NAAWAN, Misamis Oriental (MindaNews / 08 May) – He was fuming mad like a raging bull, charging the network with this and that crime, and swore to high heaven or low hell to padlock it by any and all means. Thus, his Solicitor General solicited the Supreme Court via quo warranto the closure of the network. And wanting to please their owners, his lapdogs in Congress wagged their tails and sat down and shitted on the bills to renew the network’s franchise. The franchise was allowed to lapse. The National Telecommunication Commission issued the Cease and Desist order, forcing ABS-CBN off the air.
If he were in twitter his tweet would likely be “as I told you”. He cannot be less happy. But the drama does not simply end here. The script foretells a much happier ending for the scriptwriter.
Congress now will hasten to pass a bill and he will gladly sign it into law at no time at all. This makes him a magnanimous forgiving savior of ABS-CBN and of its thousands of employees.
What wonderful respite at this time when his regime sags from China’s increasing aggression in the West Philippine Sea, the coronavirus invasion, and the hypocritical assistance given us by his most favored ally in curbing the pandemic; and when his ill-conceived response to the pandemic suffered from incoherent ground policies and dismal strategies, now ushering prospects as scary, if not more, than the dreaded disease.
But here’s the saving grace for the Duterte regime in this pandemic.
It is in admitting the truth, historically inscribed in RA 11469, the Bayanihan Act to heal as One, that under its watch 18 million Filipino families or 90M of the 110M (82 %) of the population of the country have become the poorest of the poor, contrary to the robust and rosy economy it has painted in the last 3 years.
The truth shall set you free. No one lives forever in deceit.
(MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. William R. Adan, Ph.D., is retired professor and former chancellor of Mindanao State University at Naawan, Misamis Oriental, Philippines.)
