Why can we not get angry?

Our capacity for not getting angry can be a virtue. But it can also be a vice. Corruption has continued and has become worse because our people did not know how to get angry with corruption and corrupt officials.

They would rather enjoy laughter, even if they are hit.

The President has been called evil allegedly by a member of her Cabinet. But spinmasters have trivialized the charge by spinning jokes about it.

One is the report that Albay Gov. Joey Salceda, the President’s closest ally called her the “luckiest bitch.” Then he apologized. And people laughed. The President did not get mad. She also laughed.

Bitch is a derogatory word. Although it means a female dog, it is often used negatively as “son of a bitch.” Or S.O.B. We denounce GMA for her errors and her sins but it’s unfair to call her a bitch. What will that make of Rep. Mikey Arroyo and his brother Rep. Dato Arroyo?

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Another joke was made by convicted President Joseph Estrada. I believe this was also from Malacañang’s spinmaster.

The joke was that First Gentleman Mike Arroyo, after his open heart surgery was told by his spiritual adviser to hear no evil, see no evil, and speak no evil.

But Mike told the priest, how can that be when I see my wife everyday?

The story on how Estrada won the presidency is a story of his so-called “Eraptions,” jokes about his bumbling comments on anything, even to the point of showing him a fool.

People laughed at the jokes and voted Estrada.

By the way, the see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil is not a Western idea. This is the legend of the Three Wise Monkeys curved over the door of Sacred Stable in Nikko, Japan in the 17th century.

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Have you noted that among the people of the world, the Japanese are the best examples of hearing, seeing, or speaking no evil?

Their evil get a samurai, look up to heaven and push it in his stomach in a suicide, called “hara kiri.”

If government officials are stealing people’s money, it is because they follow what George Bernard Shaw once wrote that “lack of money is the root of all evil.” GBS should have written also that excess money is also the root of all evil.

Look at Deputy Executive Secretary Manuel Gaite. He is hounded also as an evil for having half a million pesos to “loan” to Jun Lozada. At first he claimed it was his money. But probably knowing that excess money is also the root of evil, he was quoted to have said, it came from private sources.

No one has so far admitted he owns the money. This amount should be given to the campaign for truth.

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I agree with the majority of the Bishops, including our own Vicente Navarra that the President should not step down but work out to straighten the government and rid it of corruption. But she can do that only when there is enough pressure.

This means rallies and demonstrations must continue.

And we must know everything we have to know with also the filing of cases against those involved.

Who knows we might see more crying scenes yet. When Jun Lozada testified in the Senate inquiry, he cried. That made him more credible.

The other day, his assistant, now Philforest program development manager Erwin Santos also testified in an investigation. He also cried.

This open lachrymal show seems to be the style in the NBN investigation. The other day, too, when the news came out the President was tagged an evil, her classmates at the Assumption also met the television crews. And they also cried strongly stating GMA is not evil. That she is good and even helpful when they were students.

Not only that. The other day, too, Lozada’s wife, Violeta, testified in the Court of Appeal for the writ of amparo. She also cried.

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Gaite will also be made to testify in the Senate inquiry. To save himself and win sympathy he should also cry. Even Romy Neri. Did he say the President is evil? No, he was reported to have said lately. What he said, according to him, was that the President is no evil.

O.K. But people will believe him only if he cries.

Is crying bad? No! People cry when they are happy. They also cry when they are sad. Lovers cry. Friends cry. Everybody cries.

We cry for something.

But, to those criers, don’t cry for yourself. Cry for the Philippines. Cry for the people who have long suffered.

Many years ago, there was a popular opera made into a movie about Evita Peron, wife of strong man Juan Peron of Argentina.

The song in the opera should be sung at heart by our witnesses who plan to cry. “Don’t cry for me, Argentina,/ The truth is I never left you/ All through my wild days, my mad experience, I kept my promise/ Don’t keep your distance.”

That is the chorus. I don’t know the other parts. Sing that and sing it for the Philippines.*

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