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Tag: F Sionil Jose

Advice to Duterte: check on your hubris

Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales. Photo from Ombudsman's Facebook.
Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales. Photo from Ombudsman’s Facebook.
The statement of Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales that the plunder and graft case filed by Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV against then presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte is being investigated reassures those who are worried that the issue would be buried with the election of Duterte to the presidency.

Many were afraid that the Ombudsman ‘s office would just sit on the case because of Morales’ relations with the President.

Morales is the sister of lawyer Lucas Carpio Jr, the father-in-law of Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, daughter of the President.

In a talk with reporters after she delivered a stirring speech at the UP Alumni Homecoming Friday, Morales said although she has inhibited herself from the case, “ it is undergoing investigation.”

An open letter to Noynoy from F Sionil Jose

From the Philippine Star

Frankie
Frankie
Dear Noynoy,

You are now swamped with suggestions and advice, but just the same, I hope you’ll have time to read what this octogenarian has to say.

You were not my choice in the last election but since our people have spoken, we must now support you and pray that you prevail. But first, I must remind you of the stern reality that your drumbeaters ignore: you have no noble legacy from your forbears. It is now your arduous job to create one yourself in the six years that you will be the single most powerful Filipino. Six years is too short a time — the experience in our part of the world is that it takes at least one generation — 25 years — for a sick nation to recover and prosper. But you can begin that happy process of healing.

Bear in mind that the past weighs heavily on all of us because of the many contradictions in it that we have not resolved, whose resolutions would strengthen us as a nation. This past is now your burden, too. Let us start with the fact that your grandfather collaborated with the Japanese. Your father was deeply aware of this, its stigma, its possibilities. He did not leave any legacy because he did not become president. He was a brilliant and courageous politician. He was an enterprising journalist; he had friends in journalism who can attest to his effulgent vision, who did not profit from his friendship, among them Nestor Mata, Gregorio Brillantes — you may consult them. I cannot say I did not profit — he bought many books from my shop and when he was in Marcos’s prison, your mother brought books from my shop to him.