Sun.Star Essay: To punch or not to

Saturday, July 16, 2011

“SARA and the Azkals score on Yahoo! Search,” says the news in the Internet.

This was last week. The winning over Sri Lanka in playoffs for 2014 World Cup Asia by the Philippine men’s national football team (Azkals) was the most read about in the Internet. The July 1 incident in Barangay Rosemarie Agdao in Davao City came as the third most-read.

Have something to report? Tell us in text, photos or videos.

The second most-read news was the news about Andi Eigenmann, daughter of actress Jaclyn Jose, and her pregnancy, and the child’s father is, guess who.

The rest of the top ten most-read about included Kylie Padilla, Aljur Abrenica, Maricel Soriano, Floyd Mayweather Jr.

But the incident of a woman mayor, looking strong, punching a sheriff in the face is very interesting to a country that has always been home to free women.

And the July 1 incident in Davao City is still developing, media is watching out. Mayor Sara took a leave although she’s back in office. Complaints have been filed. Even the Integrated Bar of the Philippines is doing its own investigation.

As if it’s not enough that the news, together with the Azkal victory over Sri Lanka, grabbed so much attention, people are still talking about it.

In the scene of a demolition of some houses in Barangay Rosemarie Agdao about two weeks ago, Mayor Sara had asked the sheriff to postpone the demolition of houses of illegal residents in two hours but Sheriff Abe Andres went on with it. When the mayor arrived at the scene, a number of people were reported to have been hurt in the demolition and she was angry. She asked the sheriff to come near her, then punched him in the face right off, more than once, without him striking back.

A few days ago, I heard the news on TV about the complaint filed before the Office of the Ombudsman by the Sheriffs’ Confederation of the Philippines, Inc. (Scophil) against Mayor Sara for mauling Andres. The news showed the formal signing of the group of the complaint and I took notice of the group shown as being all male. I thought I was seeing a smirk in the face of one of them. Then the newscaster referred to the guys as “kabaro,” which could refer to male and female clothes and could mean a sense of a gender issue, oooppps!

The Davao news that blew up is worth attention for it has all the aspects of authority and the gender issue gone awry, the way people see it differently from all sides, making the incident one of top human interest, especially for Filipinos.

A one-way score between two authorities, the news could enter the list of official brawls, sort of.

There was the “massive brawl” in Ukraine last year where parliamentarians went into a fistfight (or “fist of power”). Such fights are also referred to as Gorilla warfare. A cyber news urged people to watch videos “of the body politic turning into body blows.”

Then there were the brawls in Afghanistan. In Kabul, the parliament was recently a witness to a fight between two female Afghan MPs.

In South Korea, a brawl is said to happen every nine months in the National Assembly. In India in 1997, politicians grabbed microphones and chairs over a political issue. In the Alabama Senate in the US, a fight broke out over an issue when someone called another a “son of a bitch.” Senators threw punches at each other.

It’s no wonder the Davao incident still simmers, although not quite in front of cameras all the time. For their view of it, bloggers ask to be read.

The open forums and “good reads” say, “And the mayor was right to have acted in defense of the people.”

“Mali to punch someone.”

“I wish she (Mayor Sara) had more control.”

“Go, girl!”

"Clear sign that there is something wrong with our society. We can't even decide if punching someone is good or bad."

(ecuizon@gmail.com)