A PRESIDENTIAL MOUTHPIECE

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        The position of spokesman of the President of the Philippines is decidedly a high and very visible cabinet job in the government.  For that reason, the occupant is always under the evaluation of the public in terms, principally, of the intellectual and moral  dimensions he puts into the performance of the job that is meant to clarify and convey to the public the policies and actions of the president.

        The younger among us may have only Estrada's Dong Puno, Macapagal-Arroyo's Ignacio Bunye, Pinoy's Lacierda and Valte, and now Manuel Abella for Duterte as examples of the personalities that have occupied the position.  Our generation goes farther back to include others in the past but all together they are essentially of the same genes and they all contribute to and engender the absence of respect for their breed as they have invariably descended to the level of cheap propagandists instead of dependable explainers to the people.  It is quite evident that their common qualifications for the position are a high capacity for intellectual dishonesty, absent or weak self respect, and facility with words that they can demonstrate without qualms in order to stay in the job and enjoy its perks.

          It was always uncomfortable for me to listen to those spokesmen.  But it is doubly disturbing now with current mouthpiece of Rodrigo Duterte, Manuel Abella, whenever he starts to perform all sort of spins and comes up with double talks and euphemisms offensive to any informed person of average intelligence in order to camouflage or deodorize the controversies and indecencies excreted in words or behaviors by his "natural" cad of a boss.  Why Abella's case is doubly disturbing to me must be because I am aware that he is or was a preacher/pastor and I expected that to have somehow given him a more stable anchor for intellectually honest and principled performance in his job. It would be mitigating and he would be excused if he just lays out, as is, the issues generated by his boss and let the public judge them and not strain to spin and embellish them dishonestly.   As it is , he only reveals a mind and character easily exchanged for power and perk and while I admire his mental agility and clever crafting of words in doing so, as I do with the others of his kind, I often find myself, probably quite unfairly, to be more in sympathy with street hookers.  They sell and prostitute only their bodies.

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