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[av_heading heading=’The end and the means’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY SONIA D. DAQUILA
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Saturday, February 11, 2017
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NO ONE from among the presidents before had the guts and the gumptions to call “son of a whore” the president of the most powerful nation in the whole world, the United States of America.
No one dared calling an American ambassador a “homosexual.”
No one ever dared threatening the withdrawal of the Philippine membership from the United Nations.
No president spoke in public against the Pope, and now, the “idiot” is the former president of Colombia who admitted his failure in his war against drugs and gave President Rodrigo Duterte his unsolicited advice not to follow his example.
Listening to the President, one can draw out his hatred on illegal drugs which are indeed a menace in this country. Heinous crimes have been committed because of loss of sanity of those people who peddle or use drugs.
No president berated men in uniform in public and no one had exposed to public top-ranking government or military men who are involved in drugs or corruption. No one dared declaring war in a two-cornered fight – the Abu Sayyaf and New People’s Army. No leader-diplomat would dare lose allies and powerful institutions the country draws support from.
Conversing with the people of the streets, from taxi drivers, vendors to janitors, they believe in the audacity and decisiveness of the President. Punishing the untouchables, with the desire to have a safe and progressive society, is noble. All-out war with the NPA and the Abu Sayyaf seems to be a daring stand. Yet, very basic in the game of war is the conservation of enemies.
The war on drugs has not stopped heinous crimes until now. Many had already died yet those agents of law are also involved in the perpetration of crime. Coming from his own war on drugs, former Colombian president Cesar Gaviria shared his lessons from his failure, and the Philippine president calls him “an idiot!”
Indeed, it is true. We ought to listen. Remember Desiderata “…even the dull and the ignorant has his own story to tell…” Can we eventually win? If we do, that would be great. But it could be a pyrrhic victory. Will the end justify the means? (delsocorrodaquila@gmail.com/PN)
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