When Alex Gonzaga got a bashing on social media over a viral video that showed her playfully smearing the face of a waiter with icing from her birthday cake, I knew immediately it had less to do with the joke than it had to do with her politics. For one, the bashing was inordinately harsh for something many of us also do in similar situations even if, admittedly, it is often done to, or with, people we are close to.
I suspected at once the bashing had more to do with her politics. She and sister Toni had supported Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. It must have been pretty hard for the other side to swallow the fact that not only did Marcos win, he won it cleanly in a most resounding manner that world leaders almost literally fell head over heels to congratulate him as if to make amends for the decades of hate they heaped on his family.
Sore losers die hard in politics. They can lie low and give the impression of having moved on. But they are actually just waiting for the victors and their supporters to make a mistake, any mistake, political or not, and then they pounce. And with such a vengeance you cannot believe the election period ended more than eight months ago. And the proof that they are still at it is the fact that the Alex Gonzaga flap was not an isolated case.
Dawn Zulueta, another Marcos supporter, her husband being one of the best friends of Marcos, was also roundly criticized for joining the recent trip of the president to Davos for the World Economic Forum. The critics, of course, conveniently omitted the crucial facts that will lay to waste all their absurd criticisms. But just as Alex took care of herself, so can Dawn. After all, the best defense is innocence, to have done nothing wrong.
These critics are like ostriches. When they are not checking on their eggs buried safely in holes in the sand, their small heads on long necks swing around to see if anything is a perceived threat. Then they attack. Apparently, they do not just target high-profile politicians and movie stars. Even small snakes (my Zodiac sign) like me get our fair share of attention.
I have always prided myself in my ability to criticize even those whom I support. I voluntarily and vigorously supported Marcos in the election. And while I never got anything from it, it came at great cost to me in my personal life. But I have always thought that, with the elections over, all of that would be water under the bridge. I have thought wrong. The water, it seems, continues to eddy under the bridge.
While I continue to support Marcos, I have on occasion criticized the president over things that I considered him to be in the wrong. I must have done so enough for a few critics to conclude I have turned. They say they are now waiting for me to admit I was wrong. They can wait until Kingdom Come. A few failings normal to any person do not a mistake make in my electoral choice. Marcos vs. Leni? Just imagine Davos!
I can understand the ambuscades waiting for such personalities as Alex Gonzaga and Dawn Zulueta. But for small snakes (my Zodiac sign lagi, haha) like me to attract attention in the underbrush of the forest, I now conclude, and not just suspect, that there really are many who are still burning with election fever, who have not risen to take a bath, who have not brushed their teeth.
It is, for them, still very much all about us vs. them. They lie in wait, admirably patient, waiting for the moment, any moment, when we exhibit a weakness, any weakness, and then they pounce. While initially I likened them to ostriches somewhere in this article, allow me now to make a correction. They are more than just ostriches. In every sense of the word, they are actually trolls. Poor-loser trolls.