Manila Hostage Drama

Manuel L. Quezon III is a decent and intelligent man, this much is obvious. What’s wrong with him, however, is that he’s more decent than everyone else and he is possessed of intellectual properties very few Filipinos appreciate. (Filipinos love smart people but not the sort MLQIII is.)

His analysis of the hostage-taking of school kids (Inquirer, 3/29/07) reveals a kind of blindness to the reality of how most Filipinos are raised. You see, when one of the victims’ parent said that she sympathized with Ducat for what he did, it wasn’t because she wasn’t a decent woman. You see, unlike MLQIII, she was only being “real.”

I understand why Ducat put those children at risk. He had a point to make, he had access to them and, for a hostage-taker, children are the best hostages. They are easier to control than adults. As you must have seen, Ducat was at it alone. The only way to ensure that he could get his message across without hurting anyone was to kidnap children.

Even more important: I understand why a parent would seem incapable of being angry at Ducat. Being kidnapped by a grenade-toting guy is a vacation compared to being with parents who threaten their children not only with corporal punishment but also with death. I have friends who, while growing up, were beaten up so badly by their parents that fraternity hazing seemed like a cakewalk to them. I myself had a gun stuck to my face when I was nine years old. Don’t worry, this is normal in ordinary Filipino families. Violence and even the threat of death are typical Filipino parental techniques.

Well, typical for most of us. But not for MLQIII, apparently. Having kids exposed to mortal danger is nothing new in this country of bad public infrastructure, like overcrowded school facilities, and roads without sidewalks (our kids walk to school in the gutter in constant risk of being sideswiped by “kaskasero” [speedsters]).

I live in two worlds. The first is the Philippines where the democratic facade is propped up by behind-the-scenes murders of troublemakers, a world where a well-respected individual (like Ducat) always gets the benefit of the doubt and more, and where the poor and unconnected and the “disrespected” fear law enforcers and lawyers and priests as much as they fear rich people’s goons. The other world I live in is a world made up of “McGyver,” “Baywatch,” and, more significantly, the world of “The Wonder Years,” “L.A. Law,” “Picket Fences,” and, now, Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien.

One world is becoming as repressive of the poor and the unconnected as Burma is; the other is what Americans like to call “dramatic” and “comedic” entertainment.

BRIAN BROTARLO (via e-mail)