PRO BONO

By Atty. Jo Imbong

THE THIN LINE

If there is no such thing as common courtesy, if basic respect is due to no one, if each person has the unfettered space to scoff at the other persons sartorial sense (or none -sense), or the other ladys enhanced facial contours, this world would be unbearable. Liberty of opinion yes, by all means. But liberty to clown at the other person, to contort his nose and pencil his otherwise benign expression to become cross-eyed, enough for him to become a national laughingstock in Facebook would be something else. Why is that? There is such a thing as respect. And it is a critical rule of survival written in the Manual for Civilized People. It should come naturallylike breathing. In fact, it is like the air we all need to breathe, if we must survivetogether . Why do you smile and say, Excuse me, to the stranger you bump at t he supermarket lane? Why do you stand aside and give space to a stranger who emerges from the elevator as it stops on your floor? Or say, Po to the mean cigarette vendor when you ask for a lighter? Strangers, cigarette vendors they have a right to your respect. And should you by chance step on the strangers foot on entering the elevator, or accidentally break the lighter, your second nature tells you to say, Sorry, po. Part of civilized living is never to laugh or poke fun at people whom nature has not endowed as generously as it has endowed you. Again, that is respect. It is also respect for the One who chose to mis-endow the other person. That is why we have the crime of libel. That is why if you as much as belittle your make-up artist for his gender, or evoke levity at the expense of another, like some entertainer who egged a five -year old to gyrate (Oh so innocently, the lambs could cry) on TV, you can be asked for damages under Article 25 NCC. That is the law of respect at work. Insignificant hubris? Not likely. But there is something higher than your magician-make-up artists pride, or nice and sweet little boys dignity. Damaso courted the crime of interruption of religious worship. The same Penal Code speaks of the crime of offending religious feelings. If interruption of religious worship (Article 132) is a crime, and offending religious feelings (Article 133) is another, why should the third crime of offending religion in Article 201 yield to freedom of artistic expression? It is no longer just a religious ceremony that is vilified, nor just a manifestation of religion. It is the Deity of a religion that is mocked and turned into a pitiable caricature. Even clowns will cry. Parody is something else, of course. It takes genius to do that. And according to Oscar Levant, American composer, author, comedian, and actor, There is a thin line between genius and insanity.