Pinoy poli-talk
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August 16, 2004
THE mayor of Valencia City should be ashamed of himself. Imagine a local chief executive and a former police major at that saying that he was leaving the fate of criminals in the hands of vigilantes. Did Jose Galario Jr. understand what he just said?
First, it was an admission that he, as the chief executive of the Bukidnon city, was a failure in terms of keeping his turf peaceful and orderly. It means he is palpak in his peace and order campaign and thus, the need for vigilantes. Second, it was an admission that Valencia has a vigilante group and that the recent murders there happened right under Galario's nose.
The moment a mayor starts to think that summary executions are the antidote to crime, it means he failed to keep his promise=--his oath of office--to always uphold the law while protecting his people.
Good mayors make sure criminals are jailed and not slaughtered by other criminals. How does one solve crime with another crime? The logic is simple: one crime + one crime = two crimes.
Only bad mayors allow shortcuts--they are either too lazy to sit down with their police chiefs to strategize and study what laws they can use against criminals or simply do not know what to do.
Remember what the FBI did to Al Capone? Did they "salvage" the man? No. They used tax evasion laws to pin down the brutal and evasive crime czar of Chicago.
Or was Galario merely trying to score pogi points by borrowing and modifying Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte's "Dirty Harry" pronouncements?
The "Walking Tall" propaganda may have worked for Duterte but I doubt if a lot of people in Valencia would buy the crap. Macho pronouncements like that somehow lose their magic when used by poor copycats.
Cagayan de Oro's Dongkoy Emano has long been trying to do a Duterte but his efforts simply don't produce results. It's as simple as a Panchito can never be a Dolphy. A copycat can never be the original.
Proof to this, it took only one word--"Charot"--for Duterte to demolish the image Emano built for himself. Pressed for comment on Emano, Duterte told reporters in Davao: "Charot." That was it. Emano's macho image collapsed like the World Trade Center towers.
The "moral lesson" here is: when you're ugly, don't pretend to be cute (not to be taken literally).
There's something about us, Filipinos. We can easily spot an original from a copycat. We seem to have a dislike for people without a sense of originality. And we have this tendency to laugh at copycats, especially the poor ones.
Duterte's lines have been overused I don't think they still work even in Davao. For instance, if a mayor says "These criminals are scums of the earth and beasts who don't deserve to be called human beings", what the politician really means is, "I am a macho man, I'm tough, vote for me!"
Politics really does strange things to politicians that even when they make serious pronouncements, they sound funny. Which brings me to other funny things politicians in this country are fond of saying. They say one thing but mean another.
Here are some Pinoy poli-talk phrases and their probable translation (borrowed from the Election Lexicon published by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism) and see if you can spot your mayor or governor or congressman:
* "If the people want me..."
Probable translation: "I want to run."
* "I am my own man/woman."
Probable translation: "I am sure of one thing: my gender."
* "We're still studying that."
Probable translation: "I have no idea what you're talking about. (Where the hell is my spokesman?)"
* "I have done the most in..."
Probable translation: "You mean you still don't like me?"
And here's probably the most abused line and its translation:
* "Pulitika 'yan (It's politically motivated)" or "I challenge you."
Translation: "I'm so tired of talking to myself"; also, "Give me a chance to confuse the issues some more."
Pabilib. Gaya-gaya.
Most of them can't even be original in their poor attempts at deceiving people. Politicians.
Pastilan.
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