Sanchez: Came as one

FINALLY, the country is on track. Filipinos got their acts together. The hashtag says it all: #wewonasone.

We did win some gold, silver or bronze medals. That’s a huge improvement. We didn’t have to scrape the bottom of the barrel.

But despite miscues and excuses, and yes, the ubiquitous charges of corruptions, Dutertards and Noytards and whatever Tards or Turds, we managed to show the world that we are a united people when the pinch came.

They’re like my brother and sister. They squabble many times over so many petty issues. I had to patch up their problems.

But when outsider interests get into the picture, they become allies.

Most of the opposition from the national media, senators and congresspeople, and civil society applauded the grand opening of the Southeast Asian Games 2019. I did, too.

So hurrah to all of us. We all became winners. We all deserve a pat in the back.

However, I would advise Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano to refrain from attacking anyone—from media (the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines) to unnamed PR outfits whom he accused as purveyors of fake and negative SEA Games news. If he cannot pinpoint so-called “saboteurs” of the SEA Games 2019, he ends weaving tall tales laced with innuendoes.

He blamed at least four Facebook pages and websites and said he will file cases of libel and cyber libel.

Cayetano better be specific, though. I’m an active Facebooker, and sometimes echo the criticisms on the way SEA Games preparations were handled. Will I be in the crosshairs of a witch-hunt?

And that solves nothing. We end with an Aesop Fable story of the boy who cried wolf and sent people on not so merry wild goose chases.

Come on guys, we’re adults. We have long stop believing in Santa Claus and in the stories of the Grimm Brothers, Hans Christian Andersen and in Filipino folklore such as Si Malakas at Si Maganda. (As an aside, though, many Filipino adults believe in aswang and tikbalang. Many of us still grapple with childhood night terrors.)

The same with President Rodrigo Duterte. To be fair, he clarified that his earlier comment that Cayetano is “innocent” was just his opinion but is not immune from a probe. We just have to take his word for it. For now, that is.

Let’s heed what Ecclesiastes 3 says: “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.”

SEA Games for now, an impartial probe later when the national frenzy of just hosting the SEA Games is over. That seems like a prudent tack.

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