A Christmas of assassins

VIRTUAL REALITY

- TONY LOPEZ

Christmas is supposed to be a time to celebrate the birth of a famous person, the Savior no less, and not a season to kill.

After all, the merriest season of the year is Christmas.

The Philippines celebrates the world's longest Christmas season, from Dec. 16, start of the nine-day Simbang Gabi, til Three Kings Day of the new year.

The malls start Christmas with the 'ber months, October to December, a full quarter, and extend the celebration till the Chinese New Year, Jan. 25, 2025 - four months of holiday mood.

Only in the Philippines can, during the happiest of seasons, the second highest official of the land, Sara Zimmerman Duterte, rant on national TV to disclose she has contracted an assassin to kill President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr., First Lady Louise Araneta Marcos and House Speaker Martin Gomez Romualdez.

It's sounds like a macabre rare Christmas offer - pay once, kill three.

Apparently, there are takers.

The contract is no joke, Sara declared.

And so assassins are on the loose.

"It's an active threat," said Malacañang.

Only in the Philippines can a former president, Rodrigo Roa Duterte, 80, on national TV, repeatedly urge the Armed Forces of the Philippines to stage a coup on the ground that the President is high on drugs, habitually.

So far, none inside the 250,000-strong AFP and the 125,000-man Philippine National Police has taken up the offer.

Should Digong offer a bounty? Or the men in uniform think he was - joking? drunk? high on drugs? sleep-deprived? All of the above?

"It's a selfish offer," harrumphed the presidential palace.