Pedestrian Observer GB: Bullies and Bullying in the Land of Patronage

The saga of Allan Canete Bantilles aka Roy Negro unravels and it is not a very pretty sight to behold.

What does Allan Canete Bantilles aka Roy Negro and Robert “Blair” Carabuena have in common? They both appear to burst with their violent temper when confronted with situations where civility and dialogue are a must in resolving the problem before them. They both are gun owners with a revoked license up for confiscation and Robert “Blair” Carabuena must be pissed at Allan Canete Bantilles aka Roy Negro for getting him back into the limelight of public and authorities attention.

In a nation where patronage plays an important role in a personality based political system where corruption thrives and becomes endemic it is natural for mindless people in power to equate might is right. After all being in a position of power means one can dictate or shove whatever it is they want without much resistance when one has tremendous influence as a result of extended political connection. Extended political influence brought about by their enterprising spirit of turning politics into a family business with some becoming so successful turning their mom and pop political shop into a very successful entrepreneurial empire.

It appears that Allan Bantilles has good connections or friends with the right influential people, the Peping and Tingting Cojuangco couple thus the lame response of Collegio San Agustin Rector Fr. Horacio R. Roriguez, OSA. In fairness to the Cojoangco, while Tingting is reportedly a member of the board of Collegio San Agustin there are no reports if she tried to meddle with the incident or exert her influence. But then again, the question was if the CSA administration’s lukewarm decision affected by the Cojuangco’s friendship with Bantilles with their response to the incident that puts their institution in a bad light for failure to respond appropriately? I wonder how close their relationship is considering Bantilles does not even live in Dasmarinas Village and yet uses a car sticker issued to the Cojuangcos. I can understand the phrase that you can’t choose your relatives but what in the world is wrong here, with a friend like that who needs enemies, LOL.

In contrast Robert “Blair” Carabuena does not seem to be well connected thus he went to the MMDA and did his public apology but insincerely according to some observers. It was easier for people to see the disparity and bullying all because the victim, Traffic Enforcer Saturnino Fabros is a poor widower with school age daughters to feed and support while living in a shanty. Thank goodness for the social media without it said incident would not have been noticed and the bully could still be terrorizing those he deemed weaklings.

So many crimes remain unsolved or perpetrators not prosecuted because they were not caught in the act by concerned citizen taking a video with cell phone and was not in the social media radar. I wonder how the democratizing character of the internet will be affected by the recent Sottomized PNoy Cybercrime Law, will it dampen the enthusiasm of social media netizens to help tilt the balance?

Apathy remains to be one of our biggest stumbling blocks in our trek towards a robust democracy. The timing of the passage of the Sottomized Cybercrime Law as we approach the 2013 national election will definitely contribute to the increase in apathy when people’s rights and freedom of expression are frustrated and repressed by an unjust law where the Philippine version of libel was inserted. Never mind that it was declared by the UNHRC where the Philippines is one of the signatory as a human rights violation, but let us see if this will indeed affect the gun poking incident negatively in favor of the bully.

Lest I get accused of being homophobic let me reiterate that I am not and actually support LGBT issues. It is for this reason that I am clarifying the issue on where I stand and this anonymous comment that does not seem to appear on the blog which I quote:

I am all for anti bullying. But this article repeatedly mentioning that the father might be gay, indicates that the writer is possibly homophobic. How is that detail of any relevance?

It should be noteworthy to point out that people with conflicted sexual orientation unless they deal with it positively will create more problems for the one concerned and even those around him and people that happen to cross his path. I could be wrong but there are cases where their violence prone demeanor and action can be traced to their conflicted sexual orientation, like the case of Muktarai Mai. While this is an extreme example it merits some attention and hopefully enables us to understand what goes on in a bullies mind. Perhaps try to figure out why grown men have no problem kidnapping, torturing, and gang banging a 12 year old boy for walking besides a girl of a higher caste which to them is a “crime” worthy of gangnam errr gang rape.

Now what has all that got to do or what relevance as anonymous pointed out has all that got to do with the Collegio San Agustin incident? It’s something that needs to be explored considering what we know now or what JD the son of Bantilles is telling us now after their complete silence if indeed it was true.

According to JD’s claims that it was the victim who actually hit them first and denies he fondled the victim’s private part and behind. Further stating he was just defending his boyfriend who was stabbed by the victim with his ball pen. Funny thing is JD’s version of the incident makes it appear that the victim’s “threat” to him and his boyfriend was what angered his father Roy Negro. Enough for him to storm the faculty room where the victim is at, and yes because his jaw was “hurting” he did not see his father pointing a gun at the victim’s forehead, LOL.

Here’s the deal why it is difficult to believe the son of Bantilles account or version of the incident. If he is on a verbal tussle with the victim it will be difficult for the victim to have hit him forcefully in the jaw. Shouting match are done on a distance or so close in your face confrontation. You have to be pushed away first if you are in the in your face verbal confrontation that makes you out of balance to get hit in the jaw. Now unless the victim is like Manny Pacquaio which I really doubt when I saw his demeanor on TV, he can really hit one in the jaw no matter how they are positioned. The most likely position to get hit in the jaw so forcefully as he claims, is that he was probably caught with his hand holding his weenie taunting him while looking up at the victim being taller thus exposing his jaw for the big whammy, LOL.

So what’s the big deal says JD while denying he fondled the victim’s private parts. His classmates he says do the touching on each other, no one gets bothered by it, brushing it off as normal. Say what? Hold your weenies este horse here folks! Are you listening to this or paying attention to the claims of JD Fr. Horacio, boys in your school touch each others ding dongs inside the campus in public at that and it is normal? Well, if that is true and they keep doing it, pretty soon they might do what the grown men of that village in Pakistan do as a form of initiation and kids will brush it off as normal?

Bullying is a problem that has to be dealt with early on while bullies are in their formative years, wait a little longer and you will have raised the likes of Angelino "Boyet" Fajardo or worse a Rolito Go and they became a menace to society which is a sad failure in parenting. Perhaps this will spur you to action, imagine your sweet loving son and daughter because you as a parent and the school fails big time in dealing with his/her bullying problem woke up one day and see in your son or daughter the likes of Boyet Fajardo or Rolito Go. Or worse you become a clone of Jason Ivler's mother, now think about that people.

It appears that bullying has long been Collegio San Agustin's problem and just like the case of Jamie they failed in resolving the issues as shown in this video of a bullying victim's father interviewed by Ces Drillon.

Meanwhile former classmates of the victim’s mother Toni Gonzalez-Garcia batch 83 of Assumption College came out with letter campaign against the bullying incident at Collegio San Agustin, posted here in case you want to pass it around.

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