illness & desperation
Manila, 6 October—This week’s announcement of the September inflation figure, which was the highest in 9 years at 6.7%, was heralded by desperate theatrics from the Duterte administration.
It was as if the government had to throw every known diversion just to have other things to talk about: We had that woman’s resignation, the President’s rumored illness and the President’s non-endorsement of his spokesperson.
Truth be told, I feel horrible about my initial reaction to the President’s rumored cancer diagnosis: I wanted it to be true. I admit this was an extremely insensitive and inappropriate reaction, considering I have lost a parent to cancer, and I have friends whose mothers and fathers have suffered the same. Cancer is no joking nor wishing matter. I have to write this down to remind myself that this issue about the President being ill has to be faced with kindness. Just because his ilk cannot afford it, doesn’t mean I have to follow suit. Again, I have to write this down to remind myself.
These days, it has been difficult to be kind, especially to liars like Harry Roque. In the same speech where the President confirmed his hospital visit, he also said that he wasn’t too keen on his presidential spokesperson running for the Senate, because he thinks Roque will not win in 2019.
It was like the President asked Roque to move in, so Roque promptly burned his house down, only to be told later on that it was all a joke.
Incidentally, Roque has been known to spin some of the President’s controversial statements to be ‘jokes’ not meant to be taken seriously, like Mr Duterte’s quip about EJK’s being his ‘only sin’. I wonder why he wasn’t able to do the same thing about the President’s statement on his 2019 chances? Hmm. I hope Roque and Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano could find solace in each other. After all, wasn’t Cayetano Mr Duterte’s VP in 2016 whose VP aspirations have been majorly sidelined in favor of Bongbong Marcos?
All of life is a stage, I suppose.
Or, in the words of the President himself: If it’s stage three, then it’s stage three.