Pubdate: Mon, 01 Aug 2016
Source: Philippine Star (Philippines)
Column: Sketches
Copyright: PhilSTAR Daily Inc. 2016
Contact:  http://www.philstar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/622
Author: Ana Marie Pamintuan

ISLANDS OF COMPASSION

Next week in Washington, a Filipino quality will be highlighted in an 
assembly of young leaders from around the world. It's "calidad 
humana" a term coined by Chile's former ambassador to Manila, Roberto 
Mayorga, to describe the ordinary Filipino's compassion and 
humaneness that he has found so remarkable because, he says, it is 
rapidly disappearing in many societies including his own.

The term, as Mayorga acknowledges, defies exact translation; the 
closest he can think of in Filipino is

kabutihang loob. But he knows what qualities comprise Filipinos' 
calidad humana: "their warmth, humility and simplicity; their 
friendliness and the priority they give to others; their love for 
life and peace; their resiliency in the face of challenges of life 
and the vicissitudes of nature; their profound sense of faith and 
spirituality, and their permanent and genuine smiles."

So how would he reconcile calidad humana, I asked Ambassador Mayorga, 
with "killing time" under Rodrigo Duterte? How can this be reconciled 
not only with the daily bloodbath, but with the seemingly widespread 
public forbearance toward the faceless executioners?

Mayorga was stumped. It's probably just as well that he and his wife 
Paulina are leaving Manila for good tomorrow, to return to Chile, as 
the Pinoy's calidad humana crumbles.

Before Chile, the Mayorgas are stopping over in Washington for the 
10th International Young Leaders Assembly from Aug. 8 to 17, where 
the calidad humana movement will be on exhibit. From there, they will 
proceed to New York where Mayorga will speak at the United Nations on 
the effort to preserve the Filipino calidad humana. He is also 
helping to set up a calidad humana chapter in the US together with 
the Global Peace Foundation and Global Young Leaders Academy, in 
cooperation with the youth arms of the UN and World Bank.

The best that he could hope for at this point, Mayorga told me the 
other night at a farewell reception for him, was that "islands of 
calidad humana" would be preserved in the Philippines.

* * *

This may in fact be the best time to highlight Filipinos' compassion 
and the need to preserve our humanity. Life has become cheap and we 
seem to be descending into what, to borrow a phrase from Joseph 
Conrad, is starting to look like our Heart of Darkness.

We are turning into savages, and the reason gets flimsier by the day. 
Exterminating drug suspects en masse raises enough questions. The 
large-scale drug traffickers don't get much sympathy; people might 
openly cheer if such drug dealers suffer a double hanging. But how 
many of them are among those killed? Few tears are also shed for 
notorious neighborhood and school pushers.

But a number of those killed, according to their grieving relatives, 
were merely drug users. Did the "retribution" fit the offense? Drug 
abuse is a social problem, and sometimes it is just an experiment for 
youths with raging hormones and too much time on their hands.

The appeal of drugs (and alcohol and nicotine) is lost on me. But 
being adventurous, and because at the time it was the cool thing to 
do, I hung out with teenage drug pushers and users in the 
hardscrabble neighborhoods of Manila when I was 13. With his attitude 
toward the press, President Rody probably wouldn't mind if I had been 
exterminated by anti-narcotics agents before I even finished high 
school. But people deserve a second chance.

While three of the pushers I knew died of drug overdose, the rest 
outgrew the trade, which they engaged in mainly for kicks. They 
finished college and, as far as I know, found decent work and started 
their own families.

The world's most famous LSD user, Steve Jobs, reportedly credited the 
hallucinogen for inspiring him to develop cutting-edge Apple 
products. If he had lived in a society like ours, circa 2016, Steve 
Jobs would not have survived to give the world the iPhone and iPad.

 From drug suspects, lawmen are now killing even those who figure in 
vehicular accidents.

* * *

At least this is what seems to have happened to John Dela Riarte last 
Friday. Dela Riarte was shot dead by members of the police Highway 
Patrol Group (HPG) who arrested him after he figured in a vehicular 
accident while driving his motorcycle in Makati.

A witness interviewed by GMA7 said he saw one of the HPG members 
punching Dela Riarte in the stomach.

The HPG members claimed Dela Riarte became violent and had tried to 
grab the gun of Police Officer 2 Jonjie Manon-og. That was impressive 
spunk on the part of Dela Riarte, considering that he had reportedly 
been handcuffed. And even if he had resisted arrest, what happened to 
shooting mainly to disable? The suspect was unarmed; why was he shot 
not just once but four times, at close range, in the neck and chest? 
Those were shots meant to kill.

As of yesterday afternoon, Manon-og and his HPG colleague PO3 
Jeremiah de Villa had reportedly been placed under police custody. 
Maybe they will get a medal for valor from their bosses.

The killing becomes more tragic because Dela Riarte, the nation has 
learned, was on his way to his first day of work as a company driver. 
He was no drug suspect, and his final Facebook post is heartbreaking 
in the light of what happened to him:

"First time my work paalis na ako, ingatan mo ako panginoon ikaw na 
po bahala sakin Thank You so much dahil my tao ka ginamit super bait 
mo God Thank u mam Sam Roxas Roxas Godbless po Divina Delariarte 
Danilo Delariarte Robert Dela Riarte Loide Nueve Lea Rose Dela Riarte 
Ruthie Dela Riarte Chen Dela Riarte pogi pamangkin ko mahal na mahal 
ko KC Dela Riarte ganda ba relo mo ganyan kita ka mahal kaya aral 
kayo mabuti ni ate mo ha madali lang

mag asawa enjoy life lang tayo" That was a caring human being, lost 
to the war on... what? Vehicular accidents? What happened to 
compassion? What has happened to the Filipino's humaneness?

Calidad humana is missing here. President Rody must make sure those 
two HPG members get the "retribution" they deserve. Such incidents 
are sure to erode public support for his brutal war.

The other aspect of the problem - the public's tolerance for mass 
killings - is harder to address. Our nation is rapidly sliding into 
the depths of inhumanity.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom