Real friends

Who was it who said, “He who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted?”

People in positions of power and authority should bear the above admonition in mind.

Many sayings remind the powerful that the situation they are in now is fleeting or temporary.

One of them is in Latin: “Sic transit gloria mundi (Oh, how quickly the glory of the world passes away)!”

I remember that saying very well, because it was a sign on the wall in the office of Brig. Pedro Gen. dela Paz, superintendent of the Western (Manila) Police District from 1978 to 1981.

Dela Paz was a classmate of president Ferdinand Marcos at the University of the Philippines (UP) College of Law; he was unassuming and self-effacing despite his exalted position.

President Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte, who never thought he would become a Malacañang resident someday when he was Davao City mayor, is an exemplar of humility in holding power.

Digong is now organizing his things so he can move out of the Palace.

“I’m already packing my stuff. So I should be out by March. I will no longer wait until April. I won’t sleep here either,” he said in a televised broadcast.

Digong will know soon enough who his genuine friends are when he’s already Citizen Duterte.

The bootlickers and carpetbaggers in his administration will all be gone.

As for me, I’ll visit him regularly in Davao City to shoot the breeze and recall old times.

*            *            *

The worst kind of people are ingrates, those who refuse to acknowledge the favors done to them by others.

Mr. Duterte should be reminded about these people who will turn against him when he’s no longer in power.

Many of these people are disgruntled because they were not given the powerful posts they sought after or were left out in the jockeying for positions in the early days of the administration.

I can count with my fingers friends and former subordinates who will stick with Citizen Digong.

No. 1, of course, is Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go. He has been loyal to Digong ever since and will stick with him come hell or high water.

The others are Carlos “Sonny” Dominguez, Silvestre “Bebot” Bello, Salvador “Bingbong” Medialdea and Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa.

Among his old friends from Davao City despite their differences with Digong now will be with him when he’s out of power: Pantaleon “Bebot” Alvarez and Antonio “Tonyboy” Floirendo.

The others would kick his butt if given the chance.

Such is the reality of life.

*            *            *

The men who were implicated in the “rape and murder” of Christine Dacera, Philippine Airlines (PAL) flight attendant, have finally been cleared of all charges.

The Makati Prosecutor’s Office exonerated them.

These macho-looking men, who confessed to being gay in the wake of the public furor, were Dacera’s friends. They called her babaeng bakla – gayspeak for a “gay” woman.

It must have been a harrowing experience for those men whose reputations were tarnished by the death of Dacera who, examinations later found, died of an aortic aneurysm, probably from an alcohol overdose during a New Year’s Eve party in 2020.

Claire dela Fuente, considered jukebox queen of the late 1970s, died of COVID-19; her lowered resistance may have been because of depression due to the humiliation she suffered as a result of her son being linked to Dacera’s death.

If it’s any comfort to those innocent young men, they didn’t suffer the same fate as those of Hubert Webb and his companions, who were implicated in the Vizconde Massacre in 1991.

Hubert, son of then senator Freddie Webb, and his co-accused didn’t know one another; they only met in court for the first time when they were arraigned.

Charged and convicted for the grisly killing of Jennifer, Carmela and Estrellita Vizconde, Hubert and his fellow respondents were in prison for a long time for a crime they didn’t commit. They were later found innocent by the Supreme Court.

The young men implicated in the death of Dacera should thank their lucky stars the Makati Prosecutor’s Office was discerning enough to know they’re innocent.

Not so the judge in Parañaque who tried Webb and his co-accused.

*      *      *

Despite a demand from a young mother through this column for Mercury Drug and Natrapharm Inc. to make a public apology, it seems the apology is not forthcoming.

The mother, Sarah Jane Gatchalian, nearly lost her six-year-old son because a medicine for colds, Natravox (amoxicillin, to be mixed with distilled water), was prepared by a Mercury Drug pharmacist in San Miguel, Bulacan in 2019.

The medicine was found to contain “shard-like particles” that caused the child to be hospitalized.

The mother first brought her complaint to the Mercury Drug management and, when it was ignored, to the Department of Health, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The DOH and FDA, even upon the prodding by the office of Sen. Lawrence Christopher “Bong” Go, didn’t act on the young mother’s complaint.

All Sarah Jane wants is for Mercury and Natrapharm to own up to their mistake, nothing more.

Gatchalian, a nurse by profession, belongs to a family of medical practitioners: her father, mother, brother and sister are doctors of medicine. The family owns a school and a small hospital.

So, blackmailing Mercury and Natrapharm by having them pay her is far from Gatchalian’s mind who, herself, owns several beauty clinics.

“Pinalabas nila kasi akong sinungaling (They made me appear like a liar),” she said. That is why she wants a public apology. Why is it hard for Mercury Drug and Natrapharm to own up to their mistake?

There’s a term for such an attitude: hubris, which means exaggerated pride and self-confidence.