Television blurs it. But why? It’s just a finger, although of all the five digits, it is the biggest and the fattest— if proximity to malice is to be discussed, it is the most phallic in shape. But so do the eggplant and the German frankfurter. Why aren’t we blurring certain hotdog commercials then? Although we did take down the Bench billboard with the rugby players with the Titanic bukol-lychees.

We’re talking about the dirty finger a.k.a the one-finger salute, flipping the bird, or in our language, ngarat, ngatngat, or, according to some grade-schoolers, “pakyu.” And based on recent events, the “Duterte Finger.” Of course, the TV networks had to blur it, the way they blur footage of bloody corpses, nipple slips, ass cracks, the faces of minors, rape victims, witnesses to high-profile crimes, and cleavage (in the perplexingly absurd case of Giselle Sanchez on UNTV).

Is it the intent, the malice behind it? I do not think so. Did we see the networks bleeping Osama Bin Laden’s pronouncements about destroying the Great Satan America? That’s about the most nefarious and most obscene threat anyone could ever utter in media. But did they bleep him? No.

Why blur the finger on TV?  We all know what’s behind those pixels. And— again—it’s just a goddamned finger. Yes, we all know how this one finger can offend certain sensibilities. But, really, can a lump of pixels really make us forget what’s behind it?

Or is it the intent coupled with the finger? What if it’s just the finger alone? What if it’s a cute two-year-old who’s just toying with his fingers and manages to randomly twist his fingers into what he believes is the form of an F-16 jet fighter?

Don’t get me wrong. The Finger remains socially unacceptable. But so were alcohol, homosexuality, and women’s suffrage for a time. It’s just one finger, but it manages to convey an entire spectrum of negative emotions, expressing with literally a single flick of a finger what five well-constructed sentences with multiple exclamation points cannot convey. In the streets of Metro Manila where traffic can easily inflame tempers,  it’s the most convenient means of expressing your dismay without having to scream yourself hoarse. It transcends physical distance. All you have to do is roll down your window, extend your arm and kaboom! Cars with sunroofs are an absurdity in Philippine clime, but at least they’re perfect for a vertical-style one-finger salute.

Before Duterte, the most famous dirty finger belonged to Teddy Boy Locsin, my idol. That finger has been immortalized in a Manila Chronicle photograph published 26 years ago. I was only ten then. There he was, baby-faced, in a spiffy suit, and flipping the bird to striking San Miguel Corporation workers. I said to myself that one day this man would be my boss, and lo and behold, he did. I worked for him for six years, in a newspaper for which he wrote coruscating editorials with titles like “Shut up, Vistan” and endearing phrases like “Rafael Alunan— the only Ramos cabinet member who does not resemble a hemorrhoid.” I remain in awe of the man. When he screamed, “You sons of bitches!” at the Smartmatic people during the elections last year, I knew I had made the right career decision.

For Teddy Boy’s gesture Larry Henares sang praises: “We should be eternally thankful that Teddy Boy Locsin in his official capacity as Press Secretary, brought into the open, on the front page no less for all the world to see, a “dirty finger” that is as uniquely Filipino as the yo-yo, the moon buggy, the barong, and ‘Dahil sa Iyo,’ much better than the American version.”