Jamby's Gun

I was going to write about this but as I read Alex magno's column (The Philippine Star), I realized that I could not write something better. Some quotes from the column:

"If Sen. Jamby Madrigal cannot do without an armed bodyguard beside her, she should refrain from joining street demonstrations. That is the dictate of civic duty."

"Madrigal tells us her bodyguard’s gun was licensed.

But, dear senator, that is not the point.

The point is that the man brought his gun to the frontlines of a tense confrontation between the police and a political cult that was supposed to be engaged in peaceful protest. That might seem to be an act of minor stupidity. But it is nonetheless an act that put everyone else in the vicinity in great peril."

"Notwithstanding, I think Madrigal owes the nation an apology.

Tito Guingona, former vice-president was there. I don’t think he had bodyguards.

Fr. Robert Reyes was there and, as always, believed he was protected by the archangels.

A host of others were there, bare as they should be as they profess a variant of politics we might not all agree on but could agree to respect. When someone goes to a political demonstration, it should be sufficient to feel that one is surrounded by others of the same belief and is therefore protected by number and comradeship."

"If she does not have the courage to march without armed cover for a cause she claims to hold, how can we call her a peaceful protestor? How can we accept the conviction she flaunts as sincere?"

It was such a stupid thing to do. How could we have elected this person to the Senate.