Stations of the cross were being set up yesterday in the streets around my neighborhood so it must be Lent and time to consider penitential practices. Giving up meat wouldn’t count as I stopped eating it twenty years ago. Self-denial comes easy to me so that wouldn’t do either. I decided to go for mortification: I googled President Duterte speeches and actually watched all 44 minutes of a so-called speech delivered or better, spewed during the Oath Taking of Appointed Officials and Philippine Legislators Council Officers at Malacanang on the 30th March.
Although I’ve sometimes caught glimpses of his speeches or statements on TV, I’ve tended to switch channels or go out of the kitchen where the TV is. Of course, I sometimes read about them in newspapers or heard from friends (like the time he talked in Silliman and mentioned he didn’t spend much on past girlfriends as he just paid for boarding house lodging, or cursing the pope.) This didn’t really motivate me to listen to what the man had to say.
Well, this time I gathered my resolve and actually watched and listened. I think I can say that the experience met my goal of mortification. I counted the number of times he said “putang ina” — 29 times, and as I winced, imagined a flagellant feeling the whip on his back. Invectives ranged from inutil, bastos, gago, baboy, ulol, bullshit, walang hiya, mukhang pera, buang, fucking shit, go to hell, basura, leche — hurled at Obama, bishops, priests, media, the Prietos, the Lopezes, “itong mga EU.” Threats included sisipain, sasampalin, papatayin ka, itatapon sa Pasig.
Then there were some weird bits about America being destroyed by multiracialism, or that US aid to Liberia was tied to allowing same sex marriage. But mainly it seemed a stream-of -consciousness rambling about himself – his obsession with drugs as the absolute root of all evil, his “simple guy from Davao” persona, his health, his “marami akong babae”, including some sly bragging about needing shots three times in one year for an unnamed condition that had the audience howling with laughter.
A mortifying spectacle indeed for any Filipino for whom the word “dignity” retains any meaning. But apparently huge fun for the many officials, women and men gathered there who laughed and seemed to delight in every vulgarity and obscenity. All smiles, they pressed around their president for what seemed like endless photo ops. Now that’s mortifying too, hordes of public officials without standards of propriety and decency.
Reflection during Lent should include how and why we have sunk this low.
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Author’s email: h.cecilia7@gmail.com
