If Congress pushes through with its threat to air the so-called sex video of Sen. Leila De Lima as part of their investigation into her alleged impropriety and links to the illegal drug trade, then this country would have sunk to a new all-time low in terms of profanity and obscenity both verbal, figurative and what-else-is-there.
As of this writing, it has yet to be done, but this early, President Rodrigo Duterte supposedly watched the video and is said to have been disgusted by it. Something tells me that even fake news websites won’t touch it with a 10-foot pole.
Whoever thought about doing that or even threatened to do that — Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre, I guess, in retaliation for De Lima’s insult to his sporting a wig — probably thought that since President Duterte made it de rigeuer, or the norm, to hurl insults during public speaking engagements that it’s probably all right to air the sex video in public or probably only to those in attendance during these public congressional hearings.
As far as I know, there had been no other countries including those in the US or even the very liberal European Union that allowed the airing of sex videos involving public officials in public even during the course of an investigation.
It was probably this threat along with last Wednesday’s riot in the national penitentiary that led to the death of a top drug lord and injuring of several others that caused De Lima to decry and lament what she considered was the Duterte administration’s public persecution against her.
But if in the off chance that they do make it public — and we wonder how Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, a staunch Duterte ally, would justify the deed — then it won’t be the first time that dirty linen of public officials were made public.
Those old enough to remember the martial law years probably recalled how American actress Dovie Beams invited local media to a press conference and aired taped recordings of her trysts with the late president Ferdinand Marcos.
I remembered her on reading the Raymond Bonner book “Waltzing With A Dictator,” an American journalist’s account of the Marcos dictatorship as seen through the eyes of American government officials who dealt with the regime.
A casual search on Wikipedia reinforced previous readings about the Marcos scandal, which to this day had become the most lurid and explicit account of government officials engaging in acts confined only to the bedroom until this De Lima sex scandal video became public, thanks to the President.
The Wikipedia account mentioned how college students who rallied against the Marcos dictatorship supposedly commandeered a college radio station and repeatedly played the taped recordings of Beams in public.
Duterte’s lieutenants in Congress and the Department of Justice (DOJ) may want to do a repeat of this with the alleged Leila de Lima tape, but do they think themselves so steeped in public support that they don’t expect a backlash from their deed?
More tellingly, the Duterte administration’s public offensive against De Lima is a dark warning against those who dare to criticize and question their policies. Is this the change that the President and his allies had in mind when they won the people’s mandate in this year’s elections?
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On a lighter Note (pardon the pun), the mass recall of the latest Samsung Galaxy Note 7 unit by the South Korean tech giant owing to poorly manufactured batteries that overheat and cause the cell phones to burn and even explode is a big letdown for fans and avid users of the brand that have rivaled the global dominance of Apple since the time the Cupertino company was still led by visionary Steve Jobs.
The overheating battery mistake may not be attributed to Samsung’s decision to drop replaceable batteries with non-removable, sealed off ones — in an effort to make all metal units like Apple and rival brands Sony, HTC and LG — but I just find it practical to have cell phones that allow for immediate replacement of malfunctioning batteries as opposed to sealed off units whose batteries can only be removed by technicians.
As per latest read, Samsung claims that most customers chose to replace their malfunctioned Samsung Galaxy Note 7 units with the same brand-new models but only time will tell if they’ve lost their customer base with their debacle.