How long became right: Save us from Dutertismo

Rockstar lawyer Carlo Ybañez laments: “Because of Duterte, wrong became right.

- JARIUS BONDOC

“Before the Dutertes came into your life, wasn’t right from wrong clear to you? You knew it was wrong to murder, Wrong to insult women. Wrong to mock God. Wrong to break the law. Wrong to threaten. Wrong to side with foreign interest against your country’s.“These were obvious to you before. But what happened when the Dutertes entered? Gradually you came to justify that wrong can become right. Killing became valid, so long as addicts. Degrading women became acceptable, if by a president’s joke. Permissible to call God stupid.

“Unthinkable how you justify it to yourself. But they became right to you anyway. Lawbreaking became OK because the rights to due process, to privacy, to travel don’t matter. Same with threatening to slaughter. Or giving up our territory to others because we can’t defend it.

“Your metamorphosis didn’t end there. What were wrong before, you came to admire as virtues. One who murders is brave. One who dishonors women is macho. One who blasphemes is honest. One who violates laws is clever. One who allies with the enemy is practical.

“Look at yourself in the mirror. That’s the person you’ve become. When Duterte came into your life, you threw principles into the waste bin. Right or wrong?”

Last week a congressman manifested those flaws. He rationalized VP Sara Duterte’s livestreamed threat to assassinate Bongbong Marcos, Liza Araneta and Martin Romualdez. Supposedly VP Sara was not plotting but merely expressing a wish, so no basis to impeach her.