There's a lot of complaining going on that Bong Revilla, one of the senators accused of graft and plunder in the Pork Barrel Scam, is being given special treatment in his detention. The treatment isn't actually special; it's just that it's unusually... humane. How terrible it is in the Philippines that the treatment of common prisoners is so abominable, that seeing someone treated in a normal and humane fashion is considered special treatment.
Anyway, a lot of people are saying Bong should be made to suffer like the common rabble in the stinking, overcrowded, inner city prisons. Well, as tempting as it is to watch one of the high and mighty brought low and made to suffer like the rest of us, such thinking is layman thinking. It is not justice and it is illogical. Philippine society has always been about putting emotions first before thought.
Consider this: You cannot, on one hand, call the treatment of common prisoners cruel and intolerable and on the other hand, call for the same cruel treatment when it comes to certain people-- people like Bong. It's inconsistent. The situation that common prisoners find themselves shouldn't be allowed but it should be allowed when it comes to certain people?
Look, if overcrowded prisons are so bad, we shouldn't suddenly find it OK so long as the people we hate are put in it. Just as he shouldn't be given special treatment, he shouldn't be given special maltreatment either. While the situation of common prisoners is deplorable, we shouldn't want Bong to be dragged down to subhuman levels but should instead, want to see the common prisoner lifted up to more humane standards.
Better?
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