Why remove Raul’s posters?

“The great corrupter of public man (and woman) is the ego....
Looking at the mirror distracts one's attention from the problem.”
- Dean Acheson

I read a news article about the justification of the removal of the DOJ posters from the walls of the Hall of Justice. The DOJ poster bears the image of the great Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales.

They said that the face of great Raul in the posters were vandalized with mustache and beard and even horns! When the Hall of Justice’s maintenance office received the communication that Chief Justice Renato Puno is scheduled to visit, then they decided to remove all those “redesigned”posters. They claim that the posters are not presentable anymore.

This column condemns those unfounded action and demand that those posters be pasted back to the walls of the Hall of Justice! Remove all the other posters that they want but certainly not Raul’s posters! Removing those posters is tantamount to a mockery of justice. And they can afford to do that with the image of the Justice himself? They are violating a basic freedom guaranteed by the constitution! This is a big farce!

First, those posters were paid for by the Filipino taxpayers. It was the people’s money that was utilized in the printing of such magnificent narcissistic posters. We spent for the printing of the poster, why remove it? Posters are meant to be, well, posted.

Second, they should respect whatever markings are on the posters for that is a part of its overall aesthetic value. It is a work of art in progress. Don’t they understand that the ordinary Filipino paid for the printing of the posters and now are contributing their artistic talents to make the posters even more appealing, informative and mind tickling?

Lastly and more important – the beard, mustache and the horns are actually appropriate, very fitting! Look at the track record of Raul – his brave lawyering for the American soldier rapist stationed in Subic, his colorful anti-women remarks and attitude, his many anti-people actions and positions plus his unquestioning and undying support to a fake and corrupt administration.

Beards and mustache characterize villains. So what wrong with that? Horns, well, devils wear them – it will portray somebody as evil, or sinister, or dreadful, creepy or simply horrible! So what’s the big deal?

To all readers lets us start a signature campaign to bring all those posters back! No, I do not mean that they replace them with new ones. We want exactly those same posters that they removed. We want the PNP and the NBI in coordination with the FBI, the CIA and the Interpol to determine the location of the posters and bring them back immediately! If needed let us elevate this issue to Congress or maybe to the International Court of Justice. Can anybody draft a position paper?

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