Politics October 24, 2006
"WE CAN become a modern Philippines only by slaying the dragon of 'politics as usual.' Politics dominates our lives way out of proportion to the real needs of the people and a change in politics must be accompanied by a change in our system of government. To that end, we seek to amend the Constitution."
So Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo told a group of local and foreign legal luminaries at the Global Forum on Liberty and Prosperity. The title of that forum alone was no small satirical barb on the state of things under her rule. Liberty and prosperity are the two things this country does not have, thanks to her. But as satire goes, nothing beats her observation that this country is so besieged by politics it can do with a respite from it. What makes it satirical is she herself.
That statement comes from someone who came to prominence on the wings of politics of the worst sort. Which was by way of show biz, the one thing she would deign to frown upon later on. She ran for senator as an economist in 1992 and ended up at the bottom of the ladder. She ran as the "Nora Aunor of Philippine politics," complete with [expensive] posters and calendars in full-color Regal Films poses and topped the field.
That statement comes from someone who became president on the wings of politics. Of the most intense and lofty kind, which was people power, though her own participation in it constituted politics of the worst sort. She never risked life, limb or career to fight Joseph Estrada, she materialized only when the fight was nearly won in the company of Cory Aquino and Jaime Cardinal Sin, striking prayerful poses. She would later bite the hand that fed her, savaging Cory for opposing her.
That statement comes from someone who substituted politics for principle almost as soon as she swore her oath as a people-powered president. She thanked the generals first for coming to her aid, though they did so last; civil society was first. Challenged by "Edsa III," she spent her next three years trying to appease the Joseph Estrada loyalists rather than living up to the ideals that shoved her to Malacañang.
That tack made her the most unpopular president since Ferdinand Marcos. She solved that by adding whole new dimensions to "trapo politics" [traditional politics]. Namely, by lying barefacedly, or as the local phrase goes, "harap-harapan." To appease an angry nation, she swore on the grave of its national hero she would not run again but instead devote her remaining time to paving the way for her successor. She did nothing of the kind, of course.
That statement comes from someone who ransacked the treasury to campaign. Who's guilty of harboring a billboard complex? Who littered the highways from Aparri to Jolo with outsized billboards assaulting an impoverished people with her grinning face? That is not to speak of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office's and Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.'s running ads hourly on TV proclaiming her virtues and the Department of Agriculture giving fertilizer funds to congressmen who needed only to have their minds fertilized. Joc-joc Bolante is living proof of it, and it is the United, not the Philippines, that is prosecuting him. With no taint of politics.
That statement comes from someone who spoke with then-commission of elections Virgilio Garcillano, demanding to win by one million votes.
That statement comes from someone who became president a second time on the wings of politics of the most vicious sort. That was by way of a coup -- a coup wrought not by God but by Garci, not by bullet but by ballot, not by people power but by trapo power. It was not at Edsa People Power II that Arroyo mounted a putsch, it was at Elections 2004.
That statement comes from someone who turned her back on the very thing that brought her to power. What brought her to power was Estrada's impeachment, a luminous exercise in transparency, and the massing of people at the Edsa highway, a more luminous exercise in democracy. What kept her in power was Executive Order 464 preventing witnesses like Gudani and Balutan from testifying against her, a malicious exercise in opacity, and "calibrated preemptive response," a carte-blanche order to scuttle protest rallies, preferably violently, which was a vicious exercise in tyranny.
That order comes from someone whose answer to a "withdrawal of support" by military officers was to plunge the country into martial law.
That statement comes from someone who has added still new meanings to political expedience by murdering people. Today, close to 100 journalists have been killed and a whole barangay of political activists has been "salvaged" or made to disappear. At one point, the killings were happening at one a day. And just when we thought it was tapering off because Aroyo was embarrassed on her last trip abroad, Makati City Mayor Jejomar Binay's security chief was shot to death in broad daylight and a couple of Aglipayan Church ministers, one of them its former "maximo Obispo" [highest bishop], were murdered. Can there be a worse sort of politics than the murderous sort?
That statement comes from someone who tried to oust a duly elected official while not being one herself. By Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno's own avowal, he wasn't the one who signed the papers suspending Binay; Eduardo Ermita did, and by extension Arroyo herself. If the suspension hadn't been defied and protested frenetically by Binay, his followers, the folk of Makati, businessmen and bishops, civil society and uncivil media, Arroyo might have gotten away with showing that right here right now, she can do pretty much as she pleases. I grant that's not "politics as usual." That is politics most unusual.
I agree completely: "Politics dominates our lives way out of proportion to the real needs of the people." The real needs of the people are to have a president they voted for, to have the officials they did vote for not worry about being suspended, and, never mind even all that, just not to be murdered. That can't be gotten by changing the Constitution.
Guess what change will do the trick.
* * *
Tomorrow, Wednesday, Oct. 25, the Stop the Killings bar tour stops by Saguijo Bar, 7612 Guijo St., San Antonio Village, Makati. Featured artists: Parokya ni Edgar, Paramita, Giniling Fest, Salindiwa, and Spy. Show starts at 9:30. Stop inventing excuses, go there.
http://opinion.inq7.net/inquireropinion/columns/view_article.php?article_id=28298
So Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo told a group of local and foreign legal luminaries at the Global Forum on Liberty and Prosperity. The title of that forum alone was no small satirical barb on the state of things under her rule. Liberty and prosperity are the two things this country does not have, thanks to her. But as satire goes, nothing beats her observation that this country is so besieged by politics it can do with a respite from it. What makes it satirical is she herself.
That statement comes from someone who came to prominence on the wings of politics of the worst sort. Which was by way of show biz, the one thing she would deign to frown upon later on. She ran for senator as an economist in 1992 and ended up at the bottom of the ladder. She ran as the "Nora Aunor of Philippine politics," complete with [expensive] posters and calendars in full-color Regal Films poses and topped the field.
That statement comes from someone who became president on the wings of politics. Of the most intense and lofty kind, which was people power, though her own participation in it constituted politics of the worst sort. She never risked life, limb or career to fight Joseph Estrada, she materialized only when the fight was nearly won in the company of Cory Aquino and Jaime Cardinal Sin, striking prayerful poses. She would later bite the hand that fed her, savaging Cory for opposing her.
That statement comes from someone who substituted politics for principle almost as soon as she swore her oath as a people-powered president. She thanked the generals first for coming to her aid, though they did so last; civil society was first. Challenged by "Edsa III," she spent her next three years trying to appease the Joseph Estrada loyalists rather than living up to the ideals that shoved her to Malacañang.
That tack made her the most unpopular president since Ferdinand Marcos. She solved that by adding whole new dimensions to "trapo politics" [traditional politics]. Namely, by lying barefacedly, or as the local phrase goes, "harap-harapan." To appease an angry nation, she swore on the grave of its national hero she would not run again but instead devote her remaining time to paving the way for her successor. She did nothing of the kind, of course.
That statement comes from someone who ransacked the treasury to campaign. Who's guilty of harboring a billboard complex? Who littered the highways from Aparri to Jolo with outsized billboards assaulting an impoverished people with her grinning face? That is not to speak of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office's and Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.'s running ads hourly on TV proclaiming her virtues and the Department of Agriculture giving fertilizer funds to congressmen who needed only to have their minds fertilized. Joc-joc Bolante is living proof of it, and it is the United, not the Philippines, that is prosecuting him. With no taint of politics.
That statement comes from someone who spoke with then-commission of elections Virgilio Garcillano, demanding to win by one million votes.
That statement comes from someone who became president a second time on the wings of politics of the most vicious sort. That was by way of a coup -- a coup wrought not by God but by Garci, not by bullet but by ballot, not by people power but by trapo power. It was not at Edsa People Power II that Arroyo mounted a putsch, it was at Elections 2004.
That statement comes from someone who turned her back on the very thing that brought her to power. What brought her to power was Estrada's impeachment, a luminous exercise in transparency, and the massing of people at the Edsa highway, a more luminous exercise in democracy. What kept her in power was Executive Order 464 preventing witnesses like Gudani and Balutan from testifying against her, a malicious exercise in opacity, and "calibrated preemptive response," a carte-blanche order to scuttle protest rallies, preferably violently, which was a vicious exercise in tyranny.
That order comes from someone whose answer to a "withdrawal of support" by military officers was to plunge the country into martial law.
That statement comes from someone who has added still new meanings to political expedience by murdering people. Today, close to 100 journalists have been killed and a whole barangay of political activists has been "salvaged" or made to disappear. At one point, the killings were happening at one a day. And just when we thought it was tapering off because Aroyo was embarrassed on her last trip abroad, Makati City Mayor Jejomar Binay's security chief was shot to death in broad daylight and a couple of Aglipayan Church ministers, one of them its former "maximo Obispo" [highest bishop], were murdered. Can there be a worse sort of politics than the murderous sort?
That statement comes from someone who tried to oust a duly elected official while not being one herself. By Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno's own avowal, he wasn't the one who signed the papers suspending Binay; Eduardo Ermita did, and by extension Arroyo herself. If the suspension hadn't been defied and protested frenetically by Binay, his followers, the folk of Makati, businessmen and bishops, civil society and uncivil media, Arroyo might have gotten away with showing that right here right now, she can do pretty much as she pleases. I grant that's not "politics as usual." That is politics most unusual.
I agree completely: "Politics dominates our lives way out of proportion to the real needs of the people." The real needs of the people are to have a president they voted for, to have the officials they did vote for not worry about being suspended, and, never mind even all that, just not to be murdered. That can't be gotten by changing the Constitution.
Guess what change will do the trick.
* * *
Tomorrow, Wednesday, Oct. 25, the Stop the Killings bar tour stops by Saguijo Bar, 7612 Guijo St., San Antonio Village, Makati. Featured artists: Parokya ni Edgar, Paramita, Giniling Fest, Salindiwa, and Spy. Show starts at 9:30. Stop inventing excuses, go there.
http://opinion.inq7.net/inquireropinion/columns/view_article.php?article_id=28298
posted by dqfan06 @ 2:52 AM
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