Golf Brawl

My egalitarian instinct tells me that this issue should be blogged, should be spread. Public concern should be kept alive.

Everyone is probably aware of what has happened last December 26, 2008 at the Valley Golf and Country Club in Antipolo City. Politicians and their bodyguards allegedly knocked around a 56-year-old man and his 14-year-old son over a small-fry dispute in the golf course. I would just redirect you to the blog of Bambee dela Paz (witness, daughter, and sister of the victims) so you would get the first-hand account. It’s a story of grave abuse of power as politicians Mayor Nasser Pangandaman, Jr., Masiu City, Lanao del Sur, and his father, Secretary Nasser Pangandaman of the Department of Agrarian Reform, beat up father and son golfers in Antipolo City.

What happened to the family was loathsome. The incident has just magnified once again what kind of people we put in power— politicians who don’t seem to have a decent bone in their bodies–who can drag down and kick a 56-year-old man to the ground without pangs of conscience. It was really rueful. It’s a good thing that the story has been finally publicized by the mainstream media.

From my own personal standpoint, I think that a real bodyguard should be trained to disarm and immobilize an attacker, not maul him. Politicians, especially those in the provinces, have been known to use their bodyguards as private goons. I don’t know if it just my own stereotype. But regardless whether dela Paz started it, or whether he’s an asshole or not, bodyguards should not go about beating people up. If dela Paz did, indeed, attack the mayor, then he should’ve been arrested and charged with assault, not mauled. The way a government official behaves in public is really important.

To the dela Paz family, keep up the fight!

Tags: Antipolo, Brawl, Golf