Day of reckoning December 12, 2006
I WOULD very much like to thank the "tongressmen" for doing what the opposition, in whole or in part, united or fragmented, has not been able to do all this time. That is to rouse the people from an immense and bovine stupor to protest wrongdoing. I had begun to wonder not just when we would ever get out of it but if we could still do so. Not all the efforts of the NGOs, the Church, the business community, and the media to damn the abuse and the corruption and the killings seemed to do the trick.
Then suddenly, in one fell swoop, the tongressmen turned things around. Then suddenly from out of the blue, the House of Representatives' Batasan [Legislature] session hall offered scenes reminiscent of Joseph Estrada’s impeachment trial -- the very thing the tongressmen were trying to avoid when they blocked the impeachment bids against Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Scenes that spoke of the battle between Good and Evil, between decency and abuse, between those who were drunk with power and those who were steeled in body and spirit by humility. As with the Estrada impeachment trial -- though many of these scenes transpired well past the witching hour, to be replayed on TV only the following day to a larger audience -- the events at the Batasan last week came across as a Morality Play.
As with the Estrada impeachment trial, it produced images that have stuck in the public mind. The Estrada impeachment trial had Miriam Santiago turning her wrath on the gallery after being embarrassed by Raul Roco on the subject of the natural career path of lawyers, and ordering three of the spectators out. The Batasan “debate” (it was more a monologue than a debate) had Tongressman Douglas Cagas shouting angrily at the gallery, “You are not representatives!” and being embarrassed by Teddy Casiño with the reminder that representatives are called representatives because they represent the people, who were to be found in the gallery. They will have the same endings: The Estrada impeachment trial ended in Estrada being impeached by way of People Power. The Arroyo-Batasan move to change the Charter will end up with usurpers being changed by way of People Power.
Truly, my deepest thanks to the tongressman for accomplishing what none of us could.
I am not surprised at all that Arroyo has tried to put as much distance as she can between herself and the Cha-cha as between herself and a leper. She hopes to douse water on the flying sparks that are threatening to turn into raging fire. But I personally would earnestly urge those who had planned to hold huge rallies in Manila's Rizal Park and elsewhere to push through with them. Indeed to go beyond protesting the iniquity that is Charter change ("Cha-cha") to the evil that is this government itself. That is so for several reasons.
First is that Arroyo may not easily wipe off from her person the stench of the cesspool she has created. She is a party to this crime. At the very least, fact that she has ordered the moves for convening a constituent assembly ("con-ass") to stop must mean that she had the power all along to stop it. That she did not lift a finger to do so, until the public upheaval threatened to engulf her, makes her a “perp," as the crime dramas on TV now refer to them.
At the very most, the tongressmen wouldn’t have thought they could ram this down the nation’s throat with her help if she didn’t owe them for killing the impeachment bids against her. The Cha-cha was the tongressmen collecting past due. It was Arroyo’s own crime of stealing the elections that spawned it. That she has decided she is not going to pay her debt through her teeth, or at risk of jeopardizing her own survival, doesn’t change things -- at least for us, even if it does change things for her and her allies. That is for them to fight over, like jilted lovers, or like thieves over spoils. Ah, but no two parties more richly deserved each other.
Second is that the Cha-cha owes to Arroyo in an even more elemental sense. As I said yesterday, the inspiration for it is that she has been able to get away with murder in more ways than one. She has shown that in this country there is no law left other than the law of the jungle. All anybody has to do to impose his will on us is to be arrogant and ruthless enough to do it. The theft of the 2004 elections is to the Cha-cha as cause is to effect. Indeed, the theft of the 2004 elections is to any attempt to rape this country as cause is to effect. It is the poisoned well whence the polluted water comes from.
Third and most importantly, I don’t see why we must content ourselves to just parry iniquity after iniquity and pat ourselves on the back after we have stopped one or the other. I don’t know why we should content ourselves with taking a defensive stance, dancing happily like idiots after the Supreme Court has stuck down Presidential Proclamation 1017, Executive Order 464, the "calibrated preemptive response" policy, and whatever unholy numbers and letters this government finds it in its pettily tyrannical mind to fling upon us. We never voted this government to power. It should be defensive, parrying blows from us, not the other way around.
Why should we be happy that Joe de Venecia has retreated from con-ass, tail between his legs? Why should we be happy that Arroyo has abandoned him, as she would, and has, anyone who threatens to weigh her down? What happens now, we start worrying about the threat of massive cheating in the May elections and try parrying that all over again? What have we become, a race of masochists and self-flagellants? Have we learned not just to endure pain but to love it?
It’s time we took to the streets and made our roars heard. It’s time we thundered forth like the voice of heaven itself, “Tama na, sobra na, palitan na.” ["Enough already, too much already, change already"] It’s time we tumbled down like a great flood and washed down the dregs of this country down the canals. It’s time we sounded the trumpets to smash down the walls, announcing the day of reckoning has come.
The day for breaking chains has come.
http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view_article.php?article_id=37694
Then suddenly, in one fell swoop, the tongressmen turned things around. Then suddenly from out of the blue, the House of Representatives' Batasan [Legislature] session hall offered scenes reminiscent of Joseph Estrada’s impeachment trial -- the very thing the tongressmen were trying to avoid when they blocked the impeachment bids against Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Scenes that spoke of the battle between Good and Evil, between decency and abuse, between those who were drunk with power and those who were steeled in body and spirit by humility. As with the Estrada impeachment trial -- though many of these scenes transpired well past the witching hour, to be replayed on TV only the following day to a larger audience -- the events at the Batasan last week came across as a Morality Play.
As with the Estrada impeachment trial, it produced images that have stuck in the public mind. The Estrada impeachment trial had Miriam Santiago turning her wrath on the gallery after being embarrassed by Raul Roco on the subject of the natural career path of lawyers, and ordering three of the spectators out. The Batasan “debate” (it was more a monologue than a debate) had Tongressman Douglas Cagas shouting angrily at the gallery, “You are not representatives!” and being embarrassed by Teddy Casiño with the reminder that representatives are called representatives because they represent the people, who were to be found in the gallery. They will have the same endings: The Estrada impeachment trial ended in Estrada being impeached by way of People Power. The Arroyo-Batasan move to change the Charter will end up with usurpers being changed by way of People Power.
Truly, my deepest thanks to the tongressman for accomplishing what none of us could.
I am not surprised at all that Arroyo has tried to put as much distance as she can between herself and the Cha-cha as between herself and a leper. She hopes to douse water on the flying sparks that are threatening to turn into raging fire. But I personally would earnestly urge those who had planned to hold huge rallies in Manila's Rizal Park and elsewhere to push through with them. Indeed to go beyond protesting the iniquity that is Charter change ("Cha-cha") to the evil that is this government itself. That is so for several reasons.
First is that Arroyo may not easily wipe off from her person the stench of the cesspool she has created. She is a party to this crime. At the very least, fact that she has ordered the moves for convening a constituent assembly ("con-ass") to stop must mean that she had the power all along to stop it. That she did not lift a finger to do so, until the public upheaval threatened to engulf her, makes her a “perp," as the crime dramas on TV now refer to them.
At the very most, the tongressmen wouldn’t have thought they could ram this down the nation’s throat with her help if she didn’t owe them for killing the impeachment bids against her. The Cha-cha was the tongressmen collecting past due. It was Arroyo’s own crime of stealing the elections that spawned it. That she has decided she is not going to pay her debt through her teeth, or at risk of jeopardizing her own survival, doesn’t change things -- at least for us, even if it does change things for her and her allies. That is for them to fight over, like jilted lovers, or like thieves over spoils. Ah, but no two parties more richly deserved each other.
Second is that the Cha-cha owes to Arroyo in an even more elemental sense. As I said yesterday, the inspiration for it is that she has been able to get away with murder in more ways than one. She has shown that in this country there is no law left other than the law of the jungle. All anybody has to do to impose his will on us is to be arrogant and ruthless enough to do it. The theft of the 2004 elections is to the Cha-cha as cause is to effect. Indeed, the theft of the 2004 elections is to any attempt to rape this country as cause is to effect. It is the poisoned well whence the polluted water comes from.
Third and most importantly, I don’t see why we must content ourselves to just parry iniquity after iniquity and pat ourselves on the back after we have stopped one or the other. I don’t know why we should content ourselves with taking a defensive stance, dancing happily like idiots after the Supreme Court has stuck down Presidential Proclamation 1017, Executive Order 464, the "calibrated preemptive response" policy, and whatever unholy numbers and letters this government finds it in its pettily tyrannical mind to fling upon us. We never voted this government to power. It should be defensive, parrying blows from us, not the other way around.
Why should we be happy that Joe de Venecia has retreated from con-ass, tail between his legs? Why should we be happy that Arroyo has abandoned him, as she would, and has, anyone who threatens to weigh her down? What happens now, we start worrying about the threat of massive cheating in the May elections and try parrying that all over again? What have we become, a race of masochists and self-flagellants? Have we learned not just to endure pain but to love it?
It’s time we took to the streets and made our roars heard. It’s time we thundered forth like the voice of heaven itself, “Tama na, sobra na, palitan na.” ["Enough already, too much already, change already"] It’s time we tumbled down like a great flood and washed down the dregs of this country down the canals. It’s time we sounded the trumpets to smash down the walls, announcing the day of reckoning has come.
The day for breaking chains has come.
http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view_article.php?article_id=37694
posted by dqfan06 @ 6:44 AM
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