Editorial - "Maayo pa og gikusi na lang si Joavan"

Joavan, the controversial son of Talisay City Mayor Socrates Fernandez, was reportedly attacked by another man for unknown reasons. While the weapon used in the attack was a bolo, it seems Joavan escaped with only a very slight injury.

Many people obviously hate Joavan. He has been involved in a good number of violent and abusive incidents and has given the city of Talisay a very bad name. The troubles he has caused forced his father to go on leave to deal with the problem.

And because many people hate Joavan, it became sort of a given that sooner or later, somebody somewhere would gather enough courage to do what his father and the police have so far failed to do — teach him a lesson.

So when Joavan was attacked, hardly any eyebrows were raised. People already expected it to happen. What interest the incident generated was not that it happened but what resulted from the attack. In other words, people wanted to know the condition of Joavan.

It is always wrong to wish ill of others, but many people were actually interested to find out whether Joavan survived the attack or not. And when they found out that he did, a look that looked like grave disappointment crossed their faces.

Maybe because his father is a deeply religious man, the power of prayer may have played a part in saving Joavan, letting him escape with nothing more than what many people derisively call as a “pinprick.”

Realizing Joavan survived the attack, people grown cynical over his existence in their community began weaving their own theories, such as the possibility that the attack was staged to transform the usual attacker into a victim and thus become an object of sympathy, not hate.

It may be too early to go into that theory, although nothing is remote in the kind of sordid world that Joavan has woven around himself. If Joavan can act with almost total impunity, then what is a little gimmickry on the side.

Listen. When a man picks up a bolo and attacks a person, there is something deliberate and bigtime in his mind. But if his intention is only to cause a pinprick, then he would not go to all the trouble of wielding a bolo. He could just use his fingernails to pinch Joavan.