. Bato, for me, exemplified the real Pinoy (the character of Elias in El Filibusterismo) who will not let pass an offensive degrading word about his humaness.

And while he did not expect an apology, the former PNP chief said he acknowledged that while the illegal drugs campaign was legitimate, there were also abuses committed by erring policemen.

The wheels of justice may grind slowly but our justice system is functioning, is it not?

It may be a much abused cliche but Quezon’s “I prefer a government run like hell by Filipinos…” sounds like the Balangiga bell that peals eternally in my ears.

The ICC position should be unanimously opposed by our people because it directly intervenes and interferes with our exclusive internal affairs.

It’s a pity that a few disgruntled members of the political opposition who are out to seek revenge are very eager to seek external help even if it meant selling their rights and demean their dignity as human beings.

We have to admit though that compared to highly-developed Western countries whose civilizations started from way, way back, we are still a young nation struggling to discover and find the right path towards effective, fair and just governance.

It could take another generation to reach that goal but believe me, Pinoys will get there eventually.

But be like Sen. Bato who stands his ground against foreign intervention. (Email your feedback to fredlumba@yahoo.com.). GOD