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Emil Amok

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A Sudden Eraption

By Emil Guillermo

Going amok is about being politically incorrect. It’s about speaking uncomfortable truths. The opposite—being politically correct—is generally seen as safe, but boring. Unless, of course, you’re a politician like Joseph Estrada, president of the Philippines.

For him, being politically correct every now and then might actually be refreshing. Especially when touring America. Let’s just say on his recent trip to Washington, Mr. Estrada committed a real boner. And now there are calls for him to apologize for a racial slur.

That’s right, racial slur.

First, a backgrounder. Among Filipinos, Estrada is known by his colloquial nickname, “Erap.” Whenever I read it, I’m reminded of Wyatt Earp with a bad case of gas. It’s pronounced as it looks. Sounds like “ear-wrap.” And as far as I can tell, it means nothing. It’s just indicative of Estrada’s informal public style. He’s a down-to-earth guy, a former action movie hero whose popularity is based on his ability to be “real.”

So what happens when he gets “too” real?

It happens in the Philippines a lot more frequently than an eruption of Mt. Pinatubo. They’re called eraptions, strange utterances from Estrada that make you say, could that really be the President of the Philippines? It’s as if a cross between Archie Bunker/Gomer Pyle rose to power and started speaking his mind.

Considered comic in the Philippines, it’s another story when Estrada comes to America to ask the United States to aid his militaristic offensive against Muslim rebels in Mindinao.

The timing couldn’t have been worse. Last Thursday, at a huge gala dinner in Washington, D.C., sponsored by the Philippine American Foundation representing more than 80 Fil-Am groups, Erap uttered a phrase that cut deep into his credibility.

He was describing to the D.C. crowd the protests in San Francisco earlier that week at the Fairmont Hotel. A large group demonstrated against the escalation of violence in Mindinao, as well as the alleged corruption in the Estrada government. The rally is the likes of which have not been seen since the hey-day of Philippine martial law dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

Estrada disputed the media accounts that there were even 300 protestors in the San Francisco crowd. I saw the crowd grow throughout the night, and 300 was a reasonable estimate.

But Estrada related his version of the event in Tagalog. He indicated there were just a handful of Filipinos protesting. An insignificant number. And then he said the phrase. Translated, he said that among the protestors “there were Negroes, even.”

The exact phrase Estrada used was Negro pa sila. In English: “Negroes even.”

Like how can they count, right? It can’t be a real protest with Negroes, can it? And they just weren’t Filipino. They were “Negroes, even.”

To his credit, Estrada didn’t say the “N-word.” Then again, he was speaking in Tagalog, where the “N” word doesn’t exist. But the phrase he used certainly had “N-word” implications.

“I was so embarrassed, and upset,” Elvie Melegrito, a Washington-area resident, said in a telephone interview as she talked about the incident. “[Estrada said] ‘Negro pas,’ showing no sensitivity at all. And there were Filipino Americans married to African Americans in the room. They knew what he said.”

Apparently, the whole room reacted with a buzz. People were clearly uncomfortable

“They were upset by him,” Melegrito continued, still bothered by the incident. “I expected him to preserve the dignity of the presidency of the Philippines. It was so crude.”

It got worse. Another person in the dinner crowd said Estrada talked at length in Tagalog, making both Filipinos and non-Filipinos uncomfortable. There was even a crack at the expense of the U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines. Estrada remarked how it was funny the ambassador was laughing when he didn’t even understand Tagalog. It was Estrada’s inside joke that excluded non-Tagalog speakers. It wasn’t “talking behind someone’s back.” It was “talking in front of one’s back.” You know, just us Filipinos, heh, heh, heh.

Maybe Estrada was in an altered state. The dinner came after a meeting and working lunch with President Bill Clinton. Estrada described himself as “walking on clouds” after that meeting. Philippine Ambassador Ernesto Maceda called them “soulmates.”

Now there’s a pair. Erap, known for his eraptions and infidelity. And Clinton, who shall we say, is familiar with the territory.

Estrada was able to get five Huey helicopters worth $4.37 million. The total package in military hardware was worth $105 million, no doubt earmarked for the effort in Mindinao.

The United States did pick up the tab on $20 million in food aid. But there was nothing substantive done on getting the United States to take responsibility on the toxic cleanup at the former U.S. bases at Clark and Subic Bay.

In the ongoing issue of benefits for Filipino war veterans from World War II, Estrada won an executive order from Clinton that calls for a study of compensation and benefits for the vets to be completed by October 31. So, overall, there was some good.

But one remark threatens to mar the entire visit.

“He should apologize,” another high ranking community leader said to me. “Definitely for those remarks. For a head of state to say [what he said] in public, it doesn’t serve him well.”

Nope, it sure doesn’t. But the bigoted phrase shows a real, unflattering side of Estrada. And it helps explain why his mostly Christian-oriented government is going all out to crush the Moros of Muslim Mindinao. He’s certainly not apologizing for that.