Ito ring si Atienza!
Hypocrite!
I can find
no word more apt to describe His (Dis)Honor(able) Jose “Lito” Atienza, mayor of Manila.
Last week,
he encouraged some religious bigots to burn copies of Dan Brown’s book “Da
Vinci Code” and DVDs of the movie with the same title featuring Tom Hanks. Okey, okey, they only burnt two copies of the
book and the DVDs were just pirated copies. But this article is not about the miserly matrons but about the guy who
looks like an older version of Vandolph. (By the way, Manila is pirated DVD capital of the universe.)
Like SM’s
Henry Sy, Atienza bans R-18 movies in Manila. And like Sy, who is Atienza to thumb his nose
on these kinds of movies?
You see,
Atienza has banned and is banning rallies in Mendiola and Plaza Miranda—the Mecca of political
expression in the country. Mendiola and
Plaza Miranda have always been thus when this country is such a better place
before his poor parents conceived him.
Hundreds of
cracked skulls and dozens of arrests and criminal prosecution have resulted from
Atienza’s unjust and anti-people policy. He has railroaded the people’s right to freely assemble and speak—rights
infinitely more important than himself and the Malacanang witch he is trying to
protect.
At least
two times have I been unjustly hauled to court by Atienza and his police goons.
The first time, in 10 December
2004, he accused me, along with several others, of instigating the police’s
violent dispersal of a human rights rally near Mendiola. Did he ever realize that the real violation
there was his refusal to let the people voice their grievances in a historical
spot? And I arrived late that time. The dispersal had long been over when I arrived.
The second time, in 12 June 2005, I
was not there as a rallyist but as a member of the press. I was wearing my media ID all the time. Still, I was impleaded in the idiotic "illegal assembly" case.
My question is what right this
compulsive human rights violator has to tell us what movies we the people want
to see?
