Politics of hate

IN the dog-eat-dog world of politics, there is no room for sympathy to the opponent. Mudslinging is regular fare that one should be willing to get dirty to play the game. With the next election only eight months away, politicians are exposing every muck they could rake out from their competition.

But how far can politicians go in ruining the reputation of their opponents? Are the supporters of the opponent fair game? Being dirty as it is, we believe a line should be drawn, just as how the police and army observe a set of rules of engagement in confronting the enemy.

This early though, the Gomez political camp has been stepping on the line repeatedly to the point of being inconsiderate to public sensibility in their eagerness to topple down the Codillas. This insensitivity was highlighted during the fire last Aug. 11 in District 4.

The calamity showed the disturbing side of the Gomez camp. While 75 families were losing their homes from the raging fire, rabid supporters of Rep. Lucy Torres-Gomez and husband Richard were rejoicing because the neighborhood was a known drug den.

As the victims agonized on seeing their lives destroyed in front of them, Gomez fans couldn’t contain their self-righteous disgust on the burning neighborhood by the way they expressed their exhilaration on Facebook. It was sick not only because the timing was off, but also of the fact that not the entire community is involved in drugs.

The thoughtless comments posted on FB by some self-proclaimed Gomez supporters would have been dismissed as a work of juveniles, but a crony newspaper of the celebrity couple came out with a comic strip poking fun at the calamity. It sarcastically passed judgment on the community as what the Gomez followers did on social networking sites.

It should be noted that that newspaper is an unapologetic mouthpiece of the Gomezes. Think of the People’s Daily, the official publication of the Chinese Communist Party, which diplomats refer to if they want to know the real message conveyed by the Chinese government behind its official declarations.

The comic strip rightfully earned some criticisms online, prompting the publisher to issue a disclaimer also on FB, saying that the cartoon’s content was the idea of its creator of which the newspaper had no say. For a moment there she sounded convincing until she went on to belabor the drug problem in District 4 which she blames on the barangay captain.

In effect, she shared the same sentiment aired by District 4 haters online which was echoed by the comic strip in her own paper but which she insists having nothing to do with. But apart from contradicting herself, the publisher’s faux pas undermined the relief drive of Richard Gomez the next day after the fire.

The Gomez camp quickly went to work and gloated Richard’s distribution of foodstuff. Just because they beat the Codillas’ followers in putting pictures of the relief drive on the Internet, they drew the conclusion that the city government has neglected the fire victims.

But what they did sent mixed signals to the public. Set against a backdrop of condemnation and self-importance by his supporters, the “generosity” displayed by Richard has turned into a form of political campaigning highlighted by the food wrappers stamped with the Serbisyong Gomez logo.

The Gomezes are overconfident they will be able to lord it over Ormoc and the 4th District owing to their popularity. But they overlooked the politics of hate espoused by their supporters. It would do the couple best to put a leash on their attack dogs including their crony newspaper.
(West Leyte Weekly Express issue of Aug. 13-19, 2012)