The Philippines is ripe with jokes today. First is the not-so-funny joke of JocJoc Bolante in the Senate investigation on the fertilizer fund scam. The other and the most recent is the prayer/joke of Press Secretary Dureza.
In his prayer, Sec. Dureza said that PGMA may lead the nation to prosperity until the year 2010 and beyond. Many people received Dureza’s prayer with mixed reactions. PGMA exhibited different facial expressions as the prayer progressed.
The press secretary explained away his prayer as joke. What a sick joke it was. First thing is that praying is a solemn activity. No one in his sane religious mind will use a prayer as a joke or an icebreaker. Another thing is that he is praying prior to a cabinet meeting, which is a serious undertaking. Praying jokingly is inappropriate unless their meeting is also just a joke.
Another matter is the content of his prayer/joke, which is not funny for the Filipino people. Saying things like GMA staying as president beyond 2010 is not a laughing matter, it is a horrifying matter. Imagine how many people will go hungry and perish if GMA and her style of leadership continue for a decade more.
What is the purpose of Dureza’s prayer/joke? Is it just a case a tongue-slip or they did it in purpose as a way of testing of how will the public react about the possibility of GMA staying beyond 2010? In current the state of things, GMA and her gang is planning to stay and will not relinquish her post to anyone. The charter change is progressing stealthily in the congress and it is evident that her excellency will be changing the constitution for her benefit.
Dureza’s prayer/joke is a litmus test to assess how the public, the media, the business sector, the civil societies, and the activists will react. And by using that assessment, GMA and her gang will know how to move forward with their plans. From our reactions, they will assess if the charter change will push through or will they use extra-legal actions in the future.
The Moving Cha Cha Train
But alas! Dureza’s prayer is not a joke. Apparently, the prayer/joke blown off the cloak that is covering the current move to change the constitution. Currently, there are already 153 members of the congress who signed the move for charter change. Allies of the president, specifically the KAMPI faction is positive that the suspicious charter change will push through, unlike the impeachment complaints that were thrown away to the dustbins.
So here’s the tack, while the public is being jaded by the fertilizer fund scam and the Euro generals scandal, the Malacanan people is working overtime in making and executing their plans to keep PGMA in office. It is possible the president did another scam to fill the pockets of her allies in Congress and fill their minds with promises that could be cemented up in the new constitution.
Divide and Conquer
The divided Senate is more divided than ever and it is for the benefit of Malacanan. The fall of Manny Villar from senate presidency created a senate that have unstable alliances. It is amusing to see the roster of the new senate majority bloc. It is an unholy alliance of PGMA’s allies and “enemies”
The senate is volatile at this moment and this volatility could be used by the president to push the Charter Change through and get the needed number of senators to sign the move. Having Juan Ponce Enrile, a GMA ally, as the new senate president is a good thing since he could help them in reducing the number of senate inquiries that is probing their many scams. Another bonus for the president is the divided opposition in the senate. PGMA can use this division to woo some of the “opposition” senators to her camp and in the end get the needed number to push her charter change forward.
Silencing the Supreme Court
GMA will not go down from her position and as the year 2010 gets nearer, she must become bolder in her acts to stay in power. To do so, she will be needing a friendlier Supreme Court. The appointment of new Supreme Court justices came just in time to achieve that need.
According to many legal experts and political analysts, the Supreme Court will be friendlier to PGMA by the next year because of the entry of the new appointed justices. That is a good news for the president. In the coming year, she will be needing agreeable legal interpretations from the highest tribunal about the possible political acrobatics that she will utilize in the future.
So taking the big picture of current events, we can see that Sec. Dureza is not merely joking. He is indeed seeking Divine help for their plans to make GMA stay beyond 2010. The Malacanan people are working non-stop and for now it seems that the pendulum of fate is swinging their way.
Popularity: 1% [?]
no big deal, i think. some ostensibly smart people make incredibly stupid gaffes, a.k.a. “jokes”, all the time. this one rivals joey salceda’s alleged “lucky bitch” outburst. here in the u.s., joe biden’s careless remarks during the campaign became fodder for the likes of leno and letterman.
if dureza’s superfluity has any hint of reality, i doubt he would say it in public and survive from sheer lack of prudence and excessive boldness.
“sane religious mind” :)
If Dureza is serious in praying to a God, then he must be joking.
One must always be serious when praying because praying is very serious matter.
If he was joking, then it was tantamount to blasphemy for using prayer just to amuse his audience.
One cannot pray and joke at the same time.
For if he was truly praying, it showed his desire to seek divine help to attain his wish.
But if he was joking, then the Church must step in to sanction one of its believer for “unChristian” act.
Well, I, as a youth, is concerned about my future.
The government is a mental play that can outsmart us all. Though it’s obvious we, the Filipinos, are blinded by other issues that will give us the thought that problems are piling over our tables.
I don’t believe that Gloria’s purpose is for the betterment of this country but, I think, is for the “privileges” that she can have while having her presidency.
I believe that this thing here is a joke. A joke that can provoke the Filipinos to think that “what we have here is wrong!”.
Innocent and unaware I may be, but I do know what will Philippines be after 10 years if PGMA will continue her turf.
But we can’t possibly blame her for it is us that voted for her… and some of us used and blinded by the “funds” given to us during elections.
~ A child
“But we can’t possibly blame her for it is us that voted for her”
1. Speak for yourself. I didn’t vote for her.
2. We still can (and do) blame elected officials for their failings. It’s how representative democracy works.
3. She never won. She stole the election.
True…
All of it…
I was considering not mentioning the election cheating stuff, yet now that it’s present..
I blame her for all the downfall of this Country.
Selfish, savage, inconsiderate!
A skrull! Sent here to mislead situations.
PGMA really is an abomination and is the worst Politician I can ever remember.
True…
All of it…
I was considering not mentioning the election cheating stuff, yet now that it’s present..
I blame her for all the downfall of this Country.
Selfish, savage, inconsiderate!
A skrull! Sent here to mislead situations.
PGMA really is an abomination and is the worst Politician I can ever remember.
Look at her, prestige? No! Ignored shame! hahah!
Cheating her way to the presidency can kill her. But why was she not assassinated like Ninoy?
Maybe that’s because all of the assassins are on her side!
She deserves no CHA-CHA… What she deserves is a lifetime of regret, maybe regret won’t be useful, she buried her conscience already.
Her good works were never visible, yet it was her wrong doings that were seen, It’s still her fault, giving her self a bad reputation.
Small but deceitful…
I officially reject her!
The Dureza prayer?
PGMA is visibly irked – reading her behavioral signature – following the statement made by the Press Secretary in an opening prayer during that cabinet meeting to the effect that the president should lead this country beyond 2010. GMA did not like what she heard. Clearly, GMA was so embarrassed that she wants such statement stricken off the record. But isn’t it said that – ‘from out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh’? So, it may well be true that Secretary Dureza must have expressed what he knows, what he thinks , and what he feels – a whole old formative process of belief, attitude, and behavior. It was not anything accidental like a slip of the tongue. It was meant to be said that Chiz Escudero describes it as a ‘trial balloon’, matter-of-factly to test how the listening universe will react of a GMA beyond her term. If this is one piece in a larger jigsaw puzzle, there is reason to believe that Enrile’s unforeseen ascent to the Senate presidency is just another cut of the jigsaw. In short, the expressed view that the senators want to save the Senate as an institution amounts to a mere alibi. For what else is it?
In a subsequent video clip, Dureza is heard to have pointed out that GMA must not have heard what was said right after that. He tried to bluff the public by saying GMA knew about the prayer before it was said and that he feels GMA was not really slighted. He was trying to push an alibi that his statement was meant to be – GMA leading this nation beyond the 2010 nighmare – in her personal and private capacity. But who can believe that now that he spilt the beans like some rabid sycophant (expected anyway of all press secretaries)? In having offended GMA, Dureza should be man enough to tender his irrevocable resignation since no amount of apologies could sooth the lady’s heart offended by the insult or naked condescension could be more like it? It ought to be a breach of protocol in public information practice if Malacanang’s media bureau cares enough to live up to the great Floreindoan tradition acknowledged in learned public relations circles.
Speaking of a truly a vibrant Fourth Estate, the manner press conference in Malacanang is being shown on TV leaves much to be desired. The questions raised by news reporters are such as would not trigger any violent reaction from the Executive Secretary if they are not actually questions priorly submitted for cognitive mapping. Nothing indicates that the more crucial points could be extracted in a spirit of guaranteed liberties. In other words, each time a press conference is being held, it is almost as if, the whole procedure was scripted, totally tamed, and uncharacteristically consensual. It cannot intimidate the one being interviewed to supply convincing answers. It cannot elicit more truthful and factual information that the viewing public ought to know since their views apparently never run in opposite directions that should characterize what a truly open and militant press freedom is all about.
Come to think of it, GMA probably never did have a good press secretary or alternating spokespersons in her entire Malacanang entrusted and perceptibly stolen stewardship. Then Press Secretary Bunye may have done real good until the ‘Hello Garci wiretapping scandal’ came into the scene where he was forced to show two kinds of discs – one fake, one original. This is why Dureza may have very little room more left for him to placate what offense he must have registered to his principal, the President who is known for her middle class tantrums. The poor press secretary may really have to try very hard to appease GMA in every way he can just so to save his cabinet position since nothing indicates he could be man enough to now resign his post for such ‘lapse in judgment’, albeit in a prayer. Dureza serves only at the pleasure of the president just as Villar – if and only if – there is a vote of confidence. But the fact that GMA does not boot him confirms people’s wild suspicion it is precisely intended to be floated around to gauge social fever.
Since the statement of Dureza serves public notice that GMA plans to really push charter change as the only constitutional mechanism to extend her term beyond 2010, this has disturbed otherwise calm political waters. A well-kept state secret has just been revealed rather carelessly if inadvertently. The whole voting population is then kept on its toes against any self-evident move from Malacanang to tinker with the present Constitution if only to set the stage for a term extension, a no election scenario, and a total distortion of the fundamental law of the land. There are no known indications that a resulting charter change can succeed except that Congress as a collectivity wins the numbers game. But society writ large is never for charter change – not by any kind of genius – that is yet to manifest itself. If consistent negative trust and approval ratings for GMA were barometer, it is simply impossible that GMA may be lawfully permitted to extend her term as president – not even in a plebiscite called for the purpose. The High Court may well refrain from a case of judicial overstretching or that incredulous ‘authoritative window principle’.
Scandal after another seems to rear their ugly heads enough to eclipse whatever probable gains may have been accomplished by the Arroyo administration. Then beleaguered COMELEC chairman was not held accountable in the ZTE fund mess. Then beleaguered GSIS head was not held culpable, either for having allegedly siphoned off money from the pension fund. Joc Joc was even allowed to resign. Eliseo dela Paz is likewise permitted to retire. All losing pro-GMA senatoriables have been appointed to juicy posts after the one year ban. Retired PNP and AFP flag officers were given cabinet if not ambassadorial posts. Right wing extremists in the AFP have been kept in military stockade. Even Trillanes whom the people voted for is refused the Divine Right to serve his constitutional mandate. The Meralco attempt bribe showed clearly that even justices of the Court of Appeals are vulnerable to unlawful acts. And we can go on and on to the point of near nausea in our inventory of our sacred cows (euphemism for ‘non-performing assets’).
Even social weather stations have been infected with the culture of corruption to serve as push-polling circuits for their paying patrons. Or how in the world that Pulse Asia came out with its findings on the presidentiables at the exclusion of BF if not one graphic indication of its institutional bias? Is it the case that it did not know nor hear that the MMDA chairman is vying for the presidency and that in every indications, he will win in this mad race? Only Golez is panicky of a BF in Malacanang when most everyone knows BF is certified to make good as a president with his no-nonsense approach to implement projects that redound to the common good. Perhaps, grandstanding by politicians ought to have some limits to trim it of its chronic excesses.
Besides, Dr. Carlos of UP correctly analyzed that such survey is too early to be done as to be entirely useless since a lot of things can still transpire between now and May 2010. From where I stand, that Pulse Asia survey is intended to condition the minds of the people much earlier in time but it should not have shortlisted it to just 5 presidentiables if it does understand what a level playing field is. Truly, Dureza himself has a lot of mind conditioning to do to save his neck from the chopping board unless he does decide now to do a graceful exit a la Manny Villar. Resignation will be the most honorable option left – nothing else.
PRIMER C. PAGUNURAN
UP Diliman, Quezon City Email: nielsky_2003@yahoo.com
We have three separate shall I say branches of Government
1. Executive – President
2. Legislative – Senators and Congressmen
3. Judiciary – Chief Justice and Justices
(1) and (2) were seated by election but (3) is appointed by (1)…
Iupo natin yung subok na na Serbisyo Publiko.
Yung nakakagawa at patuloy na gumagawa ng higit sa naka-upo sa gobyerno. Ngayong 2010 Election may napili ka na ba? Ako meron na, wag mawalan ng pag-asa…dahil may RAZON pa!