By Robert B. Roque, Jr.
Because last Sunday’s spectacle at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum was a sham of a boxing match, the two protagonists — Davao City Acting Mayor Baste Duterte and PNP Chief Gen. Nicolas Torre III — plunged into shame.
For Torre, it was enough gamesmanship that he put on in response to a foul-mouthed Duterte. After punching into the mitts and jogging in the rain, he could’ve stopped there and proved to be the bigger man.
He didn’t have to strut into the ring to have his gloved hands raised and claim a belt. That was a mockery of the sport of boxing, the sweet science. It was a cringy end to what every well-versed Filipino news follower knew from the get-go to be purely performance politics.
The DILG and the PNP were aware that Baste would be a no-show because he had filed a travel authority a month earlier and left for Singapore on July 25. It’s disappointing that even Secretary Jonvic Remulla played along, so the nation could see our leaders acting like pay-per-view clowns.
So, the only redeeming value was the funds raised from the farce. That amount, of course, was raised on top of government resources and man-hours of cops who should’ve been in the streets catching criminals rather than playing extras in a circus.
No points were won for either side in my eyes.
Torre, who serves the ends of the Marcos administration, merely played the undercard in a cheap political spectacle.
Baste was exposed for what he truly is: a coward and just all talk.
And for all the theatrics, not a single issue that truly matters to Filipinos got a punch in.
Duterte rally
For many years, I pored over news texts for hours as a former editor of Tempo. I’ve been retired for a good 13 years, although I still can’t help it whenever I catch classic examples of misused quotation marks that twist the intended meaning.
I came across one in a major daily just this past weekend: “Free Duterte Rally” — which, as written, reads like other Duterte rallies were paid.
It should have been: “Free Duterte” Rally — to make clear the demonstration was calling for the release of the detained former president.
A pair of misplaced quotation marks can change everything. Or maybe it’s the long-hidden truth slipping out — that Dutertes don’t rally crowds, they rent them?
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