Ridiculous.

As the whole world may know by now, a certain Jun Ducat, armed with grenades, a hand gun and an Uzi, held 32 young students hostage in Manila as his way of showing disgust with corrupt officials and to demand a brighter future for the children.

So in essence he was saying, “Give these kids college plans or I’ll f***ing blow them all up to smithereens!”

I’m sorry but that’s a very idiotic way to convey what he wanted/needed to ask in behalf of those kids. The irony of it! It also doesn’t help that the said hostage taker has been known for his attention-grabbing antics way before this incident.

However well he meant, the minute he (a civilian) got ahold of that grenade, he became a criminal. He endangered the lives of the students, the teachers, the people inside the building he parked outside of and everyone else around him. One of those kids could have tripped and nudged the hand holding the grenade, making it fall, explode and they’d be all dead. The safety pin was off. Who’s to say it wasn’t going to happen?

Instead of scaring all these peple and wasting resources that could have been spent catching other criminals during that time, he could have done something constructive and used the money he spent on planning and setting up this hostage situation on food for hungry children. He could have done something constructive like taking an active part in investigations dedicated to cracking down on corrupt officials. He could have done something constructive like setting up a hotline that anyone can call to report corrupt officials they’ve encountered. He could have done something constructive like raise a foundation for free college scholarship grants.

He could have done something constructive.

Instead he hurt the country. His stunt impeded the city’s productivity for that day. People were stuck in traffic. Parents were made to go through unnecessary grief and worry. He made fools out of the policemen. Tourists are yet again scared off. And he offered himself as another example of what kind of politicians we mostly have: imbecilic. He put himself in prison with nothing to show for it. And the cherry on the whole thing: he copied the scene right off an American movie. How completely typical Filipino “politician”.

Who knows what good this will bring. Probably none. Like rain sliding down a duck’s back, it will all be forgotten in time. But the bad effects has taken effect and are here to stay.

These people infuriate me. They think the end would justify the means. And to make it worse, this time there wasn’t even an end. There was something he was “hoping” would happen because of this stunt which isn’t even certain. He was too brash in deciding to do this. He meant well, as they say, but who really knows? I sure don’t. But even if he really did, didn’t his righteous cause warrant more careful planning than this half-baked and downright ridiculous stunt? It’s insulting, really.