Bumped into a friend  (all of my friends are low-caste) a few days back. He was all red-faced and flustered. Malungkut ku, kilung  de ing idol ku. (I am sad. They jailed my idol.), he said in our dialect.  Of course, of course, are not we all, I said. It was a statement that I had to fake. He is an ordinary Joe but one  flowing with the milk of human kindness. And to his grief, you  had to show phony sympathy.

That reaction to the jailing of Senator Bong Revilla may be a discordant note in the righteous symphony of the commentariat. But looking at the sentiments at ground level on the jailing of the pork barrel scam senators, the punditry and the outraged netizens will be in for a major jolt. The ordinary Joe reared on the agimat movies of Ramon Revilla Senior and Junior have their outrage the other way around—anger at the government over the jailing of Ramon Junior.