The "difference is just the same"

This clause is an oxymoronic colloquialism, a double-talk on two odious persons needing urgent fixing in character. As the Cebuano joke goes: “Ang kalainan sa duha, pareha’s ra. Nag-abot lang ang gulpe ug ang bun-og; ug puslan man, maayong pakangon ang ilang mga agtang”.

Of stereotype parallelisms in troubles to their families and society, and the dire results to them and their victims, are the “karma” on Jason Ivler and Joavan Fernandez.

Given the interplay of individual differences, plus divergence in childhood upbringing, the role of parenting on discipline, or pampering by sparing the rod, the education and environment influence, the role of family and peers, etc., Jason and Joavan may be poles apart.

But shorn of the irksome frills and psychosomatic streaks hounding their young minds, Jason and Joavan are peas of a pod in their addled mental state. Perhaps they’re obsessed with monomania of self-importance and false sense of courage to overcome what may after all be their stronger insecurity. That, in essence could be their main similarity.

Jason’s “defender” is his over-protective mother Marlene, while Joavan’s “backer” is adopting father Mayor Soc. Marlene is combative in solicitude for Jason to the extent of telling lies or fantasy. Mayor Soc appeared discreet and laid-back in backing his adopted son. Jason is the more violent tempered, whereas Joavan seems not as explosive, as gleaned from their separate troubles in road accidents. Thus, the variance of the two “rebels without a cause” as in James Dean, is more finely defined in the differing personalities of their influential parent – Marlene for Jason, Mayor Soc for Joavan.

Mayor Soc who had earned local fame as “Catholic defender” is friendly and humble, which explains why despite his political clout now, he isn’t aggressive in bailing out Joavan from brushes with the law. If true, he hasn’t pressured the law-enforcers, but only as intimated, talking it over with the victims and their families. Whether it be a parental virtue, or drawback as a public official, Mayor Soc has not given up Joavan; neither has he condemned nor mildly censured his erring son. He bears in silent shame the public innuendoes of a parent “konsentidor” that abets Joavan’s offenses.

Marlene is ballistic whose over-talk finds comfort in media spiels that many reacted with “she must be crazy”; but she said “I’m not crazy”. In the same breath, bragging: “We are geniuses, borderline insanity. My intelligence is way above most people. Does that make me insane?”

Like a consummate actress, she feigned calling on Jason to surrender knowing that Jason was hiding in their house. When Jason’s rifle matched in killing Ebarle Jr. in that traffic incident, Marlene again over-acted, pinning the crime on their British bodyguard who had access to the gun.

Again, play-acting and bragging her self-proclaimed genius, she laid out a fantasy of her son being framed “by powerful military men in America” because of her book exposing the 9/11 twin towers attack as “inside job”; adding that Nazi-Germany was funded by American businessmen, same thing with the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The most fantastic Marlene tale is that the Maguindanao massacre was also an off-shoot of the American’s twisting of her arms. She even put in a good word for Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr.

While parents are expected to do everything possible to help their children – even to offer their lives if need be – there must be sane and decent limits. Thus, while Mayor Soc has been that steadfast for his adopted son despite the embarrassing odds, especially with his running for reelection, people can’t understand why he has been mulishly adamant against Joavan’s “rehab”. And for Marlene, vis-à-vis his son Jason, let’s just leave her to heaven, to quote a popular movie title, since a “genius” is beyond the pale of understanding by ordinary mortals.

In recap, both consenting and dominating parents and, both their respective sons all come under the saying that the “difference is just the same”.

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