Herbie Gomez
ALL the brouhaha resulting from President Duterte’s “colorful” language shortly before the start of last week’s Asean Summit in Laos drowned out his message. Duterte raised what seems to me to be a very valid point when he made reference to the period in our history when US troops committed many atrocities in our country.
If only he spoke like a president and elaborated what he meant at the right time and at the right place instead of letting his emotions get the best of him as it always has, then he would have sent his message across. What happened was that the world focused on the so-called “Duterte mouth” rather than on his point about the US government’s double standard.
I really like the part when he said before his departure to Laos: “I am not beholden to anybody... I am a president of a sovereign state, and we have long ceased to be a colony. I do not have any master, except the Filipino people, nobody but nobody... We have long been a Republic. I do not... I said, I do not kneel down before anybody else, except the Filipino in Quiapo walking in misery and in extreme poverty and hunger.”
But then, Duterte also said things that seemed to be way out of line. Consider this: “You must be respectful. Do not just throw questions and statements. [Expletive], mumurahin kita diyan sa forum na ’yan. Huwag mo akong ganunin. Tell that to everybody... Who is he to confront me? As a matter of fact, he has too many... America has one too many to answer for the misdeeds in this country. Hanggang ngayon hindi pa tayo nakatikim ng apology niyan. That is the reason why Mindanao continues to boil.”
(The part when he said that the US has yet to apologize for its misdeeds in the country is correct. But I’m still trying to figure out exactly how the early 20th century misdeeds continue to factor in the “boiling” situation in Mindanao.)
Consider that he was merely asked by a reporter how he would respond if he was confronted about his administration’s human rights record in Laos, say, by US President Barack Obama. That was a hypothetical question, something that he could have brushed aside because it never or has not happened yet. He could have just answered with something like “We’ll cross the bridge when we get there.” Then, horror of horrors, he threw a tantrum and launched a barrage of expletive-laced counterblasts against the US and Obama not because the leader of another sovereign nation confronted him but because a reporter asked him how he would handle the situation if another world leader like the American president, for example, asked him about it during the Asean summit.
Did Obama or anyone in the Asean disrespect him? No.
Did Obama or any Asean leader ask him about the human rights situation in the Philippines? No.
So why the tantrums?
In other words, the President was angry and badmouthed another president over something that he thought was about to happen during the Asean Summit.
Well, it never happened.
On the positive side, if there was something good that happened in Duterte’s pre-departure Q&A session, it was his bringing to the light and to the world’s attention a dark episode in American-Philippine history that has been buried in the history books--the Battle of Bud Dajo or the Bud Dajo Massacre in Jolo in 1906. Many Americans and Filipinos don’t even know that it happened.
Mark Twain, the pen name of writer and public intellectual Samuel Langhorne Clemens, criticized the US government for what it did in Jolo. He wrote in 1906: “They were mere naked savages, and yet there is a sort of pathos about it when that word children falls under your eye, for it always brings before us our perfectest symbol of innocence and helplessness; and by help of its deathless eloquence color, creed and nationality vanish away and we see only that they are children--merely children. And if they are frightened and crying and in trouble, our pity goes out to them by natural impulse. We see a picture. We see the small forms. We see the terrified faces. We see the tears. We see the small hands clinging in supplication to the mother; but we do not see those children that we are speaking about. We see in their places the little creatures whom we know and love.
“The next heading blazes with American and Christian glory like to the sun in the zenith:
“Death List is Now 900.”
“I was never so enthusiastically proud of the flag till now!”
Indeed, there was a time when governments really did bad things to human beings. Some are still doing it today albeit in more subtle ways. I guess that is the reason why we now have the United Nations (UN).
I’m not so sure if it’s wise for us to start blaming the present world leaders for their governments’ atrocities in the last century. But if we choose to point fingers at them now for acts that were committed before they were born, then we cannot be selective.
Clearly, the US did some pretty bad things here in the early 20th century. But after that came the second World War, and the Japanese Imperial Army forces did a lot of pretty bad things here, too. “Comfort women” don’t ring a bell?
Point is, we cannot badmouth Obama and then proudly strike a pose with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. That would be double standard.
It’s either we move on or we live in the past. Neither can we cite the inaction or the human rights records of other governments as an excuse for the human rights violations taking place in our very own backyard today.
We can call them monsters for the atrocities committed before they were born. But what do we call ourselves when we are cheering while the same atrocities are being committed right under our noses now? Pastilan.
