Sunday, December 13, 2009
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Exchange deal
Crises spawn opportunities, and Gloria Arroyo will grab whatever comes her way in her attempt to perpetuate her claim to power, at whatever cost, even at the expense of 57 innocent lives, including many journalists, who, as it turned out, only became pawns in a local turf war at which Gloria’s interest was long hinged.
The Ampatuan massacre in Maguindanao, the second poorest province in the country where guns, goons and gold worked wonders, not only for a cheating presidential candidate but also for her senators and local leaders as well, to the detriment of a country long lost in the darkest chapter of its history since Marcos’ martial rule, not only gave us our ugliest blot but a chance for Gloria to create an advantageous scenario for her to complete her own Marcosian cycle.
Gloria has placed Maguindanao and its environs under martial law, but not publicly declaring it like Marcos did, perhaps learning from the mistake of the vilified late dictator, whose old school, black and white television image became a direct illustration of evil even long after his death as his footage gets shown every year when the nation is reminded of his rule, or things similar to it, just as what we have now under Gloria, and against which we say, never again!
But it was martial law still she has just declared.
Ugly pasts have their way of resurrecting ghosts, and Gloria must have found out about this when what was only expected as an arms cache, found buried like valuable treasures in Ampatuan properties, also revealed remnants of Hello Garci’s past, in all its glorious glory, confirming the wide-spread electoral fraud that sent Gloria to Malacañang and denied some opposition sena-tors victory.
The Ampatuans, once a very powerful family in the region, however, have threatened to “talk,” if talking means confirming what Gloria and Garci have discussed in the country’s most interesting telephone conversation. But not even this threat would have sent chills down Gloria’s spine. It might have opened another opportunity to strike a deal with the Ampatuans, whom the nation wants nailed for the mass murder of people, which a foreign observer likened to what has transpired in Rwanda.
Under martial law, there is a likelihood the Ampatuans would escape the more serious offense of mass murder, as government is now focused on what it termed as a “looming rebellion,” one that has yet to transpire but for which the Ampatuans would likely be nailed, and given lighter penalties compared to what Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. faces for 25 counts of murder.
It has also to be said a number of times, by various legal experts, opposition groups and those in the know about martial law, that the one recently declared in Mindanao would likely creep into several other politically important areas as the 2010 elections near, while government is being accused of building up a no-elections scenario, if it would help Gloria stay put and longer at the throne, there is now very little doubt she had stolen from the people.
The Ampatuans, their backs against the wall as Gloria and Gibo Teodoro make their rivals — the Mangudadatus — the next big warlords of Maguindanao, would accept whatever deals that would be offered their way, if only to end this family crisis that started when GMA had condoned their earlier acts of violence in return for political favors in their region, even giving them money and supply of arms, which of late, are being dug up in Maguindanao.
But the Maguindanao crises seem only the beginning.
The nation must be on guard against the many plans of Gloria Arroyo as her end-time nears.
Only our vigilance would ensure she steps out of Malacañang very soon, if not now.
The Ampatuan massacre in Maguindanao, the second poorest province in the country where guns, goons and gold worked wonders, not only for a cheating presidential candidate but also for her senators and local leaders as well, to the detriment of a country long lost in the darkest chapter of its history since Marcos’ martial rule, not only gave us our ugliest blot but a chance for Gloria to create an advantageous scenario for her to complete her own Marcosian cycle.
Gloria has placed Maguindanao and its environs under martial law, but not publicly declaring it like Marcos did, perhaps learning from the mistake of the vilified late dictator, whose old school, black and white television image became a direct illustration of evil even long after his death as his footage gets shown every year when the nation is reminded of his rule, or things similar to it, just as what we have now under Gloria, and against which we say, never again!
But it was martial law still she has just declared.
Ugly pasts have their way of resurrecting ghosts, and Gloria must have found out about this when what was only expected as an arms cache, found buried like valuable treasures in Ampatuan properties, also revealed remnants of Hello Garci’s past, in all its glorious glory, confirming the wide-spread electoral fraud that sent Gloria to Malacañang and denied some opposition sena-tors victory.
The Ampatuans, once a very powerful family in the region, however, have threatened to “talk,” if talking means confirming what Gloria and Garci have discussed in the country’s most interesting telephone conversation. But not even this threat would have sent chills down Gloria’s spine. It might have opened another opportunity to strike a deal with the Ampatuans, whom the nation wants nailed for the mass murder of people, which a foreign observer likened to what has transpired in Rwanda.
Under martial law, there is a likelihood the Ampatuans would escape the more serious offense of mass murder, as government is now focused on what it termed as a “looming rebellion,” one that has yet to transpire but for which the Ampatuans would likely be nailed, and given lighter penalties compared to what Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. faces for 25 counts of murder.
It has also to be said a number of times, by various legal experts, opposition groups and those in the know about martial law, that the one recently declared in Mindanao would likely creep into several other politically important areas as the 2010 elections near, while government is being accused of building up a no-elections scenario, if it would help Gloria stay put and longer at the throne, there is now very little doubt she had stolen from the people.
The Ampatuans, their backs against the wall as Gloria and Gibo Teodoro make their rivals — the Mangudadatus — the next big warlords of Maguindanao, would accept whatever deals that would be offered their way, if only to end this family crisis that started when GMA had condoned their earlier acts of violence in return for political favors in their region, even giving them money and supply of arms, which of late, are being dug up in Maguindanao.
But the Maguindanao crises seem only the beginning.
The nation must be on guard against the many plans of Gloria Arroyo as her end-time nears.
Only our vigilance would ensure she steps out of Malacañang very soon, if not now.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Use your illusion
I remember half of the boys in my class standing up to declare their dream of becoming a president of the Republic of the Philippines someday. That was in 1976, during my first taste of public school as saling-pusa, being too young to be formally included in the grade one class.
Most of the girls wanted to become artistas, and I remember only some of them claimed dreaming of becoming nurses, doctors and lawyers.
My answer elicited laughter. I told the class I wanted to become an astronaut, the only one to do so in a class of Philippine presidents and artistas.
It was my childhood dream. My name was patented after Buzz Aldrin, who along with Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins, became the first men to set foot on the moon.
I remember the class bully howled: “Go to the States,” obviously referring to the US, where not even 10 percent of that public school class may have set foot in their adult lives, although I believe most of them are still entertaining thoughts of settling there someday — courtesy of their children, perhaps — who may or may not become astronauts as I once dreamed of becoming when I was really young.
Perhaps, my classmates thought I was not only dreaming but having an illusion, as if becoming president of a republic then very much under martial rule was not.
The late dictator Ferdinand Marcos was the star of every show then, with only a handful willing and daring to challenge him, and all them were detained, tortured and one was killed while returning home.
Maybe that explains why we do not run out of people, mostly being tagged as loonies, who file certificates of candidacy for the most coveted positions whenever the Commission on Elections starts to accept them.
Yesterday, I even got a ribbing from Ferdinand Agena, a college colleague who more than qualifies for the mayoralty of his town in Batangas, who asked if I managed to beat the Comelec deadline, the last days “reserved” for the “more serious” candidates.
He may have expected my simple reply: “I do not entertain such an illusion,” that my friend’s curt self no longer bothered to add to the jibe.
A television crew panned at the white board listing “applicants” for the presidency numbered a little over 50, if my aging eyes did not deceive me. It is expected to be trimmed down to just a few when the final reckoning comes, with those expected to survive the final “massacre” bearing names too familiar for many of us to ignore, while the rest will be sidelined in history alongside Eddie Gil and Elly “Spike Boy” Pamatong.
Only about 10 would make it in the final list, majority of them political scions successfully riding their elders’ greatness, or representatives of the moneyed class who would soon forget their promises to the masses and the poor.
There would be the so-called “alternative candidates” whose chances depend only on the little money they have to be able to send their message across and be rightfully heard, that is if voters are willing and able to discern what are being promised them and not be swayed by what are being given them.
In the end, however, it is still money which will speak loudly and clearly.
While politics is admittedly local, local government leaders would act correspondingly with the largess they receive, both from the national coffers and from other candidates with more money to spend.
It is a circuitous journey that would take us back again to where we’ve been since democracy was said to have been re-introduced in 1986, when all these started but had failed to take Philippine politics to maturity.
It remains an illusion to see a perfect president soon. But one that is good enough will never be enough.
Some say they will vote for the so-called “lesser evil,” which, if we follow their analogy, is still evil. Or maybe because we cannot find the perfect choice, even from this 2010 set whose campaign slogans and promises seem fake and illusory.
But here in our country, it seems easier to become a president than an astronaut.
We’ve had more than our share of presidents, really.
Finding the right one, however, is like finding a tiny gem in the murky Pasig river.
Most of the girls wanted to become artistas, and I remember only some of them claimed dreaming of becoming nurses, doctors and lawyers.
My answer elicited laughter. I told the class I wanted to become an astronaut, the only one to do so in a class of Philippine presidents and artistas.
It was my childhood dream. My name was patented after Buzz Aldrin, who along with Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins, became the first men to set foot on the moon.
I remember the class bully howled: “Go to the States,” obviously referring to the US, where not even 10 percent of that public school class may have set foot in their adult lives, although I believe most of them are still entertaining thoughts of settling there someday — courtesy of their children, perhaps — who may or may not become astronauts as I once dreamed of becoming when I was really young.
Perhaps, my classmates thought I was not only dreaming but having an illusion, as if becoming president of a republic then very much under martial rule was not.
The late dictator Ferdinand Marcos was the star of every show then, with only a handful willing and daring to challenge him, and all them were detained, tortured and one was killed while returning home.
Maybe that explains why we do not run out of people, mostly being tagged as loonies, who file certificates of candidacy for the most coveted positions whenever the Commission on Elections starts to accept them.
Yesterday, I even got a ribbing from Ferdinand Agena, a college colleague who more than qualifies for the mayoralty of his town in Batangas, who asked if I managed to beat the Comelec deadline, the last days “reserved” for the “more serious” candidates.
He may have expected my simple reply: “I do not entertain such an illusion,” that my friend’s curt self no longer bothered to add to the jibe.
A television crew panned at the white board listing “applicants” for the presidency numbered a little over 50, if my aging eyes did not deceive me. It is expected to be trimmed down to just a few when the final reckoning comes, with those expected to survive the final “massacre” bearing names too familiar for many of us to ignore, while the rest will be sidelined in history alongside Eddie Gil and Elly “Spike Boy” Pamatong.
Only about 10 would make it in the final list, majority of them political scions successfully riding their elders’ greatness, or representatives of the moneyed class who would soon forget their promises to the masses and the poor.
There would be the so-called “alternative candidates” whose chances depend only on the little money they have to be able to send their message across and be rightfully heard, that is if voters are willing and able to discern what are being promised them and not be swayed by what are being given them.
In the end, however, it is still money which will speak loudly and clearly.
While politics is admittedly local, local government leaders would act correspondingly with the largess they receive, both from the national coffers and from other candidates with more money to spend.
It is a circuitous journey that would take us back again to where we’ve been since democracy was said to have been re-introduced in 1986, when all these started but had failed to take Philippine politics to maturity.
It remains an illusion to see a perfect president soon. But one that is good enough will never be enough.
Some say they will vote for the so-called “lesser evil,” which, if we follow their analogy, is still evil. Or maybe because we cannot find the perfect choice, even from this 2010 set whose campaign slogans and promises seem fake and illusory.
But here in our country, it seems easier to become a president than an astronaut.
We’ve had more than our share of presidents, really.
Finding the right one, however, is like finding a tiny gem in the murky Pasig river.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Heroes?
It takes more than the courage of a hero to forgo an ambition — achievable as it was when the opportunities were clear — and tell the world about it like it is an admission of defeat, even before the real fight is on.
Opposition Sen. Chiz Escudero just proved that, further peeling himself off the traditional set of politicians now banging each other off their heads — and pockets, and showing maturity that would be helpful if and when he decides to take a real shot at the presidency in 2016, when conditions are ripe and the voters hopefully mature enough to understand the issues Chiz had tried to raise when his eyes were still moist looking at the Palace seat and behind, where he left long-time friends and allies whom he felt would only work to keep the order and not institute the changes he has in mind.
Chiz took the populist stands erstwhile heard only from the militant set of society, like saying no to forced contractualization of workers, which is not popular with big business. And yet, he was silently hailed a hero of the poor and the oppressed, until he announced yesterday his decision to no longer seek higher office.
And with it went their hopes, which they will now cling to just any candidate who will get their fancy, and worse, believe in just any hype thrown in a certain candidate’s way that would make the 2010 polls more like classroom elections where the prettiest and most popular get to hold positions which look great on bold colors posted on the classroom wall.
If Chiz were true to his word, he would have made a great president. But that his supporters can only wait for now, until yet another term is over for yet another president, would mean another long wait before real changes could be introduced and achieved, if no one among the present bidders would take a bolder stance against debt servicing, health and education, the environment, graft and corruption, and the like.
Or we’ll be back to our present wall, one that is so big, we can see slums and pushcarts serving as classrooms without leaders, while somebody, like Efren Peñaflorida, newly-named CNN Hero, try to make them as our future leaders, through free education our government can’t really afford to give ALL its people.
Efren huffed more air than any hero did before he embarked on his kariton journey to Kodak Theatre, whose tuxedoed guests, were really never aware of the hardships which are actually the daily grind for the families of Efren’s students, except for the appeal it gives in honoring such heroes, which Efren is one, a shining one amid the litter and garbage and waste of the more affluent.
And then there was Manny Pacquiao, who, despite his excesses, still inspires the nation with his victories, the shining one who rose from the ashes of poverty and unforced hunger, or was it forced by circumstances, until the opportunity to box came?
And then there are our movies, which make it to Cannes and other venues that recognize great works. And yes, some of these movies win, giving our actors and filmmakers the recognition they deserve, yet their subjects mirror the true image of the nation, which, despite the promises of its present and past leaders, is still mired in poverty and seem never would rise, like Pacquiao, from its ashes, unless somebody takes a bold, heroic step to really LEAD the people into taking more drastic steps in shaking the status quo to effect change.
For how can we really treat our overseas Filipino w orkers like heroes when their only purpose is to serve as government’s perennial cash cows, whose rainfall of dollars would never stop unless the rich countries wake up without a need for bellboys and helpers?
But are we really a nation of heroes?
How long will Efren Peñaflorida hog the limelight being given to him, now that he has a chance to build his own learning center using the millions of pesos he won from the CNN tilt?
How long will Manny Pacquiao’s star rise, when soon after his victory over Cotto, his last punch gave way to more intrigues that was aimed solely for his next movie and the millions more he would earn from it?
How long will we wait before another filmmaker shows another ugly side of the Filipino yet remain truthful to his storyline, which the affluent film critics would hail, the more gross the better?
How long will we wait before any of our leaders would take a bolder stance than Chiz did and mean it?
Opposition Sen. Chiz Escudero just proved that, further peeling himself off the traditional set of politicians now banging each other off their heads — and pockets, and showing maturity that would be helpful if and when he decides to take a real shot at the presidency in 2016, when conditions are ripe and the voters hopefully mature enough to understand the issues Chiz had tried to raise when his eyes were still moist looking at the Palace seat and behind, where he left long-time friends and allies whom he felt would only work to keep the order and not institute the changes he has in mind.
Chiz took the populist stands erstwhile heard only from the militant set of society, like saying no to forced contractualization of workers, which is not popular with big business. And yet, he was silently hailed a hero of the poor and the oppressed, until he announced yesterday his decision to no longer seek higher office.
And with it went their hopes, which they will now cling to just any candidate who will get their fancy, and worse, believe in just any hype thrown in a certain candidate’s way that would make the 2010 polls more like classroom elections where the prettiest and most popular get to hold positions which look great on bold colors posted on the classroom wall.
If Chiz were true to his word, he would have made a great president. But that his supporters can only wait for now, until yet another term is over for yet another president, would mean another long wait before real changes could be introduced and achieved, if no one among the present bidders would take a bolder stance against debt servicing, health and education, the environment, graft and corruption, and the like.
Or we’ll be back to our present wall, one that is so big, we can see slums and pushcarts serving as classrooms without leaders, while somebody, like Efren Peñaflorida, newly-named CNN Hero, try to make them as our future leaders, through free education our government can’t really afford to give ALL its people.
Efren huffed more air than any hero did before he embarked on his kariton journey to Kodak Theatre, whose tuxedoed guests, were really never aware of the hardships which are actually the daily grind for the families of Efren’s students, except for the appeal it gives in honoring such heroes, which Efren is one, a shining one amid the litter and garbage and waste of the more affluent.
And then there was Manny Pacquiao, who, despite his excesses, still inspires the nation with his victories, the shining one who rose from the ashes of poverty and unforced hunger, or was it forced by circumstances, until the opportunity to box came?
And then there are our movies, which make it to Cannes and other venues that recognize great works. And yes, some of these movies win, giving our actors and filmmakers the recognition they deserve, yet their subjects mirror the true image of the nation, which, despite the promises of its present and past leaders, is still mired in poverty and seem never would rise, like Pacquiao, from its ashes, unless somebody takes a bold, heroic step to really LEAD the people into taking more drastic steps in shaking the status quo to effect change.
For how can we really treat our overseas Filipino w orkers like heroes when their only purpose is to serve as government’s perennial cash cows, whose rainfall of dollars would never stop unless the rich countries wake up without a need for bellboys and helpers?
But are we really a nation of heroes?
How long will Efren Peñaflorida hog the limelight being given to him, now that he has a chance to build his own learning center using the millions of pesos he won from the CNN tilt?
How long will Manny Pacquiao’s star rise, when soon after his victory over Cotto, his last punch gave way to more intrigues that was aimed solely for his next movie and the millions more he would earn from it?
How long will we wait before another filmmaker shows another ugly side of the Filipino yet remain truthful to his storyline, which the affluent film critics would hail, the more gross the better?
How long will we wait before any of our leaders would take a bolder stance than Chiz did and mean it?
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Gloria Part III
Noynoy Aquino gave a scathing review of Gloria Arroyo’s presidency when, in accepting the challenge to seek the top Malacañang post for the Liberal Party, he claimed to expect nothing much to be left by GMA so much so that anybody who emerges victorious in the coming May 2010 polls would face the tough task of rebuilding the nation almost from scratch.
In fact, Noynoy said being successor to Gloria would be a tougher task than Cory had, as a successor to Marcos, as she would leave the country in shambles in only nine years since she took power via Edsa II than Marcos did in more than 20 years since he beat Gloria’s father, Diosdado, in 1965.
Before Noynoy, former President Erap Estrada had given the same prognosis and after Erap, Chiz Escudero shared the same view with the other opposition presidential contenders.
They vowed to take the challenge of the great task that lies ahead if only to pursue the change a great majority of the Filipinos are seeking, calling and wanting, if we are to believe their campaign lines, which until battle time, are pure rhetoric.
Half-a-year is a long wait for a people wanting true change, and while waiting, we should not peel our eyes from Gloria Arroyo and have our thoughts deflected by the entertainment the many presidentiables are giving us.
Arroyo critics are on guard in anticipation of forging midnight deals for her friends, allies and members of her clique.
Already in a panic mode, it is not impossible for Gloria to strike sweetheart deals even with the devil if it would help save her ass when decision times comes.
With six months left in her term, Gloria was said to have hung a Wanted: Lawyer sign at the gates of Malacañang in anticipation of a deluge of criminal cases that would be thrown her way once she steps out of office.
But the top lawyers she has moist eyes on are not biting, even with all the money she can promise. And so she would take a different approach in seeking a congressional seat for her province of Pampanga in hopes her allies now would be her allies still when she seeks the speakership of the Lower House, and hopefully introduce amendments to the Constitution that would make her queen again.
That would be a long shot, as long as the shot Gibo Teodoro wants to make if only to protect his benefactor, who was said to have promised everything to make his campaign roll, even if it means drying up the country’s coffers further.
The House speakership would not give Arroyo immunity from suits, it can only give her a leverage at the most, if she prays none of the genuine opposition groups would emerge winner in the next polls.
Her frequent visits to Pampanga may help her bid, also. But academician Randy David would be a worthy challenger as he vowed to explain to their fellow Pampangos who Gloria Arroyo is.
Gloria’s next Pampanga tryst would also validate people’s suspicion something was in the works while Gloria made frequent returns to Pampanga, whose people now feel so blessed they have found an angel in her, while victims of “Ondoy,” “Pepeng” and “Santi” are still waiting for a miracle to come from elsewhere.
And while her top tax man had quit while admitting government could not meet its budget, there she was spending for all those travels — both overseas and in Pampanga — while she remains insensitive to the plight of many other sectors.
Many others have claimed Gloria could not be sensitive enough to feel her people’s plight, except for those in the radar of her interests, and she had proven this when she spent millions of pesos for expensive dinners and partying while an icon of democracy was being mourned at home.
And yet there beckons a GMA Part III to continue what she had started since Edsa II and the fraudulent 2004 elections.
In fact, Noynoy said being successor to Gloria would be a tougher task than Cory had, as a successor to Marcos, as she would leave the country in shambles in only nine years since she took power via Edsa II than Marcos did in more than 20 years since he beat Gloria’s father, Diosdado, in 1965.
Before Noynoy, former President Erap Estrada had given the same prognosis and after Erap, Chiz Escudero shared the same view with the other opposition presidential contenders.
They vowed to take the challenge of the great task that lies ahead if only to pursue the change a great majority of the Filipinos are seeking, calling and wanting, if we are to believe their campaign lines, which until battle time, are pure rhetoric.
Half-a-year is a long wait for a people wanting true change, and while waiting, we should not peel our eyes from Gloria Arroyo and have our thoughts deflected by the entertainment the many presidentiables are giving us.
Arroyo critics are on guard in anticipation of forging midnight deals for her friends, allies and members of her clique.
Already in a panic mode, it is not impossible for Gloria to strike sweetheart deals even with the devil if it would help save her ass when decision times comes.
With six months left in her term, Gloria was said to have hung a Wanted: Lawyer sign at the gates of Malacañang in anticipation of a deluge of criminal cases that would be thrown her way once she steps out of office.
But the top lawyers she has moist eyes on are not biting, even with all the money she can promise. And so she would take a different approach in seeking a congressional seat for her province of Pampanga in hopes her allies now would be her allies still when she seeks the speakership of the Lower House, and hopefully introduce amendments to the Constitution that would make her queen again.
That would be a long shot, as long as the shot Gibo Teodoro wants to make if only to protect his benefactor, who was said to have promised everything to make his campaign roll, even if it means drying up the country’s coffers further.
The House speakership would not give Arroyo immunity from suits, it can only give her a leverage at the most, if she prays none of the genuine opposition groups would emerge winner in the next polls.
Her frequent visits to Pampanga may help her bid, also. But academician Randy David would be a worthy challenger as he vowed to explain to their fellow Pampangos who Gloria Arroyo is.
Gloria’s next Pampanga tryst would also validate people’s suspicion something was in the works while Gloria made frequent returns to Pampanga, whose people now feel so blessed they have found an angel in her, while victims of “Ondoy,” “Pepeng” and “Santi” are still waiting for a miracle to come from elsewhere.
And while her top tax man had quit while admitting government could not meet its budget, there she was spending for all those travels — both overseas and in Pampanga — while she remains insensitive to the plight of many other sectors.
Many others have claimed Gloria could not be sensitive enough to feel her people’s plight, except for those in the radar of her interests, and she had proven this when she spent millions of pesos for expensive dinners and partying while an icon of democracy was being mourned at home.
And yet there beckons a GMA Part III to continue what she had started since Edsa II and the fraudulent 2004 elections.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Batang Trapo
Maybe it was his association with the people he chose that Chiz Escudero earned this tag, unjustly as it was given by mostly members of the so-called civil society who hated his guts and spunk. But the young politician who could be the next president of the Philippines knew his place in politics and what he stood for and against, he preferred to stay true to his oppositionist calling, where his star rose, and vowed not to leave it, until maybe, he wins his presidential bid at a young age of 40.
The attacks were vicious, mostly done through the Internet where the youth navigate their daily lives, assailing Chiz when he did not ride what was then a popular call for former President Estrada’s impeachment; accepted the task as spokesman to Fernando Poe Jr.; stayed true for as long as name and face of the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC), Danding Cojuangco’s party; and, by virtue of his name and birth, he was lambasted for being the son of a Marcos crony, one which I think, he has no power to change.
He weathered all these to rise as one of the most recognizable faces in the Senate, and a presidential timber as such, that he had completed his ascent from being a practicing lawyer to a three-term congressman. But he reached his present apex with a party machinery behind him, the same one he turned his back on when he gave his political career a new direction by taking a more progressive and populist stance, a gambit, if it could be called such, that could backfire in his chance if it not handled properly, as it takes honesty to one’s calling to make it real and make it work.
Young as he is, Chiz is not known to make hasty decisions. Chiz studies his options, and he had proven his mettle when he did not ride the wave that gave his other young colleagues in Congress, like Mike Defensor and Migs Zubiri, their political stars by ganging up on Erap, only to become apologists for a corrupt Gloria Arroyo government later on.
Chiz chose the less treaded path by taking the side of the beaten. He chose to be persecuted with Erap, laughed at with FPJ. He chose to go against party policies at times, and yet, he still rose to become the NPC’s most recognizable figure, even more popular than Danding, on whose hands the party’s future depends.
But Danding may no longer need a Chiz Escudero in the party he founded to propel his failed bid for the presidency in 1992. He could support any candidate and be friends with any president, past and future, as he had completely erased the stigma of 1986, when Edsa momentarily changed his fortune.
There were times when Chiz proved his independence from the NPC when he went against the party stand on matters like the Jpepa. And last week, Chiz completely broke his ties with his political benefactor, choosing instead to work with the people, as he claimed his intention is going party-less with hopes reform-minded and progressive parties would gravitate toward him when, and if ever, the presidential contest of 2010 would still become a five-cornered fight.
As it is, Chiz remains only one of the true oppositionists in the field, the other being comebacking presidential candidate Erap. In the event Erap’s candidacy is given the thumbs down by the Supreme Court, with the expected much prodding from Gloria, Chiz could stand true to the claim of being the genuine opposition to GMA.
By cutting his ties with the NPC, however, Chiz hopes to reclaim support which gravitated toward Noynoy, mostly middle-class and civil society groups which are the same faces that ousted Erap from Malacañang in 2001.
Chiz has also come into his own when he chose to go it alone and be free from party dictates and shun influence by personalities with known traditional politics trappings.
Minority political players, like the Magdalo and the FPJPM, have stuck with him, and are now working to bolster his image as a non-trapo candidate.
It took an 11-year wait for Chiz to shed the image tagged behind his back by mostly self-righteous political players. With what he did last week, we can say he has proved himself he is not trapo.
Chiz is now his own man.
The attacks were vicious, mostly done through the Internet where the youth navigate their daily lives, assailing Chiz when he did not ride what was then a popular call for former President Estrada’s impeachment; accepted the task as spokesman to Fernando Poe Jr.; stayed true for as long as name and face of the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC), Danding Cojuangco’s party; and, by virtue of his name and birth, he was lambasted for being the son of a Marcos crony, one which I think, he has no power to change.
He weathered all these to rise as one of the most recognizable faces in the Senate, and a presidential timber as such, that he had completed his ascent from being a practicing lawyer to a three-term congressman. But he reached his present apex with a party machinery behind him, the same one he turned his back on when he gave his political career a new direction by taking a more progressive and populist stance, a gambit, if it could be called such, that could backfire in his chance if it not handled properly, as it takes honesty to one’s calling to make it real and make it work.
Young as he is, Chiz is not known to make hasty decisions. Chiz studies his options, and he had proven his mettle when he did not ride the wave that gave his other young colleagues in Congress, like Mike Defensor and Migs Zubiri, their political stars by ganging up on Erap, only to become apologists for a corrupt Gloria Arroyo government later on.
Chiz chose the less treaded path by taking the side of the beaten. He chose to be persecuted with Erap, laughed at with FPJ. He chose to go against party policies at times, and yet, he still rose to become the NPC’s most recognizable figure, even more popular than Danding, on whose hands the party’s future depends.
But Danding may no longer need a Chiz Escudero in the party he founded to propel his failed bid for the presidency in 1992. He could support any candidate and be friends with any president, past and future, as he had completely erased the stigma of 1986, when Edsa momentarily changed his fortune.
There were times when Chiz proved his independence from the NPC when he went against the party stand on matters like the Jpepa. And last week, Chiz completely broke his ties with his political benefactor, choosing instead to work with the people, as he claimed his intention is going party-less with hopes reform-minded and progressive parties would gravitate toward him when, and if ever, the presidential contest of 2010 would still become a five-cornered fight.
As it is, Chiz remains only one of the true oppositionists in the field, the other being comebacking presidential candidate Erap. In the event Erap’s candidacy is given the thumbs down by the Supreme Court, with the expected much prodding from Gloria, Chiz could stand true to the claim of being the genuine opposition to GMA.
By cutting his ties with the NPC, however, Chiz hopes to reclaim support which gravitated toward Noynoy, mostly middle-class and civil society groups which are the same faces that ousted Erap from Malacañang in 2001.
Chiz has also come into his own when he chose to go it alone and be free from party dictates and shun influence by personalities with known traditional politics trappings.
Minority political players, like the Magdalo and the FPJPM, have stuck with him, and are now working to bolster his image as a non-trapo candidate.
It took an 11-year wait for Chiz to shed the image tagged behind his back by mostly self-righteous political players. With what he did last week, we can say he has proved himself he is not trapo.
Chiz is now his own man.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Nobody, nobody
Before Kim Chiu, there was Sandara Park.
But Filipino show biz fans are so fickle-minded, Sandara quickly fell into oblivion and went back to Korea, where her true home is, to give way to Kim, who is very much a Pinay as Sandara is very much Korean, as one of Philippine show business’ princesses.
Years later, Sandara is back. But she is no longer simply Ms. Park, but as the leader of the Wonder Girls, whose song, "Nobody, nobody," has become a staple dance ditty in children’s parties, you’d wish you can shake it off your system and not haunt you in your dreams.
One day it did haunt me, but it was a welcome dream as it was a sweet repeat of what I saw the day before when a couple of toddlers, unmindful of the presence of soup mud in the streets, bobbed to the tune coming out of a relief truck’s blasting stereo, while we were busy unloading some relief goods ourselves to help some relatives in distress somewhere in Cainta.
It is uplifting to witness our folks trying to rebuild from the mess left by typhoon "Ondoy," relying on themselves as it would be a pity to seek further help from anybody else, this despite the sense of bayanihan pervading the air until today, when most of the victims whose houses finally showed up after being completely submerged in floods for a couple of days last week try to regroup, recoup and remake whatever their could, including their right to be happy in spite of everything, as shown by the children who buried their trauma with Sandara’s "nobody, nobody but you!"
There is something in the song that makes children dance. And when they do, they seem to transform into a light aura when they clap and point their fingers, two guns like John Wayne’s, to whoever they like, and that’s how it goes… "nobody, nobody but you!"
The relief workers could be nobodies but their own saviors, the packed goods they bring becomes their sustenance for a couple of days.
The many unsung heroes who emerged during those extraordinary moments, some of them sacrificing their lives, could be nobodies but the extension of many other lives.
The soldiers, the teachers, the Red Cross volunteers, the church workers, members of the media, the firemen, the honest MMDA and police forces who gave their all, they are nobodies but the new faces of heroism after typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng.
Yet more needs to be done, and what the people need are the nobodies who will make this nation work again, those who will rebuild the country like our forefathers did after three great wars and the other deluge of their times.
How we wish there is a government in the middle of this.
Slow to react to Ondoy, Gloria Arroyo now seems taking urgent, bold yet questionable measures in prolonging a state of calamity that becomes suspect especially when she is preparing her proxy candidate to attain a hard, yet Garci-workable victory in next year’s presidential election.
It has become the Pinoy’s curse that its government quickly sees opportunities in such a dire mix of bad governance and people’s apathy to their environment that brought about the unprecedented floodings. But there are still high moral values that would refuse to be eaten by this system that makes us need them, or maybe us, to raise their/our fists at the first sign of government exorbitance.
While government cannot yet explain where its funds went, that Gloria could no longer promise additional fundings to help alleviate the plight of Ondoy’s victims, much more rehabilitate the affected areas, families and businesses, here she goes making another attempt at scraping the bottom of the country’s coffers, and extending her time to do so, by wanting a year-long state of calamity, maybe so she would leave a legacy that is worse than the worst president this country has ever had, if she has yet to earn the tag, or maybe she had already.
Finger-pointing is expected soon, when everything is back in order and if we are serious in determining where the problems that brought these floodings lie and find measures to correct them. But before we can rebuild, where do we point to our own and say the fault lies in nobody, nobody but you?
But Filipino show biz fans are so fickle-minded, Sandara quickly fell into oblivion and went back to Korea, where her true home is, to give way to Kim, who is very much a Pinay as Sandara is very much Korean, as one of Philippine show business’ princesses.
Years later, Sandara is back. But she is no longer simply Ms. Park, but as the leader of the Wonder Girls, whose song, "Nobody, nobody," has become a staple dance ditty in children’s parties, you’d wish you can shake it off your system and not haunt you in your dreams.
One day it did haunt me, but it was a welcome dream as it was a sweet repeat of what I saw the day before when a couple of toddlers, unmindful of the presence of soup mud in the streets, bobbed to the tune coming out of a relief truck’s blasting stereo, while we were busy unloading some relief goods ourselves to help some relatives in distress somewhere in Cainta.
It is uplifting to witness our folks trying to rebuild from the mess left by typhoon "Ondoy," relying on themselves as it would be a pity to seek further help from anybody else, this despite the sense of bayanihan pervading the air until today, when most of the victims whose houses finally showed up after being completely submerged in floods for a couple of days last week try to regroup, recoup and remake whatever their could, including their right to be happy in spite of everything, as shown by the children who buried their trauma with Sandara’s "nobody, nobody but you!"
There is something in the song that makes children dance. And when they do, they seem to transform into a light aura when they clap and point their fingers, two guns like John Wayne’s, to whoever they like, and that’s how it goes… "nobody, nobody but you!"
The relief workers could be nobodies but their own saviors, the packed goods they bring becomes their sustenance for a couple of days.
The many unsung heroes who emerged during those extraordinary moments, some of them sacrificing their lives, could be nobodies but the extension of many other lives.
The soldiers, the teachers, the Red Cross volunteers, the church workers, members of the media, the firemen, the honest MMDA and police forces who gave their all, they are nobodies but the new faces of heroism after typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng.
Yet more needs to be done, and what the people need are the nobodies who will make this nation work again, those who will rebuild the country like our forefathers did after three great wars and the other deluge of their times.
How we wish there is a government in the middle of this.
Slow to react to Ondoy, Gloria Arroyo now seems taking urgent, bold yet questionable measures in prolonging a state of calamity that becomes suspect especially when she is preparing her proxy candidate to attain a hard, yet Garci-workable victory in next year’s presidential election.
It has become the Pinoy’s curse that its government quickly sees opportunities in such a dire mix of bad governance and people’s apathy to their environment that brought about the unprecedented floodings. But there are still high moral values that would refuse to be eaten by this system that makes us need them, or maybe us, to raise their/our fists at the first sign of government exorbitance.
While government cannot yet explain where its funds went, that Gloria could no longer promise additional fundings to help alleviate the plight of Ondoy’s victims, much more rehabilitate the affected areas, families and businesses, here she goes making another attempt at scraping the bottom of the country’s coffers, and extending her time to do so, by wanting a year-long state of calamity, maybe so she would leave a legacy that is worse than the worst president this country has ever had, if she has yet to earn the tag, or maybe she had already.
Finger-pointing is expected soon, when everything is back in order and if we are serious in determining where the problems that brought these floodings lie and find measures to correct them. But before we can rebuild, where do we point to our own and say the fault lies in nobody, nobody but you?
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Tony and 'Ondoy'
That sunny noon that woke up summer early February was made even warmer by Tony Chua’s hosting of a sumptuous lunch for us who have just welcomed the new leadership of the Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA).
It was a homecoming of sorts for Mr. Wachu, as some PSA members call him with endearment, as Sir Tony somehow reconnected with the PSA, the country’s oldest media organization, which he supported long before Red Bull and Agfa, two companies he helped nurture into becoming big businesses, were affected by the coming of cheaper energy drinks and the advent of digital camera technology.
It was with pain that Sir Tony had to relay to Gus Villanueva, our PSA elder, the decision arrived at by his business partners sacrificing their long-time sponsorship of the PSA to cut advertising costs. We took it well and thanked them for their nearly 10 years of support to the PSA.
Sir Tony, however, did not totally abandon us. He was always of help whenever the sports media needed him. He stayed active in the promotion of football and basketball. It was in the Philippine Basketball League and the Philippine Basketball Association where he shone as one of the best team managers and board representatives around. He helped the PBA stay afloat during one of the league’s short trying times when he served as league chairman.
In his mind, it was all sports. And during the luncheon he had hosted for us, he brought along the owner of Outlast Batteries, whom he "forced" to become a sponsor of the PSA forum the PSA hosts weekly at the Shakey’s UN Avenue branch.
He turned what was already a lively discussion into a riot when he tried to convince us to use a sports bracelet he was wearing which he claimed bettered his blood circulation, breathing and all the major medical promises the late Ernie Baron’s pito-pito tea once promised until it overtook the "pamparegla" juice being openly sold by so-called herbalists in Quiapo.
He never took our jibes personally, but he knew he failed to sell us his thoughts on that "revolutionary product."
He would call once in a while, but he never mentioned anything about that bracelet anymore. He would check on Letran’s progress in the NCAA, or he would just simply check on some PSA members he loved well.
So, it came as a shock when we learned about his death on Sunday.
"Napakabigat, brod," was all Nelson Beltran, Class A sportswriter of the Philippine Star who heads the PBA press corps, could say when this rubbernecker tried to confirm news about Sir Tony’s drowning in the floods that swept Metro Manila at the height on Typhoon "Ondoy."
My cellphone screen also turned cloudy soon after other news about his death came in, they were like a deluge which came later after Ondoy had subsided.
It was not just Sir Tony.
Different news and different stories came later when communication lines were reestablished among friends and relatives.
Even fellow scribes reported losing homes and properties due to the floods. Some of them had to be rescued, others had to wait for two days before the most basic of their needs, like food and water, came.
Government help was not felt in majority of the affected areas.
Gloria Arroyo looked good in a raincoat and boots, but she was not cute in her gimmicks, including opening Malacañang temporarily to victims of Ondoy.
Although Ondoy offered Gibo Teodoro a chance to shine, he was a big letdown as he was obviously drowned by the immediate task at hand.
While disaster preparedness is 100 percent anticipation, government was only reactionary to the demands of a wrecked population, its weaknesses were exposed.
Questions were also raised about its spending, with more people becoming aware of the P800 million emergency fund used for Gloria’s trip while she is now knocking on foreign donors to help in the relief of Ondoy’s victims.
Her expensive dinners in the US also became an apparent target of criticisms as the money would have saved more lives if it was used to purchase rubber boats which would have come handy at the height of the flooding.
Questions were also raised about the much-touted AFP modernization program, whose funding should come from the bases conversion fund raised during the FVR administration and yet, the AFP and the PNP do not have enough of a fleet of rubber boats to help in such disasters, how much more planes and ships and choppers?
Had these monies been used properly and wisely, and not gone to corruption and the Malacañang toilets, we would not have lost friends and relatives, like Tony.
It was a homecoming of sorts for Mr. Wachu, as some PSA members call him with endearment, as Sir Tony somehow reconnected with the PSA, the country’s oldest media organization, which he supported long before Red Bull and Agfa, two companies he helped nurture into becoming big businesses, were affected by the coming of cheaper energy drinks and the advent of digital camera technology.
It was with pain that Sir Tony had to relay to Gus Villanueva, our PSA elder, the decision arrived at by his business partners sacrificing their long-time sponsorship of the PSA to cut advertising costs. We took it well and thanked them for their nearly 10 years of support to the PSA.
Sir Tony, however, did not totally abandon us. He was always of help whenever the sports media needed him. He stayed active in the promotion of football and basketball. It was in the Philippine Basketball League and the Philippine Basketball Association where he shone as one of the best team managers and board representatives around. He helped the PBA stay afloat during one of the league’s short trying times when he served as league chairman.
In his mind, it was all sports. And during the luncheon he had hosted for us, he brought along the owner of Outlast Batteries, whom he "forced" to become a sponsor of the PSA forum the PSA hosts weekly at the Shakey’s UN Avenue branch.
He turned what was already a lively discussion into a riot when he tried to convince us to use a sports bracelet he was wearing which he claimed bettered his blood circulation, breathing and all the major medical promises the late Ernie Baron’s pito-pito tea once promised until it overtook the "pamparegla" juice being openly sold by so-called herbalists in Quiapo.
He never took our jibes personally, but he knew he failed to sell us his thoughts on that "revolutionary product."
He would call once in a while, but he never mentioned anything about that bracelet anymore. He would check on Letran’s progress in the NCAA, or he would just simply check on some PSA members he loved well.
So, it came as a shock when we learned about his death on Sunday.
"Napakabigat, brod," was all Nelson Beltran, Class A sportswriter of the Philippine Star who heads the PBA press corps, could say when this rubbernecker tried to confirm news about Sir Tony’s drowning in the floods that swept Metro Manila at the height on Typhoon "Ondoy."
My cellphone screen also turned cloudy soon after other news about his death came in, they were like a deluge which came later after Ondoy had subsided.
It was not just Sir Tony.
Different news and different stories came later when communication lines were reestablished among friends and relatives.
Even fellow scribes reported losing homes and properties due to the floods. Some of them had to be rescued, others had to wait for two days before the most basic of their needs, like food and water, came.
Government help was not felt in majority of the affected areas.
Gloria Arroyo looked good in a raincoat and boots, but she was not cute in her gimmicks, including opening Malacañang temporarily to victims of Ondoy.
Although Ondoy offered Gibo Teodoro a chance to shine, he was a big letdown as he was obviously drowned by the immediate task at hand.
While disaster preparedness is 100 percent anticipation, government was only reactionary to the demands of a wrecked population, its weaknesses were exposed.
Questions were also raised about its spending, with more people becoming aware of the P800 million emergency fund used for Gloria’s trip while she is now knocking on foreign donors to help in the relief of Ondoy’s victims.
Her expensive dinners in the US also became an apparent target of criticisms as the money would have saved more lives if it was used to purchase rubber boats which would have come handy at the height of the flooding.
Questions were also raised about the much-touted AFP modernization program, whose funding should come from the bases conversion fund raised during the FVR administration and yet, the AFP and the PNP do not have enough of a fleet of rubber boats to help in such disasters, how much more planes and ships and choppers?
Had these monies been used properly and wisely, and not gone to corruption and the Malacañang toilets, we would not have lost friends and relatives, like Tony.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Noli's folly
Was it heckling or just pure chants that made Noli de Castro lose it when, for a fleeting moment, prescience — that ability to know where an action or thought is headed — seemed to have escaped his mind, he fell into the trap of a group of activists who were simply looking for an ingenuous way to express a grievance?
If it was a trap, which Noli should have known, as a former member of the media with a keen sense for a story, which the Kadamay sought and got with his reactions, extending the issue further and exposing the vice president to the bone, then the left-leaning group seems to have shown the uglier side of Kabayan, as Noli would like to be known, somebody who is more than a Kapamilya or a Kapuso, but one with whom we belong, regardless of regional, religious, economic and ideological splits, as once, he embodied the poor man’s savior.
It was this false thinking that sent what other more veteran and respected media personalities branded as a "mere newsreader" to the Senate, and then to the vice presidency of our nation, and for another brief moment, he had even flirted with what used to be the possibility of his becoming president.
But very soon, with words that normally come from a tambay’s mouth, he revealed himself as nothing more than a worthless piece of paper that becomes one of his reports soon after they have been read. Or at least the papers would make for a useful scratch, or a fuel, or a recyclable material, and not a vice president who is fast on a dive to oblivion and cursed at by the poor from whom he once got his votes but will never give him that chance again.
Noli called them lazybones, the tambays without work or simply, as many among us think, those who simply don’t want to work, spending their days in animated conversations about anything under the sun to kill time. But they are the same ones whom we seemed to have forgotten to take care of, as we did not nurture their chances to better their lives, because as long as we see these tambays — these lazybones — huddled in the the sari-sari store of Aling Maria, gin in hand, then we have not yet succeeded in tilting the balance of power and money onto the masses’ hands, proof of the old order where the rich get richer through the toiling of those who care to work, for the minimal of cents for every drop of their blood, sweat and tears, which Noli seemed to have overlooked, because he is richer now than the days when he had to meet production deadlines and toil his days with ABS-CBN.
Or maybe his years in government only made him see the things before him and not beyond, as a broadcaster worth his salt does in knowing the true state of the issue being laid in front of his eyes. This may explain why he just became a jewel in Gloria’s watch, until his usefulness ceased as her term winds down. He is now being discarded for a trash, like the paper ball he used to make and send straight to the basket after his days in media were done.
Had he looked further, he may have had a different view of these poor people than just being lazybones who could not afford to pay the houses these lazybones’ money have paid for in the first place.
Had he allowed his journalist’s senses work, Noli would have known that their problems with government lie deep in the abyss of helplessness. He would have known that since these so-called lazybones were born, they were already denied their chance to health care, which would have made them better babies; that they were denied a chance at having a better education, a chance to earn degrees for most of them could go past high school, and get better-paying jobs; that they were denied a chance at improving their lives, with a better house and better living conditions in better communities because, as soon as they were born, they were already denied that chance.
Or maybe Noli just thinks rather simply, as some tambays do.
If it was a trap, which Noli should have known, as a former member of the media with a keen sense for a story, which the Kadamay sought and got with his reactions, extending the issue further and exposing the vice president to the bone, then the left-leaning group seems to have shown the uglier side of Kabayan, as Noli would like to be known, somebody who is more than a Kapamilya or a Kapuso, but one with whom we belong, regardless of regional, religious, economic and ideological splits, as once, he embodied the poor man’s savior.
It was this false thinking that sent what other more veteran and respected media personalities branded as a "mere newsreader" to the Senate, and then to the vice presidency of our nation, and for another brief moment, he had even flirted with what used to be the possibility of his becoming president.
But very soon, with words that normally come from a tambay’s mouth, he revealed himself as nothing more than a worthless piece of paper that becomes one of his reports soon after they have been read. Or at least the papers would make for a useful scratch, or a fuel, or a recyclable material, and not a vice president who is fast on a dive to oblivion and cursed at by the poor from whom he once got his votes but will never give him that chance again.
Noli called them lazybones, the tambays without work or simply, as many among us think, those who simply don’t want to work, spending their days in animated conversations about anything under the sun to kill time. But they are the same ones whom we seemed to have forgotten to take care of, as we did not nurture their chances to better their lives, because as long as we see these tambays — these lazybones — huddled in the the sari-sari store of Aling Maria, gin in hand, then we have not yet succeeded in tilting the balance of power and money onto the masses’ hands, proof of the old order where the rich get richer through the toiling of those who care to work, for the minimal of cents for every drop of their blood, sweat and tears, which Noli seemed to have overlooked, because he is richer now than the days when he had to meet production deadlines and toil his days with ABS-CBN.
Or maybe his years in government only made him see the things before him and not beyond, as a broadcaster worth his salt does in knowing the true state of the issue being laid in front of his eyes. This may explain why he just became a jewel in Gloria’s watch, until his usefulness ceased as her term winds down. He is now being discarded for a trash, like the paper ball he used to make and send straight to the basket after his days in media were done.
Had he looked further, he may have had a different view of these poor people than just being lazybones who could not afford to pay the houses these lazybones’ money have paid for in the first place.
Had he allowed his journalist’s senses work, Noli would have known that their problems with government lie deep in the abyss of helplessness. He would have known that since these so-called lazybones were born, they were already denied their chance to health care, which would have made them better babies; that they were denied a chance at having a better education, a chance to earn degrees for most of them could go past high school, and get better-paying jobs; that they were denied a chance at improving their lives, with a better house and better living conditions in better communities because, as soon as they were born, they were already denied that chance.
Or maybe Noli just thinks rather simply, as some tambays do.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Noynoy
If bland was the impression people had of Noynoy, sister Kris confirmed it when she offered—no, insisted is the word!— her brother a grand makeover. But it will take more than that if Noynoy would really want to win the presidency.
Noynoy is best known as the only son of Cory and Ninoy, and twice as representative of second district of Tarlac. He would vault into the presidency as a neophyte senator who gained his place as Liberal Party’s standard bearer only after Cory’s death.
It was Cory’s death, and the long funeral march that followed, when thousands of people lined up the streets, not just to express their loss and sympathize with the Aquino family, but also to show disgust over the way Philippine politics and governance have become, that bolstered Noynoy’s name.
Noynoy never really mattered in national politics when Cory was the unofficial conscience of the nation, although there were times when she faltered, too.
Noynoy followed wherever Cory went, providing her strength with a shadow that merely echoed, if not directly mimicked, her decisions. His votes and actions as a congressman, as we have seen in his support of two impeachment complaints in the 12th and 13th Congress, the first against Erap and the next against Gloria, would have been Cory’s votes if she were in his place.
Noynoy’s greatest challenge is stepping out of that shadow and become his own man. Malacanang, for a change, is right on this.
On his own, Noynoy seems a fine, simple man. He is said to enjoy billiards and shooting, two sports erstwhile thought to be within the confines of macho men. He was linked to some of the most beautiful faces of show business—Korina Sanchez, Bernadette Sembrano and Diana Zubiri. But he cannot seem to escape the shadow of his family, great historical families, actually, that he is also best known as Kris’ older brother until now.
Who could blame Kris? Even Ninoy was reduced to only being known as her father!
Kris has become the most famous of the Cojuangco and Aquino bloodlines. Hers is one of the most recognizable faces in show business, and it would be a plus for Noynoy’s candidacy, especially when he starts campaigning in areas where show business figures are looked up with admiration and politicians are looked down with a deadly concoction of contempt, hatred and envy.
A corporate survey last year showed Kris as the most trusted brand endorser until Dionisia Pacquiao came along. Yet, it would still help bolster Noynoy’s candidacy, Pacmom or not.
But Noynoy’s shoulder must be feeling the weight of his decision to run for the presidency even this early.
Some view Noynoy as the catalyst for the long-awaited change in Philippine politics, in the manner we have viewed Cory when she sought to replace the late strongman Marcos in 1986.
Noynoy, however, would not be compared to the president he would succeed, but with his mother whom he would replace as the nation’s anchor to hold the nation after a great storm, or tsunami… or maybe we should it a great devastation.
Or maybe Noynoy would also become like his mother who showed promise at the height of her campaign against Marcos, but had become a big letdown to many when she failed to meet people’s expectations (too much, maybe, given the opportunities of the time), beginning with her decision to honor the Marcos debts, which did not benefit the people, really.
Noynoy, of course, is not his parents’ second chance. If he becomes his own man, as Gloria’s clique had demanded of him, then a repeat of Cory’s magic is imminent.
Noynoy is promising change, as other declared candidates for the presidency did. But if we could only stop romanticizing history and begin scrutinizing these candidates, then we would realize what little choice we have to bring that change.
Noynoy is best known as the only son of Cory and Ninoy, and twice as representative of second district of Tarlac. He would vault into the presidency as a neophyte senator who gained his place as Liberal Party’s standard bearer only after Cory’s death.
It was Cory’s death, and the long funeral march that followed, when thousands of people lined up the streets, not just to express their loss and sympathize with the Aquino family, but also to show disgust over the way Philippine politics and governance have become, that bolstered Noynoy’s name.
Noynoy never really mattered in national politics when Cory was the unofficial conscience of the nation, although there were times when she faltered, too.
Noynoy followed wherever Cory went, providing her strength with a shadow that merely echoed, if not directly mimicked, her decisions. His votes and actions as a congressman, as we have seen in his support of two impeachment complaints in the 12th and 13th Congress, the first against Erap and the next against Gloria, would have been Cory’s votes if she were in his place.
Noynoy’s greatest challenge is stepping out of that shadow and become his own man. Malacanang, for a change, is right on this.
On his own, Noynoy seems a fine, simple man. He is said to enjoy billiards and shooting, two sports erstwhile thought to be within the confines of macho men. He was linked to some of the most beautiful faces of show business—Korina Sanchez, Bernadette Sembrano and Diana Zubiri. But he cannot seem to escape the shadow of his family, great historical families, actually, that he is also best known as Kris’ older brother until now.
Who could blame Kris? Even Ninoy was reduced to only being known as her father!
Kris has become the most famous of the Cojuangco and Aquino bloodlines. Hers is one of the most recognizable faces in show business, and it would be a plus for Noynoy’s candidacy, especially when he starts campaigning in areas where show business figures are looked up with admiration and politicians are looked down with a deadly concoction of contempt, hatred and envy.
A corporate survey last year showed Kris as the most trusted brand endorser until Dionisia Pacquiao came along. Yet, it would still help bolster Noynoy’s candidacy, Pacmom or not.
But Noynoy’s shoulder must be feeling the weight of his decision to run for the presidency even this early.
Some view Noynoy as the catalyst for the long-awaited change in Philippine politics, in the manner we have viewed Cory when she sought to replace the late strongman Marcos in 1986.
Noynoy, however, would not be compared to the president he would succeed, but with his mother whom he would replace as the nation’s anchor to hold the nation after a great storm, or tsunami… or maybe we should it a great devastation.
Or maybe Noynoy would also become like his mother who showed promise at the height of her campaign against Marcos, but had become a big letdown to many when she failed to meet people’s expectations (too much, maybe, given the opportunities of the time), beginning with her decision to honor the Marcos debts, which did not benefit the people, really.
Noynoy, of course, is not his parents’ second chance. If he becomes his own man, as Gloria’s clique had demanded of him, then a repeat of Cory’s magic is imminent.
Noynoy is promising change, as other declared candidates for the presidency did. But if we could only stop romanticizing history and begin scrutinizing these candidates, then we would realize what little choice we have to bring that change.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Mar and Noy
The fortunes of war, one that has yet to start, came rather harsh for Mar Roxas.
Roxas, never the frontrunner in the presidential race of next year but hopeful still even after Cory’s death, was felled by a sniper shot from his own party, the Liberals who took their name too seriously to drop their standard bearer in an effort to change horses in midstream, and disregarded the gains Roxas had earned, since the day he dreamed of becoming Philippine president, like his grandfather was, only that he would never be.
Cory’s death changed all that, although it was not the late president’s fault but by those she left behind, including Cory’s friends and relatives who saw an opportunity to regain the power they lost since she gave everything to one Fidel Ramos, who never became the kind of president she had envisioned him to become, and yet the chance beckoned, one that was for Noynoy, Benigno and Corazon’s only son, and the only one to carry on the vestiges of two great families that lent their names to make this nation great, only that Noynoy had never shown that greatness—not yet—but lived his life as just a shadow of his father and mother, on whose names his ambition, in case he would really desire to seek the presidency, are hinged.
Cory’s death, however, was like the fulcrum that lifted Noynoy’s name above that of Mar, and everything became obvious when the call for him to become the Liberal Party’s standard bearer gained ground, a call that was too fast to stop when it already snowballed, it hurtled past Roxas’ pedicab like a bullet train on a clear day, Roxas had to tell his driver: “Stop, I’m good until here.”
Roxas’ decision to turn his back on his and his family’s dream of sending another scion to Malacanang was one that was hard to make. But it was also the easiest exit route for Roxas, who, it seemed, could no longer gain ground in surveys, he was overtaken by events that came after Cory’s death, and was trampled by the mob which sought a new leader to carry the Liberals’ flag to that side of the Pasig river.
Noynoy has become the hottest item in Philippine politics so far. After Roxas, priest/ politician or politician/ priest Ed Panlilio, the Pampanga governor who had also initially wanted to become president, had thrown his support to Noynoy, like it would provide him with enough votes to ensure and assure victory, although on surface and in deep analysis, they are only speaking of votes from one side of Pampanga and Tarlac, the same votes Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is wooing, through her frequent visits and the largesse she gives to their local leaders, who would be the only ones rejoicing when another Pampango bet makes it to the presidency.
Roxas, whose stake would have been supported by the Southern votes, those from Cebu and elsewhere, whose people have been clamoring for another Visayan or even a Mindanaoan president, however, was left to sulk with his own statement of support to Noynoy, wherever history and the so-called Cory magic would take him, yet in reality and in fact, he had left his own supporters sulking more, as they have staked their own wealth and time for him to become president.
They are left in the dark as to what will happen next, and not even Noynoy’s prayers could assure to galvanize his team with those of Roxas, a bad sign given the limited time there is for Noynoy to prepare, the chance for him to suffer the same fate that befell Roxas, that of seeing himself becoming victim of moment and juncture when other probable candidates would seize control of events and not ride on whatever magic there is.
Cory magic had worked once. They say it’s Kris Aquino’s magic which will work now.
Roxas, whether he admits it or not, had his own magic in Korina Sanchez, yet he had no control of the events, he had failed to seize them in his favor.
Yet with eight months before D-Day, Noynoy has to work them double-time to gain where Roxas had left, and even with Kris around that would be harder to convince people to transform their sympathy to the Cojuangco and Aquino families over Cory’s death into votes.
Getting votes are a different story than convincing us to flash the Laban sign in respect to our departed president. That is for sure.
Roxas, never the frontrunner in the presidential race of next year but hopeful still even after Cory’s death, was felled by a sniper shot from his own party, the Liberals who took their name too seriously to drop their standard bearer in an effort to change horses in midstream, and disregarded the gains Roxas had earned, since the day he dreamed of becoming Philippine president, like his grandfather was, only that he would never be.
Cory’s death changed all that, although it was not the late president’s fault but by those she left behind, including Cory’s friends and relatives who saw an opportunity to regain the power they lost since she gave everything to one Fidel Ramos, who never became the kind of president she had envisioned him to become, and yet the chance beckoned, one that was for Noynoy, Benigno and Corazon’s only son, and the only one to carry on the vestiges of two great families that lent their names to make this nation great, only that Noynoy had never shown that greatness—not yet—but lived his life as just a shadow of his father and mother, on whose names his ambition, in case he would really desire to seek the presidency, are hinged.
Cory’s death, however, was like the fulcrum that lifted Noynoy’s name above that of Mar, and everything became obvious when the call for him to become the Liberal Party’s standard bearer gained ground, a call that was too fast to stop when it already snowballed, it hurtled past Roxas’ pedicab like a bullet train on a clear day, Roxas had to tell his driver: “Stop, I’m good until here.”
Roxas’ decision to turn his back on his and his family’s dream of sending another scion to Malacanang was one that was hard to make. But it was also the easiest exit route for Roxas, who, it seemed, could no longer gain ground in surveys, he was overtaken by events that came after Cory’s death, and was trampled by the mob which sought a new leader to carry the Liberals’ flag to that side of the Pasig river.
Noynoy has become the hottest item in Philippine politics so far. After Roxas, priest/ politician or politician/ priest Ed Panlilio, the Pampanga governor who had also initially wanted to become president, had thrown his support to Noynoy, like it would provide him with enough votes to ensure and assure victory, although on surface and in deep analysis, they are only speaking of votes from one side of Pampanga and Tarlac, the same votes Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is wooing, through her frequent visits and the largesse she gives to their local leaders, who would be the only ones rejoicing when another Pampango bet makes it to the presidency.
Roxas, whose stake would have been supported by the Southern votes, those from Cebu and elsewhere, whose people have been clamoring for another Visayan or even a Mindanaoan president, however, was left to sulk with his own statement of support to Noynoy, wherever history and the so-called Cory magic would take him, yet in reality and in fact, he had left his own supporters sulking more, as they have staked their own wealth and time for him to become president.
They are left in the dark as to what will happen next, and not even Noynoy’s prayers could assure to galvanize his team with those of Roxas, a bad sign given the limited time there is for Noynoy to prepare, the chance for him to suffer the same fate that befell Roxas, that of seeing himself becoming victim of moment and juncture when other probable candidates would seize control of events and not ride on whatever magic there is.
Cory magic had worked once. They say it’s Kris Aquino’s magic which will work now.
Roxas, whether he admits it or not, had his own magic in Korina Sanchez, yet he had no control of the events, he had failed to seize them in his favor.
Yet with eight months before D-Day, Noynoy has to work them double-time to gain where Roxas had left, and even with Kris around that would be harder to convince people to transform their sympathy to the Cojuangco and Aquino families over Cory’s death into votes.
Getting votes are a different story than convincing us to flash the Laban sign in respect to our departed president. That is for sure.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
The tag price of Juan
If anyone cares to remember Rolly Joaquin, a top graduate of the Philippine Military Academy who was deported by the US in 2004 for supposedly tampering with the price of a music disc, which his PMA allowance for his Infantry Officer Basic Course at
Fort Benning, Georgia would have easily afforded, he must be wondering where he is now.
I also want to know how he is doing and hoping he was able to rise from one youthful mistake that cost him his military career.
But I also want to know how Daniel Smith, the US soldier accused of raping a Filipina who recanted later, in exchange for a better life in the US with an American boyfriend (not Daniel, of course), is coping with his “nightmare,” even if his terrifying experience never happened in the Bilibid prison, where he should have been, but in the comforts of American facilities where he was taken by the US authorities who snatched him from the court after he was found guilty of raping Suzete Nicolas.
Rolly and Daniel are two stories worthy of a comparison if we are to ask how equal our relations with the US, then and now.
Rolly faced court martial as soon as he got back, all for the crime of placing a $.50discount tag he took from another CD for an artist he liked, but which was not on sale. Very little information filtered out of those proceedings that, if rules were not bent in his favor, the valedictorian of the PMA Class Maliyab, who was 22-years old then when he was caught red-handed, would have already lost his rank as an Army second lieutenant at the time of his crime, and his freedom, for a measly P22.00, which was the equivalent of 50 cents in US dollars in discount for that particular disc. (An newspaper report claimed Joaquin was recently promoted to 1st Lt. in the Philippine Army. A brother has also just graduated in the PMA).
Rolly did not rape an American woman. He did not kill a person. He did not even steal the music disc he sought to have the $.50 discount for. But he was tempted by the discount tag offered in another CD, he thought he could get away with some youthful naughtiness.
Daniel’s crime wasn’t cute. But technically, he isn’t guilty after the recantation, despite the earlier finding by a Makati court that he had raped Suzette.
Suzette, however, was only practical she took the easiest way out of the controversy that put her and her family to shame. She accepted payment and a visa to join her boyfriend in the US, with hopes of settling there and finding peace with her new partner.
Daniel, I suppose, is also at peace now. Although a friend, who is with the US Marines, assured me that he was “processed” following the guilty verdict, Daniel would have picked up with his life since he walked free.
It is something which our own Rolly would not have done easily even if rules were bent for him.
Rolly is not so fortunate to have committed a crime in the US which did not see it as petty.
Daniel is so fortunate for being an American, period. How can we argue, when even our government has allowed its own soldiers to be treated as poor, second class partners in the Visiting Forces Agreement, the document which saved Daniel’s life, even as he had committed a dastardly crime of rape in the Philippines? And are we supposed to find fairness in the document?
Talks have again focused on the VFA as some 600 American soldiers are currently in Mindanao, sharing bunkers with Philippine troops and occupying military areas like they are their own.
We have heard claims these US troops have actively engaged in the war in Mindanao, an action, if true, that is an affront to our constitution. But government is not complaining, its arms and hands even stretched in waiting for alms and hand-me-downs from the US, materials which they have actually junked and due for replacement with new and sophisticated weaponry but which we are gladly to accept and pay for in loans.
We could not even have criminal jurisdiction over these American fighters, as was obvious in Daniel’s case. Poor Rolly, he was deported as quickly as he was seen on the CCTV cameras removing the discount tag and placing it in the disc that he liked.
American troops are here, supposedly as our equal partners in the fight against global terrorism. But their presence here can also involve us in unnecessary international conflicts as we allow our soils to become monitoring stations and launch pads for their own military operations.
It’s no wonder terrorists are looking at the Philippines now as a valuable training and operations hub, where they are very much welcome by their religious brothers who feel instigated and threatened by the US military presence in their region. They need not look far, however, as their targets are all here.
God forbid it happens that we become another Kabul.
But our government would rather take the risk than isolate themselves from the graces of their foreign masters.
Besides, it is easier to send a petty offender to jail than punish a rapist and come out as the better partner in what is an obviously one-side treaty, if you call it such.
Fort Benning, Georgia would have easily afforded, he must be wondering where he is now.
I also want to know how he is doing and hoping he was able to rise from one youthful mistake that cost him his military career.
But I also want to know how Daniel Smith, the US soldier accused of raping a Filipina who recanted later, in exchange for a better life in the US with an American boyfriend (not Daniel, of course), is coping with his “nightmare,” even if his terrifying experience never happened in the Bilibid prison, where he should have been, but in the comforts of American facilities where he was taken by the US authorities who snatched him from the court after he was found guilty of raping Suzete Nicolas.
Rolly and Daniel are two stories worthy of a comparison if we are to ask how equal our relations with the US, then and now.
Rolly faced court martial as soon as he got back, all for the crime of placing a $.50discount tag he took from another CD for an artist he liked, but which was not on sale. Very little information filtered out of those proceedings that, if rules were not bent in his favor, the valedictorian of the PMA Class Maliyab, who was 22-years old then when he was caught red-handed, would have already lost his rank as an Army second lieutenant at the time of his crime, and his freedom, for a measly P22.00, which was the equivalent of 50 cents in US dollars in discount for that particular disc. (An newspaper report claimed Joaquin was recently promoted to 1st Lt. in the Philippine Army. A brother has also just graduated in the PMA).
Rolly did not rape an American woman. He did not kill a person. He did not even steal the music disc he sought to have the $.50 discount for. But he was tempted by the discount tag offered in another CD, he thought he could get away with some youthful naughtiness.
Daniel’s crime wasn’t cute. But technically, he isn’t guilty after the recantation, despite the earlier finding by a Makati court that he had raped Suzette.
Suzette, however, was only practical she took the easiest way out of the controversy that put her and her family to shame. She accepted payment and a visa to join her boyfriend in the US, with hopes of settling there and finding peace with her new partner.
Daniel, I suppose, is also at peace now. Although a friend, who is with the US Marines, assured me that he was “processed” following the guilty verdict, Daniel would have picked up with his life since he walked free.
It is something which our own Rolly would not have done easily even if rules were bent for him.
Rolly is not so fortunate to have committed a crime in the US which did not see it as petty.
Daniel is so fortunate for being an American, period. How can we argue, when even our government has allowed its own soldiers to be treated as poor, second class partners in the Visiting Forces Agreement, the document which saved Daniel’s life, even as he had committed a dastardly crime of rape in the Philippines? And are we supposed to find fairness in the document?
Talks have again focused on the VFA as some 600 American soldiers are currently in Mindanao, sharing bunkers with Philippine troops and occupying military areas like they are their own.
We have heard claims these US troops have actively engaged in the war in Mindanao, an action, if true, that is an affront to our constitution. But government is not complaining, its arms and hands even stretched in waiting for alms and hand-me-downs from the US, materials which they have actually junked and due for replacement with new and sophisticated weaponry but which we are gladly to accept and pay for in loans.
We could not even have criminal jurisdiction over these American fighters, as was obvious in Daniel’s case. Poor Rolly, he was deported as quickly as he was seen on the CCTV cameras removing the discount tag and placing it in the disc that he liked.
American troops are here, supposedly as our equal partners in the fight against global terrorism. But their presence here can also involve us in unnecessary international conflicts as we allow our soils to become monitoring stations and launch pads for their own military operations.
It’s no wonder terrorists are looking at the Philippines now as a valuable training and operations hub, where they are very much welcome by their religious brothers who feel instigated and threatened by the US military presence in their region. They need not look far, however, as their targets are all here.
God forbid it happens that we become another Kabul.
But our government would rather take the risk than isolate themselves from the graces of their foreign masters.
Besides, it is easier to send a petty offender to jail than punish a rapist and come out as the better partner in what is an obviously one-side treaty, if you call it such.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Our children went to war
If not for the hint of rage and the unshed tears that gave their eyes a flint of both anger and fear, we would have shrugged them off for loonies and tripping vandals desecrating a hallowed ground last week, when those 200 kids had “invaded” Malacanang and got their trophies marked in parts of their bodies to show for it.
It had happened before, some two or three generations past, when a small group of youth, breaking away from the rioters who have transformed Mendiola and its far environs into a battleground, commandeered a fire truck abandoned in fear by its crew, and rammed it in one of the palace gates, its siren signaling their momentary triumph into the nerves of its evil occupant.
It was an image captured in graying texture of a newspaper photograph, but vividly remembered by those who weren’t there, simply maybe because they were to far to get where the action was, or they were too young to be part of what became the First Quarter Storm.
Inspired or maybe emboldened by it, many prominent politicians from the opposition of that generation supported their youth’s action against what was then an emerging tyranny. And when martial law was declared two years later, sending many of them to prison and most of the FQS participants to the hills or to their graves, only the bravest of heart remained.
Ninoy Aquino was among them.
Driven by ambition at first, Ninoy drew courage from those kids and the people who resisted the tyrant’s madness since its onset. And from this courage rose a martyr who managed to break the country’s bondage but only in his death; and through his wife and family, that is why we refused to forget, that is why we remembered and honored them last Friday.
And because we remember, as we should, we are inspired and emboldened by our history, which thankfully, are embedded in some of our youth’s values, drawing courage from our past in the hopes of charting a better future for themselves and their own children, that they reclaimed the grounds of Malacanang, albeit briefly, the first time civilians have set foot on its sacred grass since the fall of Marcos at the height of the people power, and temporarily held on until police and presidential security fists and clubs broke their lips and jaws and noses, but not their courage.
They may have fallen short in achievement compared to what their parents did in FQS, but the signs are there, beaming hope for a country made dormant by two parties in Edsa, both were coup de etat, but the second one was prostituted by the person who gained from it all, taking everything, including the crumbs and borjers and the concussions that went with it, all too shameless! Bumukol din naman!
Today’s youth have spoken, without waiting for the 2010 polls when most of them are expected to cast their votes for the very time. And they have lent a very loud voice which a Malacanang occupant refused to hear, no she resisted hearing it.
But it was just the start.
There would no longer be days of disquiet and nights of rage, but the new youth would no longer have to fight pitch battles all over again. But, at least, they’re ready.
Wars take on new faces as armies modernize, but it is the heart that still win wars and not just the howitzers.
Last week’s event in Malacanang would pale in the climax of Cory’s funeral, but it made a stronger statement than the observation of Ninoy’s 26th death anniversary in Makati.
I’m sure that was the way Ninoy and Cory would have wanted it, for they have spoken and they spoke out oud.
Even with broken jaws, teeth and lips.
They weren’t too much of a sacrifice compared to what Ninoy and Cory have given. Or their tortured parents who survived martial law.
It had happened before, some two or three generations past, when a small group of youth, breaking away from the rioters who have transformed Mendiola and its far environs into a battleground, commandeered a fire truck abandoned in fear by its crew, and rammed it in one of the palace gates, its siren signaling their momentary triumph into the nerves of its evil occupant.
It was an image captured in graying texture of a newspaper photograph, but vividly remembered by those who weren’t there, simply maybe because they were to far to get where the action was, or they were too young to be part of what became the First Quarter Storm.
Inspired or maybe emboldened by it, many prominent politicians from the opposition of that generation supported their youth’s action against what was then an emerging tyranny. And when martial law was declared two years later, sending many of them to prison and most of the FQS participants to the hills or to their graves, only the bravest of heart remained.
Ninoy Aquino was among them.
Driven by ambition at first, Ninoy drew courage from those kids and the people who resisted the tyrant’s madness since its onset. And from this courage rose a martyr who managed to break the country’s bondage but only in his death; and through his wife and family, that is why we refused to forget, that is why we remembered and honored them last Friday.
And because we remember, as we should, we are inspired and emboldened by our history, which thankfully, are embedded in some of our youth’s values, drawing courage from our past in the hopes of charting a better future for themselves and their own children, that they reclaimed the grounds of Malacanang, albeit briefly, the first time civilians have set foot on its sacred grass since the fall of Marcos at the height of the people power, and temporarily held on until police and presidential security fists and clubs broke their lips and jaws and noses, but not their courage.
They may have fallen short in achievement compared to what their parents did in FQS, but the signs are there, beaming hope for a country made dormant by two parties in Edsa, both were coup de etat, but the second one was prostituted by the person who gained from it all, taking everything, including the crumbs and borjers and the concussions that went with it, all too shameless! Bumukol din naman!
Today’s youth have spoken, without waiting for the 2010 polls when most of them are expected to cast their votes for the very time. And they have lent a very loud voice which a Malacanang occupant refused to hear, no she resisted hearing it.
But it was just the start.
There would no longer be days of disquiet and nights of rage, but the new youth would no longer have to fight pitch battles all over again. But, at least, they’re ready.
Wars take on new faces as armies modernize, but it is the heart that still win wars and not just the howitzers.
Last week’s event in Malacanang would pale in the climax of Cory’s funeral, but it made a stronger statement than the observation of Ninoy’s 26th death anniversary in Makati.
I’m sure that was the way Ninoy and Cory would have wanted it, for they have spoken and they spoke out oud.
Even with broken jaws, teeth and lips.
They weren’t too much of a sacrifice compared to what Ninoy and Cory have given. Or their tortured parents who survived martial law.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Poor Gloria
The denouement in Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s reign is a downer so potent it was said not even Prozac could lift her spirit— fighting or otherwise—as end now beckons her term, like a flickering gleam from a dying lighthouse calling on a rickety boat making her final journey to shore on a stormy night.
Her hope of another extension to her already extended term is gone, as the Charter change, as admitted by no less than her staunchest allies in Congress, is dead. And the celebratory clinks of precious wine glasses at Le Cirque, Bobby Vans and David Bouley have all faded except in the minds of the Filipino masses who have certified GMA’s insensitivity to their plight.
Her reign would be remembered, not only through the dreaded triumvirate of lying, cheating and stealing but lately, through her extravagant spending in ritzy restaurants where we could not afford to eat in our lives.
It was her lavish spending that overshadowed even her so-called greatest achievements in propping up the economy, one that was never felt down but whose gains remained only on top. And so in the end, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo will come down in history as failure for a president.
In her final months, Gloria is looking for a legacy that she could leave. What gains she had in meeting Barrack Obama, however, were quickly rubbed out by her excessive and expensive dinner parties. Cory Aquino’s untimely death also overshadowed GMA’s long-sought US trip and the people’s sentiments as they joined Cory’s hearse were heard, and they did not bode well for GMA.
Today, Gloria’s sight is trained at attaining peace in two fronts, but her vision has never been as hazy as the cross in the old scope of her soldiers’ guns, she seems to be finding hard to fix her targets.
Her talks with the MILF seem to have been botched too early in the day. No thanks to trigger happy MILF combatants who have been discovered aiding the Abu Sayyaf, classified as a terrorist group which does not have it own pantheon in the respected political colors for its murderous connections, at home and overseas, that it became harder to fathom why the MILF provided it with military assistance, especially at a time when it was to talk peace with government.
It was in their hands where our soldiers, no different from the proletariat army of farm and factory workers, encountered their worst nightmares before their dying bodies were hacked of their souls but not their courage.
Gloria also wants to talk peace with the CPP/NPA/NDF, the same radical left she promised to wipe out by next year, but like all presidents before her, could not seem to fulfill.
The MILF and CPP/NPA/NDF, know their political importance to be used as masks for Gloria’s failures. Both of them carry weight to know how they would be used for Gloria’s own propaganda, all in her term’s dying months, that not a few doubt these talks will end in another stalemate. Besides, who would enter into a deal with lame duck president?
In these talks, only the MILF and the CPP/NPA/NDF would gain. Their troops’ respite from engaging in military actions would help boost morale and give them chances to regroup. Their leaders would also gain propaganda-wise while I also doubt Gloria is really hopeful of nailing peace during her term.
The concerns they’ve raised are age-old problems, maybe older than Kamlon. Mindanaoans and CPP supporters in the countryside have long been demanding gainful employment, better wages, better roads, fair market competition and so on.
There will only be peace if an honest leader could make them happen. Gloria botched her chance to realize them all.
And as if to taunt her, long-dormant MNLF, which had long dealt peace with government, was seen flexing its muscles by occupying remote villages in Palawan.
All these while at home, Gloria remains tipsy over what to do next.
Gloria’s climax is her own failure.
Her hope of another extension to her already extended term is gone, as the Charter change, as admitted by no less than her staunchest allies in Congress, is dead. And the celebratory clinks of precious wine glasses at Le Cirque, Bobby Vans and David Bouley have all faded except in the minds of the Filipino masses who have certified GMA’s insensitivity to their plight.
Her reign would be remembered, not only through the dreaded triumvirate of lying, cheating and stealing but lately, through her extravagant spending in ritzy restaurants where we could not afford to eat in our lives.
It was her lavish spending that overshadowed even her so-called greatest achievements in propping up the economy, one that was never felt down but whose gains remained only on top. And so in the end, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo will come down in history as failure for a president.
In her final months, Gloria is looking for a legacy that she could leave. What gains she had in meeting Barrack Obama, however, were quickly rubbed out by her excessive and expensive dinner parties. Cory Aquino’s untimely death also overshadowed GMA’s long-sought US trip and the people’s sentiments as they joined Cory’s hearse were heard, and they did not bode well for GMA.
Today, Gloria’s sight is trained at attaining peace in two fronts, but her vision has never been as hazy as the cross in the old scope of her soldiers’ guns, she seems to be finding hard to fix her targets.
Her talks with the MILF seem to have been botched too early in the day. No thanks to trigger happy MILF combatants who have been discovered aiding the Abu Sayyaf, classified as a terrorist group which does not have it own pantheon in the respected political colors for its murderous connections, at home and overseas, that it became harder to fathom why the MILF provided it with military assistance, especially at a time when it was to talk peace with government.
It was in their hands where our soldiers, no different from the proletariat army of farm and factory workers, encountered their worst nightmares before their dying bodies were hacked of their souls but not their courage.
Gloria also wants to talk peace with the CPP/NPA/NDF, the same radical left she promised to wipe out by next year, but like all presidents before her, could not seem to fulfill.
The MILF and CPP/NPA/NDF, know their political importance to be used as masks for Gloria’s failures. Both of them carry weight to know how they would be used for Gloria’s own propaganda, all in her term’s dying months, that not a few doubt these talks will end in another stalemate. Besides, who would enter into a deal with lame duck president?
In these talks, only the MILF and the CPP/NPA/NDF would gain. Their troops’ respite from engaging in military actions would help boost morale and give them chances to regroup. Their leaders would also gain propaganda-wise while I also doubt Gloria is really hopeful of nailing peace during her term.
The concerns they’ve raised are age-old problems, maybe older than Kamlon. Mindanaoans and CPP supporters in the countryside have long been demanding gainful employment, better wages, better roads, fair market competition and so on.
There will only be peace if an honest leader could make them happen. Gloria botched her chance to realize them all.
And as if to taunt her, long-dormant MNLF, which had long dealt peace with government, was seen flexing its muscles by occupying remote villages in Palawan.
All these while at home, Gloria remains tipsy over what to do next.
Gloria’s climax is her own failure.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Gloriavagant
Media colleague Bing (Real name: Raleigh) Jaleco’s genius was once again at work when he conjoined the word that fits big spender Gloria Arroyo’s name appropriately and without shame.
Unlike the poor Filipina conjoined twins now fighting for their lives in a hospital which services they could not afford yet have no choice but to pawn their souls so they, or at least one of the twins, would survive, the growing demand for a surgical procedure is not that to separate big spender Gloria from her extravagance but to extract big spender Gloria like a rotten molar from the cavities of Malacanang.
Big spender Gloria has surpassed the much-maligned stature of the Imeldific, and it did not go unnoticed both here and among Gloria watchers overseas.
In a GMA website report, the New York Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines slammed big spender Gloria for her lavish lifestyle.
"As Filipinos in New York, this degree of extravagance from a Philippine Head of State is both vulgar and, unfortunately, familiar," the report quoted the group’s reaction over the $20,000 tab by big spender Gloria in New York’s very ritzy Le Circque and the $15,000 dinner in the name of big spender Gloria at Bobby Van’s Stakehouse in Washington. .
While both dinners for two nights ran closely to P2 million, various Malacanang spokespersons called them “simple” and not really extravagant. But who’s buying? No one, really, and big spender Gloria thus earned a new monicker as the “new Imelda.”
While the Big Apple is “home to Wall Street power lunches,” the group said, simple and inexpensive dinners could be had in New York without diminishing imaginary statures, especially one befitting a fake president.
If we may ask Palace spokesperson Serge Remonde: What is wrong with a $1 hotdog sandwich? And then again, maybe we should ask him what are definitely wrong with the two lavish dinners they have had in Washington and New York? I think he knows, but his job demands him to lie.
I suppose not all of them have finished their servings of steak in Bobby Van’s. If some of them have a leftover “take out” or “to go” in US restaurant lingo, some stale grams would have made decent fare for that old man who died in hunger last week while sleeping in a parked bus in some decrepit cavity of the metro, where, I believe, Gloria has not been since she become part of government service or even before it.
I wonder how long those million-peso dinners would have stretched if they would be used to support the families of the soldiers who perished in battles in Mindanao last week. Or would the jungle battles been fought differently if only those millions were used to buy guns and bullets, or perhaps used in intelligence gathering against the Abu Sayyaf? But we should feel sorry for ourselves and our soldiers, the caviar tasted good and the fine wine was intoxicating as the power they have now.
That power, stolen as it was, gave her the good life she is experiencing right now, the same one she accused Erap of living before big spender Gloria and her clique in the military forced what became the bastardized version of Edsa People Power. It’s the same power and privilege that she does not want to let go of now.
And she definitely knows how to push things further. She is now shopping for a used “presidential fixed-wing executive jet" worth at least P1.2 billion, a budget that would go a long way if spent for our school children or health care, than the presidential travels she perhaps intend to take in the last remaining months of her already extended terms.
Big spender Gloria sure has a good taste, and luxurious travels are among them.
In his report last week, Congressman Teofisto “TG” Guingona III exposed big spender Gloria’s indiscriminate spending that her contingency fund ran dry in supplementing her travel expenses. Her tab, mind you, was more than 100 percent than originally intended.
And once more, she wants to bleed dry the country’s coffers by purchasing a new plane.
Honestly, though, we won’t mind if that presidential plane would take her to Hawaii.
Or she better hitch with an American plane. ‘Twas proven and free of charge.
Unlike the poor Filipina conjoined twins now fighting for their lives in a hospital which services they could not afford yet have no choice but to pawn their souls so they, or at least one of the twins, would survive, the growing demand for a surgical procedure is not that to separate big spender Gloria from her extravagance but to extract big spender Gloria like a rotten molar from the cavities of Malacanang.
Big spender Gloria has surpassed the much-maligned stature of the Imeldific, and it did not go unnoticed both here and among Gloria watchers overseas.
In a GMA website report, the New York Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines slammed big spender Gloria for her lavish lifestyle.
"As Filipinos in New York, this degree of extravagance from a Philippine Head of State is both vulgar and, unfortunately, familiar," the report quoted the group’s reaction over the $20,000 tab by big spender Gloria in New York’s very ritzy Le Circque and the $15,000 dinner in the name of big spender Gloria at Bobby Van’s Stakehouse in Washington. .
While both dinners for two nights ran closely to P2 million, various Malacanang spokespersons called them “simple” and not really extravagant. But who’s buying? No one, really, and big spender Gloria thus earned a new monicker as the “new Imelda.”
While the Big Apple is “home to Wall Street power lunches,” the group said, simple and inexpensive dinners could be had in New York without diminishing imaginary statures, especially one befitting a fake president.
If we may ask Palace spokesperson Serge Remonde: What is wrong with a $1 hotdog sandwich? And then again, maybe we should ask him what are definitely wrong with the two lavish dinners they have had in Washington and New York? I think he knows, but his job demands him to lie.
I suppose not all of them have finished their servings of steak in Bobby Van’s. If some of them have a leftover “take out” or “to go” in US restaurant lingo, some stale grams would have made decent fare for that old man who died in hunger last week while sleeping in a parked bus in some decrepit cavity of the metro, where, I believe, Gloria has not been since she become part of government service or even before it.
I wonder how long those million-peso dinners would have stretched if they would be used to support the families of the soldiers who perished in battles in Mindanao last week. Or would the jungle battles been fought differently if only those millions were used to buy guns and bullets, or perhaps used in intelligence gathering against the Abu Sayyaf? But we should feel sorry for ourselves and our soldiers, the caviar tasted good and the fine wine was intoxicating as the power they have now.
That power, stolen as it was, gave her the good life she is experiencing right now, the same one she accused Erap of living before big spender Gloria and her clique in the military forced what became the bastardized version of Edsa People Power. It’s the same power and privilege that she does not want to let go of now.
And she definitely knows how to push things further. She is now shopping for a used “presidential fixed-wing executive jet" worth at least P1.2 billion, a budget that would go a long way if spent for our school children or health care, than the presidential travels she perhaps intend to take in the last remaining months of her already extended terms.
Big spender Gloria sure has a good taste, and luxurious travels are among them.
In his report last week, Congressman Teofisto “TG” Guingona III exposed big spender Gloria’s indiscriminate spending that her contingency fund ran dry in supplementing her travel expenses. Her tab, mind you, was more than 100 percent than originally intended.
And once more, she wants to bleed dry the country’s coffers by purchasing a new plane.
Honestly, though, we won’t mind if that presidential plane would take her to Hawaii.
Or she better hitch with an American plane. ‘Twas proven and free of charge.
Monday, August 10, 2009
When a dinner becomes a crime
There was a crime story long ago which not only wrung hearts of bloody tears, it squeezed a vile of contempt against what we thought then was an abusive, insensitive government, when a man was arrested for stealing the neighbor’s steaming pot of rice, so he could have something to feed his family which for days had not had meal—no matter how indecent—that even a stolen cauldron of rice would not only have made a decent fare but some days' survival for his wife and kids.
What the late Alex Fernando thought then was a novelty report had in fact become an example piece in basic news writing for the added dramatic twist to what was ordinarily a report about a simple case of theft, which on bland, dry days only fills space in a newspaper’s metro or police section, unless some interesting event comes along and it does not get stolen by the front page.
Like when a head of the family spiked what became his family’s last dinner with a stick of watusi, killing his wife, children and himself. It was abject poverty which forced him to commit suicide, because he could no longer bear it and the hunger it forced on his family, because there was no opportunity for him to earn decently, or maybe even more simply, because there was nothing coming for him and his family however hard they tried.
He had provided the template for other family suicides that followed, simply because a stick of watusi is more affordable and accessible than the best poison there is. Some suicides, however, were not as successful as the first, failures which left a deep sense of guilt, and to others regret, while they also make us ponder on the painful truth that we could not complain against our inadequacies, or about the inequalities we see, as there are still those living in the extreme abyss, suffering hell until a stick of watusi puts an end to their sufferings.
Hunger is the bastard son of poverty. Before Gloria Macapagal Arroyo read what should be her last State of the Nation Address last month, where the only gloom come from those who criticize her leadership, while the rest were just as healthy as her cute cheeks, a survey claimed two in every five Filipinos have suffered involuntary hunger in recent months.
Gloria’s numbers which littered her speech to strengthen her claims of an economically robust Philippines under her watch, all the already extended nine years of it, could not belie how poverty and hunger have spread since she took power in 2001.
Her claimed growth has not trickled down to reach those who should have been its intended recipients, the poor masses who are still struggling to make ends meet. When their everyday fare still includes thoughts on how to provide their children with food, education and jeepney fare, while in the back of their minds are additional concerns on where they would squeeze their next budget for their medicine, let alone doctors fees, how could Gloria claim growth?
Yet just days after Gloria’s painting of a rosy picture for all of us to believe, she lived the lie. When the world, even superpower America, is down on its knees and reeling from the effects of recession, there was Gloria sleeping in comfort in Waldorf Astoria, and partaking in a nearly P1 million dinner (given, we were told, in honor of the first couple celebrating their wedding anniversary) at the very ritzy Le Cirque, earning contempt even from Americans who saw them partying just as the nation was mourning, as ordered by Gloria herself, in honor of a dead former president who is well-loved for her honesty and dignity, traits missing in Gloria’s political dictionary.
It was good bed, good food and good wine, all served in celebratory mood for what Gloria thought was a successful visit to Barrack Obama. She was wrong.
She was noticed—all her excesses and abuses and insensitivity. Bless the souls of those who died—or killed themselves— in hunger, they must be turning in their graves now, waiting for vengeance when they could get it.
And for us living, we still wonder whether a caviar is best served hot or cold. Because we will never know in our lives how caviar tastes or looks like. We are familiar only with the steaming white rice, which used to come in endless servings in our tables, but which we could hardly afford now.
Now, I wonder which is the worst criminal: the man who stole the pot of rice, the man who forced family suicide because they could no longer bear poverty and hunger, or the couple who…? Nevermind!
What the late Alex Fernando thought then was a novelty report had in fact become an example piece in basic news writing for the added dramatic twist to what was ordinarily a report about a simple case of theft, which on bland, dry days only fills space in a newspaper’s metro or police section, unless some interesting event comes along and it does not get stolen by the front page.
Like when a head of the family spiked what became his family’s last dinner with a stick of watusi, killing his wife, children and himself. It was abject poverty which forced him to commit suicide, because he could no longer bear it and the hunger it forced on his family, because there was no opportunity for him to earn decently, or maybe even more simply, because there was nothing coming for him and his family however hard they tried.
He had provided the template for other family suicides that followed, simply because a stick of watusi is more affordable and accessible than the best poison there is. Some suicides, however, were not as successful as the first, failures which left a deep sense of guilt, and to others regret, while they also make us ponder on the painful truth that we could not complain against our inadequacies, or about the inequalities we see, as there are still those living in the extreme abyss, suffering hell until a stick of watusi puts an end to their sufferings.
Hunger is the bastard son of poverty. Before Gloria Macapagal Arroyo read what should be her last State of the Nation Address last month, where the only gloom come from those who criticize her leadership, while the rest were just as healthy as her cute cheeks, a survey claimed two in every five Filipinos have suffered involuntary hunger in recent months.
Gloria’s numbers which littered her speech to strengthen her claims of an economically robust Philippines under her watch, all the already extended nine years of it, could not belie how poverty and hunger have spread since she took power in 2001.
Her claimed growth has not trickled down to reach those who should have been its intended recipients, the poor masses who are still struggling to make ends meet. When their everyday fare still includes thoughts on how to provide their children with food, education and jeepney fare, while in the back of their minds are additional concerns on where they would squeeze their next budget for their medicine, let alone doctors fees, how could Gloria claim growth?
Yet just days after Gloria’s painting of a rosy picture for all of us to believe, she lived the lie. When the world, even superpower America, is down on its knees and reeling from the effects of recession, there was Gloria sleeping in comfort in Waldorf Astoria, and partaking in a nearly P1 million dinner (given, we were told, in honor of the first couple celebrating their wedding anniversary) at the very ritzy Le Cirque, earning contempt even from Americans who saw them partying just as the nation was mourning, as ordered by Gloria herself, in honor of a dead former president who is well-loved for her honesty and dignity, traits missing in Gloria’s political dictionary.
It was good bed, good food and good wine, all served in celebratory mood for what Gloria thought was a successful visit to Barrack Obama. She was wrong.
She was noticed—all her excesses and abuses and insensitivity. Bless the souls of those who died—or killed themselves— in hunger, they must be turning in their graves now, waiting for vengeance when they could get it.
And for us living, we still wonder whether a caviar is best served hot or cold. Because we will never know in our lives how caviar tastes or looks like. We are familiar only with the steaming white rice, which used to come in endless servings in our tables, but which we could hardly afford now.
Now, I wonder which is the worst criminal: the man who stole the pot of rice, the man who forced family suicide because they could no longer bear poverty and hunger, or the couple who…? Nevermind!
Saturday, August 8, 2009
What now, JdLC?
Flags of various shades, which just in recent past have clashed, and in many instances violently, were back. And for a long moment—all seven-and-a-half hours of a people’s procession—a long chilling moment that was both fleeting for a grateful nation to have seen, touched and been touched by her; and also remorseful for its many failures in overcoming various adversaries that have sent the country back to its present darkness, they have come together to join the people in mourning their loss of Cory Aquino, an icon who had been a rallying point in kicking out a dictatorship, who, even in her dying moment, struggled still to remind us of an unfinished business.
On Wednesday, when even the skies cried in gray sorrow as Cory was laid to rest beside her husband Ninoy, hero of our generation, these flags gave way, preferring instead to stay on the sides where the people were, shedding various claims of being vanguards of the protest movements, if not the revolution they have been trying to wage, and yes, even against Cory when she was still president of the republic. They joined the funeral to make up for their loss when they snubbed the first party in Edsa, where their presence would have turned it into a different revolution which it did not become, and so eventually they were eased out of their chance to become part of a government which they, in turn, despised and distrusted, but on which they clung their hopes on in not a few occasions when even their revolutionary wicks flickered.
For once, they were with the people they claimed to be trying to emancipate but whose major support they could not get. Men, women and children, the rich and the poor, the lumpens of the nation mixing with business and political leaders, those with PhDs who, in ordinary circumstances would not have walked the streets they traversed on foot on Wednesday, but never again in their lives perhaps, but were there to display a phenomenon we have seen only after nearly three decades, the last was for Ninoy himself, but just the same, was a clear signal of what is to come, if the present dispensation will continue on with its evil plans which Cory, herself, warned us against many times when she was living.
But even without flags, Cory’s last journey was like that of Biblical Moses, her remains parting an ocean of people, an account which for sure had sent many skin hair standing among the millions glued on their tellies, and a frightening chill down the spine of an illegal Malacanang occupant, who probably know by now but still refuses to acknowledge it, that on the day Cory had perished, the fire of protest among her people was again stoked—with or without the flags, with or without instigation, with Cory gone yet her spirit living, because there is an unseen revulsion in their hearts which they will express at any time they are challenged, or taunted.
In her death, Cory is still defending her “freedom constitution,” clutching it with both arms, her fingers twined with beads of her rosary, as if leaving it for God to defend, because in the last instances when many leaders called for bodies to show up, including Cory and Erap—two former presidents the present dispensation have many times called passé, only the flags showed up, not the people who came to Cory’s funeral, not those who still come in multitude in her Times St. home or the mausoleum she now shares with Ninoy, even days after her burial.
Even in her death, Cory had shown she can take people out of their homes and into the streets. If last week’s event does not send a warning to Gloria and her clique, who even just hours after the late president was laid to rest, have come out to insist on their Charter change plans, even claiming it as a test case once it is filed with the Supreme Court, to know whether Congress could go it alone, without the Senate, without the people and without conscience.
Even before Cory’s death, however, the people have already spoken against Cha-cha and against Gloria. They have preferred to lend their voices through new media, in various blogs, the Twitter, Facebook and yes, even Friendster, they have said no!
Gloria must have misread the people’s silence as either an impassive gesture or maybe lack of interest, or maybe even worse, silence that must have meant a show of support for her and her Cha-cha, oh Heaven forbid!
That was until last week, when everything changed, again.
And for it, let us thank Cory. Then let us move on and finish the business she had left behind, the same business we have ignored for a long time and let those various flags to solve.
Alone, they can’t. But together, we can!
On Wednesday, when even the skies cried in gray sorrow as Cory was laid to rest beside her husband Ninoy, hero of our generation, these flags gave way, preferring instead to stay on the sides where the people were, shedding various claims of being vanguards of the protest movements, if not the revolution they have been trying to wage, and yes, even against Cory when she was still president of the republic. They joined the funeral to make up for their loss when they snubbed the first party in Edsa, where their presence would have turned it into a different revolution which it did not become, and so eventually they were eased out of their chance to become part of a government which they, in turn, despised and distrusted, but on which they clung their hopes on in not a few occasions when even their revolutionary wicks flickered.
For once, they were with the people they claimed to be trying to emancipate but whose major support they could not get. Men, women and children, the rich and the poor, the lumpens of the nation mixing with business and political leaders, those with PhDs who, in ordinary circumstances would not have walked the streets they traversed on foot on Wednesday, but never again in their lives perhaps, but were there to display a phenomenon we have seen only after nearly three decades, the last was for Ninoy himself, but just the same, was a clear signal of what is to come, if the present dispensation will continue on with its evil plans which Cory, herself, warned us against many times when she was living.
But even without flags, Cory’s last journey was like that of Biblical Moses, her remains parting an ocean of people, an account which for sure had sent many skin hair standing among the millions glued on their tellies, and a frightening chill down the spine of an illegal Malacanang occupant, who probably know by now but still refuses to acknowledge it, that on the day Cory had perished, the fire of protest among her people was again stoked—with or without the flags, with or without instigation, with Cory gone yet her spirit living, because there is an unseen revulsion in their hearts which they will express at any time they are challenged, or taunted.
In her death, Cory is still defending her “freedom constitution,” clutching it with both arms, her fingers twined with beads of her rosary, as if leaving it for God to defend, because in the last instances when many leaders called for bodies to show up, including Cory and Erap—two former presidents the present dispensation have many times called passé, only the flags showed up, not the people who came to Cory’s funeral, not those who still come in multitude in her Times St. home or the mausoleum she now shares with Ninoy, even days after her burial.
Even in her death, Cory had shown she can take people out of their homes and into the streets. If last week’s event does not send a warning to Gloria and her clique, who even just hours after the late president was laid to rest, have come out to insist on their Charter change plans, even claiming it as a test case once it is filed with the Supreme Court, to know whether Congress could go it alone, without the Senate, without the people and without conscience.
Even before Cory’s death, however, the people have already spoken against Cha-cha and against Gloria. They have preferred to lend their voices through new media, in various blogs, the Twitter, Facebook and yes, even Friendster, they have said no!
Gloria must have misread the people’s silence as either an impassive gesture or maybe lack of interest, or maybe even worse, silence that must have meant a show of support for her and her Cha-cha, oh Heaven forbid!
That was until last week, when everything changed, again.
And for it, let us thank Cory. Then let us move on and finish the business she had left behind, the same business we have ignored for a long time and let those various flags to solve.
Alone, they can’t. But together, we can!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
