[Top-left photo shows Radio and TV news anchor Karen Davila (“Karen”); while a photo of the duo of Vic De Leon-Lima and Karen is shown at the top-right portion. At bottom is the photo of Incoming NBI Director Dante Gierran (“Dir. Gierran”). At yesterday’s (June 6, 2016) edition of “PASADA SAIS TRENTA” over Radio Station DZMM, which is hosted by the duo, Dir. Gierran was asked by Karen about President-elect Rody Duterte’s proclivity to habitually utter cuss-filled words in public. Read below, how Dir. Gierran elucidated it.]
Upon hearing Incoming National Bureau of Investigation (“NBI”) Director Dante Gierran’s (“Dir. Gierran”) elucidation at yesterday’s radio interview conducted by DZMM’S early afternoon duo, Karen Davila (“Ms. Karen”) and Vic De Leon-Lima (“Mr. Vic”), about President-elect Rody Duterte (“Pres. Rody”) pronouncements; I was stirred into thinking that perhaps, those off-the-cuff pronouncements of Pres. Rody ought not to really be taken literally.
Indeed, this was the gist of Dir. Gierran’s explanation when Ms. Karen pressed him into answering a question posed as some kind of a “lighter moment” digression from her sort of serious earlier line of questioning. The question posed by Ms. Karen was about the supposed marching order given by Pres. Rody to Dir. Gierran to “personally kill” any NBI agent who would eventually turn out to be involved in the illegal drug trade.
And this was the essence of Dir. Gierran’s reply. According to Dir. Gierran, the oft-repeated spiel which speaks of a command to kill invariably verbalized in the vernacular by Pres. Rody as: “PATAYIN YAN”, should not be taken literally.
Dir. Gierran said that in his many years of working with Pres. Rody as NBI Regional Director for Davao, the use of the words “PATAYIN YAN” is actually Pres. Rody’s way of stressing and eagerly emphasizing the need to give topmost priority to the directive. Plainly, this flair on the part of Pres. Rody towards exaggeration and hyperbole is plausibly Pres. Rody’s resort into proving a point CLEAR and SHRILL. On another note, this togetherness, nay working affinity, between Pres. Rody and Dir. Gierran particularly with respect on how to really understand Pres. Rody’s actuations, gestures and body language becomes all the more enhanced with the fact that Pres. Rody and Dir. Gierran are fraternity brothers of the LEX TALIONIS Fraternity.
Dir. Gierran actually stated that one should exert utmost efforts to read between the lines every time an order or a directive is blared out from Pres. Rody’s oral cavity.
Truly indeed, as my father, Daddy Max, is a Cebuano, the acknowledged regional aggrupation to where Pres. Rody wants to be classified and to where he said he belongs (though he is now a Davaoeño), I have had ample chance to relate and interact with a lot of Cebuanos. And I know for a fact that the phrase: “PATYON TA GAYUD” which translates into English as “KILL HIM” or “KILL IT”, is a usual Visayan utterance, regularly and habitually used and uttered by the Visayans, and that it is customarily said in a manner which is laced with jocular tones.
Dir. Gierran further elucidated that the invariable use by Pres. Rody of that kind of spiel: “KILL HIM” or “KILL IT” (“PATAYIN YAN” in the vernacular), is actually resorted to just as to make the impression that the order and/or verbal directive, requires topmost priority and that it should be done as quick as possible.
What is more the Filipino term “PATAY”[English translation: DEAD] or “PATAYIN” [English translation: KILL IT], has an ambivalent meaning because the term is used and would also refer to the act of turning off some kind of a home appliance or even actually the electric lights. Even to extinguish a fire, the term customarily used is “PATAY“, as in “PAKI-PATAY MO NGA ANG SUNOG. [English translation: PLEASE PUT OUT THE FIRE.]
Also, with respect to the cuss-filled pronouncements of Pres. Rody, it has become a habit actually of the more macho-type of the male species of the Filipino nation to spew out those cuss-filled interjections as though they are necessary part of one’s declaration but without actually meaning it to be so. Thus, you can hear people especially the males, starting their statements, as though an unavoidable prefix-phrase with the introductory cuss-words such as: “PUTANG-INA” or “PUTANG-INA MO” which literally translates into English as: “YOUR MOTHER IS A WHORE” or “SON OF A BITCH”. Most Filipino males would even utter this cuss-filled word to express delight such as: “PUTANG INA, ANG SARAP!” [English translation: Son of a bitch, it is DELICIOUS!]
As a President of the Filipino people, Pres. Rody must appeal to the preponderant masses, the hoi polloi. And the Filipino masses, the country’s hoi polloi are a peculiar brand of listeners as they have too, a somewhat weird sense of humor (that is typical of the Filipino) which goes for the prurient, the ever-green jokes and the ribald tales heard only in barbershops and in the wet markets. Every time Pres. Rody cracks a joke whether it be that famous RAPE JOKE which elicited scathing censure and adverse remarks from those trying to be “politically-correct” segment of our society (most especially the elite); we ought to bear in mind that Pres. Rody is just connecting with the majority of our country’s people. For indeed, and I still believe that in a democracy the rule, rue, drollery and fun of the majority is still priority.
