(Continued from yesterday)
AS SOMEONE who was born and raised in Mindanao, I often wonder why the majority of the people there are in favor of martial law there, while it seems that many of the people in Luzon are against it.
Without stating the obvious, it is very clear that the purpose of declaring martial law in Mindanao is to restore peace and order there.
For the sake of argument, we could say that those who are against extending martial law in Mindanao are also in favor of restoring peace and order there. That is how it is now, many people in Luzon are against the extension of martial law in Mindanao, but even if they are against that proposal, they are also not saying what their solution is, as a way of solving the problem that they have stated.
As someone who lives in a gated community here in Metro Manila, I could not feel the security risk of living among drug crazed criminals, or even ordinary citizens who turn to committing crimes in order to feed their drug habits.
As someone who belongs to a law abiding and God fearing family, I do not have relatives who had become drug users or drug users. Perhaps that is the reason why I have not felt and I have not known how serious the drug problem is until the government started to aggressively campaign against it.
As a result of that campaign, some people came forward to criticize it, without offering alternative solutions to the problem, as to how the problem could be solved.
As someone who votes for our national officials, I would expect them to say something substantive or meaningful whenever they would open their mouths to say something. I have observed however that many of them would say something just to say something, perhaps for the sole purpose of criticizing the incumbents.
While I understand that these critics may be forced to say something whenever they are interviewed by the media, how I wish that aside from saying something that is substantive, they should also say something constructive, otherwise the listeners or viewers might suspect that they either do not know what to say, or they do not know that their audience could detect their lack of depth.
Much as I would say that constructive criticism is an oxymoron, I would also say that these critics should engage in constructive engagement of their audiences, to make it worth our while to vote for them./PN
