Lip-service
PERHAPS THE WEIRDEST thing on the news this week was Rodrigo Duterte’s promise to donate P1,000 to charity each time he threw a cuss word. In a tone of near-humility, Duterte told reporters how he visited the bishops of Davao who reprimanded him for his foul language and deficient values. Duterte said he accepted the
Elusive Peace
The “peace process” includes this very phase we are in right now and involves every Filipino, not just those from Mindanao. The negative reactions are part of it; this process did not end – should not end – with the drafting of the BBL and the current inflexible campaign for its acceptance. Does the OPAPP truly ask us to buy peace in the Bangsamoro at the price of discord in the rest of the country? Can it in conscience dismiss the fulminating tensions brought about by the BBL as mere “anti-peace” sentiments? This dangerously reduces the issue and pits Filipino against Filipino in a morass of mindless, impassioned name-calling: “anti-Muslim,” “terrorist,” “warmonger,” “enemy of peace.” This is hardly consensus-building.