Elections as tried and tested failures for change

Barely a year ago, I wrote about the first EDSA revolt, an analytical entry about the actions of people who participated in the celebrations of EDSA Uno. Last year's celebration was tersely dramatic, as the defenders of Gloria, led by the former PNP chief Avelino Razon Jr. went into the streets in full regalia, along with his fellow mistahs and officers, as a show of dogged loyalty to the illegitimate Commander-in-Chief. What happened after that 24 February 2008 entry was a string of historic activities, foremost the ZTE revelations, the impeachment and the mammoth Ayala rallies. Afterwards, no significant events happened. Gloria survived yet again to live for another year.

Now, the very same festering problems are upon us, this time made more glaring with all these allegations of corruption, collusion, bribery and a monumental billion peso investment scam. What's different is the World Bank, a reputable international body, is now at centerstage with its damning report about high-level bribery and collusion. However, unlike last year's, no big group has come out in revolutionary fashion to show at least some semblance of resistance or indignation. Probably because most, if not all, have given up. Most attention centers on the upcoming 2010 elections, which, for all intents and purposes, is what most people hope to have to efface the devilish legacy of the Arroyo years.

Yet, there is that real reason why revolts are a dime a dozen in this corner of the world. It is not that people have acquiesce their rights nor have voluntarily silence their voices. It is the mistaken belief that change can only happen in democratic fashion, since most Filipinos subscribe to the democratic ideal. It is this misinterpretation of democracy that hinders most Filipinos to support initiatives for violent change. The mere mention of violence, according to most Filipinos, is what shuns most about this model for change.

Violence is not the way to do it, I hear Ambassador De Villa telling people in a forum. We need to do the old fashion way--elect those who we think would greatly contribute towards change and kick out those who don't.

Yet, the problem with the De Villa paradigm is this has been a tried and tested failure in our history. The more we cling our hopes to democratically elect those who we perceive as good, the more things remain the same. Our system is still personality-oriented. Despite these glaring cases which point to the system as the root cause of our maladies, most think that the best way to do this change is still thru the ballot.

No one disputes this, but in a dysfunctional system such as ours, where the rule of men dominates the law instead of the other way around, it is not the changing of the Guardians that we need. We first correct and transplant this rotten and decrepit system before we can even fathom the idea of staging democratic elections.

Men, as a general rule, subscribes to the prevailing order. If the prevailing order is not ordered but rather a system open to interpretations, problems are sure to start and fester. Our present disposition requires a socio-surgical operation. There is that need to create or "re-engineer" our system prior to the 2010 elections. Because if we allow this elections to happen when a unresponsive system persists, there is that big possibility that, post-2010 elections, we will still get the same disappointing results from our elected leaders and demoralization will still be there and possibly, worsen. To arrest our continued slide towards mediocracy and underdevelopment, we need to stand up and create a government that shall review our current processes and laws and prepare the nation come 2010. We will never achieve this under the present administration because those who we want changed will still use our resources to perpetuate themselves further in power.

I write this hoping to illuminate the minds of those who has resources to support a movement for change. However, ruminating, this entry is just a futile exercise of space and time. No one will ever dare challenge the present regime simply because most of the top leaders of this so-called and highly amorphous organism called "civil society" is peopled with the same petty bourgeoisie class we all hate. They have the same sentiments as those who occupy the highest echelons of Gloria's Gang of Misfits because they belong to the same despicable class. They think the same. They walk the same talk.

Time to re-assess the real forces for change and if competent to counter the prevailing order, strike the Bastille with all might and leave to God the result. If all these well-meaning fathers and mothers come together and form a lethal force, they could probably provide the biggest force in Philippine history ever formed just for change.

Who wants to curse now?

The national headlines today says that the World Bank is willing to provide more information and assistance to the Office of the Ombusman, an obvious dig at previous statements coming from some members of the Philippine Senate castigating the world body for not providing more info on the inquiry. It seems that this issue is still on the "development stage", since we expect more and more personalities to come out and expose this international shame. Senator Ping Lacson says he has at least fifty people who'll testify before the Senate on the anomalous deals entered by EC de Luna, etal with the First Gentleman, err, Golfer, the infamous FG. It's a shame to hear protestations and shouts of " I did'nt do it" when the 58 page report shows just how deep and how extensive this bribery scandal is. Why dig for evidence when the report, by itself, is proof positive that collusion did occur between FG and those construction firms.

The Senate should allow the World Bank to provide more information. However, it is important also to stress that the WB should go out of the woodwork and shed some light into this. Yes, this could be a precedent in international relations, but, this could also lead not just for the benefit of the Philippines; rather, this could pave the way for a review and enhancement of the WB policies on loan grant.

I remember an incident involving the son of former UN Chief Kofi Anan. The son was tagged as one of those who benefitted from a road project funded by the World Bank. Anan got brickbats for that and his son was, I think, castigated and reprimanded for dipping his hands on a dirty one. There is that possibility that World Bank road projects are also tainted with graft. For me, this Senate inquiry is an opportunity for the World Bank to scrutinize their processes and improve on it.

There are talks that the First Golfer Gang is doing fund-raising in "overtime mode". It's expected, says some businessmen who got the news from members of the FG Gang themselves. What is so shameful about this is the fact that some of us are willing to just "let them be". We're talking about billions of pesos here being robbed from us! And we just shrug our shoulders and say, " let them be. They stole from us these past nine years. And elections are just a few months away. What's in it for us if we throw them out now when they're now in the twilight of their rule? Let's just wait for judgment time."

It is this lameduck attitude that puts us in this shameful and lamentable position. It is as if we ran out of options already. It is as if we already gave up the ghost in this one. Why?

So, are we that willing to give these criminal geniuses billions of pesos because we are so helpless fighting them? Are we Filipinos that stupid? Or, are brains are so deadened already, swamped with all these scams, scandals and immorality plays that nothing would ever shock us?

When Senator Mar Roxas uttered those putangina words on live television, many protested. They thought that the good senator, a decent one at that, has already lost it. I think that one was just wrong timing. He cursed because of these shameful things this government is doing.

Now, will he curse again, given that this World Bank report has not just given us a blackeye--it already stamped the mark of "corruptively stupid" over the foreheads of 82 million Filipinos. Stupid because we allow ourselves to be fooled and robbed by these people who are so bold, so brazen in their corrupt acts just because they have monies and they control those who bear arms?

I condemn those who are in the highest echelons of power who turn a blind eye on this one. I curse those who turn a deaf ear on the cries of corruption when they hold the power to cure this monumental malady. Putangina ninyong lahat na nasasa kapangyarihan na walang ginagawa para tigilan na ng mga demonyong ito ang patuloy na pagpapahiya sa ating lahat sa harap ng sandaigdigan! Shame on all of you, those Filipinos who are in power, who allow these demons to do these shameful acts before the world!

I am again calling on the New Patriots of the New Generation, the YOUng who started the New Philippine Revolution. I am asking those Patriots to stand up and say to the world--Enough is Enough! We can't stand idly by while these devils pillage our life savings and rob us not just of our monies but also of our dignity as a People! While we procrastinate and sit comfortably in our chairs and just shrug our shoulders or simply close our eyes and bow our heads in shame, the darkness gets thicker and more dangerous. Curse be the darkness, we once said. Curse be Macoy who put us in utter darkness during the dictatorship. Now that we are being bastardized, raped, and fooled by these people, do we need a formal declaration of a Conjugal Dictatorship to prod us to act?

Curse the Coverup Most Foul

(crossposted over at http://www.filipinovoices.com/

The Senate hearing on the World Bank report chaired by no less than pseudo graft buster Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago was the biggest joke ever staged by the First Golfer gang. The scene reminds one of the infamous Mafia Gang trials in the US where the stellar cast involves no less than the big bosses of the underworld. Except, in our Filipinized version, the ones who went on trial were those who accused and exposed the anomaly in the first place, not those who committed this monumental thievery. It was staged managed, alright, by a group of intellectually dishonest misfits, who tried, and succeeded in using their knowledge of the law, even medicine, just to protect the biggest louse in Philippine history. From that heart surgeon to those petty government functionaries, the hearing was a big stage play with all those thieves in barongs professing innocence and trying hard to make us understand that getting those 10 percent commissions from the public purse is nothing sort of benevolent donation.

That hearing saved the play acting head of the biggest criminal syndicate from unnecessary exposure. He mocks the Filipino People with his obvious aversion to responsibility. For him, the Filipino People do not deserve an answer. We don’t even deserve a minute of his time, nor do we deserve to see him longer than 30 minutes in a live television coverage. For him, his presence is only for those who tee off with him at Wack-Wack and those who cut steak dinners with him in Tomas Morato.

The hearing was an obvious parody, a direct dig at the very institutions of this democracy and an obvious mockery of Filipino values and sensitivities. The institutions that our forebears have tried very hard to build are crumbling. People, like these Celso delos Angeles Jr, this DOJ prosecutor John Resado and the First Golfer are not just criminal geniuses who use their influence to make money . They are the very same ones who will eventually cause the downfall of this government.

They are the true destabilizers who cause us shame. They are the true thieves who deserve nothing less than eternal damnation and eventual death. They are the real curses given by God to this generation who continues to play dumb, act blind and deaf to the most foul crime ever made against the Filipino People.

No one in this generation would be man enough to challenge the supremacy of the First Golfer Gang. No one has the gall and the political will to challenge this evil gang. No one. This gang controls every lever of Filipino government and manages every string of every puppet in this so-called civilized country.

Who is man enough to challenge this louse who dons expensive clothes and even wears the cursed country in his shirt? Who is man enough to curse him for his indiscretions, his seemingly gangsterist rule over 82 million free souls? Who has the stamina to run against him, a man who’s in the pink of health when wheeling and dealing but feels sick when caught red-handed? As it stands, there is no one among us willing to take the sword out of Lady Justice’s sheath and thrust it into the very heart of the most foul criminal.

No one is cursing. No one is talking. For this, we deserve the darkness.