pump bullets into
another politician? Expected when leaders belong to opposite political camps
Yet each -- governor and national legislator -- can do things more or better than the other can. Efforts can fuse, mutually complement.
Frasco said, Let’s work together. Guv Pam could say, Why only now. People may weigh in, If not now, when; so it’s “tuloy ang away”?
It’s a community, represented by the local legislature, publicly saying,
“We don’t like you. Your’e not wanted here.”
Filipino LGUs have come to love tagging a person who offends them “persona non grata,” Latin for “unwelcome person.”
Even though the declaration metes out no punishment and does not send the offender to jail or slap him or her with a fine or days of community labor.
“Persona non grata” in the Philippines is expression of community sentiment -- disapproval of a person’s actions -- but not legally binding. It means a person is “declared unwelcome or not acceptable in a specific locality.”
The declaration in effect says, “We are displeased by what you’ve done or said. We do not like you.” But it does not expel the person branded or tagged non grata or sanction him. The offender is not barred from from entering or staying in the town or city whose local government issued the declaration.
It’s “not a political statement” and it does not make the “offender” a criminal. It is not what it means elsewhere: a declaration that can lead to the expulsion of a diplomat or anyone representing a country for an act offensive to the host or its people.
Local government legislatures have learned to use “persona non grata” to denounce an act or acts that assault community sense of right or wrong, especially when the behavior is offensive to the locality’s honor or reputation or way of life.
In the form of a resolution to express a city’s or town’s condemnation of behavior of anyone, not necessarily a visitor or guest.
Jimenez town in Misamis Occidental declared a vlogger, Christina Medalla, “persona non grata” for desecrating a church by spitting its font of holy water. Davao City did not tag Vice Ganda persona non grata, for satirizing ex-President Rody Duterte on national TV.
The alleged desecrator in Jimenez is sanctioned. But not entertainer Vice Ganda -- and, most likely, not also the blogger who faked the news and concocted the Davao City Council resolution.
Councilor Mihrel Senatin shot Vice Mayor Julio Estelloso in the latter’s office in Ibajay, Aklan, last Aug. 8. Nine times, news reports said, inflicting 18 entry and exit wounds, mostly in the chest and back.
Political rivalry? Personal grudge? In his jail cell, Senatin said the vice mayor had “acted indifferently towards him the past few days.” Not true, Ibajay Mayor Jose Miguel Miraflores said.
It could be a mental issue, Ibajay police said. Expanding list of reasons for politicians to kill one another.