By icc.philippines on Skatehive
‘My mother did the whipping, too. Flogging! Today you can’t discipline your child any more. If you spank him, they call it child abuse! What child abuse? What was my mother supposed to do with him?’ ‘One day we are eating lunch. My father is sitting here,’ said Eleanor, gesturing to the top of the family dining table. ‘The phone rings. Someone answers it and says “Sir, there’s a Father so-and-so who wants to talk to you.”’ It turned out to be no less than the director of Ateneo de Davao High School himself. ‘“Governor,” he says, “would you happen to know where your son is? Rodrigo. Governor, I need to tell you that he hasn’t been at school for the past two months.”’ Eleanor’s voluminous attempt to mimic her father’s response was startling. ‘“WHAAAAAT?”’ she screeched. It had the feel of a practiced rendition of a family favourite; today this story features prominently in the presidential apocrypha. The governor called his security chief, she said, a high-ranking officer in the Philippi