A New Animal...

Philippine political evolution has given birth to a new animal. Quite different from its most immediate progenitor, Lintang Garci, Lintang Bedol is the most pernicious animal ever to come out of its gene pool.

While most leeches, or in the vernacular “linta”, are known to be predatory, they are known around this part of the globe as blood-suckers or haemophagic leeches. They attach to the host, suck blood, then fall off to digest after they are full.

Lintang Garci and Lintang Bedol are of this haemophagic variety. However, they are even more. They not only suck blood, they wreck havoc on the national scale, corrupting elections and installing unelected leaders. More than sucking blood, they suck the moral fiber out of society.

While they are both known to be slippery bastards, with the uncanny ability to lie between their teeth without batting an eyelash and able to exploit the letter of the law to advance their interests (well, the devil can quote scriptures, right?), what makes Lintang Bedol more dangerous than Lintang Garci is shown by its tendency to strike back like a cobra when cornered.

When Lintang Garci was being hunted down for his 2004 exploits, he simply disappeared. He challenged his detractors to file charges against him. Never did he challenge the Comelec.

With Lintang Bedol’s challenge to the Comelec to sue him, he has ascended another step in the evolutionary process. This is an animal that will that will probably rank with praying mantises and the black widow spiders, animals whose participation in the sexual act usually results in the death of their mate.

The sky is the limit for Lintang Bedol.

While the Romans had Lamia or Hannibal to scare their children to sleep, future Filipino children should probably have Lintang Bedol as their bogeyman. Our political future depends on it.