Marlen V Ronquillo In The Making Of A Mad Hatter

When you argue, be sure that you know the logical fallacies!

Have you seen Paul Graham’s Hierarchy of Disagreement[1]? (Wikipedia, see above image; “All the best…” from PicsArt[2]). I just saw some. That is exactly why I wrote this essay as an editorial response to Marlen V Ronquillo’s Manila Times’ column, “DA’s Incompetence And Irrelevance Exposed By Covid-19[3].” Oops!

Paradigm shift. Reading the title alone instantaneously brought out the liberal creative writer and strict Editor In Chief in me!

Before I proceed with my Author’s Editor’s self-assignment on Mr Ronquillo’s tirade (tirada) of 791 words, let me establish my credentials in argumentation. I studied “Western Philosophy” at UP Los Baños under a Mr Bituin in the 1960s and got a perfect grade of 1.0(one.point.zero). In Grade School yet, people called me pilosopo, a silly amateur philosopher. 

Now then, Mr Ronquillo, your very title, “DA’s Incompetence And Irrelevance Exposed By Covid-19” is at the bottom of Graham’s Hierarchy of Disagreement:

“Name-calling.
“Sounds something like, ‘You are an idiot.’”

Next, your very first paragraph, Mr Ronquillo, is another failure in argument:

On shortage of rice supply, the Duterte government’s entirely predictable reaction was to import 300,000 metric tons (MT) of rice. The announcement to import another jumbo rice shipment was without consideration of one thing. Whatever happened to the 3 million MT of rice imported in less than 10 months in 2019? Where did the massive rice stockpile go? It is only April 2020. Por Diyos, por Santo; that basic question should have been asked.

That is called:

“Ad Hominem.
Attacks the characteristics or authority of the (person) without addressing the substance of the argument.”

Your paragraph attacks the very person of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte. If I may summarize those 74 words above into a single word, you are saying that Du30 and his entire cabinet are:

Tuliro – dumbfounded, confused, overwhelmed, stupefied, bewildered.

Here are your 2^nd and 3^rd paragraphs, Mr Ronquillo:

After all, those 3 million MT depressed palay (unmilled rice) prices and practically sentenced 3 million small rice farmers to death. ¶ Import. Import. Import. And screw the suffering small rice farmers some more.

They are no less an abomination in argument: Hyperbole, exaggeration. Differently, Mr Graham calls it:

Contradiction.
States the opposing case with little or no supporting evidence.

I agree!

And then, Mr Ronquillo, you say in your very last paragraph:

Why can’t we just petition Mr Duterte to name a young mayor like Pasig City Mayor Vico Sotto as DA secretary, instead of tormenting the young mayor, who has more compassion, managerial skills and common sense than the entire Duterte Cabinet?

That’s 2 insults. You are petitioning Mr Du30 to replace William Dar as Secretary of Agriculture and in the same breath insult Mr Du30 saying Vico “has more… common sense than the entire Duterte Cabinet!”

“All the best people are crazy,” Lewis Carroll says. You are tops, Mr Ronquillo. This Editor In Chief is advising you:

You are insane when you write when you are mad!@517

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[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_calling

[2] https://picsart.com/i/image-321150691313201

[3] https://www.manilatimes.net/2020/04/05/opinion/columnists/topanalysis/das-incompetence-and-irrelevance-exposed-by-covid-19/709930/?fbclid=IwAR14FY0SOkby3RVAKfnLualmk7QuPkIb-o49w4uR7XwDVseSV-g12yrpA3k