It is in times of national tragedy that the character of a people and the society they form become most evident. Last night, a bomb detonated in the midst of a crowded night market in Davao City that reportedly killed 14 people and injured 67. Whilst there was general solidarity expressed across the country in condemning this cowardly atrocity, there is cause for concern over the response taken by some camps in the Opposition to the event.
The following tweet from a certain Netizen who goes by the name “JR Castillo” on Twitter captures the general sentiment of a noisy clique of critics of the government of Duterte…
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In essence, Duterte’s most rabid critics, many of whom remain staunchly loyal to the camp of former President Benigno Simeon ‘BS’ Aquino III and his endorsed candidate who failed in his bid for the presidency in this year’s election, Mar Roxas, would be quick to use a tragedy such as this to further their agenda.
The way these rabid anti-Duterte fanatics think follows an over-simplified narrative that can be summarised in three points:
(1) This recent tragedy is likely to be part of a government conspiracy to invoke state emergency powers that could ultimately lead to a declaration of Martial Law;
(2) The bombing is evidence that the Duterte government — after just over two months in power — has failed in its “all out war” against crime and lawlessness; and,
(3) The fact that the tragedy happened in Duterte’s hometown in Davao proves that the President is really in no position to protect anyone nor make good on his promises to win his war against crime.
The trouble with this sort of thinking is that it deliberately sidesteps the crux of situations such as terrorist acts like these — that they happen because of the actions of bad people like terrorists. If there was any negligence involved on the part of the Philippine Government that led to this tragedy, it was certainly not because of any lack of foresight in efforts to make Davao City capable of taking care of its own people. The Queen City of the South is famous for the quality of the emergency response systems it has in place that is the envy of city governments across the Philippines. IBM Philippines which had worked with the Davao City government to implement many of the support technologies essential to its legendary Intelligent Operations Center (IOC) cited all this as a “first in the world”.
Davao attack: Even in light of the obvious peace-and-order challenges, Filipinos remain averse to implementation of strong law enforcement measures.
“France will stand firm,” he said. “We are going to fight and our fight will be merciless.”
In contrast, many Filipinos seem to be unable to let go of their liberalist position on matters that touch on the issue of “human rights” in the Philippines. A deep fear of “a return to Marcosian authoritarianism” remains raw thanks to a 30-year-long conditioning of the national psyche by the post-1986 power structure that filled the void left by former President Ferdinand Marcos following his ouster.
The fact that terrorist groups such as the Abu Sayyaf, which has since reportedly claimed responsibility for the Davao attack, has flourished over those 30 years points to the culpability of previous post-1986 governments that erred towards excessive “freedom” at the expense of greater security.
It is high time Filipinos face the reality that things need to be done differently in the Philippines if we are to realistically expect different results in the future. Much of the fear spun by Duterte’s critics around his different methods owe their potency to an unwillingness of many Filipinos to embrace change. What separates the men from the boys will be an ability to mount the courage to face the obvious changes that need to be implemented to lend real substance to the “hope” we aspire to regard the future with.
[Photo courtesy International Business Times.]
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
Only the Putin Way or the way the Tamil guerrillas were subdued is the key to long term peace and order in this country. Let us not allow religion to be used by demagogues to further their political agenda. The Golden Rule if not followed should be followed by Lex Taliones on those who violate the Golden Rule.
Let me begin with NO and end with NO.
Shut up, you goddamn hippie.
A slap in the face of Duterte in his home town indeed… poor victims that don’t even wake you up…
Uy si Amara ba yan? 😉
As soon as news of the Davao blast came out, I knew it was only a matter of time before the smug, celebratory posts of the minions of the “disente” crowd would start coming out in social media.
This is very consistent with their “us vs. them” mentality and total lack of empathy for people who do not subscribe to their yellow religion.
They do not realize that this blast could have happened anywhere. It could have happened to any one of us, while sitting inside our cars in traffic, or while eating at a restaurant in a mall. Yellow or not, in Manila or in Cebu, in the Philippines or in Europe, we are all targets of terrorism, and we should all be mourning because it could just as easily have been us. It just so happened that Davao was the target this time because the president is from Davao.
The sickening gleeful reaction of the yellow trolls is no different from the way the Liberal Party acted in the aftermath of Typhoon Yolanda. It is the same yellow beast rearing its ugly head. Recall how, in the midst of panic and total devastation in Tacloban, the yellows still could not get past their politics and show humanity. They witheld relief goods from barangay captains who were not on their side, and they witheld sending resources of the national government because “the mayor is a Romualdez while the president is an Aquino”. Politics was more important than the suffering of the victims.
This is not who we are as Filipinos. Filipinos do not take joy in the pain and suffering of their fellow human beings. Whatever political color you belong to, you must realize that terrorism is a common threat that targets us all, and we must all work together to help the Duterte government fight this threat.
Tama na muna yang ambisyon niyo na mang-agaw ng pwesto. Baka kayo ang sunod na masabugan.
true, maslalo na kung ang susunod na target ng mga ASG o ISIS ay mga CHR o mga human rights activists. At kung gagawin nila yun, eh magrereklamo kaya sila ng human rights violation o isang extra-judicial killing laban sa Abu Sayaff o mga terorista? Mukhang hindi gagawin nila yun at imbes magprotesta sila sa Mendiola at magrereklamo sila laban kay Duterte at sasabihin nila na isang senyales ito ng pagdedeklara ng Martial Law at balak na maging diktador sa ating bansa na katulad sa ginawa ni Marcos noon. :\
Yellow should all be blasted to death
Here’s my response:
The Problem Of PNoy Pridists Who Are Using The Recent Davao Bombing To Discredit President Rodrigo Duterte!
Yes, we should definitely unite to destroy terrorism and intolerance. However, I would like to distinguish between legitimate concerns of eroding civil liberties and the stupidities perpetrated by people ideologically connected to the Aquino legacy.
The rule of law and due process were created precisely to protect the rights of the innocent. Due to the overarchingly mighty power of the State we have created thru the compulsory social contract, the dangers are always great that the State will abuse or misuse its powers. Right now, in the laudable drive against fundamentalist Muslim terrorists and fanatic Communists, there have been cases where overzealous State agents target the innocent and the powerless, like the lumads.
This is why I cannot support any assertions that “Putinism” is the best way for the Philippines to go. This is no longer the Stalinist regime, where “to make an omelette, a few eggs must be broken”. If we are to accept that our individual selves have rights to live, we have to accept that this is universal among all animals biologically designated as Homo sapiens sapiens, regardless of what happens.
On the other hand, there are also legitimate concerns for security. The abovementioned social contract allows the State to abrogate some rights in the quest for collective protection, and this is unavoidable.
The result, therefore, should be a healthy discussion, bereft of empty sound bites like “Putinism”, and a better sense of social solidarity. I hope that, in the fsce of such barbarisns like the Davao City bombing, we refuse to surrender the high ground and continue to protect bout ourselves AND our rights.
And with this I go on yessing all over.
You know, if the LP supporters are calling for Duterte to resign, why don’t we apply the same logic they used when faced during the calls for Aquino to step down: if they insisted that Binay shouldn’t become president because he was supposedly corrupt, then if Duterte resigns, they expect Leni to be able to step up to the task?
Leni is nothing but a puppet. She is a weak leader, who has not shown that she is fit to step into the role of president if needed, and was peter-principled into the vice-presidency under questionable circumstances.
LP-tards just don’t think of the bigger picture; all they want to do is, as DJ Khaled sang, “win, win, win no matter what”.
ISIS CALIPHATE is now in the Philippines. ISIS was the creation of then, Sec. of State: Hilary Clinton, to remove Pres. Bashar Assad of Syria. The ISIS Caliphate comprised the SUNNI Triangle in Iraq and some part of Syria. Most of those fighters in ISIS are the Elite Republican Guards of then, former Pres. Saddam Hussein of Iraq. They fought Assad, but turned against the U.S. and the West. It is the stupidity of the Obama administration.The U.S. protects, Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Al Queda, that produced the Islamic Wahabi sect , from which Al Queda ideology came from…the U.S., will dance with the Devil, if it promotes, its interest. The trouble is: the Devil is just evil !
It was like the Taliban of Afghanistan. The Taliban was armed by the U.S.; to drive out the Russian occupiers. After the Russian withdrew. The Taliban turned against the U.S. Sept. 11th bombing of the World Trade Center in New York, was the result.
ISIS has the radical ideology of conquering the whole world, and spreading Islam. It is the 7th century Islamic ideology of their prophet Mohammad.
Aquino did nothing to Abu Sayaff. Now, Abu Sayaff has grown very strong, in the Philippines…
The Philippines must use Metal Detectors and Bomb Sniffing Dogs, for anyone entering a crowded place. The entrances must be secured. Human Intelligence is also a factor in combating terrorism.
Those YellowTards cheering amidst the tragedy of our countrymen, are INSANE. I hope that ISIS will bomb them !
JR castllo is a confirmed yellowtard. He we will be bombed first
These Yellow army are inciting civil war,
They are simultaneously attacking DU30 from left right and the middle. Filipinos should stand firm in support of the administration unless we all perish into oblivion. I appeal to our International Filipino brothers and sisters to help us fight the enemy of our Country. We simply lack the support and power against Super Drug criminals and corrupt politicians. It poses a global threat amidst China conflict. Pause and reflect on this for a moment.
So Davao became the latest victim of a terrorist attack and the first thing on some people’s mind is to express triumph over Duterte’s “failure”? Wow. Just wow. It shows what kind of people they are. They don’t really care about the actual Filipino people. They only care about “winning” and proving themselves “right”.
Aquino should answer for this incident, he should be jailed
Aquino was afraid of Abu Sayaff; he just left them alone, and they grew strong. Aquino is a lazy President . He is born rich , served by a retinue of servants, and grew up under the care of his “Yayas”…he became a spinelessly weak individual; who never had the experience to earn a living.
Electing him as President, was the worst mistake, the Philippines did !
Yes he needs to be burned
All those who voted for him should be jailed
don’t do that! Some of PNoy supporters baked out at him way back when pork barrel scam had sparked three years ago & the best example is a famous political/social activist Juana Change who was once supported him on 2010 but 3 years later she’d withdrew her support to him due to that scandal & many failed PNoy’s works. But her friend, Carlos Celdran still supports him & he’s a 100% yellowtard.
Yellowtards don’t have the capacity to change. Only thing left for them is a bullet in the head
If it happens somewhere else people show so much support. All these facebook faggs who used the French flag after the Paris attacks. Boohoo, what a tragedy! You assholes can’t even find France on the globe and the only way you’ll ever visit Paris is with your shit stained finger on the map, after you stopped fondling your anus.
So, where are you people now that it happened here?
This is suddenly a political thing?
Yellow piss-heads!
If it happens in another country you support their leaders and say, stand your ground, don’t let them drag you down, fight!
But when it happens in your own country, some of you ask the President to resign?
What a sorry-ass bunch of mouth breathing, brainwashed fuck heads are you? You make me sick!
You are traitors to your own country!
damn straight, Jim…
As more people raise their consciousness and refuse to be pitted against one another, the forces of Yellowtard domination must be working harder to divide and conquer.