‘So what will it be, Mr. President? Or, to be more precise, who will it be? You need a Lim Seng, just one – and the public will be fully behind you.’
IF you’re old enough to be able to sing “March of the New Society” from memory, then you’ll know who Lim Seng is. Or was.
Lim Seng was the first and only individual to be executed by firing-squad during the Martial Law period. His crime? Drug trafficking and drug pushing. He was tried by a Military Tribunal, found guilty, and sentenced to die at 6 a.m. on January 15, 1973.
His execution was covered by national television, for a singular purpose: to send a clear message to everyone that drug trafficking will earn you a quick trip to the other life via firing squad.
The execution sent chills down the spines of drug dealers and users. Ferdinand Marcos didn’t have to execute a second, third or fourth drug trafficker.
Today, his son and namesake who is now President of the Philippines, needs his own Lim Seng. Not a drug dealer to be executed by firing squad, mind you: but a Lim Seng version of 2025 who will be held up as an example of how serious the government is in stomping out, say, corruption in government flood control contracts or bridge or road construction or in whatever government activity is there to help improve the standard of living of our countrymen.
Without a Lim Seng, BBM’s “mahina naman kayo” ejaculation at his last State of the Nation will remain a well-applauded headline maker turned into an object of snickering and a subject of snide remarks.
Not only will his reputation diminish, so will that of his office – neither of which he or the country can afford.
For more drama, do a Saddam Hussein. Saddam was fond of delivering speeches before a packed audience of government officials. During or after the speech, as applause wanes, Saddam would read out names of party members or of officials who were expected to stand up, salute him, recite an oath of loyalty, then leave the room.
It need not be said that most of them were never seen nor heard from again.
Or combine Saddam with Donald Trump: during the next SONA, have masked ICE agents march into the session hall of the Batasan so they can cart away the barong-clad men and their bejeweled spouses who own, are connected to, or benefit from the construction companies scamming the public of billions upon billions of public funds.
By the way, for our purposes, ICE would stand for Institutionalized Corruption Exterminators.
So what will it be, Mr. President? Or, to be more precise, who will it be? You need a Lim Seng, just one – and the public will be fully behind you.
