I’VE been eagerly looking forward to playing for my Philippine audience ever since we added Manila to our tour of the Pacific this coming February. So it saddens me to cancel our concert there. I don’t think of my music as being particularly political but sometimes one is called upon to make a political stand.

“The scourge of addiction is a worldwide problem and does serious harm, not only to the addict but to our society. For a sovereign nation to prosecute and punish, under the law, those responsible for the illegal trade in drugs is, of course, understandable, even commendable; but recent reports from the Philippines of summary executions of suspected offenders without trial or judicial process are deeply concerning and unacceptable to anyone who loves the rule of law.

“I offer my heartfelt apologies for any inconvenience or disappointment this may cause my Filipino friends but I must now announce that I will not be performing in Manila this February. All tickets sold will, of course, be fully refunded. I am grateful to my promoter, Renen de Guia, for his patience and understanding.

“This decision will, in no way, affect my plans to perform as announced in Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand.”

Above is the announcement from multi-award winning singer-songwriter James Taylor, on the cancellation of the Manila leg of his latest concert tour. I was quite looking forward to James Taylor’s visit to Manila. We used to sing his music when sat around campfires, discussing protest actions about the Marcos dictatorship. As a child of the dictatorship, I consider his music very familiar, and now that we are once again in the throes of something that is fast shaping up to be as draconian, I was hoping to reminisce and gain strength from the music that I once associated with the struggle.

But sadly, it was not to be. Mr. Taylor, through his announcement above, explained that due to “recent reports from the Philippines of summary executions of suspected offenders without trial or judicial process,” and that this is “deeply concerning and unacceptable to anyone who loves the rule of law,” he felt duty-bound to make his objection known, and the best way to make this known was to skip the Philippine leg of his tour.

Of course, the usual apologists are up in arms over this latest setback for their leader. Of course, the usual ad-hominem and inane attacks against Mr. Taylor followed – that the man is a has-been, that the man does not know wherefrom he speaks, even...that the man is a drug-user himself, and so is sensitive to anything that tackles this scourge and malady.

The problem is, Taylor is not the only one. And neither is this time the first time.

Barack Obama, Ban Ki-Moon, all those UN rapporteurs, the ambassadors and officials of Australia, the United States and the European Union – all of them were “wrong” about the current war on drugs. All of them were “wrong” to call out the present leadership for the mysterious killing and disappearances, and even the allegedly clumsily-staged assassination of a town mayor, where the attempt to cover up evidence could have been better if only the perpetrators were fans of the CSI TV series.

Sensible people, Mr. Taylor included, have all unanimously made their feelings about recent events known. There are now so many of them. Surely, they can’t all be wrong? Shall we just continue to ignore all of them, and sing “Rockabye Sweet Baby James” to our president, while our reputation as a civilized society continues to go down the drain?

(http://asbbforeignexchange.blogspot.com & http://twitter.com/asbbatuhan)