{"id":267292,"date":"2020-09-01T22:14:41","date_gmt":"2020-09-02T02:14:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=267292"},"modified":"2020-09-01T22:14:41","modified_gmt":"2020-09-02T02:14:41","slug":"prrd-kissing-ground-of-jolo-blast-site-act-of-genuine-respect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/09\/01\/prrd-kissing-ground-of-jolo-blast-site-act-of-genuine-respect\/","title":{"rendered":"PRRD kissing ground of Jolo blast site \u2018act of genuine respect\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte leads the candle-lighting and the offering of flowers at the blast site at Barangay Walled City in Jolo, Sulu on August 30, 2020. KARL NORMAN ALONZO\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte kneeling and kissing the ground where the August 24 twin explosions in Jolo, Sulu took place is an \u201cact of genuine respect,\u201d a blogger said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Pro-Duterte blogger Mark Lopez, in a Facebook post on Aug. 31, said there was nothing wrong with the President kissing the ground of the blast site in Jolo.<\/p>\n

Lopez said Duterte\u2019s gesture is known to Muslims as \u201csujood\u201d or prostration, an act of low bowing as a sign of humility.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an act of prostration where one bows down completely with the forehead touching the ground, signifying utmost humility, respect and reverence, and acknowledging the power and greatness of a more supreme being,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Duterte visited Jolo, Sulu on Sunday to condole with the victims of the twin blasts that killed at least 14 people, including seven soldiers and a police officer, and injured 77 others.<\/p>\n

Duterte\u2019s former special aide and now Senator Christopher Lawrence Go shared photos of the President kneeling and kissing the ground while wearing a face mask.<\/p>\n

In his speech during his visit to Jolo, Duterte said his gesture was for victims of the twin explosions who lives were \u201csnuffed out for no reason at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Duterte\u2019s \u201cspontaneous\u201d act, Lopez said, proves that he is a \u201ctrue leader with authentic malasakit (care).\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat [Duterte] did was to humble himself before those soldiers and innocents who died because of that cruel terrorist bombing, and conveying that powerful message that he will do everything to give them justice they deserve. It is also an act of genuine respect to the community, and telling them that he is their public servant,\u201d Lopez said.<\/p>\n

Lopez came to Duterte\u2019s defense after some netizens have posted satirical memes of Duterte\u2019s latest gesture.<\/p>\n

He said Duterte\u2019s latest photo showed the Chief Executive\u2019s \u201cauthentic act of courage.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMost important of all, he went there to personally empathize, grieve, and assure his troops that he is there with the all-out support of government. You don’t do this just for the sake of propaganda, when there is too much at stake,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Apart from Lopez, other netizens also defended Duterte.<\/p>\n

Netizen Deriz Quintana said it was \u201crude\u201d to create memes involving Duterte.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this point, it doesn’t even matter if it was President Duterte or whoever, but this meme is\u00a0kabastusan<\/em>\u00a0(disrespect) in the highest level. Bowing and kissing the ground is a form of reverence, done with the utmost humility and sincerity, to another being,\u201d Quintana said.<\/p>\n

A certain Menchie Panganiban, on her Facebook account, also called out a teacher who allegedly edited Duterte\u2019s photo by making it appear that the President is eating a dog food.<\/p>\n

Panganiban said Laarni Villaluz, a teacher who posted an edited photo of Duterte, \u201cdeserves to get punished and be sanctioned for what she did.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt can be remembered that Villaluz is the licensed teacher who posted an edited photo of President Rodrigo Duterte while paying respect to the victims of Jolo bombings. Most of the netizens were disappointed because Villaluz was supposed to give a higher standard of learning to her students because she\u2019s working in a private school,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte kneeling and kissing the ground where the August 24 twin explosions in Jolo, Sulu took place …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":267294,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-267292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-ruth-abbey-gita-carlos","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267292"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267292\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":267295,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267292\/revisions\/267295"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}