Cheap Stunt: Asking a Non-question

President Rodrigo Duterte | Screengrab from RTVM.gov.ph

JEERS TO Bing Abadan of the Daily Manila Shimbun for playing the role of ”straight man” to President Rodrigo Duterte—and for diverting the media audience’s attention from the real issue in the ongoing House probe into Senator Leila De Lima’s alleged link to the New Bilibid Prison drug syndicate.

The straight man in comedy routines is the person who sets up a joke so a comic can get the laughs.

In a pre-departure conference before Duterte left for a working visit in Vietnam, Abadan asked the president: “Senator De Lima is asking if may gusto raw po ba kayo sa kanya? ( Do you like her?)”

The question was provoked by Senator Leila de Lima’s  lament over the incessant tirades against her from Duterte.

“Our President is again going ballistic. Naawa na po ako sa ating Pangulo kaya patawarin na lang po siya ng mahal na Diyos sa kanyang pinaggagagawa (I pity our President so may God forgive him for what he’s doing). All of a sudden, he’s now — for me, he’s now the lowest and the vilest man in the country sa sobrang kabastusan na po niya (for his boorishness) that’s why, God forgive him. Naawa na po ako sa inyo mahal na Pangulo, tigilan ninyo na po ako. Ano po ang gusto ninyo sa akin? May gusto po ba kayo sa akin? (I pity you Mr. President, please stop picking on me. What do you want from me? Do you like me?)” De Lima said.

But it was both bad taste and bad journalism for a journalist to do a follow up.

Senator de Lima has been leading the investigation into the killings related to the president’s war against drugs. The President and the Justice Secretary have linked de Lima to the drug trade in the New Bilibid Prison when she was Justice Secretary. The House of Representatives Committee on Justice started a hearing on the subject last Sept. 20.

Duterte did not respond verbally to Abadan’s question. Instead he shrugged it off and went into a comic act of stumbling. The press corps laughed as he left the stage. This was a cheap stunt that the president and press could have skipped entirely to draw a line in the battle between the two parties, a conflict that has to do with serious charges on either side.

Equally disturbing was the reaction of the media people present, who laughed at Duterte’s clowning instead of maintaining a sober silence expressive of at least a bit of  reservation over the wisdom of Abadan’s question.