Consider this likely scenario. GMA becomes the Prime Minister of a new Parliament formed replacing the old presidential form of government. This way, she only has to earn public approval from within the ruling power bloc of patronizing party allies. If this happens, the door to perpetuity in power opens wide for Queen Gloria and only her people would likely protest this comeuppance. Negative trust ratings in all polling charts will become even more luminous. But what will it all be for GMA by then?
GMA must be an extremely lucky person. When Erap was booted out of Malacanang in an EDSA plot of the ‘economic elites’, she ascended to the presidency – a quick ascent that is not entirely ‘un-anomalous’. In 2004, GMA run for president as if the Constitution has deemed it permissible for her to do so. The canvassing of votes has been marred with massive cheating and the later “Hello Garci’ controversy only validates this long-held suspicion. All the ‘questionable observations or entries’ were conveniently declared as “noted” and swept to this huge wasteland of unaccounted votes which were never revisited.
Come 2010, GMA runs for a seat in Congress such that she will be chosen as the Prime Minister and circumvents in the process any threat of post-immunity suits. Nothing disallows a former president to run for another elective office. Fact is, if the present crop of pro-Con Ass adherents were truly allowed to tinker with the Constitution without seeming constitutional restraints, chances are they can perpetuate themselves in power beyond their prescribed term.
There can be no mistake that the ruling majority railroaded HR 1109 for their selfish vested interests. They must be dreaming of a ‘GMA Forever’ scenario or at the very least benefit from an evolving scene of perpetuity – a scheme of fraud, no less. Thus, the Senate has just been alienated. And people begin to protest and saw clearly what grave abuse of power it all was. Thus, for the 3rd time, GMA wants to keep ‘power’ all to herself – by various possible ways.
But down reality lane, where are we? There are to be mass movements in every available front – streets, cyberspace, twitter, podcast, wherever. Keen observers are seeing a ‘social volcano’ about to explode. Only the supporters of GMA see nothing wrong with 1109 or a Con Ass having been approved or adopted by force of numbers. They think they can in fact take the Senate for granted.
On the other hand, perhaps, it’s anybody’s game. Even if Malacanang has any set of options, it is uncertain whether chips will really fall in place. A Plan A, a Plan B, or a Plan C may each have to fail if conditions are not present. But there is clear bias of the present composition of the House of Representatives that if not changed, will be very advantageous to GMA. If changed, after a 2010 elections, a lot of spade work will be required.
Thus an end-game scenario over more uncertain plans must be one that is immediately doable. GMA can count on her supporters from the present ‘Old Boys Club’, from her Malacanang-appointed members of the High Tribunal, from her military and the police. Good enough that Senate has been uncompromising and there was only very little that GMA can do.
Ordinarily, people expect to have an election on May next year. They want to experience, perhaps, a full automation by the COMELEC. More importantly, they would opt to put a new set of leaders to replace those responsible for Philippine society’s near moral decay. They want to exercise their right to elect only the more qualified, the more deserving, and those with moral ascendancy to lead them.
But then again, what guarantees, if any, do we have that people can really vote wisely and not again succumb to the usual nuances of a dirty politics? Like people, like government? I really don’t know but things could be frustratingly culture-bound, in the end, pray not.
Popularity: 1% [?]
All sounds legal to me, dude. :D
That’s the thing, dude. We don’t.
That’s DEMOCRACY for you.
Deal with it. :D
idiots did vote for Estrada
expect the same idiots to make more retarded choices :)
After a country’s voters have voted and the votes are counted, things happen:
— Thais voted for Thaksin of Thailand.
— Iranians voted (again!) for that Holocaust-denier Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
BongV,
Who is more of an idiot? The people who voted for Estrada or the people who booted Estrada?
whats new? here in country redemption is once a blue moon affair. its better for us to listen again to some old song from yano to remind us. where pinoy dude!we dont invent ningas cogon for nothing. we should envy the milf or abu sayaf at least they are consistent.
the only thing i like bout jose rizal is what he said “like people like govt”. no need to elaborate.
we just on with our lives wathc wowowee or eat bulaga.
Dictators and Usurpers thrive on lands full of suckers. Unfortunately, in the Philippines; people have already have bad
experiences on Dictators. We dont accept what is given to us as
our fate. By any Devil, Demons, Dictators, Usurpers, etc…
Our Freedom and Right can only be taken: FROM OUR COLD DEAD HANDS.
We had fought before against a stronger adversary. We will fight
again…
I don’t subscribe to the self-deprecating notion that Philippine society is a human sea of idiots – not at all.
We are the best the world has ever known.
Those who would rather reverse the collective psyche and adopt into this whole notion of idiocy no longer wish to defend their sense of national pride because perhaps, they have acquired a new mentality, dressed themselves in a new suit, and benefited from a currency that pays them 10 fold for a lousy job.
They are the ones who cannot survive in our own place – slaves in another else’s place, kings and queens in their own. Oh, what an idiocy?
Fairness and sound judgment is a trait we recklessly abandon when our own personal contention is at odd against the mainstream society’s own.
Primer sir – I am NOT in disagreement when you said this line: “We are the best the world has ever known”. So, enlighten me when you said we have to redeem ourselves – isn’t this a little bit too, say,….contradicting.
Leadership is to embrace and accept the negative and positive side of people. One must be a people person to be liked.
When one blogger attacks the people negatively, the result is to retaliate and be against.
So if Gloria hires bong and benigno to humiliate the poor, what will happen then to HER credibility? No president will abandon the needs of her people. Gloria remains to have a mother instinct to the children of this country. It is wrong for her to hire bong and benigno (for example) :) baka mapikon na naman…
People needs some TLC not the other way around. I am sensing that few here are having a tough time understanding on how to manage people. It seems to me that it is their pleasure when one gets hurt. Is it wrong? yes to a reasonable person. Is it right? yes only to those who no longer has the ability to understand people beyond themselves. what’s the term in psychology?
wrong assumption. Bong rejects gloria’s offer. puhllleeeaaazeeee
oh, she didn’t pay you well? example lang bong :)
the people are doing a great job by humiliating themselves :lol:
stop being stupid.. period – though there’s no hospital for the challenged :lol:
of course, people can be redeem thru positive feedback.
my goodness, anyone of you here manage plenty of crazy people? try yelling at them in your office. I can guarantee you , you will not grow.
This country needs some new entertainment. Sports complex, marathon, triathlon and health awareness. Engage the poor to join the run instead of insulting them. It’s just so wrong.
Maybe a smoking ceasation program to engage their minds to think right at barangay level. what else? there’s plenty of outreach program out there. it can be done.
Really Primer?
Then prove it. :D
“Sense of national pride” you say?
Pride in what exactly, dude?
Cite specific examples of things about the Philippines and being Filipino that we can be convincingly and sustainably proud of, plez.
While you’re at it, maybe you might wanna tell us as well what you think the “Filipino” stands for. Remember that little ingredient? You need to be able to define something before you can even begin to be “proud” of it.
How do you know all this? Do I even know you? Have I met you in person? Have you met me in person?
Oh I forgot, your not really one who is big on substantiating your assertions.
With every word you type you subtract from the collective intelligence of humanity, dude.
benign0: Primer would know better his sister and brother in law so he may be referring to them with this “…dressed themselves in a new suit..the ones who cannot survive in our own place – slaves in another else’s place.”
‘Pride in what exactly, dude?’
1) Allowing European Jews to enter the Philippines during the early days of WWII.
2) Help defend South Korea during the Korean War.
3) Again giving refuge to the Vietnamese boat people during the late 70s and early 80s.
Abu,
The emerging contemporary mindset in FV, in particular, is toward blaming the people themselves for their fate (that is how it comes to me).
Thus, by way of response to this straightjacket view that we are all idiots as a people, I would argue, that on the other hand, we can be the best if the not the best.
Now, my blog shares the misgivings that unless, we can act, think and maybe behave wisely, we may not be able to redeem ourselves if we tend toward dirty politics. In short, we should not succumb to this temptation if we are to redeem ourselves from an almost predictable ‘curse’.
Well, it’s a fact of life.
UP n,
While your comment may seemingly be correct, my reference is to the larger 90% OFWs not the other 10%, maybe even less.
In any event, I don’t wish to take exception for my sister and brother in law – if that suits the import of my view.
Benigno,
I know what you want to hear. It just might be something like this -”that we are the toilet keepers of the world…”
But it’s not in that context that I’m driving the point home. It was a response to a rather oppressive extremist view that we are a society of idiots when other well-meaning individuals can think that they are not.
Now, I’m pretty glad I heard it from the horse’s mouth that there is after all a collective intelligence of humanity, so-called. Couldn’t it be just a slip of the tongue?
Yes there are well-meaning individuals, Primer. Just as there are outstanding individuals who routinely churn out world class achievements INDIVIDUALLY.
Trouble is, do we actually achieve anything as a collective? Are Filipinos IN GENERAL known collectively for even ONE achievement that can be attribute to Filipinos as a people?
We are quick to say “Galing Pilipino” when an individual such as, say, Manny Pacquiao achieves something (as if his being Filipino is a cause of his success). Yet when someone sees a Filipino working in the household domestics industry in Hong Kong and calls us a “nation of servants” we go around stomping our feet in “indignation”.
Ano ba talaga?
We choose to feel “pride” in a single boxer’s achievement yet feel dissociated with hundreds of thousands of our compatriots working as servants.
Classy. :D
but keep writing what you liked. it will be very boring without you, benigno :) LOL
You’re right supremo, which is why, I vent the misgiving that we might not be able to redeem ourselves at critical points of our national life.
In the absolute sense, surely, we cannot boast of a even a single accomplishment by the collective. We can only proceed by individual achievements.
Certainly, that is not what you really mean when you challenge anyone to show, even just one concrete instance, when we have become collectively proud. For that matter, is there any nation or people in the world with that kind of collective pride?
That truly makes your favorite thesis valid and I cannot find any more room to argue against it.
Will then the lack of a single collective accomplishment render us as having no right to associate ourselves with our own Filipino icons? I thought it is even right for the EDSA heroes to make high claims of what they have accomplished?
In the end, EDSAs only succeeded to portray us as nothing but a ‘lynching mob’.
Well, I for one agree with all of you . . . partly. Of course, I also think you are all out of your freakin’ minds, and are hardheads, gahi ulo in the extreme. So you don’t respect each other, why mess up my day with your personal laundry, especially the dirty briefs you flap in my face. Juices, the same bananas every day.
Primer,
I think you’ve provided a reasoned overview of things, a nice recap of several blogs of the past week. With regard to your last couple of lines, I would note that politics is always screwed up by personal interests; has been from day one; happens everywhere, including the dear ol’ USA. Yes, some of the problems in the Philippines are cultural. They can be changed, as the US changed its deeply ingrained racial biases . . . took about 150 years to work them all out and get a black president. The dialogue that occurs on sites like this can accelerate the changes needed in the Philippines . . .
It would occur sooner if people would stick to the issues, work on them earnestly, and forget the nastiness, put-downs, and brickbats.
Just my wayward opinion . . . be as thy so chooseth . . .
Joe
Thank you for your kind words of me.
Joe, I speak from the heart when I speak up my mind on most things I write about. I have never been co-opted as others are wont to think.
Also, as a rule, I don’t wish to work at the bottom of the pit but sometimes, they are just beyond anybody’s control. But I have to shield myself lest people tend to believe what other people say about me.
My deep apologies on that part of the whole exercise.
Good that you now see things MY way, Primer.
Makes it easy for all of us and especially you. ;)
As to your question:
Of course not. I for example feel great pride in Manny Pacquiao’s achievement as a fellow Filipino individual. But under no circumstances do I harbour any illusion that Filipinos as a people are any greater collectively as a result of Pacquiao’s achievement.
The 1986 Edsa “Revolution” could have gone down in history as a great Filipino collective “achievement”. Trouble is it has been perverted over the last 23 years by people who sought to use it to further specific political agendas. Note the difference between the subsequent ones AND the original one in 1986. The latter one — owing to its unprecedented spontaneity — was not wholly underpinned by any specific personal agenda.
Since 1986, here is a simple outline of the sad progressive perversion of Edsa “revolutions”:
:D It became branded as a Catholic event as evident in its commemoration at the intersection of Edsa and Ortigas by a massive eyesore of a Catholic icon.
:D It was used to overthrow a duly-elected President in 2001.
:D It was recently disowned by one of its original “heroes”.
For that matter, you can read more about Filipinos’ world class talent for perverting otherwise noble concepts right here. ;)
wait a minute!
“Of course not. I for example feel great pride in Manny Pacquiao’s achievement as a fellow Filipino individual. But under no circumstances do I harbour any illusion that Filipinos as a people are any greater collectively as a result of Pacquiao’s achievement.”
whats the difference between “pride as a FELLOW FILIPINO” and “pride as a FILIPINO PEOPLE”?
it’s the difference between one specific sparrow versus an entire species of birds. it does not a summer a make.
dear BongV
this assumes there is an entity called filipino people that is SEPARATE from the persons that make up the people.
when we feel pride for others, we AUTOMATICALLY feel pride for the collective.
nonsequitur – who’s WE?
Filipino? oh really? Pacqiao suddenly became Filipino – I thought only NCR residents are Filipino :lol:
Pacquiao is from Gen. Santos City, Promdi, Mindanaoan.. NOT from NCR.. not Filipino :lol:
Naging Filipino lang noong sumikat :lol:
yeah, sounds good Pacquiao won – so what next? has the GNP improved? has corruption ebbed? has the income disparity narrowed?
sure thing.. we had a flash in the pan… soo? after Pacquiao? and the rest? chimay at chimoy pa rin? well … there’s a new opium of the masses :lol:
Do you mean that if we can only subtract from 1986 EDSA Revolution the 23 years of perversion that came after – we could have tagged it as a ‘great Filipino collective achievement’?
I thought we can make sharp distinctions in terms of ‘ontological worlds’, meaning that 1986 EDSA is itself an achievement in the context of its own ontological domain?
EDSA marked the return of the trapos and oligarchs with the aid of suckers.
True Primer. If we take that moment of time in isolation then we can definitely argue that Filipinos have some sort of collective achievement in the form of the Edsa “revolution” of 1986.
But then that will be like harping about the 1950′s when the Philippines shined as one of the most promising East Asian countries of that era. We can argue by ignoring the rest of history that the Philippines was a “great” country “in the context of [that] ontological domain”.
Do we really prefer to live our lives in that la-la land of could-have-beens?
Or do we prefer to face the present reality of what we’ve made (or un-made) of those past achievements?
Sounds like a collective Peter’s Principle at work. The mobs were elevated to a higher level of incompetence, through governance.
The very same people who were “out” upon having the reins of government themselves have proven to be dastardly incompetent.
Personally, I don’t think it matters how one sees it — Filipinos are/aren’t individually/collectively “accomlished”…based on past events.
Yeah , knowing history is a useful thing, but that’s no reason for history to be a straightjacket going forward.
The key is to take what there is and to start building on that. In Pinas, we have (an imperfect) democracy with laws, institutions and elections. That’s a pretty good starting point; could be better, yes…but it could be worse (look around the world to see many nations in a worse condition). Regardless, it is where this nation is. It is what it is.
HOW to build, HOW to go forward is a contentious issue…as it should be. But I opine that we need to sepearte the facts from the fiction in order to idendify the tools we can work with.
This is why my posts often come back to the same theme — what is factual and what is speculation (the worst of which is accusation)?
And this is why I continuously propose that we should follow the laws, challenge but don’t destroy the institutions, and abide by the processes that have been prescribed.
In a blog environment, of course people will want to hypothesize based on their own unique opinions. That’s the deal; I accept it. But I would like to participate in an environment wherein these opinions can be supported by actual facts, thus rendering debates to the real world issues based on real world knowledge.
Unfortunately, there’s a lot of sloganeering in the blogs I’ve seen so far…including FV (tho it’s better than the others; more points of view from the entire spectrum). That includes the pros and antis of whatever/whoever is the topic du jour…..
I concur with American Joe’s recent comment: “It {edit/insert: positive change} would occur sooner if people would stick to the issues, work on them earnestly, and forget the nastiness, put-downs, and brickbats.” Amen to that.
Obliquely therefore, if the entire Filipino nation died the following day after the 1986 February Revolt, could it have been etched in world history that EDSA was a unique collective achievement of the Filipino people – since nothing anymore can pervert its legacy?
I think that perhaps, being a ‘nation of servants’ is itself one collective perversion – but not one that could be called a single collective accomplishment, or is it?
Possible of course. Kinda like the concept of “quitting while you are ahead”, or just like how Ninoy Aquino died a hero, which means we will never know how good or bad he would have performed as an actual functioning politician in the 90′s and this decade.
It depends on whether we see being a worker in the household domestic industries as being an inferior profession — one to be looked down upon with contempt.
It seems that most Pinoys do, which explains all the quaint “outrage” over being called a “nation of servants”.
But certainly, if all men are equal, why should one profession be inferior to another? I would think that to be in the domestic industry is honorable since we should acknowledge ‘dignity of labor’. In the end, we should not really take offense to be called a ‘nation of servants’.
What the politicians didn’t quite realize is that 90% of the Filipino workforce abroad are into this domestic industry with hardly 10% on the euphemistic white collar jobs.
Thanks for your responses, benigno.
When foreign investment restriction is no longer a hindrance to economic freedom thru HR1109, we might have a chance to eradicate those noxious stigma that has been around us and able to somehow transcends into a respected class of society we Filipinos been longing for.
We can storm parliament as what some eastern Europeans did!
Nothing like that abu is stipulated in 1109 but in 737, it is the meat. Just a point of clarification.
There is something not making sense. We constantly heard from Filipino people how much transgression our countrymen have endured for decades – yet, when the opportunity knocks at the door, they rather choose to be restrained in their own domesticated principles – yes, HR1109 has all that right in our face – screw the details.
The question is not about HR1109 constitutionality – but sure is an indication that the freedom of expression is alive and kicking ass – what a great epic we are onto at this moment where public awareness is in the highest view.
Feel the pain bro!
Bai – what i can only say is similar to a top-of-the-line culinary menu we have long consumed it just linger and drag on within your body and soul forever. But you see, and we have kind of touch base on this subject matter before – the source of the problem is that the government and the governee does not abide to a social contract wherein both party has obligation to create responsibilities, and commitments, and obligations, hence if we can view our Philippine society as organized, thus a social contract had been formed between the citizen and the sovereign power – in short, lack of accountability coming from the constituency and the absence of empowerment from the government – it seems this is the current social contract, therefore, consequence has been long been thought out and expected.