No honor among thieves

“Quin etiam leges latronum esse dicuntur, quibus pareant, quas observant.”
Cicero over 2,000 years ago said this during the early Roman Empire. In essence, it means thieves have no moral conduct, and cannot trust each other and the norm is they betray each other.
Even thieves should have laws which they obey. The honor code appears in modern times through the Sicilian mafia who added it to the Rules on Omerta or Code of Silence.
Sen. Manny Pacquiao is now at the receiving end of the rule not being followed, as the President now has reneged on his word in 2016 and proclaimed to one and all that he does not intend to support Pacman. In fact,the President said he will campaign against him in 2022. Expect the champ to be ousted from PDP-Laban on July 17.
At least Duterte was honest enough to say he was not for him anymore. Unlike here in Baguio where the ultimate politicians who, even when partymates would raise your hand as their bet, would go around endorsing two or more of your opponents. Only for himself as this one is “thick as a thief” and karma must have touched him and lost by what Jun Labo claimed as landscape.
Now, he wants a comeback and as sure as the sun would rise, he would try winning only for himself and make his partymates sacrificial lambs.
Last Monday, the boxing icon was given a presidential tongue lashing for saying that corruption has worsened under the Duterte government. In kind, he called him a “son of a bitch playing politics” ahead of elections next year. Lista mo or he would campaign against the boxing champion kunana met.
Earlier, Duterte was polite when Pacquiao chided the stand in the dispute with China for the West Philippine Sea as “lacking” and “disheartening.” In answer, the jab – kasi “shallow” knowledge of foreign policies of the senator, short of saying “bobo.”
Pacquiao has accepted the challenge and named the Department of Health, but the counterpunch courtesy of Dirty Harry was “Mukhang absent si Sen ‘nung nag-expain si Duque ha.”
Then the knockout punch and “joke of the worst kind” is the President running for vice president.
At the local scene too, no honor among thieves.
Sigh!