HINDI BA BANSA TAYO NG MGA BASAG ANG PULA?

By Philip M. Lustre Jr. 

            “Isang laksang bugok, isang laksang bugok

            Laksa laksang Pinoy na basag ang pula.”

            “Isang laksang bugok, isang laksang bugok

            “Isang laksang mga anak ng puta.”

-         “Una’t Huling Pasyon” ni Rio Alma

1.       May presidente tayo na nagmungkahi na upang malinis at magamit muli ang face mask, ibabad ito sa diesel o gasolina;

2.      May opisyal ng PNP na nagsabing gamitin ang mga chismoso at chismosa sa contact tracing;

3.      May presidential legal adviser na nagpayo sa pangulo na magdekla ng martial law dahil maituturing na paglusob ng kaaway ang pagdating ng coronavirus sa bansa;

4.      May kongresista na nagsabing magsagawa ng takeover sa ABS-CBN kahit walang judicial order;

5.      May presidential spokesman na hindi makapagbigay ng anumang batayan sa pahayag na “milyon-milyon ang magkakasakit ng Covid-19 kung hindi nagdeklara ng lockdown.”

6.      May national security adviser na nagsabing mas mabuting tumahimik na lang ang mga kritiko sapagkat maaaring may mangyaring hndi maganda sa kanila sa ilalim ng batong Anti-Terror Law;

7.      May DILG undersecretary na nagmungkahing hiyain (shame campaign) ang sinuman nilalang na hindi susunod sa mga alituntunin ng kuwarantina;

8.      May health secretary na nagpahayag na hindi na umakyat ang kurba (flattened the curve) kaht na patuloy na tumataas ang bilang ng mga mamamayan na kinapitan ng China-Duterte virus;

9.      May kongresista na may anak na bakla ang nagpahayag na hindi siya kumporme sa paninindigan ng kanyang ama sa pagpapasara ng ABS-CBN, ngunit wala siyang magawa sapagkat magkaiba sila;

10.   Mayroon DILG secretary na nagsabing pupunta ang mga pulis sa bawat bahay upang alamin ang may sintomas ng mapinsalang virus at puwersahang dadalhin sila sa mga quarantine center.

APOLITICAL INTELLECTUALS

CHANCED upon this little poem on the wall of Cha Mercado, a netizen friend. I remember reading this poem some 50 years ago... That was when our country was in the crest of an unparalleled intellectual ferment that led to the declaration of martial law two years later and a detested dictatorship by Ferdinand Marcos. Otto Rene Castillo was a political poet, who fought against a dictatorship in his home country, Guatemala. He was killed fighting state troopers. Please read ... Thanks Cha, hindi na ako nagpaalam. ctto ...

APOLITICAL INTELLECTUALS
By Otto Rene Castillo
A Guatemalan poet

One day
the apolitical intellectuals
of my country
will be interrogated
by the simplest
of our country.

They will be asked
what they did
when their nation died out
slowly
like a sweet fire
small and alone.

No one will ask them
about their dress,
their long siestas
after lunch,
no one will ask them
of their long sterile combat
with “the idea
of the nothing.”
No one will care about
their higher financial learning.
They won’t be questioned
on Greek mythology,
or their self-disgust
when someone within them
begins to die
the coward’s death.
They will be asked nothing
about their absurd
justifications
born in the shadow
of the total lie.

On that day
the simple men will come,
those who had no place
in the books and poems
of those apolitical intellectuals,
but daily delivered
their bread and milk,
those who mended their clothes,
those who drove their cars,
who cared for their dogs and gardens,
and worked for them
and they’ll ask:
“What did they do when the poor
suffered, when tenderness
and life
burned out in them?"