Velez: What triggers you on Facebook

IT was just one word that shook everyone on Facebook: “Retribution.”

That word tweeted by Noynoy-Liberal apologist Leah Navarro in trying to explain why the earthquakes happened in the south of Mindanao, was enough to send Duterte supporters to a frenzy.

Another person, publicist Yoly Ong, who has worked with the Liberal Party, was also lashed out for jeering Duterte supporters to brace themselves from the quakes.

No question, these type of tweets are foul. But why do we need to get triggered? What drives us to hate people of different political colors?

I’ve become wary and weary about this sense of “right” that we defend our being “probinsyano.” That we claim pride of being “Mindanao” in this instance. Because I think this is a false divide and a false sense of pride and unity.

Barack Obama recently described how this generation likes to feel “woke” and cool by calling out people on social media. But where is the action to change, he asks.

That’s the perspective we need to take. Taking pride we called out “Manila” people doesn’t just make us “Mindanawons.” We’re just bashing two lousy people in Manila. Meanwhile, the rest of the country, from media to local government units (LGUs) to charity groups to kind people, are donating to the quake victims here. You have the mayor in Manila and the mayor in Pasig donating millions for the relief operations, or the movie star who lived up to her name Angel by personally purchasing and delivering relief goods in North Cotabato.

For that, can we still say Mindanao can stand alone in this time? When people come together during calamities, can we look at the positivity of things?

For that, let’s stop having that “bakuran” mentality and stop speaking for all of Mindanao. Because not everyone in Mindanao can say “peaceful kami sa Martial Law.” The Davao City LGU want to be “exempted” from that because it is discouraging tourists and investors. People of Marawi and the Lumad feel Martial Law uprooted them from their ancestral lands. Nongovernment organizations and relief agencies feel Martial Law is stopping compassion by a checkpoint.

Actually, Mindanao and the rest of the country have been fragmented because of others words like: “kill” and “bomb Lumad schools.” This should make us woke, because the divisions are distracting us from how the elite is dragging the poor down or China profiting from our land. Shouldn’t that trigger us? We need to pick these pieces back and find ourselves as a nation again.

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