opinion

nfsl
gino paolo diño
draft 5 (ff)
nfsl_travesty.rtf
word count: 505
suggested titles:
- travesty for the asinine
- open travesty

a bit of good news has come our way, it seems. according to interior secretary
ronaldo puno, the philippines “remains the safest country in southeast asia insofar
as terrorism is concerned.” with strict guidelines and procedures and the military
and police force always on watch, more and more tourists come to our country to
visit, he claims. he’s confident that terrorist threats are being monitored closely,
thus more and more foreign investors consider business ventures in the philippines.
but how “safe” are we, really?
not very much, one could say. because while our dear secretary’s busy counting
foreigners in his deep sleep, perhaps he doesn’t notice how many of his own fellow
countrymen have already been slaughtered. with nearly 300 eliminated and most
likely hundreds more walking with crosshairs trailing them, journalists and activists
alike would probably agree that no free nation is “safe” from terrorism when,
ironically, its own government perpetrates the felony. when a “detrimental” article
or a few words on a placard could cost you your life, you’d laugh at such a claim.
well it would be comical if it didn’t reflect the miserable state of philippine
democracy and freedom of speech in the nation these days.
we are in open travesty — a brand of terrorism more sinister. while employees go to
work and students go to school, numerous targeted journalists are strictly
monitored. while housewives plan tomorrows’ chores and expenditures, military
contingents plot their next modus operandi. while people live in the guise of
normalcy, one or two targeted activists get dusted off the dinner table every now
and then. while the government refutes what is so painfully obvious, the corpses
keep piling up. some bodies are never even found, denied of decent funerals they
deserve. this ominous grip on our daily lives — trampling democracy and freedom of
expression — is beyond terrorism. abduction, torture, and murder of the true
promoters and defenders of the filipino’s welfare are beyond criminal or dictatorial.
while valuable resources are directed toward this menacing goal, important
concerns — education, health, and other social services — are blatantly strayed to
the peripherals. these priorities of the administration are indirectly motivated by
imperialism and thirst for power instead of service to the citizenry.
and yet more tactics of oppression cloaked in good intent continue to be carried out.
the e.o. 464 effectively banning government officials from testifying in court against
the administration; the anti-terror bill handily monitoring almost every aspect of the
lives of every filipino citizen; the all-out war shrouding political killings in an effort to
eradicate insurgency — such stratagem plaguing critics of the arroyo administration
pave the way for ultimate dominance over the people’s human rights. invisible,
intangible repression with effects encompassing nationwide — such is the scope of
terrorism engineered by our (corrupt) governance, vindicated by (false) authority.
secretary puno can speak for his foreigners, we can speak for ourselves. perhaps
before we declare our country “safe” from terrorism, let’s stop eyeing the al-qaida
or the jemaah islamiyah for a second, and rather turn our gaze to the busy palace.