三人成虎

a friend of mine [let's call him 'jan'] called me up the other day with a rather difficult problem - he was suddenly in need of 40 thousand pesos. as i had just cleaned out my bank account the other week to assist in my family's expenses, i had a little less than a third of that amount to spare, not to mention that, it being well after 6pm, any form of internal fund transfer would only take effect the following day [withdrawal has a ceiling of 10 thousand, and would require me to secure my own means of transportation to the fort bonifacio area]. luckily, jan was able to raise the money through his friends in the immediate vicinity, but was strangely reluctant to discuss the reason behind his debit.

it wasn't until the next day that he was able to fully detail what had happened: he had fallen asleep in the car with his [iligal] girlfriend, and had been awakened by a pair of potbellied officers rapping on his window. they had supposedly "seen" certain events transpiring and were going to file charges of statutory rape against him. certainly a laughable charge, but when firearms start leaving their holsters, the situation takes a turn for the uncertain. as it turned out, those policemen had no intention to write citations or conduct arrests; rather, they were zealous advocates of the barter system [meaning of course that they had succeeded in accomplishing the heretofore impossible task of affixing a precise monetary value to human life]. given that there is less risk in bargaining with evil men than with wild alligators, jan had no choice but to finance beer and pulutan for 200 people.

in layman's terms, the situation was simply a hold-up at gunpoint [government-issued guns, no less!], by the very people we are taught to rely on for protection from crime. what faith and cooperation is to be expected from the citizens when injustice is a way of life? what trust is left to give that hasn't already been eroded away? it's frankly an embarrassment that minors are being targeted for these abuses simply because they are ill-prepared to resist. the boldness with which these badged thieves operate is very telling of how hopelessly irreparable our political situation has become.

i later asked jan what he would do now that the excitement was over. he gave me an answer along the lines of finding a part-time job to pay off his debts. he considered pressing charges or even raising awareness to be an unnecessary risk, fearing retribution if he did. recovering the money is of course a lost cause, but i can't help but muse that this particular case may yet have its day in court. if a sympathetic ear is to be found, i am confident that some amount of justice can be served. after all, he has three witnesses, total innocence, and a lack of motive on his side.

now if there was only some way to trace exactly which feckless insults to civilized society were issued a squad car with the license plate number shb 671.

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note: the title of this post is a chéngyǔ, or four-character proverb, meaning "three men make a tiger". traditionally, this is interpreted as an argumentum ad populum, but in a broader sense, it implies that people working together have the power to change reality. or put another way, a certain amount of public interest will eventually necessitate action. 
posted by stani at 11:07 PM