WHEN incoming presidential spokesman Harry Roque theatened to hurl hollow blocks at President Rody Duterte’s critics, it seems he was only following a long stone-throwing tradition in the Bible.
Even Ecclesiastes talked of a time to throw stones and a time to gather stones.
Ecclesiastes would have talked of hurling hollow blocks if there were hollow blocks at that time.
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The most well-known stone-throwing incident in the Bible involves David and the giant Goliath.
David flung the stone that hit and sank on Goliath’s forehead, killing the Philistine.
A teacher once asked a student what was the lesson he learned from the story. The student said, “When someone throws a stone at you, duck.”
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Even the great Filipino diplomat, the late Carlos P. Romulo, considered throwing stones, although figuratively, a duty.
A story goes that the Soviet deputy foreign minister Andrei Vichinsky sneered at Romulo’s credentials during the third United Nations General Assembly in Paris in 1948.
He told Romulo, “You are just a small man from a small country.” Romulo answered, “It is the duty of the little Davids of this world to fling pebbles of truth in the eyes of blustering Goliaths and force them to behave.”
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Would Harry Roque’s hollow blocks do the same to the president’s stubborn critics?
He, however, welcomes criticisms from members of mainstream media, many of whom he had represented in libel cases.
Don’t expect any indiscriminate hurling of hollow blocks.
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But many are now hesitant to throw stones after Jesus told the mob, “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”
So they now say that if someone throws a stone at you, throw a loaf of bread at him in return.
This must be a good advertisement for the bakery business.