Four years in the presidency has not taught Noynoy Aquino the refinements of his high office. When you are the president of a country, there are certain acts and utterances that you have to keep in check, no matter how strong the personal urge to do otherwise. You must remember at all times that every act you do and every thing you say is no longer personally your own but reflective of the country and people you represent.
And so, when Noynoy said in a speech at the Boston College that he wanted to exact an eye for an eye revenge against Ferdinand Marcos, not a few people were left dumbfounded by the utterance. It is widely believed that Marcos was behind the murder of Noynoy's father Ninoy. So when Noynoy made that reference to an eye for an eye revenge, he was in effect saying he also wanted to kill Marcos.
"As the only son, I felt an overwhelming urge to exact an eye for an eye. Mr. Marcos and his ilk were like rabid dogs who had lost all reason," said Noynoy. "There was no longer any potential for dialogue. The only solution when confronted by a rabid dog is to put it down." If you don't find that statement utterly chilling coming from a president, I don't know what can scare you.
Now, no one can begrudge Noynoy his personal feelings about the matter. And if he personally felt like killing Marcos, that is a matter that is best left to his own conscience to decide. But he cannot say that in public. More importantly, he cannot say that in public especially since he is the president. Not only does it leave a bad taste in the mouth, it places all Filipinos on the spot, wherever they are.
How can the Filipinos right there in Boston, for example, look their American friends in the eye if they are asked what they can say about the murderous tendencies of their president? A president who openly admits to have murderous tendencies sends the wrong signal to everybody else who may have similar tendencies of their own.
Noynoy's admission of murderous tendencies leaves him wide open to trouble not only for himself but for the rest of his countrymen, including those who may have a very short fuse. It is quite possible that not a few hotheads out there, now sufficiently inspired by the fact that even the president can think of killing someone, might actually embark on a deadly mission and just go do what they feel must be done.
And now that he has admitted harboring a grudge and has openly admitted a desire to exact revenge, how will that strike his enemies. Will they now cower in fear? Good for Noynoy if that is the only consequence. But what if something happens to his enemies? Even if he has absolutely no hand in any untoward incident that may happen to his enemies, Noynoy can no longer avoid suspicion.
This deadly admission perfectly complements the long held perception that Noynoy is in fact a vengeful man. In light of his admission, the political enemies he has doggedly pursued may as well thank their lucky stars that they are simply being detained in jail or kept in confinement in a hospital. For in light of Noynoy's admission, they could be somewhere else.
Again, I respect the feelings of a son whose father was murdered in cold blood. But that son is now a grown up. More so, he is now the president of a country, which unfortunately happens to be ours. As president, Noynoy cannot keep babbling about his personal feelings especially on a public stage. He has to maintain a certain degree of equanimity and sense of sobriety. He talks of rabid dogs. Well, he certainly barks like one.
Given the regrettable statements he made in Boston, this country should now be all the more wary about either giving him a second term or granting him some emergency powers. Allowing Noynoy to stay much longer than what is allowed him by law, or even emergency powers that can be misappropriated for something else, can be a most dangerous thing given the kind of person he is.
It is no longer just a perception that he is vengeful. Noynoy has admitted that he is in fact vengeful. And because he admitted having the urge to exact an eye for an eye in connection with the murder of his father, that makes him a potentially murderous avenger. That is a very dangerous person to have as president. That does not speak well of everything that he represents.
I don't know why Noynoy went ahead with that speech. Did he ever imagine that by invoking his being a son to his father, it will cloak his desire to murder his father's murderers some degree of sympathy or compassionate concurrence and agreement? That because he is a son avenging the murder of his father, the romanticism of the deed will somehow make another wrong right?
Murder is murder, no matter the circumstances that precipitate it. Murder is so evil and abhorrent there is no sanitizing or deodorizing it with the romance of heroic lives and historical events. When you are the president, you are sworn to uphold the law and protect the Constitution and invoke the name of God for help in doing so. You do not go about talking murder in public, not even to avenge the murder of a father.