You are the mighty one giving orders
To silence your critics with gold and goons
To coopt the corruptible and sow intrigue
To use dirty money to buy the truth
And deceive yourself of your apparent powers.
Blinded by your own folly and greed
You have become heartless and ruthless
To claim victory stained with the blood of your own people.

You cloak yourself with all the media blitz
As you serenely ask for the blessings of the Holy Church
To be an instrument of peace and goodwill
Then hand out charity cheques and tokens and
Pronounce empty promises to appease the hungry poor,
the wailing widows and orphans, the helpless victims of
epidemics of disease, fires, floods and landslides.

Surely, you have not failed to warn and persecute the sinners
Who dare tarnish your saintly image
The slothy prostitutes in night clubs here and abroad
The murderers, the thieves, the kidnappers
And you proudly pose over the bullet riddled cadavers
of so-called criminals who had no chance to plead.

Finally, the tyrant never hesitates and blatant in your case
To label enemies of the state and get them punished at all costs
You unleash the dogs of war, brainwashed and bloodthirsty
Surveillance, warrantless arrests, summary execution
rain of bombs and bullets, disappearances, massacre
of children, peasants, workers, women, journalists, students,
politicians, Muslims and Christians of our land.

Tyrant! You are such a fool and a coward!
Have some sense and stop the killings,
For you may have murdered and will murder more
hundreds of critics, journalists, human rights advocates,
and activists including the very author of Tyrant I.

But certain as the sun will rise and the day will come
The Spirit of Truth, Peace, Justice and of Freedom
Will eternally haunt you and your cliche
Until you are trapped in the war of your own making.

Listen, here they come
The ghosts, the voices, the shadows and
the very monsters you have created.

Keep running for the people are rising…
The revolution is brewing…
(dom-an)

* In memory of my comprehensive friend, Jose Pepe Riveral Manegdeg, 37 yrs old, coordinator of Rural Missionaries of the Philippines (RMP) in the Cordillera-Ilocos Region. 19 years ago, he wrote an article entitled Tyrant which was published in the PDI letter-to-the editor. Since then he contributed articles to church publications here and abroad. He was killed with 22 gunshot wounds by armed men believed to be elements of the military last November 28, 2005 in San Esteban, Ilocos Sur.

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