Stop insulting Pinoys to make ‘bida-bida’

The lackluster Justice Secretary Fredderick Vida spoke true to form (“bida-bida” means to show off in Filipino) when he told the media that “maybe we, as a species, are also dishonest.”

To put this into context, Vida was talking about the growing misuse of the persons with disability (PWD) ID card, which several restaurant groups have complained is being abused to obtain discounts.

He said this showed who Filipinos are. If Vida wanted to confess to dishonesty, he should have done it alone, because nobody gave him the right to judge the rest of the species or the entire Filipino population.

Indeed, the use of fake PWD IDs is a problem that deserves a real answer. But Vida chose to resort to what he believed to be tough talk and pointed a finger at 117 million people who were not in the room and who did nothing to be insulted.

He cited a table of six diners laughing over a discount, and from that one table he issued a verdict on an entire race — reasoning a law student would be ashamed of, and a Marcos Cabinet member even more.

Come to think of it, the current crop of supposed legal minds in the Cabinet is a disgrace.

That is exactly what prejudice does. Vida took a “few” and dubbed them “all,” and he did so with a straight face and a calm voice. When the Justice Secretary decides that an entire people carry a flaw in their blood, it is pure bigotry, and the fancy talk of “species” and “race” does not change that.

Consider what he left out since he was so busy blaming the crowd: local offices hand out the IDs he was raving about, officials sign them, and doctors back them.

He said these people would face charges under the anti-graft law. By his own admission, the fake IDs pass through the hands of those in power before they ever reach a restaurant counter.

Then he waved around 8.5 million discounted restaurant receipts against 2.8 million registered cardholders, a 6-million gap he called alarming. But that may have resulted from the government issuing a card anyone could fake, with no way of verifying its authenticity.

His lecture grew harder to swallow when he said, referring to a member of Congress, that an elected official facing a court-issued arrest warrant should come in, but the man could not yet be called a fugitive because there is a process.

While Vida was patient and polite in describing the legislator the administration wants as a trophy as deserving of due process, the restaurant customer who used a fake ID got a derisive speech about the character of his race.

That is a double standard. The poor and the common people are told they are cheats by nature, while the powerful are told they may come to court when it suits them.

He cited fifty pesos in lost taxes on a P1,200 restaurant bill as proof of a national flaw, while he conveniently glossed over the billions of pesos allegedly lost in the flood control mess.

If he wants to talk about dishonesty and what it costs, he should start with the thieves in government who remain free to make hay while those of a different political hue are hounded.

Vida should have just admitted that the PWD ID system is weak. Otherwise, he should show proof that Filipinos as a race are anything but what they have always been — hardworking, decent and tired of being talked down to by those who are paid to serve them.

Talk about yourself, Vida, and leave the rest of us Filipinos out of it.