“I AM not a Filipino for nothing.” This is the title of a song, a page name on Facebook. It is the battle cry at a recent rally in Japan. It is printed on hundreds of shirts in Davao, and I saw one today and the imagery was so disturbing that it took me a while to take it all in and grasp what I was seeing.
In a speech at a Filipino community meeting in Japan last 2016, then President Rodrigo Duterte derided his critics abroad and said: “Pag sabi ng Human Rights, ‘I’d like to remind the President that if we find out there is violation he can be—‘ Tatakutin pa akong ipakulong, putang-inang kulong … You have the evidence, go ahead and file the case. Wala akong problema, I can rot in prison for my country. (Applause) I am not a Filipino for nothing.”
He probably meant: “My race is made up of brave men. I have not lived as a Filipino only to run away from questions about my leadership and policies. I will let any court set judgment on me and jail me.” That was his message. That’s what he wanted people, locals and foreigners alike, to hear.
But this: “I am not a Filipino for nothing. Bring PRRD home.” It does not make any sense. Why would anyone use the former President’s exact words to demand for his return to the country?
He already said it, go ahead and file the case. To ignore his posturing is to disrespect his abilities and convictions, a sure sign of disloyalty and empty idolatry.
If people want to express their solidarity with him, they should know better than to proclaim that he didn’t know what he was doing. What’s glaring about these calls for support is this tendency to speak out without hearing oneself, no clue as to the purpose of one’s declaration, the intention that propels one to stand, firm and proud, by a man and that man’s actions.
Words matter. If someone said, “I would be happy to slaughter three million addicts,” his words would provide the impetus to kill and kill without reason.
“When I become president, I’ll order the police and the military to find these people and kill them,” those words would plant a seed of horror.
If you kept quiet while those words were being repeated across towns and throughout social media platforms, you cannot suddenly cry out, “Napaka-importante na yung ating system of laws ay gumana at ma-accord sa lahat ang judicial process.”
You cannot now condemn the arrest of the former President and stop his appearance before the International Criminal Court whose task is to hear the prosecution and the defense. You cannot pretend to be disgusted and expect your humanity to remain intact.
As for taking pride in one’s nationality by parroting men in power when there are bodies who had perished because of the slaughtering, well, if that is being Filipino, then we are doomed.
Words matter. Think hard and think long before releasing words, on air, on paper, on Viber. One day your words (or lack of words) might spell the end and by then it would be too late to wish, if only you had cared enough to listen./PN
