Drama without heroes, only a heel - I

 Words, words, nothing but words, so says an old English poet. But how else do emotions from fortunes and misfortunes find expressions?

But there’s that Chinese proverb: “daghang sulti, daghang sayop; dyutay sulti, dyutay sayop”. Thus, in the virtual cavalcade of prose of government officials over the recent hostage-taking tragedy, that taxed eight Hong Kong hostages, the untarnished truth is what the Hong Kong authorities have been demanding. They expect to see the grain winnowed from the chaff of alibis, vacillating versions, or qualified mea culpa by Philippine authorities.

The belated “gag order” – except for DOJ Secretary Leila de Lima – was recently issued enjoining any government officialdom from giving out any information on the hostage debacle in the media, in tv interviews for one and the press, has been long in coming. Hopefully, even the media is expected to honor the “gag order” and, desist from further discussions on the gory incident, at least to appease the suffering victims and the Hongkong government, for now.

This piece is not to counter the “gag” move that one takes a different tack or perspective inre the hostage-rescue dud… The whole tragic-comedy drama was a unique and bizarre incident. As it turned out after almost 12 agonizing hours, there appeared no hero or heroes and, not only PNP Sr./Inspector Rolando Mendoza could be the solo heel or villain, but others of lesser culpability.

In the realm of literary fiction, be it in the novel, drama, or short story, there are two protagonists, at least, battling each other to unravel the plot as the motif of conflict; one side is the hero, the other is the villain. Otherwise said, a conflict between the good and the bad or evil, or between the moral and the immoral, or between one principle and another, or between man and the destructive forces of nature, or love against hate, etc.

And while it ended in tragedy, the drama or play had some streaks of ironic comedy, mostly at the expense of the PNP’s dignity. See how funny were the SWAT acting like Comics-strip Keystone cops in utter clumsiness in their intermittent useless forays? Or the helplessness of the police in over-coming PO2 Gregorio Mendoza and his few relatives? Or that lady cop in solo photo, and a group of four other cops in separate photo poses after the close of the hostage drama? How tragically funny is such a comedy of errors!

Perhaps, to a literary fiction critic, President Noynoy could hardly qualify as a hero. Not once was his presence or directive ever mentioned which, may be understandable for security reason. But then, Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim in earlier tv interviews, mentioned that the President was on top of the situation, but no indication of active leadership. Perhaps, if he came out even once or twice on tv, the situation could have been consoling, or a word or two from him could have made a difference as regards the victims and the world impression.

What put the President to the corner was his no-return call to Hong Kong chief executive Donald Tsang. And, to ease off the boo-boo, Secretary Ricky Carandang had to hide behind the protocol that CEO Tsang did not course his call through the DFA. By gam, under the given tension, Carandang faulted Donald Tsang for making a direct call to President Noynoy. Of course, the Hongkong side took such breach of official courtesy with umbrage.

But what probably broke the camel’s back that snapped Hong Kong to anger was the smiling face of Pres. Noynoy during his tv appearance in post-mortem over the hostage tragedy. This was repeated while the President made a post-ocular visit of the scene, also in smiling, pleasant face. The post-mea culpa for Noynoy, by his elder sister Ballsy that Noynoy always has a smiling visage did not appease the outrage of Hongkong people at all.

In fairness to the President, undoubtedly he was as concerned, if not more, as the rest of the nation over the safety of the victims. It’s just that with the roll of events inexorably happening as if an evil hand had been manipulating the tragic drama, the sad cycle did tell the events in their hour, beyond control. (To be continued)

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