Visit pinoybigbriber.com! Now Na! Thanks to Rebolusyon2006, to Ceci da Supastar, to DPS Class 67, and to gourmet blogger Market Manila for their linking to the site!
As they say in showbiz, “in fairness,” reservations on this activity are expressed in Iniibig ko ang Pilipinas! Milder criticism (on questions of translation) in caffeine sparks.
I’ve signed two online petitions, the first calling for a snap election (a position I’ve adopted in my column, so I’m just being consistent) and another one, petitioning for clemency for Marilou Renario, a Filipina OFW facing the death penalty in Kuwait.
A hat tip to Piercing Pens for pointing to the Time Magazine article, Crisis – Again – for the Philippines’ Arroyo, which quoted me.
Now here’s a question, not because I hope it happens (I hope to God it never does) but with the following: Oil and gold soar as US dollar wilts and Asia marker Tapis crude breaks $100/bbl for 1st time and with the widely-held assumption George W. Bush is looking for excuses to bomb Iran, what do you think will happen if the lifeline of remittances that keeps our economy afloat, suddenly gets strangled or even cut?
What then, do you do in a crisis situation where the head of state depends on lavish cash-giving to maintain political support, and where a significant chunk of the population detests her? What then?
The President has no reservoir either of popularity or good will, to bank on. Her allies support her conditionally, and voraciously. People can ignore anything political because their escape route abroad has been planned. Those at home can wait for remittances. Cut off that escape route, throw a monkey wrench in the sending of those remittances, and then what happens?
The President can cut tariffs and keep the cost of oil low for public transportation. But the middle class will feel the pinch, as will large corporations with their fleets of vehicles. Transport costs for products will escalate. The sectors in the economy growing are not big enough to absorb those who suddenly have to give up prospects of going abroad, and Heaven help us if some sort of general state of war erupts in the Middle East and causes trouble, in turn, in Muslim-dominated nations. You get my drift.
You may not need a government with legitimacy in normal times but you need one when there’s a crisis that affects all sectors, including those who craved stability at all costs, because their pocketbooks weren’t affected by “political noise.”
Anyway, on to the political scene.
A shrewd observation from John Nery in his column:
The photograph showing Lakas-CMD party leaders giving the thumbs-up sign purports to show renewed “unity of purpose” forged in a summit in Malacañang last Saturday; instead, it projects an air of vulnerability. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo herself, in the center of the picture flanked by Speaker Jose De Venecia and ex-President Fidel Ramos, does not seem to be too pleased; we’ve seen her strike a happier pose before. Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita is all the way on the left, almost literally marginalized. (Indeed, he is cropped out in the photo published in the Inquirer.) The lone senator in the gathering is a rookie and a lightweight, Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri; in the photo, he is dead center, but in the political crisis that the President is working mightily to resolve, he is firmly in the periphery.
Not least, Ermita’s rival as the President’s most influential alter ego, Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno, is not in the picture. Of course, that’s because he is not Lakas-CMD, but Kampi. But that’s precisely the point, isn’t it?
Puno, of course, has the last laugh: Kampi gave cash gift to solons–party exec. Over at blog@AWB Holdings, he has something to say about that:
Can you believe that? I don’t.
1. Why only now? Abante and Villarosa should have made that admission on the day the issue was forced out. The timing reeks of planning. After all, after Panlilio and Mendoza exposed the cash gifts to governors, the supposed source of funds admitted giving cash two weeks after the fact. And since there was no visible and audible outrage, the people has given the politicians a clear signal – rob us more, fool us more. So admitting now is just OK, right?
2. Why give money to non-party mates? You take care of your own, right? Poor Angelica Jones. (Background: the showbiz actress ran for the position of provincial board member under KAMPI. She lost, and blamed the party for not supporting her.)
3. Where did KAMPI get all that money? Mike Arroyo? Iggy Arroyo? Jose Pidal? Wow, I had no idea KAMPI is this rich. Maybe I should join the party, no? Most probably I’d get the laptop that I am eyeing. Hmm.
4. Ronaldo Puno once claimed that the money did not come from them, instead pointed to Lakas’ Jose de Venecia.
Not that Eduardo Ermita isn’t beyond a chuckle or two. Konfrontasi between Puno and Ermita had tongues wagging that Ermita was on his way out, that Puno was ascendant, and that the Batangas mafia in the cabinet were out, too: but the Batanguenos seem to have struck back -and struck a deal. They’re still in the official family and not out in the cold.
Now a conspiracy theorist might explain the “Hail, Hail, the Gang’s All Here” Kodachrome moment at the Palace in this manner, as a text message has it:
See if you can check w ur sources: gma s cptv of lakas due 2 anthr tape gvn her fri. night by nidntfied source. She ws up n abt ntl 3 am of sat. tryng 2 determine who tpd it. If gma does not hold up 2 truce, lks wl pounce on her. It dpnds how puno wl counter 2 sve queen. D war s nw btwn lakas n kampi. ermita as proxy vs puno, oppo wl jst play their role.
When I asked for clarification, the following arrived:
Apparently jueteng pay off w GMA present. Its in her house daw in Forbes. Or in La Vista.
Another source opined,
If true, Obviously k chavit galing yan. Dats d bomb he threatened to explode coz of erap pardon.
Yet another message said,
Yun tape kung jueteng di si chavit ang source. Blackmail yan and gma unlike erap will give chavit wat he wants.
But in the end, the best that text messages can provide are leads, which can lead to wild goose chases and dead ends, or the opening of a real can of worms. But there’s no need to go into conspiracy theories.
As far as the Inquirer editorial goes, it’s all posturing:
The exemplar of this progress is the increasingly institutionalized Malacañang cash bar and buffet, courtesy of the President. This Tuesday, after weeks of bumbling and confusion, the source of the half-a-million-peso cash buffet servings to congressmen was finally revealed. It was the President’s very own pet political party, Kampi, that doled out the money. Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante Jr. claimed that Deputy Speaker Amelita Villarosa claimed in turn to have doled out the cash, and that he was surprised Kampi was giving him, a Lakas-CMD party member, money. But he said thanks for the half a million, anyway.
To be fair, Abante shouldn’t have been surprised. Party affiliation has never been so meaningless as it is now. We should point out that no president, ever, has been so promiscuous when it comes to party affiliation, thus rendering it inconsequential. Ms Arroyo is titular head of Lakas-CMD, of the Liberal Party and of Kampi. All previous presidents were content to head one party or movement at a time. But this is part of Ms Arroyo’s claims of progress.
The acerbic Manuel Buencamino also looked at the same picture Nery did, and this is what he concluded:
Those “small hurts” did not look so small when Fidel Ramos was pounding his desk protesting the pardon of Joseph Estrada, when Gloria Arroyo’s aides bribed 190 congressmen to force Speaker de Venecia to refer the bogus impeachment complaint to the House justice committee, and when de Venecia responded with an ultimatum letter to Gloria Arroyo asking her to fire her most loyal henchmen and to undergo a moral recovery, even if there were no morals there to recover in the first place.
The family disagreement looked so large and irreconcilable a split looked inevitable. But size became relative when the grand vision emerged–“unlimited power and unrestrained plunder up to and beyond 2010.”
And so the ruling family’s capos decided, “Our loyalty to our country ends when our loyalty to our party begins.”
Lakas-CMD will not split into two lines, one behind Mrs. Arroyo and the other behind the Speaker, because Gloria Arroyo made sure everyone saw who held the slop bucket.
Under Erap it was “weather-weather lang”; under Gloria it’s “pera-pera lang.”
Gloria Arroyo will not be impeached over the ZTE broadband deal. The leaders of the ruling party, their group picture splashed on the front page of last Monday’s papers, gave the thumbs up for this administration to continue with plunder, human-rights violations, extrajudicial killings and, most important of all, to keep those cash-filled envelopes coming.
It doesn’t matter that Joey de Venecia III told the truth. Not when the AFP is the AFGMA and the PNP is “Pulis Ni Pidal”; not when businessmen are under the spell of a brother of fugitive businessman Dewey Dee; not when the perfumed set continue to consider themselves and the Arroyo couple as “somos”; not when the guardians of morality, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, allow themselves to be wined and dined by Malacañang.
Gloria is not afraid of civil society anymore. The only people who still scare her “are those soldiers kept in General Esperon’s jails.
And here’s the clincher: with the President saying that the bottom line is, indeed, the bottom line, of big business and the bigshots in her various pet parties, something has to give. As Buencamino says, in the continuation of his column,
Under ordinary circumstances, those soldiers, charged with mutiny and attempted coup, would be considered traitors. But these are extraordinary times, and those soldiers hold the moral high ground over Gloria Arroyo’s generals who are perceived to have turned their back on everything they learned in the academy.
And so, with each new scandal, the prisoners of Esperon gain more respect from the public and the rank and file in the military.
Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t think a coup is the best solution to the Gloria Arroyo problem.
I have no doubt those soldiers detained in Tanay are highly principled, honest and patriotic. But a junta, no matter how pure and well-meaning at the outset, has a tendency to degenerate into a dictatorship, as history has shown countless times.
So I think it’s best for the civilian population to take care of the Gloria problem before the military becomes impatient and does it for them.
Over the weekend, I received an alarming text that confirmed rumors that the soldiers are losing patience and a bloody civil war is in the offing if civil society delays on its duty to oust Gloria through impeachment or people power.
The text message read:
“While Malacañang was loudly rejoicing over the neutralization of civilian society, a high-ranking general was quietly dispatched to Tanay to plead with the detained soldiers not to issue any more inflammatory statements against their superiors. He told them their uncompromising position was beginning to seriously affect the chain of command; the rumbling among the rank and file was growing stronger. From Tanay, the general went straight to Malacañang to report that his appeal was turned down.”
We are foolishly marching toward civil war, the most uncivil of wars, because we continue to buy the lie that human beings will tolerate injustice as long as they have a full stomach. History does not suffer fools gladly.
The deals, if anyone doubted they’ve been signed, sealed, and delivered, have their details trickling out in the headllines: first order of business, House rejects supplementary impeachment case of UNO and the second order of business is the clincher, House Ethics panel rules to clear JdV of charges.
This is just silly: Summit of 4 living presidents pushed. If thats what the officials want to do, there are two institutional means for accomplishing this. The first is the Council of State. The second, is the National Security Council.
My Inquirer Corrent (see the previous entry by John Nery, Sleepless in Glorietta) entry is on the competing presentations of the police and Ayala Corp., as well as Newsbreak’s report. Newbsreak’s article is particularly interesting, because I think nearly everyone has smelled stinky gases from the sewers of nearly all the major malls, so if methane ends up the culprit, some sort of action needs to be taken.
On to the world beyond our borders. US Senate approves more funds for RP so long as government solves killings.
In Thailand, Tycoon Politics Return to Thailand.
In The Freedom Agenda Fizzles, Fred Kaplan describes how American officials frantically tried to convince the President of Pakistan not to impose martial law. Apparently, he proved unwilling to be swayed, unlike our own president who received a visit from US spookmaster Negroponte in January, 2006, when GMA was serious about proclaiming martial law. Read Pervez’s Power Play for an additional blog roundup. Meanwhile, in Islamabad, Ousted Top Judge Calls for Uprising:
Sacked top judge Chaudhry called on his countrymen to save the constitution, prompting authorities to sever mobile phone coverage in parts of Islamabad as he addressed a meeting of lawyers by telephone. “I want lawyers to spread my message to the people of Pakistan,” he said to cheers from supporters before all lines went dead. “The time for sacrifice has come, to rise up for the supremacy of the constitution,” he added.
In his blog, The Washington Note says Dubya’s stuck in a trap of his own making:
The fact is that we have to deal with democrats and dictators around the world. The CNN clip did a good job showing how we had worked with Saddam in the past and other tough self-dealing thugs like Noriega, Marcos, and the Shah. We could get away with that in the Cold War when America was clearly a better overall alternative to the Soviet Union — but today, there is nothing else for global citizens making choices about their own governments to compare America to.
Our choices define us — and yes, we still have to deal with some of the world’s bad guys. But Bush set up a huge hypocrisy test which he shouldn’t have. George W. Bush’s pretensions in January 2005 puffed up a democracy bubble that Musharraf has definitively punctured.
In South Korea, Philippine school linked to scandal in South Korea over fake diplomas. Note that its South Koreans who faked their diplomas, not Philippine schools.
A final word about the fucked-up NPC mural. Pardon my French.
Look, if you are going to commission an artist’s collective, regardless of what you spend, you don’t fuck around with their painting. Don’t like it? Ask for revisions, but considering you commissioned a collective, which is a type of organization that obviously has ideological principles as its foundation, good luck with that. Still don’t like it? Return it. Don’t have time? Tough, don’t put the painting on display. Still want something on your wall? Put up a government poster, if you’re the NPC.
But when you fuck around with a painting expect a big, royal, resounding “Fuck you!” in return. You’re dealing with artists from Angono, not corporate drones who can Photoshop on client demand.
Conrado de Quiros says it better.
And good news, particularly since no renaming of streets was involved: Finally, a boulevard named after ‘Ka Pepe’ Diokno.
Technorati Tags: Blogging, constitution, elections, House of Representatives, impeachment, journalism, media, military, philippines, politics, president, Washington DC
… well it’s two days after, but after all this ain’t England.
mlq3,
nakaboto na ko… but im really sorry i cant go Friday, tagal ko pa naman hinintay ng rally na yan, kaso natapat talaga. i will do my share na lang in spreading the word sa e-group namin.
anyway, mahaba pa ang labanan. im sure marami pang susunod, magkakasama-sama pa rin tayo… babangon na ang Pilipino!
Kudos to BnW for the PBB concept… magaling, magaling, magaling!
tagabukid, salamat. puwede ka namang magpadala ng postcard kung saan man ka sa biyernes. 😀
can you actually mail a postcard to the Imperial Palace without postage?
MLQ,
The idea of taping payoffs to Gloria & FG is not new. I already saw one (I don’t know if this is the same as the text message you got) when Gloria was still a VP.
Gloria should not even wonder who has been taping the payoffs. She should just look in her backyard. She will know who they are. The people who claim to support her, NEVER trusted her for one bit.
It shows you how long the Pidals have been in the payoff business !
Arroyo’s Pax Corruptio could only last so long…
tonio, as far as i know, the franking privilege (free postage) is regulated by law:
1. Former Presidents of the Philippines:
http://lawphil.net/statutes/repacts/ra1967/ra_5059_1967.html
2. Widows of former presidents:
http://www.lawphil.net/statutes/presdecs/pd1979/pd_1625_1979.html
3. Certain courts of law:
http://www.chanrobles.com/supremecourtcircular1%5B1979%5D.htm
4. Members of Congress
http://www.chanrobles.com/republicactno6650.htm
5. The Ombudsman, as follows, in the Constitution:
“Section 37. Franking Privilege.
 All official mail matters and telegrams of the Ombudsman addressed for delivery within the Philippines shall be received, transmitted, and delivered free of charge: Provided, That such mail matters when addressed to private persons or nongovernment offices shall not exceed one hundred and twenty (120) grams. All mail matters and telegrams sent through government telegraph facilities containing complaints to the Office of the Ombudsman shall be transmitted free of charge, provided that the telegram shall contain not more than one hundred fifty (150) words.”
It seems proposals have been made, in Congress, to extend the franking privilege to the public in certain cases, but I’m not aware of any law actually enacted.
this is a perfect opportunity AGAIN for maam arroyo to split from the US. She did it once after solving her legitimacy problems in 2004 elections by immediately pulling the troops out of iraq, angering the americans, especially after spain pulled out after madrid 3/11. I see this as another opportunity to show her independence from the Americans by counselling the Boosh team re diplomacy and patience on Iran, dahil maapektuhan ang mga overseas workers natin kung magkagera.
Agree with Mlq3: “…if you are going to commission an artist’s collective, regardless of what you spend, you don’t fuck around with their painting.”
I said pretty much the same thing in Ellen’s blog: If NPC President Roy Mabasa didn’t want the painting as such, he should return it and if he couldn’t return it, cancel it, commission another painting with exactly what he wants on the murals  it’s absolutely uncalled for for this shylock to make alterations without asking and obtaining the permission of the artists (and show the work with the unauthorized alterations). This jerk is thoroughly uncivilized!
Very cavalier way of doing things.
You do that sort of thing in Europe, you’re “deadâ€Â, buried under a number of lawsuits. Mabasa and his friends are nothing but amateurs, pathetic amateurs.
hindi ba “state of emergency” rin ang tawag ni musharraf sa ginawa niya sa pakistan? katulad sa “state of emergency” natin?
Very difficult dilemma facing Musharraf.
The difference is that Musharraf is facing a conglomeration of Taliban inspired hardline islamist fundamentalists in his own backyard who have grown stronger and quadrupled in size over more than 3 decades straight from the wars on Afghan soil where they fought the Russians.
Letting lose these fundamentalists in Pakistan will take it back to “stone age”, no need to bomb Pakistan for that.
These fundamentalists don’t believe in democracy or equality between men and women. They have their own personal interpretation of the Koran which they harness to sow fear on the half-illiterate population of Pakistan.
Re: “The first is the Council of State. The second, is the National Security Council.”
I wonder — would Cory Aquino attend?
“You do that sort of thing in Europe, you’re “deadâ€Â, buried under a number of lawsuits. Mabasa and his friends are nothing but amateurs, pathetic amateurs.”
I had the same experience when I was just beginning to publish stories. The editors treat you like you’re in kindergarten. I had to make a phone call (I have a baritone voice) and dress down the girl. I never got published by her again.
testing, got moderated
Manolo,
Crisis — Again — for Philippines’ Arroyo…..this page cannot be displayed…
mlq3,
Franking privilege is not granted by law to widows of former presidents. They are entitled only to life pension of 96T pesos per annum.
What’s this about GMA and her propensity to be taped? If she belonged to the 80’s generation, i’m sure she would’ve found herself in an Assumption Sc*ndal.
Please note: it’s Marilou Ranario, not Renario.
all these calls for resignation, petitions for snap election(actual or on-line), impeachment complaints, and media anti-gma campaigns are all going nowhere like a stationary bike. but as long as the efforts do not cross the line where freedom of expression ends and lawless violence begins, i believe there’s no cause to worry about “martial law” in the philippines under pgma. she has up to now withstood and tolerated personal insults, mockery, humiliations, defamations, unsubstantiated condemnation, etc., against her person and her family with head unbowed. for her courage, her enemies are driven to fits of desperation and frustrations, wailing and gnashing their teeth.
if i may repeat what i have said previously, i don’t think pgma would be harassed into quitting or allowing extra-constitutional means of removing her. you can try to make her life miserable (whatever your motivation is) but you cannot make her quit, doing what you are doing right now.
Gloria is not afraid of civil society anymore. The only people who still scare her “are those soldiers kept in General Esperon’s jails.
. . .
So I think it’s best for the civilian population to take care of the Gloria problem before the military becomes impatient and does it for them. – MB
I’m in the mode of economizing my mental efforts, so pls just see if what I have written before makes more sense today:
_________
. . . former President Ramos’ observation in February 2006 may still be valid in terms of the Great Beast fully rising to its feet:
“Still absent from the convergence of anti-government forces at this time is the involvement of significant elements of the Armed Forces and the National Police – which, as admitted by the opposition leaders, is the crucial component needed to topple PGMA. What most analysts overlook is the fact and the historical reality that, during the period 1986 to 1991, the Armed Forces (which then included the Philippine Constabulary/Integrated National Police), effectively supported the Aquino government in defeating 9 coup attempts that were shoot-to-kill military encounters . . . The steadfastness of the present chain-of-command in defending constitutional authority and protecting the safety of the people should be gauged from the loyal support they (as junior officers) and their forebears gave the Aquino government, and not from their possible defection to the opposition today – as what happened during the Marcos and Estrada administrations . . .â€Â
My own take in the foregoing regard is as follows:
The Quezonian dilemma (of mlq3, I mean) comes into play at this juncture. “(W)hat is decisive in a People Power event: is it the people, or the military? Or: what makes a coup different from People Power?†Manolo answers himself: “the military, by themselves, can never decide the issue, just as the civilians, when it comes to toppling a government, cannot do it by themselves. A fine balance is required . . . .â€Â
I suppose a military coup without the support of People Power will have legitimacy issue and People Power without the support of the military will have lesser chances of success or of succeeding peacefully. But People Power must be both “intense†and “legitimate†enough to earn the military’s support in the first place. It seems that by experience one million protesters meet the requirement of intensity. And to be credited with legitimacy, I surmise, the multitude should be sufficiently representative so that any fair-minded observer could regard it as a cross-section of the various components of the Civil Society.
__________
And I thought you’ll going to move heaven and earth just to go to EDSA for a rally.
hmmm
calling for Snap Election is one of the legal processes in resolving the issues of PGMA Presidency as to the allegations of impeachable improprieties that impeachment has no chance of resolving as it was preemptive to take its place. even eviction by means of ‘people power’ is now even considered legal as presided by the Marcos ouster and the ouster of Erap later ruled by the SC as constructive resignation. even forced eviction by the people is still legal by any means as long as it succeeds and supported by the majority as the power of government in a democracy still resides with the people.
so it is just a matter of… will it succeed or not? so next time just make sure that it will, GMA can not always win. she may had win a few battles, but the whole war not yet…
I took a look at the names of people heading the snap election advocacy. Two of thenm, I know to be corrupt too. So corrupt that one even allowed people to get killed just to get some few hundred thousands.
hmmmmm.
Teh Cat,
Are you saying that you know of two people who committed a crime or crimes and are not reporting these two people to the police?
abe, as i see it, not only that the oust-gloria movement lacks the support of the military, except for a few that are in detention for previous charges of coup d’etat and thus may not already be considered a part of the military, but that it continues to fail to present a valid cause beyond unsubstantiated “scandals” that, time and again, have been rejected or ignored by a decisive majority.
the post edsa 2 mass protests, carried out by a ragtag aggregation of disgruntled “civil society” personalities, leftist/communists, estrada fanatics, political has-beens, and assorted haters-without-a-cause, that altogether hardly ever totaled 200,000 souls, all culminating in humiliating failure after failure. nothing much has change except maybe the noise level which, i think, is largely coming from the same oft-repudiated source(s).
despite vociferous claims to the contrary, opposition to pgma, as i see it, has not risen, and probably will not rise, to a level sufficient to generate “people’s power” intense and legitimate enough to support a successful military coup.
“ow here’s a question, not because I hope it happens (I hope to God it never does) but with the following: Oil and gold soar as US dollar wilts and Asia marker Tapis crude breaks $100/bbl for 1st time and with the widely-held assumption George W. Bush is looking for excuses to bomb Iran, what do you think will happen if the lifeline of remittances that keeps our economy afloat, suddenly gets strangled or even cut?”
I think OFWs are better protected from suddenly being cut off economically than, say, our exports and outsourcing jobs. If Hillary won, she may cutback outsourcing. If US attacks Iran, Republicans may back her up to protect US businesses (US businesses may have to send back essential operations on home soil).
“I suppose a military coup without the support of People Power will have legitimacy issue and People Power without the support of the military will have lesser chances of success or of succeeding peacefully.”
Abe, the problem is many people have been convinced EDSA is dead. What the Ayala March proved was that the true leader of the people was Cardinal Sin not Cory. But does this mean Edsa will not work anymore? Against Arroyo, it will have to be a stronger Edsa than what removed Erap, but it doesn’t mean it will no longer work.
there were investigations but he got away with it.
But in the family who knew him very well, even his tears can not absolve him from his sin.
#2063….. regardless of our differences, when it is time to stand up for your country, please let your vote be counted and sign the petition…
dOdOng, Agree!
the problem with snap elections , especially at this time , is the result could be worse than GMA. the public could easily choose Jinggoy, Lacson, Binay or Fernando. I don’t see any Pinoy Ron Paul on the horizon.
not very happy—but happy still, eh?
“…if we do not add our voices to the brewing outrage, we will one day wake up under a martial law regime with a new charter that will overextend GMA’s stay in power.”
—BnW
BnW needs to convince people that the above statement is inherently true. How can they? How come they have not yet?
Bencard: i don’t think pgma would be harassed into quitting or allowing extra-constitutional means of removing her.
I too dont expect to see ‘GMA Resigns’ on any newspaper headline in the foreseeable future. I hope the leaders of the resign movement keep the pressure on the vice president as well as some cabinet members (Ermita for example?) to resign by appealing to their sense of decency as that has a higher chance of getting results. Isolate GMA.
“BnW needs to convince people that the above statement is inherently true. How can they? How come they have not yet?geo”
dean:”patience is long,long suffering”
Bencard and BrianB,
My sense is that both the “reformists†in the military and the “progressives†in the civil society are somehow constrained by the possibility that even if People Power III succeed, the movement could again end up repeating a vicious cycle of simply “moving on†in circle, and not leaping onward or to higher ground. Take note for example that even rebel leader and now swashbuckling senator Sonny Trillanes has said he does not want to reinvent the wheel. But if the system or part of it is not working, shouldn’t the flawed facet be allowed to die away and make way for that which is budding and promising?
After two upheavals, the expectations are greater (such as Leah’s?) that the next exercise of People Power would propel the transitioning into a “new qualitative state.â€Â
The new state may be approximated by answering a few questions such as, off the top of my head, the following:
On the economic front (and this is directed more specifically to the country’s wealth creators): Why are we exporting people – teachers and young mothers like Marilou Ranario – instead of producing competitive goods and services that create value-added? Why has the Philippines been lagging behind its peers in the region or why a war-ravaged Vietnam is poised to overtake America’s first empire, once a regional powerhouse in the 50s and 60s?
On the political sphere: Should the process of building a working democracy be bottom-up or for the most part brought into being by the wise, the learned, the elites by the process of re-entrusting? If our borrowed democracy be redefined, should it continue to be based on some preconceived foreign notion or principally upon our own unique experience? How much power the sovereign people should retain and not delegate until public servants prove their worth?
And ultimately, the fundamental question: How much do we love our country?
So, People Power III should not just arrange to force a sitting president from power, it must “press on†to graduate from the same retrograde state the country is in.
A crucial part of the initial dialogue is the question of representation in governance where various interests should adequately be given a voice. So is the “to do list†during the first 30 – 60 days of regime change.
On the other hand, justice to those who breached the public trust should be swift, predictable yet humane but only after appropriate charges are substantiated by due process of law.
There’s plenty of work to do. Indeed, as the experience of People Power I and II tells us, removing someone from the seat of power could be the easy part.
No, EDSA is not dead. On the contrary, to borrow from Salud Algabre, each EDSA is “a step in the right direction.â€Â
Btw, I’ve signed both petitions.
Should the process of building a working democracy be bottom-up or for the most part brought into being by the wise, the learned, the elites by the process of re-entrusting?
Yes. To both sides of the ‘or’. I was speaking yesterday to 2 former cabinet secretaries (both known for their intellect and decency–that’s prolly why they arent in government anymore) and they said the hope of the country is in the people of the countryside. Theyre inspired by the kind of community leaders they meet there. The national leadership? They just shook their heads. One said everytime he feels depressed by the national leadership, he just goes back to the countryside and he feels inspired again, and hopeful for our future.
We do have leaders. Theyre there in the ‘bottom’. We do have enlightened elites who’s morals are solid. It is our system of representative democracy that’s flawed and needs fixing.
whose, I meant.
“but that it continues to fail to present a valid cause beyond unsubstantiated “scandals†that, time and again, have been rejected or ignored by a decisive majority.” – Bencard
Where, do you think, should these “scandals” be substantiated? Your rule of law says that a president can only be tried while in office in an impeachment court. But we all know very well that the impeachment process has been so debased (first by the SC in the Francisco case, and second by the demise of its spirit in the House through death by bribery, the one who buys the most gets the numbers) that it has become a useless tool to exact accountability.
Are you saying that GMA should be found guilty first (substantiate the scandal first) before she can be tried? Hindi ba, you substantiate a case in a trial? Senate investigations of so many scandals have established probable cause to warrant a trial. There has been no trial simply because the only constitutional venue (impeachment court) has been rendered inutile. We are now nearing the point where the people will have no choice but to take the extra-consititutional route.
Shaman: We are now nearing the point where the people will have no choice but to take the extra-consititutional route.
You mean of the EDSA 2 type? The Supreme Court ruled it constitutional throughout. So we’re still within the bounds of the constitution if the people decide that this is the route to take.
shaman:
your calls for a solution beyond what is constitutionally mandated will never reach bencard’s deaf ears. after all your just one of those paltry “haters-without-a-cause” that he loves to poke fun of because his president is still in the palace.
he’s right in a way. because his president will never do the constitutionally correct thing, she’ll won’t leave unless forced, which carries the threat of legitimacy issues for any future government.
the ball’s still in her court.
and she’s not playing.
“There’s plenty of work to do. Indeed, as the experience of People Power I and II tells us, removing someone from the seat of power could be the easy part.”-Abe
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Abe,
There is a difference of emphasis with regards to the nature of People Power I and People Power II and a lot of people up to now are not cognizant of it. People Power I was an extra-constitutional exercise of the sovereignty of the people to dismantle a dictatorial regime and the system appurtenant to it. The ascendancy of Cory Aquino to the presidency was just a collateral, subsequent, and serendipitous event .
People Power II was exactly the opposite, there was no dismantling of the system, just the ascendancy to power of GMA. Since it was an intra-constitutional exercise, it was therefore subject to judicial review and the justiciable issue was the right of the vice-president then to assume office based on the “constructive resignation” of then President Estrada.
Kaya maraming mga tao ang nagsasabi:” People Power na naman, magpapalit na naman ng presidente, e wala namang nangyayari”
How I wish our people will have the wisdom to know the difference…
qwert:
how then would you characterize any future people power, if ever it comes to play, as the former or the latter?
“how then would you characterize any future people power, if ever it comes to play, as the former or the latter?” – tonio
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tonio,
I would prefer the former because there was less politics, less malice and beside it was not just about the lifestyle of a sitting President, it was more than anything else the freedom from the dictatorial power.
“We are now nearing the point where the people will have no choice but to take the extra-consititutional route.”
—Shaman
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If “the people” don’t come out on the street, do not support “extra-constitutional routes”, then what?
What if “the people” turns out to be “a few people”, a sliver of the population? Then what?
I love rhetorical questions.
Is there any existing law that pave the way for snap elections? Who and what will decide the holding of snap election? The number ofpetitioners? What number is that? 1 Millon? 2 milion?
Snap election will shorten the term of the president and the vice president. But will it shorten or lengthen the term of congress men and senators and other elected offials.
How much will snap election cost us? where will you get the budget for it? Will it be compuetrized or manual counting? Is there any safeguards for cheating? Ig cheating occurs are you going to do the same tricks used on Gloria?
HOw serious really is the petition for snap elections? Dp they really intend to hold snap elections or they just wanted to harass Gloria?
And last but not teh least. who will the candidates be? Lacson? Villar?, Roxas. Loren? Is it worth it? The country will shell out a very huge amount of money only to elect any of these people?
I was actually hoping for an honest answer (hence it’s not rhetorical).
It would only be rhetorical if one was sure that the answer was: “There won’t be any large turnout or support.” Is that the case here?
And if that is indeed the case, the second part of the question is still unanswered: “Then what?”
if there is people power who would take over?
in 1986 it was easy-it was Cory
but how can there be people power if there is no clear choice. Wouldn’t it just be better for GMA to resign and Noli take over for a few years.