WITH every televised Senate investigation comes the realization that indeed, this is all about entertaining ourselves, even if what it really does to a number of us is drive us to anger. But that’s how it is when we watch movies, right? We cry, we get angry, we scare ourselves, and we call it entertainment.
In those hours that we lose ourselves in the stories, we rarely give a glimpse at reality. We are hypnotized by what’s on the screen.
Thus, we groaned, moaned, and cursed while listening to Senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla blame President Benigno C. Aquino III for his vote to impeach Chief Justice Renato Corona in retrospect, while our fellow Filipinos in Butuan, Cagayan de Oro, Davao Oriental, and other coastal and riverside towns and cities pray to the gods there be to spare them from the rampaging waters.
Now, they are bringing in alleged rice smuggler David Tan/David Bangayan, or whoever he is. This will be greater entertainment for sure, because when rice smuggling is mentioned, on center-stage is our very own Davao City Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte and the couple of females -- Justice Secretary Leila de Lima and Human Rights Commissioner Etta Rosales -- twitting him, to either shut up (as if he’s hogging the television more than the one telling him to shut up) or act like a mayor (as if the person saying so had ever been mayor).
That’s okay, for as long as we know we are entertaining ourselves, and never allow ourselves to be led out of the real concerns of our country and our people.
The demand for accountability and real public service should never be hushed down just because we are all glued to our television screens. The cry for justice should always ring loud and clear, whatever it is we are doing, because only then will we ensure that we are heard as a people who truly believe that the “daang matuwid” should include sweeping away all the corrupt and the incompetent.