LAST week, the sidekick of a clearly unqualified assistant secretary of communication got into trouble again, this time for creating a bomb scare on his social media page on the eve of the 46th anniversary of the declaration of martial law.
On Sept. 20, Andrew Olivar—who appears to be an appendage of Communications Assistant Secretary Mocha Uson—warned readers on Facebook not to join rallies on the 46th anniversary of martial law because of a supposed bomb threat.
“It’s really scary to join rallies on EDSA because word is spreading that there might be another bombing like the one in Plaza Miranda,” he wrote in Filipino, referring to a 1971 bomb attack in Quiapo, Manila, in which nine people were killed and scores injured during a Liberal Party rally.
“If I were you, I wouldn’t go,” he added.
Olivar later deleted the post when some Internet users said he could be jailed under a 1980 presidential decree that penalizes anyone who spreads false rumors about bomb attacks, an offense for which he could be imprisoned for five years.
Under the threat of a police investigation, Olivar and Uson met with Metro Manila police chief Director Guillermo Eleazar Saturday, then held a press conference with him to apologize for his mistake.
Uson, who has not been known for her wisdom, said she went with Olivar to support her friend.
Eleazar, for his part, said the police would investigate the case, but had to wave off accusations of giving Uson and Olivar—who appeared with him at the press conference—special treatment.
This is not the first time Olivar—and by extension, his patron, Uson—embarrassed the administration.
On Sept. 15, less than a week earlier, he drew fire for making nonsensical gestures to mimic sign language and imitating the sounds of the hearing-impaired on a video posted on Uson’s Facebook page. Uson was seen in the same video laughing.
Before this, Olivar made a mockery of President Rodrigo Duterte’s advocacy, by doing a lascivious dance, again on Uson’s Facebook page, that used a woman’s breasts and vagina as mnenomic devices for federalism. Again, Uson seemed to be delighted by her friend’s antics.
Enough is enough.
It is bad enough that we, as taxpayers, must pay Uson’s substantial salary and put up with her incompetence, her intellectual dishonesty and complete lack of civility. Must we really also shoulder the salary of her trained monkey?
At least one, but better the two of them, ought to be fired outright.
