Apologize, Damn You

I once got a good piece of advice, one that was contrary to what I’d always believed, to be completely honest about it, from Mr. Rene Q. Bas, the Editor-in-Chief of The Manila Times: “Don’t write when you’re angry.” It makes a certain amount of sense, particularly when writing for the public record, and particularly for someone who has a hair-trigger temper like mine – the pages of the fourth-largest daily paper in the world’s sixth-largest metropolitan area are not the sort of place one wants to say something he’s going to regret later.

There are, however, some things so infuriating that the rule must go right out the window, and more often than not in the past couple years, it’s been this chucklehead who’s been at the very center of them:

Your ruined historical landmark amuses me.

One of those infuriating things was President BS Aquino’s insistence, earlier this

week at a press conference with the Foreign Correspondents Association of the

Philippines (FOCAP), that he would not offer an apology to the people of Hong

Kong for the August 23, 2010 Manila Bus Massacre, saying that “I don’t think that is appropriate at this point in time,” in response to questions about his reaction to a resolution passed by the Manila City Council authorizing Mayor Joseph Estrada (who was not even Mayor at the time) to deliver a formal apology on behalf of the city to the people of Hong Kong.

And what was BS Aquino’s reasoning? “Our position is the act of one individual who is probably mentally unstable at that point in time should not be construed as the act of the entire country,” he said. “Legal backlash? There has to be a consideration. If we accept that it was, in effect, an act of the state then the idea also of compensation comes in—or reparations perhaps is the better legal term—comes into the picture.”

Ooh, fire.

You callous, insufferable little weasel. From the very beginning, Aquino, who couldn’t be assed to answer phone calls from then-Hong Kong leader Donald Tsang on the fateful day and suggested that it was the latter’s fault he couldn’t get through because he was “not following protocol”, has fallen over his own tongue to lay blame for the tragedy. It was Rolando Mendoza’s fault. It was the Manila Police District’s fault for bungling the rescue operation. It was the local media’s fault for compromising security.

Yes, all those things are true. But guess what? Rolando Mendoza, the poor decision-making commander on the scene, and the poorly-equipped and unready police assault team were all part of the PHILIPPINE NATIONAL POLICE. The media outlets who unwittingly broadcast important tactical arrangements and the indiscreetly violent arrest of Mendoza’s brother to the TV in the bus were PHILIPPINEnews organizations. The entire tragedy played out in the historic central park of THE CAPITAL OF THE PHILIPPINES. And it was followed up the next day by the insensitive behavior of at least a few of THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, though to the credit of a vast number of the rest of them, most were shocked and embarrassed by it:

I heard these girls caught all kinds of hell for this, which they should have, and I hope they learned something. I doubt the same could be said for Spanky McPhotobomb in the background, though.

In every possible sense of the notion, yes, Pnoy, it was a sin of the entire nation. A sin that the entire nation, save for you and the dozen or so other shitheads in that photo regretted quite sincerely, and for which hundreds if not thousands of them offered their personal, public apologies to the victims and their countrymen through Facebook, Twitter, and blogs.

But no, you can’t do that. “Oh, someone might sue us,” you whine. Well, they SHOULD DO EXACTLY THAT, you obstreperous toad. Especially when the official findings of both the Hong Kong and the PHILIPPINE governments were that, while Rolando Mendoza was individually responsible for killing the seven hostages who died, it was the bungled response of the authorities – you know, the ones that have both the words “Philippine” and “National” in their name and for whom you have command responsibility – that aggravated the situation and provoked him to a lethal reaction. If the survivors or the families of the victims want to sue, you suck it up and try to settle or take your licks. That’s how it works.

For God’s sake, you allowed the kidnapper and murderer of foreign visitors to go to his grave in a casket draped with the Philippine flag. And you’re still afraid to apologize, three years later, because there may be a “legal backlash”?

And this is the guy who presumes to lecture everyone on “How to be a Man”?

Sure, I shouldn’t write when I’m angry. But I could wait until the heat death of the universe, and I still wouldn’t be “not angry” about this. Now just imagine how the kids who wake up every morning in Hong Kong without parents, and parents who wake up every morning without children, and wives and husbands who wake up alone because of what happened here must feel.

Apologize, damn you. If there’s even a shred of humanity in you, apologize.