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BY RHICK LARS VLADIMER ALBAY
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Tuesday, May 9, 2017
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UNLESS you are Toyang Ermitanya – ngagapuyo sa isa ka kweba – you probably know that our country’s lousy excuse for a senator, Tito Sotto offered the following half-assed apology when his “na-ano lang” caught flak: “Di ba ‘yun ang biruan sa kalsada eh. Kung minasama nila, eh di I’m sorry, I apologize. They don’t understand the joke.”
His earlier statement was dropped during the Commission on Appointments hearing of Department of Social Welfare and Development secretary Judy Taguiwalo.
Allegedly seeking to lighten the mood, Sotto thought it would be in good taste to ask: “You have two children…but you’re single? …In the street language, when you have children and you are single, ang tawag do’n ay na-‘ano’ lang.”
Of course, we expected nothing less of the same lawmaker who dismissed plagiarism claims against him by saying: “Sino ngayon ang kinopyahan ko eh Tagalong yun. Marunong bang magtagalog si (former US president John F.) Kennedy?” and “Even our image was copied from God. We are all plagiarists.”
We’d usually dismiss his idiocy, but this time the target for his mean-spirited quip is not only the decorated social worker Taguiwalo, but also single mothers everywhere – even more odd since Sotto’s own daughter is a single parent.
Unbeknownst to most, Professor Judy Taguiwalo was already four months pregnant when she was arrested in1984 for her activism against the violent regime of tyrant Ferdinand Marcos.
Taguiwalo was a student activist at a young age and in 1970, she and the other activists founded the organization Malayang Kilusan ng Bagong Kababaihan (MAKIBAKA) that sought to champion the rights of women, setting the groundwork for the Gabriela Party-list we know today.
Later in 1984, Taguiwalo would give birth at the Camp Crame Station Hospital. She and her baby daughter were detained despite the circumstance, and would only be released when the dictatorship fell in 1986.
Ma’am Judy is a Filipina true to her passion of serving the underprivileged masses of our country, frankly it’s embarrassing that her confirmation as DSWD chief is taking so long. Her performance in Duterte’s Cabinet has transformed the DSWD from a hotbed of corruption and padrino to an agency that has the interest of the people at its core.
On the other end of the spectrum, we have Tito Sotto, a manifestation of all the ills of our backward society and our convoluted government – a misogynistic comedian turned legislator, who may or may not have the blood of a Pepsi Paloma on his hands (*plays Spolarium by EraserHeads*).
Sadly though, we’ll probably be seeing him crack his slapstick comedy at the hallowed halls of the Senate for a few more years, and with that, the joke is actually on the Filipino people.
Below is a poem written by Taguiwalo while she was unjustly imprisoned during the Marcos regime.
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Sanggol sa Krame
ni Judy Taguiwalo
Makitid ang ating daigdig, anak.
Pinakikitid ng mga pader at alambreng tinik na nakapaligid sa atin.
Pagtiisan ang biglang kalampag ng bakal na pintong
Gumigising sa iyong pagkakahimbing.
Pagtiyagaan ang ilang sandaling ligaya’t aliw dulot ng ating dalaw.
Pero pakatandaan mo, anak
May maluwang na daigdig sa labas:
Gintong palay sa luntiang bukid,
matatayog na puno sa bughaw na bundok
mababangong orkidyas sa birgong gubat.
Musmos ka pa, anak.
Maaga kang naisasalang
sa apoy ng pagsubok.
Sunggaban ang pagkakataong ito.
Patigasin ang buto’t laman.
Patibayin ang tuhod at gulugod.
Ihanda ang sarili, anak,
para sa kinabukasan. (rhickalbay@gmail.com/PN)
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