Why do we even bother?

Everyday we hear and read inanities after inanities from the highest officials of this government. And everyday, we continue to get frustrated, angry, and disappointed over the seemingly lack of correlation between the high positions these people occupy and the amount of knowledge they possess.

Take for example the latest quote from Presidential legal adviser Raul Gonzalez: “Are you always the keeper of your friends? When you have a friend who commits a crime, are you guilty (as well)?” (PDI, 07 Dec 2009)

He was referring to the purported closeness of the President with the Ampatuans, the alleged masterminds of the grisly massacre of 57 persons, most of whom are members of the media, in perhaps the single most violent politically-related violence in how many years.

Either he is feigning ignorance, or he really is. It’s really hard to say which is which.

He seemed to have skipped a phrase there, between the two clauses: “When you have a friend who commits a crime, and you helped that friend amassed such political strength that enabled him to do what they did, are you guilty (as well)?“

But we must understand that as the President’s legal factotum, he is duty-bound to protect his boss, even if that will mean he will look like a total idiot in front of the Filipino people.

Take another one: Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Lorelei Fajardo. Read her comment during the aftermath of the Ampatuan Massacre, almost bordering to the insensitive: “We cannot be affected by that…” (PDI, 26 Nov 2009), and referring to the massacre as “only an incident between two families in Mindanao.”

I cannot think of any proper adjective to describe THAT statement.

Of course, Gonzalez and Fajardo made other statements in the course of their careers as pillars of this administration. But we won’t be tackling those for lack of material time.

This brings me to another point. While it’s convenient for us to lambast and condemn these two personalities in every opportunity we can have, we do not understand that it takes great courage, extraordinary fortitude, and a strong stomach to do what they are doing. It takes will power to say and do things that are totally wacko and out of this world.

Why do we even bother to explain Secretary Gonzales and Undersecretary Fajardo? Why do we even bother to deconstruct their statements, and make learned analyses of their musings?