LAST Saturday, I found myself seated at the same table with members of Cebu City’s opposition slate at the birthday party of Chester Cokaliong’s mother, Gregoria. I was sandwiched between mayoralty candidate Edgardo Labella and his campaign manager, Cebu City Councilor Joey Daluz. A seat farther was former Mayor Michael Rama, Labella’s running mate.
I expected politics to dominate the discussion in a setting like that, but to my surprise, it was spoken about sparingly, such as when Councilor Jun Alcover revealed that former Speaker Prospero Nograles, who died earlier that day, was one of the reasons for the reelectionist councilor’s tiff with President Duterte.
Maybe, they were tired from the campaign and found a respite in Chester’s grand celebration for his mother. They didn’t show it, though, except for Labella and Rama whose eyes looked like they were ready to doze off anytime.
On another occasion earlier in the day, I asked Labella what he thought about the supposed threats that Osmeña’s allies had been getting over the last few days. He responded with an unbelieving look as if saying, seriously, are you taking these claims seriously?
Unfortunately, there are people who do (take the reports seriously). If the idea behind the allegations of strafing and other acts of intimidation was to create the image of Osmeña as an underdog, he may have hit the jackpot.
Attribute that to an unsuspecting public, people who are too lazy to dissect the reports that they hear or read. Beset by their pitiable lack of desire to inquire, they are perfect targets for Goebbelsian tactics: repeat a lie a thousand times until it becomes the truth.
The following quote that I found in the web describes the proposition quite aptly: Perhaps in no place is this principle more palpable than in politics. More so, during the times of elections, when the air is thickly polluted with colorful half-truths and Goebbelsian lies by politicians of all hues.
I am not saying that the strafing did not occur because obviously they did. But who pulled the trigger? Who could have planned them? What was/is the game plan? These are the areas that we need to consider seriously before we make an opinion. Doing otherwise makes us vulnerable to half-truths.
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USC Law strikes again! For the second straight year, the USC School of Law and Governance dominated the bar examinations, capturing four of the top 10 places in last year’s bar. It used to be that Manila’s law schools lorded over their provincial counterparts. Not anymore. USC showed that last year’s sterling performance was not a fluke.
Congratulations, Dean Joan Largo! I graduated from another law school but as a Cebuano, I am very proud of USC and your achievement.