'Trumped' - been there, done that

CTALK

- CITO BELTRAN

The day before the US presidential elections, my friend "Quin" walked up to me visibly frayed and frazzled, worrying over the possibility of a Trump presidency coming back to Washington. Quin was not an exception. There were many Filipinos who did not know what to make of being "trumped" by Donald Trump a second time around. Some feared his strong anti-illegal immigration position would translate into a wave of anti-Asian, therefore anti-Filipino, sentiment.

Others were concerned that Trump's isolationist or America first rhetoric would result in the US abandoning its commitment to the US-Phl Mutual Defense Treaty, less support and investments in the country and others even worried that it might now become a lot harder to get tourist visas to the United States.

The thing is, if you're not American, if you're not in government, what can you really do about it? Besides which, there are Disneyland parks in Hong Kong, Tokyo and Paris. So, you can still see Mickey elsewhere.

But in all seriousness, the Philippines and Filipinos have gone through such unexpected or unbelievable political shockers for several decades. We have been there and done that at least three times and nothing much ever changed. We are not resilient; things simply didn't change and many Pinoys didn't really do much.

We've had Joseph "Erap" Estrada for president and that shocked the rich, the elite, the media and the church. How in heaven's name could an actor, "womanizer" and "drunk" win as president?