IT’S so tempting to rant about traffic in the metro, considering it’s one of my favorite topics. It’s so easy to blame the snarl on enforcers, motorists, public utility vehicles and pedestrians (and if you’re the Aquino administration, on former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo). But I won’t. Rant and blame, that is. Not today, being the day of rest. And it being Lent and all that. After all, I am a good-abiding Roman Catholic. (Dramatic pause.)
I’m also tempted to touch the subject of the Mamasapano massacre, perhaps to scoff at its many plot twists and turns, to tsk-tsk at the elements of hubris at play with some of the protagonists and antagonists, to lament the “victory” that turned out to be pyrrhic. I mean, who wouldn’t want to be entangled in this modern-day Filipino tragedy? Almost everyone with political aspirations next year is. Right? But no. Not me.
Never mind Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama’s warning to city employees who test or will test positive of drugs. He said they should be dismissed immediately. “Even if they are being identified only by hearsay or by eavesdropping, there should be no mercy,” the mayor said.
I thought: Way to go! However, he then said he would look into Cosap’s suggestion to send “erring” employees to rehab… Oh.
The mayor also went on a rampage when he received reports about cops coddling drug personalities. He wanted them out, he fumed. Not transferred. Not reassigned. They’d just end up doing the same illegal activity, he said.
Again, I thought: Attaboy! But Rama went on to say that if these “rotten cops” are to be given new employment, there must be conclusive evidence that they are no longer involved in any chicanery… Oh.
You know what, I already wrote about the City distributing free sterile needles to addicts to curb the spread of HIV-Aids so I don’t want to write about illegal drugs now. People might think I approve of its use. And I don’t.
And who would have thought that a line from “Mourning Bride,” a 1697 play by English playwright William Congreve, would still ring true today? “Heaven has no rage, like love to hatred turned, nor hell a fury, like a woman scorned” aptly described the actions of Ronda Vice Mayor Jonnah John Ungab’s wife when she went ballistic and vented her anger on a hapless Toyota Vios and its window, using her pick-up truck and a baseball bat. But hey, since the vice mayor chooses to remain mum on the matter, who am I to open my mouth? Although, the latest word out on the street is that the vice mayor’s camp allegedly offered to settle the case.
Which leads me to the next topic I won’t be discussing, the apparent proliferation of a fake sex-enhancing food supplement in the province that prompted NBI 7 agents to raid three establishments--two in Cebu City and one in Lapu-Lapu—earlier in the week. Mind you, I don’t want to be glib on such a sensitive subject, not when more than ego is at stake. People can die if they take the counterfeit stuff, which can cause liver damage and irregular heartbeat. According to the report, agents, before the operation, bought samples of the alleged fake tablets and tested its authenticity. Hmmm. On whom, I wonder.
And what’s this about another “possession” at the Sudtongan Elementary School in Barangay Basak, Lapu-Lapu City? School officials were forced to suspend classes after 10 students went hysterical in separate incidents. Some students and teachers blamed spirits for their sudden wild behavior. Apparently, the spirits were not too happy when a deep well at the back of the school was opened. Others said the spirits may have been angered after a tree was cut down to give way for the construction of a school building. Really?
But no. I won’t give in to the temptation to rant. Nor will I play the blame game for such inanities. Today, I only want to think of leaving my car at home and taking the cab to the mall to watch the latest movie. After all, the flagdown rate nationwide will soon be P30.