NO HOLDS BARRED

The new ‘brave’

By Armida Siguion-Reyna

The name on everybody’s lips since news of his light plane’s crashing late last Saturday afternoon is of course Jessie Robredo’s, but even that may very well be sullied by haters and the trolls out to wish ill for anyone remotely associated with Benigno S. Aquino III.

“Marami po kaming umaasa na ang pagbabago sa bansang ito hindi lamang manggagaling sa mga taong may tungkulin at hinalal, kundi sa mga ordinaryong mamamayan na ang kanyang pananaw hindi lamang po sa pangkasalukuyan kundi para sa darating na panahon na ang mga tao, mga anak po nating umaasa na ang liwanag po ng bansang ito ay malapit nang makamit. Maraming salamat po muli, magpapaalam na po ako, maraming salamat,” is what the Department of Interior and Local Government secretary said before he boarded the plane, but will the new “brave” praise him?

Twelve-year-old Jill Robredo feels guilty over what happened to her dad, no thanks to insensitive and constant media repetition that it was for her that the former Naga mayor took the non-commercial flight, but will the new “brave” give a hoot that she is grieving? Not likely, as after all, her dad is counted as one of the “yellow army.”

Yes, the “new” brave, also known as “haters.” Matapang lang sa internet, and judging from the way they write and most especially their inability to use their real names, hitsurang nungka sa buong buhay nilang nakapag-rally sa kalye, nakapagsulong ng protesta, or have at least extended help to those in political peril — from both left and right of the political spectrum — hayan ngayon at katsang nang katsang behind pseudonyms.

You know who you are.

Batu-bato sa langit, ang tamaan e ano kung magalit?

I am told some are actually paid to do so. Out for hire by politicians currently being hit for one reason or another, as a group the new “brave” go out to attack columnists to protect valued clients. With the senatorial elections just around the corner, its just about the season to be jolly, time to deck the halls with boughs of holly, as the song goes. Fa la la, la la la.

Then there are those who simply have nothing better to do, so they while their time away by reveling in their idiocy. For instance, when here on this same space I congratulated my granddaughter Cris Villonco for being sole nominee, and therefore winner, of Philstage Gawad Buhay’s Female Lead Performance In A Musical, for Noli Me Tangere (The Musical) and then announced that she was going to come out as Julia, the lead in Walang Sugat as directed by her Tito Carlitos Siguion-Reyna — good heavens, may nagmarunong na nagkumentong there are a lot of talented performers daw who can’t be cast, ang swerte raw ni Cris na naging bida lang daw because her uncle was directing.

By such mindless criticism, the hater revealed more about himself and how little he knew. I mean, there I was, lauding the young woman for on her own getting a major award, in a production that had nothing to do with family, na kung baga, nag-audition siya ro’ng siya mag-isa niya, and for all the many repeat performances carried the role without an understudy — pagkatapos sasabihin ng gunggong na iyon that she only got the lead in another production dahil tiyuhin niya ang director?

It’s just as well that Cris didn’t pay the pseudo-critic any attention, so ayun, naglaho nang parang bula, but so very quickly that a close family friend opined whoever that was could have been someone we actually knew, someone perhaps envious of the breaks Cris was getting, kaya nagpaka-anonymous na lang sa paninira.

Oh, the bullies on the Internet.

I’ve been informed that Robert Blair Carabuena, who’d been haled to the “Facebook Court of Justice” after having been inadvertently video’d by an intrepid TV-5 news reporter mauling MMDA traffic aide Saturnino Fabros — people actually posted his cell phone number and e-mail address with proclamations such as “Harass this man on Facebook!” e hindi ba bullying rin iyon?

The original bully was bullied and wished dead, how does another wrong make the first wrong right, when really, the sanest approach after finding out who he was and locating his whereabouts was to seriously propose that he go through some anger management program, pero wala.

While it’s great that many rushed to support the underdog Fabros, sa totoo lang, there’s a lot more to be angrier about but dumadaan lang, lumalampas lang.

Such as when Makati Medical Center Corporate Communications director Marc Funelas clarified that heart doctor Robert Anastacio’s statements regarding the urgency of allowing Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to go abroad for a second opinion were his and his alone and the hospital had nothing to do with it.

The clarification to my mind had to come to settle the confusion arising from a cardiologist making great commentary about slipped metal discs connected to Mrs. Arroyo’s earlier operations, e oo nga naman, ano ang papel ni Anastacio na um-epal sa trinabaho ng mga neurologists and orthopedics ng St. Luke’s Hospital?

Rightly or wrongly, the general feeling is that this again is a script, another trick from GMA’s camp to enable her to slip out of the country pending the filing of yet another case against her. May nagalit ba kay Dr. Anastacio sa FB with the same intensity of anger leveled at Carabuena? Not one, and this is strange, especially considering it’s the country that’s the underdog in this match — at hindi si Gloria.

Benjamin Abalos has just been released. Okay lang, apparently, to FB activists and bloggers, as if he’s done minimal damage compared to Carabuena.

Then there’s also the Ampatuan trial that’s taking the longest to shape up, and again, walang kuyog rising in unison to ensure the hastening of the trial, na para bang walang 57 journalists and other innocents massacred.

It’s selective bullying, methinks, that the cybernet do-gooders are doing. O, sige, huwag nang gamitin ang bullying, but call it by any other name, perhaps selective moralizing is more like it.

It’s easier for the new “brave” to continuously harp on Juan Ponce Enrile’s role in Martial Law, for them to attack this “matandang mataray” and her family, or even declare Dolphy unfit of the National Artist awards because the truth is, sila ang totoong duwag.

Sticks and stones may hurt my bones but words will never hurt me. I’ve never, as in never, in my lifetime of quarreling with others hid behind a false name. I fought even when I had to fight alone.

(For comments, write to armida114@yahoo.com)