Hotheads

I hate to say it, but it feels good to spew vitriol nowadays, especially when one has been following the travails of former President Rodrigo Duterte, who is still eerily quiet from his room in The Hague; or the vicissitudes of a Donald Trump presidency.

At any given moment, one may be derailed from a quiet editing/writing mode by the sudden expostulation of an angry fellow editor in the throes of writing about a detested subject, or the ferocious clickety clack of another, frustrated by laziness/obtuseness/carelessness, whatever the case may be.

It’s an ordinary day in the newsroom.

What’s extraordinary, for me, at least, is the increasing sense of defiance I see glimpses of everywhere. A Grab driver may suddenly decide to talk about the crimes that go unreported involving fellow drivers of his — the holdups, the killings, the loss of trust in humanity.

It makes me want to say I selected the “quiet mode,” but what he is sharing is far too interesting.

It sounds like the Instagram video I once saw, detailing the aggravated subject’s experience in BGC, a popular night haunt, where she found herself surrounded by a group of teens near a restaurant she had visited, and eventually she found herself bereft of her belongings, including her green card. The police, when notified, did not give her the feeling of assurance that any action would be taken at all about her case.

I am wondering at this moment whether the former President Duterte feels the same — helpless and frustrated. Could it be the same feeling that jeepney drivers feel, I wonder? Just this Monday, a transport strike was organized by the group Manibela “to protest inaccurate consolidation figures under the government’s Public Transport Modernization Program.”

According to the government’s information agency, schools addressed the impending transport strike by canceling face-to-face classes and going online for the day. Did the Manibela strike make an impact at all? The sector had long been problematic and, it seems, not being truly listened to — or else these transport strikes would long have ceased, wouldn’t they?

How long will the transportation dilemma continue? How long will the jeepney drivers find themselves at the pushing end of the pole, endlessly ramming against a brick wall so solid it will not crumble?

Sometimes that is how it feels when contemplating the issues of farmers, teachers, migrant workers, even the planet.

It’s not like the so-called most influential man on the planet will strive to protect the planet anymore — I mean, his whole administration seems to be all about ridding his country of people who sought the protection of Uncle Sam. Nowadays, we see a massive cleanup going on, in more ways than one. And how is the Donald Trump decluttering the US? Well, you can rest assured his Department of Government Efficiency will bark up many trees to shake things up on spending and wastage.

Hereabouts, we could use some eagle eyes on government spending, what with the national budget controversies relegated to the sidelines following the arrest of Duterte and the ensuing furor over what’s legal, what’s right, and so on.

Suddenly, everyone’s an expert on international law — that of the International Criminal Court, specifically. Or it’s not knowledge of the subject in question, it’s all-out emotion that will be at play.

I saw a combination of all these just this morning while browsing my chat groups. It seems that “brilliant” suggestion to light up Mayon Volcano has received enough protests — both logical and emotional — to get the whole idea apparently scrapped. As of this writing, that is.

The whole plan would have taken P750 million under the much-debated 2025 General Appropriations Act “to boost local tourism by illuminating the volcano’s slopes with laser and light fixtures outside its six-kilometer permanent danger zone.”

The proposal was not welcomed at all. Aside from ecological harm, it was the utter uselessness of the idea that drew ire focused on one Bicol representative who is variously rumored to have accumulated vast wealth by abusing his power and the region’s resources. Such millions would be better off funding “more urgent needs,” as some have commented, but it seems the national government is clueless about the travails of the people in the provinces.

Gossip mills keep churning, but of course nothing much happens. Life goes on, Mayon Volcano stands magnificent and beautiful, with no need of klieg lights to show it off — yet at one point or other, it will spew ash and lava when the boiling point has been breached.