The Cat’s Out of the Bag

The expression “let the cat out of the bag” has its origins from Medieval England.
During the Middle Ages, livestock and farm products were sold to the public in open markets by the farmers themselves. Aside from vegetables, fruits, eggs and dairy products, live animals among them piglets were staple produce for the English table that were available in those markets. When a piglet was chosen, the same was then placed in a tied sack and handed to the buyer.
Like today, unscrupulous or dishonest sellers also abound at that time. One of their tricks was to substitute the piglet with a cat as cats were more abundant than piglets. Usually the unsuspecting buyer discovers the scam at home when the cat is out of the bag or, sack.
Kung may manloloko at tanga ngayon meron din noon. But that’s another story.
In the case of Chief Justice Renato Corona, who is in the thick in the ongoing impeachment trial, it’s not only the cat that’s out of the bag but his whole private life, skeletons, bank accounts, including alleged poking a gun to the head of a caretaker of the company of which the CJ’s wife was part owner of. The caretaker, Pedro Aguilon, is now dead but he executed an affidavit on Oct. 15, 1997 when he was 83 years old.
Mrs. Corona’s niece Ana Basa and maternal aunt 92-year-old Sr. Flory of the Franciscan Order have likewise spilled the beans on how the CJ allegedly maltreated them in relation to a family dispute over a company owned by Mrs. Corona’s side of the family. The said company is entangled in the current impeachment case against the CJ.
And now, what is out too is the Supreme Court Justice’s collection of firearms.
According to newspaper reports his arsenal includes, among others, two machine pistols, two shotguns, one submachine gun, one high powered rifle, a carbine, an Uzi, a Beretta, and a Glock.
When you carry a GLOCK, you carry confidence, the gun maker’s website proclaims!
News reports coming from Manila also say that in all the Chief Justice of the land has 31 pieces in his arsenal, enough firepower to equip a mini private army! In the Philippines, to have ones own private arsenal and hence a private army is not a surprise. Most notorious among them is the Ampatuans of Maguindanao, the powerful clan that like the Chief Justice is also waging a battle, the latter in the impeachment court, and the former in the judicial court for master minding one of the most horrific massacres in Philippine history.
What is shocking, to me at least, is the thought that how a man of the law, a Supreme Court Chief Justice at that, could be deriving his confidence from the power of guns (the Glock) and not from the supremacy of the law that is supposed to be his domain, where is currently king.
What do you say if a Catholic Bishop derives his authority and confidence from his gun collection and not from the might of God’s word?
Men of the law, or legal minds that are trained for such, are supposed to use logic and the law to uphold justice, not use the muzzle of the gun to prove a point. One may argue that it is just a collection of guns and it is the CJ’s right to have such and there’s no law that prohibits anyone from owning registered guns in the Philippines. However, for me, a collection of anything is proof enough of the collector’s mental frame, which in turn may define a character, based on what the collection is, in the case of the CJ – guns.
The use of force, like poking a gun on someone’s head, to win an argument is not, or should not be, the way of a man who then would be a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Republic of the Philippines and who now is.
The following is not new and so does not qualify as a cat out of the bag:
A man and his wife were having some problems at home and were giving each other the silent treatment.
Suddenly the man realized that the next day he would need his wife to wake him up at 5 a.m. for an early morning business flight.
Not wanting to be the first to break the silence (and LOSE), he wrote on a piece of paper, ‘Please wake me up at 5:00 AM.’ He left it where he knew she would find it.
The next morning the man woke up, only to discover it was 9:00 AM and he had missed his flight.
Furious, he was about to go to see why his wife hadn’t wakened him when he noticed a piece of paper by the bed. The paper said, ‘It is 5:00 AM. Wake up.’
Although late for the International Women’s Day celebration, still this column’s tribute to all women of the world. Mabuhay!