A destabilizer speaks

Secretary Raul Gonzalez just made thousands of U.P. students and alumni sit up and take notice. This was when he started shooting his mouth off about how my dearly beloved alma mater supposedly breeds destabilizers, frat men and women who run around naked, and rallyists. At the end of his interview, Secretary Gonzalez (no relation, thank goodness) frets about the fate of our nation, since this country is destined (according to his crystal ball) to end up in the destabilizing hands of the leaders churned out by the premier state university.

Now, I don't know how he can comfortably assure the rest of the nation that this is the case, considering he never received his education there. As far as I know, while there were indeed naked men running around once a year, and rallies every so often against this and that issue, there wasn't an orchestrated effort to culture the students and make us all end up becoming destabilizing agents.

Nope, no destabilizing air infecting the students. All I remember at that time was that the air in the Diliman campus was so fresh, I slept really soundly, blissfully unaware that a decade (ahem) down the road, some old guy in a suit would be slinging mud shots at my hard-earned diplomas (that's plural, Mr. Justice Secretary, not even counting the wasted voice lessons at the College of Music when I was still in high school) with ill-deserved slurs.

Our Justice Secretary is not from U.P. but from another institution of learning, the University of Sto. Tomas. The Secretary credits his own university with teaching him, on the other hand, how to be "well-behaved." I don't exactly know what his university taught him in terms of measuring behavior, but in my books, he hasn't really deserved the tag 'well behaved.'

Imagine, implying that state scholars aren't well-behaved! Now, upon hearing attacks of this nature, other immature and defensive U.P. alumni would probably immediately start trashing UST, and highlighting its propensity to release byproducts and toxic wastes, but since I want to disguise this side of me, let me just try to approach Secretary Gonzalez's statements from another angle: Levity.

What's so wrong about having naked men and women run around campus? Are the Secretary's delicate sensibilities offended with the sight of body parts hanging out for all to see? After all, he can talk about his kidney stones and other people's balls in public (eew), so if he's willing to expose the unsuspecting populace to tasteless discussion, why not expose the public to nubile young flesh infinitely more tasty?

Now, naked runners might indeed work the trick, and divert people's attention so much from their problems, there won't be any injustice left for the Secretary to prosecute. After all, he seems bent on rewriting the role of the Justice Department within our system of government, we might as well give him a little time alone so he can really focus on his apparent goal of merging the roles of Department Secretary and Omniscient Being.

Too, what's wrong with rallyists? There's nothing like fresh-faced, innocent, idealistic students marching earnestly in the streets, getting hyped up by speeches about mythical monsters hidden within the labyrinths of government. Infinitely preferable to the reality that pervades his institution - jaded public servants more often than not on the take, incompetent personnel, and a total waste of taxpayer's money.

Oh, that brings me to his comment that as a state university subsidized by taxes, the students who benefited from this largesse have a special obligation to taxpayers. I have absolutely no quarrel with that statement, since I believe that we alumni indeed have a special duty to pay back what was invested in us.

Of course, the Secretary should also realize that there is a multitude of ways to serve the public - including voicing out our honest opinion that public servants like him? They aren't so hot.

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