PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte kissed a woman on the lips in South Korea. The sensationalized woman consented to the kiss and tells the social media world that there is no malice in the act. The president was also quick in saying that the act was done without malice but it was simply to bring joy to the Filipinos in South Korea.
The social media world with most of its netizens are now howling and hurling mud to the president for the act. Other politicians are taking this as their springboard to catapult themselves back to power and worst, some are even thinking of having this as an impeachable offense due to conduct unbecoming of a President.
What is wrong here? It is not the malice or the action of kissing but it is role modeling and the respect for women.
Nowadays, ethics or morality is no longer viewed based on moral imperatives but more of what one's culture is all about. Rationality and impartiality are no longer the essential bases of the declaration of the morality of an act. The bases are more on one's culture and subjectivity.
The Filipino culture is ever-changing and it is changed not by the majority but rather by the acts and values leaders. We often take our political, economic and religious leaders as our role models and value formators. What they do and say become our bases of culture. If we have leaders who are intellectual, then the Filipinos become intelligent. When we had a president who is an economist, the Filipino becomes economically-conscious. If we have a murderer as a leader, then killing becomes a part of the Filipino culture.
Now, what I fear today since the President has done that act of kissing the lips of a married woman in public and most often make jokes about women, is that this becomes part of the Filipino culture. The President, being the role model for the young, has now added a new part of our ethics. One could do an evil act as long as there is no malice. One could make fun of women as long as malice is not there or not the primary purpose of an act.
The argument seems to fit that as long as actions are justifiable, the evilness will always be superseded by its justifiability or absence of malice. We may misinterpret an action but it may be added to our culture. The young people will now make fun of elder women as long as there is no malice. The traditional Filipino culture tells us that kissing the lips is only for couples. This right is only reserved for married couples and not for anyone.
It reminds me a few years back when one multinational company made it as an ad strategy by having young people hug and kiss in public and recorded the longest kiss ever-made. It outraged most of the parents and the Catholic Church stood ground and discussed the evilness of this act. That activity did not continue for we opposed it and we stripped it out of our culture.
Another was the "wet and wild" party which involved the young people and was held near the seat of the Diocese of Bacolod. The Bishop stood ground and talked about good and evil and our moral responsibility for the young people. We were successful in flushing it out of our system.
I am optimistic that this small unmaliced-gesture of the President will not go out proportion and would make kissing in public as part of our Filipino culture.
