MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/24 March) – News and commentaries on the ongoing impeachment trial of Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato C. Corona have drawn various reactions from readers. This appears to contradict observations that ordinary citizens are generally uninterested in the fate of the first High Court official to be impeached, as the web is alive with debates and discourses on how the trial has progressed in the Senate – and how it should end.
Given the highly-charged political atmosphere surrounding the trial it is to be expected that the reactions from many readers may sound vicious. Some have even gone to the extent of citing irrelevant issues or worse, attributing malice to the intent of the writers.
One MindaNews reader has resorted to this dirty tactic of imputing malice against me by implying that I am a paid hack of Malacanang. I wasn’t peeved; I was instead amused knowing that not a single soul in the Palace knows that I exist. Alias Donsupremo, the reader I am referring to, presumes too much apart from trying to make others believe he is not siding with any party in the impeachment.
No point arguing with Donsupremo to the level of verbal attrition. There are simply people who think that political writers face the PC monitor each day in exchange for favors from certain parties. Or maybe, he was actually alluding to himself as a possible media mobster commissioned by a major party in the impeachment trial to discredit arguments that are adverse to his patron.
One cannot hope to change an attitude founded on arrogance. Don. The favorite colonial era title that hacienderos loved to append to their names. Supremo. It means leader. No other words perhaps best describe the narcissism and feeling of superiority that afflicts our esteemed reader, although I would like to add that Andres Bonifacio, the Katipunan supremo, did not suffer from this psychological disorder. Now, who is being enslaved by an haciendero, at least in the realm of his subconscious?
An haciendero is my benefactor? Oh my, I did not shout “Ibagsak ang piyudalismo” during my younger years for nothing. My personal stand on large agricultural estates – Hacienda Luisita included – has not changed even if I am no longer marching in the streets.
Other readers might be interested to know where our faceless don, who wants to reign intellectually supreme, stand on the issue of agrarian reform. Let’s just hope he is not harping on the Hacienda Luisita case only because it serves as a weak spot of the current administration.
Let’s hope too that other readers who wish to share their views on the impeachment trial will do so without hiding their true identifies. Courage is a virtue only if it comes with a face. (MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. H. Marcos C. Mordeno can be reached at
hmcmordeno@gmail.com)
