DID YOU KNOW...
... TEDDYBOY LOCSIN JR.’s current fame/notoriety includes being appointed as the country’s ambassador to the United Nations and publicly supporting the Nazi “final solution,” ahead of President Duterte’s flap over Hitler.
But you might not know that he had served as then president Cory Aquino’s press secretary, was a newspaper publisher -- and had applied twice for the Supreme Court but failed.
On the SC post, he first aspired to fill the post of senior associate justice Leonardo Quisumbing in 2009 and the vacancy left by the impeachment of chief justice Renato Corona in 2012 (Ma. Lourdes Sereno got the job).
Did he get the attention of Duterte because of his idea of the extermination of drug addicts (“no rehab”) a la Hitler solution, which he tweeted last Aug. 22, before he was appointed to the U.N.?
He has hauled down the controversial post but that doesn’t mean he has given up his fascination over the Nazi formula, as possible solution to the country’s drug problem.
Twenty six years ago, a front-page photo of Teddyboy, then 42, appeared in the “Manila Chronicle” with his middle-finger raised at strikers of San Miguel Corp. Attaboy, the ripples TLJr., 68 this Nov. 13, could create in U.N.’s placid waters.
“P.I.” not criminal
... “P**ANG INA MO” is considered by the Supreme Court, in two decisions (Reyes vs. People of the Philippines, 1969; Villanueva vs. People of the Philippines, 2006) as a “common expression.” It’s seldom taken in its literal sense. It’s intended “not to slander but to express anger or despair.” Saying the expression won’t constitute oral defamation, the SC ruled.
That’s right, if the one talking is a dismissed employee, among 20 or so fired workers, who says that expression to her manager, as in the Reyes case. But maybe not from a president of a country to a president of another country, or to the United Nations secretary general, or the leaders of the European Union, or the Pope.
“P.I.,” as Sen. Richard Gordon says it in shorthand, is still vulgar and insulting, disrespectful and gutter language, even if its strict translation in English is not “son of a whore.”
Saying “P.I.” may not be criminal but it’s still gross and leaves a foul taste in the mouth, whether said publicly by your five-year-old child or our 71-year-old president.
[bzzzzz@voxpop.com.ph or paseares@gmail.com]