So it would appear. There was a protest down Manila way and President Duterte responded thusly:
President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the police and the military to shoot violators of the enhanced community quarantine if they are unruly and prove to be a threat to law enforcers’ lives.Duterte’s statement came hours after residents of a Quezon City barangay staged a protest demanding food aid, which they said they have yet to receive. His statement also came as calls for his ouster flooded social networking site Twitter.
Duterte appealed to aid beneficiaries to be patient as he addressed “the Left,” telling them not to riot or he will have them jailed.
“I will order you detained at bibitawan ko kayo pagkatapos na wala na itong COVID,” he said. “‘Pag kayo ang na-detain, bahala kayo sa pagkain ninyo.”
[Translation: I will order you detained and I will release you after this COVID-19 crisis is over…If you are detained, you are on your own when it comes to food.]
Is this a great country or what?
Closer to home, it seems some of the locals don’t like seeing us foreigners out and about enjoying our privileged life.
With all due respect, let me just say this: Fuck you! Our being out and about, primarily up in the mountains creates no danger to you or your neighbors. We do maintain safe distances and have little to no interaction with the locals. Unless we are giving them food, treats, or money.
The owner of Baker’s Table restaurant has initiated a charity drive to provide food to our needy neighbors here in Barretto. Apparently, the Barangay officials are too busy erecting barriers and otherwise making a bad situation worse that they can’t be bothered doing something meaningful like feeding the hungry.
You know, it does seem that sometimes no good deed goes unpunished. This guy (I’ll come him Africa) is doing all the heavy lifting, going out and gathering the supplies, bagging them up, and then working through the Barangay to identify appropriate recipients. When Africa announced this effort on one of the internet forums, he couched it in terms of “if our neighbors are going hungry, us “rich” foreigners are going to become targets of opportunity; so it behooves us to work together to keep folks fed. Woo Boy, he took some flak for his uncharitable motivations. Fuck that. I do some stuff on my own and I do it for admittedly selfish reasons. It’s hard to live large in a country where so many have so little. Helping out a few eases my conscience and assuages my guilt. Sue me. The people benefitting from my efforts sure as hell don’t care why I’m doing it.
Speaking of selfish motivations, when I dropped into Baker’s Table to make my contribution today, I picked up these hot out of the oven pies:
As promised, here are some photos from yesterday’s hike:
Our surprise was getting almost to the bottom and encountering an officious old hag who sternly advised us our path was closed to non-residents. We tried to argue we were on a charity mission (we had in fact handed out food and money to a destitute family up top), but she wouldn’t budge. She stood between us and the way back home so we didn’t have much choice but to ignore her. She threatened to “take our picture” and we just shrugged her off. She told us she would report us to the barangay, and we kept walking. Then she threatened to call the police. Oh well, do what you have to do. Before we reached the bottom Ed, Helen, and I veered off to take an overland route back to Alta Visa (Ed and Helen are my neighbors). I figured if the cops were really laying in wait, I’d rather go a different way. Turns out there were no problems getting home for any of us, which was a relief.
We’ve decided that in the future we will stay on the My Bitch mountain to avoid power-mad old ladies. We will also meet up on the mountain so as to not make a spectacle of ourselves walking the quarantined streets.
The things we do to keep the peace in our little town.
