A middle-class worker rants

I received this email and was intrigued. Being in the same shoes as the middle-class worker, I understand and agree with his messages to the various players in the political arena today. This would be a good follow up to yesterday’s piece that highlighted articles from the Inquirer.

Ako ay isang middle class pinoy, isang officer sa isang malaking korporasyon at may asawa…dalawa anak. Di na importante pangalan ko kasi parepareho naman tayong mga middle-class….trabaho 9-5, inom konti tapos uwi sa pamilya, laruin si baby, itutor si ate/kuya tapos tulog na, pag wala na pera intay nalang ng sweldo.

Sa nangyayari ngayon sa ating bansa, lahat nalang ng sector ay maingay at naririnig, tayo lang mga middle-class, tax paying at productive Pinoys ang di naririnig. Subalit, buwis natin ang nagpapaikot sa bansang ito. Pag may mga gulo na nangyayari, tayo ang tinatamaan.

Kaya eto ang liham ko sa lahat ng maiingay na sector na sana makagising sa inyong bulag na pag-iisip.

Sa Mga Pulitiko:

• diyos ko naman, sa dami na nang nakurakot ninyo di na ba kayo makuntento kelangan nyo pa ba manggulo.

Sa Administrasyon:

• hayan ayus na ha pinatawad na namin ang pandaraya nyo sa eleksyon, pruweba dito e di kami umaatend sa mga panawagan ng people power, kaya sana naman gantihan nyo kami ng magandang serbisyo at magaling na pamumuno at malaking bawas sa kurakot naman please para kahit papano maramdaman naman namin na may napupuntahan ang binabayad naming buwis.
• saka Madam GMA, step down ka na pag parliamentary na tayo sa 2007, tignan mo, i-announce mo mag-step down ka kapag parliamentary na tayo, resounding YES yan sa plebiscite at tigil pa ang mga coup at people power laban sayo. Try mo lang………

Sa Oposisyon:

• mga leche kayo! kayo ang nag-papahirap, at nagpa-pagulo sa Pilipinas. hindi kayo makuntento sa kung sino man ang naka-upo bilang presidente. kayo ang nag-dadala ng hiya sa mga Pilipino. gawa ng rally dito, gawa ng rally doon, labanan ang mga proclamation ng administrasyon. sawang-sawa na kami. ung mga nalibing ng buhay sa Leyte, tinutukuyan ninyo ba ng pansin?
• di nyo pa ba nakikita na dalawang klase lang ng tao ang nakikinig sa inyo….isa ay bayaran na mahihirap kungdi man ay tangang mga excited na reporter na parang naka-shabu lagi….mga praning e at naghahallucinate.
• Bago man lang kayo maglunsad ng kilos laban sa administrasyon, pumili muna kayo ng magiting at nararapat na ipapalit sa liderato ngayon. Hirap sa inyo paresign kayo ng paresign wala naman kayo ipapalit na maayos. Advise lang galing sa isang middle-class na syang tunay na puwersa sa likod ng lahat ng matagumpay na People Power, magpakita muna kayo ng galing bago nyo batuhin ang administrasyon. Wala na kaming narinig sa inyo kundi reklamo, e wala naman kayong ginagawa kundi magreklamo….para kayong batang lagi na lang naaagawan ng laruan…..GROW UP naman…sa isip sa salita at sa gawa.
• please lang gasgas na rin ang pagrarally nyo na katabi nyo ay mga bayaran na mahihirap, magtayo nalang kayo ng negosyo at iempleyo ang mga rallyista para maging productive silang mamamayan. Sige nga, pag nagrarally kayo yakapin nyo nga at halikan yang mga kasama nyong nagrarally!! Nung People Power namin nagyayakapan kami lahat nuon.
• Wala naman mangyayari sa mga rally nyo nakakatraffic lang, kami pang middle-class ang napeperwisyo. Di nyo kayang paghintayin ng 3 araw ang mga rallyista nyo kasi kelangan nyo pakainin at swelduhan ang mga yan. Kung gusto nyo tagumpay na People Power kami ang isama nyo….pero pagod na kami e, sori ha.

Sa Military:

• Alam nyo lahat tayo may problema, pati US Army may problema, 2,000 plus na patay sa kanila sa Iraq na parang walang rason naman, pero nakita nyo ba sila nagreklamo? Wala diba kasi professional sila na sundalo…..yan dapat ang sundalo di nagtatanong sumusunod lang. Kasi may mga bagay na di kayang maintindihan ng indibidwal lamang, at ang mga nakatataas lang ang nakakaintindi ng kabuuan, kaya ito ang panuntunan ng lahat ng military ng lahat ng bansa. Pero parang military natin yata ang pinaka-mareklamo. Sabi nga sa Spiderman “with great power comes great responsibility”…..kaya maging spiderman kayo lahat at protektahan ang mamamayan. Sa totoo lang natatakot kami kapag nagrereklamo kayo, kasi may baril kayo at tangke, kami wala.

Wala ako comment sa mga mahihirap, di naman kasi sila maingay na kusa e, may bayad ang ingay nila. Saka wala rin naman sila email.

Kaya paano na tayong mga middle-class?? Eto hanggang email nalang tayo kaya ikalat nyo na ito at magdasal tayo na umabot ito sa mga dapat makabasa nito at makiliti naman ang kanilang mga konsyensya.

Signed,

Isang Middle-Class pinoy na walang puknat na
binabawasan ang sweldo ng Buwis!

Let’s get political

Disclaimer: I am not a political analyst. I am not a conspiracy theorist. I merely am expressing my own views, supported by what I see and hear around me.

The past few days have been days of unrest for a lot in the country. Talks of impending coups, rallies and conspiracies left and right (and center, apparently) have flooded the news, and even the conversations all over.

The key player in this whole scenario is the President herself. I am fairly uncertain of her real agenda, but looking at both sides of the issue, I tend to agree with those who say that GMA has extended her stay, and indeed, shows no sign of leaving at all. Manuel L. Quezon III writes in the Inquirer, “The most she would have accomplished by then is postpone a debacle. Bereft of presidential immunity, deprived of access to the national treasury, lacking the power to hire, promote and fire, stripped of the ability to issue orders as commander in chief, who will defend her?” (full article). In this light, it becomes very clear that we all have a muddy view of tomorrow.

Another issue concerns Presidential Proclamation 1017 (aka Martial Law-in-sheep’s clothing). Filipinos have been through this, but we still don’t seem to learn the lesson. It’s only been 20 years, but it seems national amnesia has taken the country, or at least paralyzed the citizens to inaction. Conrado de Quiros quite casually and eloquently summarizes it: We’ve lost our balls.
(full article)

Very few news articles have elicited such thought and reactions from me, and I invite you to challenge your perceptions and opinions, or affirm them, by reading through these.

Mabuhay ang Pilipino.

Gall

I never thought I’d see the day that such a system for bribery would be in place. I received the included photo* over email just now. According to the email, this coupon was accidentally dropped on the ground and subsequently picked up by a regular worker in Makati, presumably a non-rallyist.

I simply can’t express the disgust I’m feeling right now. The nerve of the organizers to use the seal of the City of Makati! Not only that, but to even claim such payments at the municipal hall!

—

The parliament of the streets is in serious peril. The fact that there already is talk of “People Power fatigue”, such a strategy to “buy presence” will only damage the credibility of this unconstitutional method of removing and installing presidents.

*translated text: Have this coupon signed by your leader. Present this coupon to the office of Mr. Nick Santiago from 5:00 to 7:00pm, July 13, 2005.

Gloriagate: Winners and Losers

In the end there will be no winners, all of us will be losers, and the ones who will be most affected will be the poor. Nothing we could do for these loser personalities. Let us stop getting distracted. Let us do something positive, productive, sustainable. God’s blessings we need badly but we also have to do our share of the work and it is a long hard journey before we get out of this sinkhole and provide a better environment for our children. We can do it if we just get down from the fence and work together.

“This is the story of our lives. Same shit, different politicians. It constantly amazes me how resilient, humorous, masochistic, and patient we are as a people. God Bless the Philippines, indeed!”

GLORIAGATE (Winners and Losers)

Conventional Wisdom tells us who are winning and who are losing:

Philippine Economy. 50-50. Peso down versus the dollar. Businessmen are jittery. Amazingly however, the full impact initially thought the GloriaGate scandal will bring to the economy hasn’t happened.

Filipino People. 50-50. Call it people-power fatigue. Call it political maturity. Call it apathy. Call it pragmatism (no-better-alternative-syndrome). The Filipinos are more discerning now of issues and are aware who is taking advantage of what. Either that, or we are pathetically dulled already not to react anymore to series upon series of scandals inflicted upon us.

PGMA. 50-50. Finally, an admission of what all of us knew already. It is of great irony that the same type of charges hauled by her camp against Erap a few years ago (jueteng and integrity )are now being used against her and her family. Sabi nga ng commercial…Bilog Ang Mundo. Her simple aspiration “not to be a great president but be a good president” has failed so soon. And her betrayal (once proven true) will be more hurting because she once epitomized our ideals and our hopes for our country.

She has been lucky though that the confluences of the apathy of the Filipino people, the still-loyal military, the sober Susan Roces, the rainy season, the school season, the not-so-photogenic whistle-blower that is Sammy Ong, and the not-so-conducive-for-revolution Guadalupe bridge are working to her advantage. But for how long? As Randy David said “if you will ask me if she will be president next week…. I will say yes.”

Noli de Castro. Winner. Some sectors are already courting him to replace PGMA. To his credit, he has not bitten the bait… yet.

Susan Roces. Winner. For being the picture of grace, sobriety, and common sense. For showing us the decent face of show business after our exposure for the longest time to the likes of shabu-using Ate Guy, tax-evading Richard Gomez, kidnapping-linked Dennis Roldan, almost-pedophilic Kris Aquino, and the general antics of Annabel Rama, Boy Abunda, and Christy Fermin. These are the showbiz creatures who inflict their disgusting presence on us… Truly, Swanee is the face that refreshes.

Rez Cortez. Loser. I reserved one full paragraph for this opportunist leech. Rez, please don’t leave the day-job you are very good at : playing goon, bum, rapist, murderer, arsonist…and yes, Judas Iscariot. You have become to PGMA what Amay Bisaya was to Cory. (No offense to Amay!). Unsolicited advice to the government: first thing in your reform agenda is to uplift the plight of the movie industry so that unemployed actors like Rez and Niño Muhlach will have more worthwhile things to do other than dip their hands into politics.

Samuel Ong / Sandra Cam. 50-50. While they may be telling the truth, their initials make me suspect their true motives and characters. S.ONG and S.CAM. One sings a not so perfect tune and the other is attempting to stage a scam.

Secretary Bunye: Loser. The most unenviable position in the land. Super ang dapa na una ang mukha. To be caught lying, fumbling and mumbling…and on national television at that. If I were Sec. Bunye, I would demand a salary raise for all the humiliation I’ve experienced.

Garci. Winner. Instant celebrity. Maximum exposure for minimum effort.

Globe / Smart / Sun Telecoms: Winners. Text messages and ring tones galore. Panalo. Whoever made the “Hello Garci ring tone” should be honored with a Magsaysay Award.

Sgt. Doble. 50-50. Doble, meaning double. In his case, double-faced. The dramatic rescue by his wife through the help of texts will remain to be one of the comic highlights of this incident. This again proves how pusong-mamon our soldiers are. Bring in the crying wife, the wailing mother, and the wide-eyed innocent children…and whatever attempt to grab power dissipates. (See Oakwood mutiny.)

NTC / DOJ. Losers. For having no balls to make good of their threat to arrest anyone in possession of the tape and ring tone. Suggestion: Arrest Secretary Bunye first. Sige nga….arestuhin ang may mga tape at ringtone? Hahahaha…baka mapuno ang kulungan.

Nene Pimentel. Loser. Give it a rest, Nene, while we still have an ounce of respect for you. Please do other worthwhile things for yourself at the twilight of your life (like having your huge eye bags removed, for one). Same goes to Ping Lacson, Kit Tatad and all those who are obviously trying to maximize for their own benefit this Gloriagate scandal. Ang babait ninyo….sana, kunin na kayo ni Lord!

Cardinal Jaime Sin. Winner. For supporting and being a main player in two successful People Power movement, and for having the presence of mind to die and not witness what People Power has been reduced to.

The Arroyo Men. Losers. Losers. Losers. Gloria, these men are literally the rust that will destroy the steel that is you. The mere physical appearance of Mike Arroyo (despite the cosmetic surgery) is repulsive enough. And that…that..that…… Mikey Arroyo has the guts to have a movie shown at the height of the jueteng and gloriagate scandal. Pity to the movie producer and more pity to the moviegoers. These Arroyo Men are simply walking human rights violations.

San Carlos Seminary. Loser. This is definitely no EDSA Shrine. There is nothing photogenic with this place and hardly the place to inspire another people power. True, the “Filipino can stop military tanks” in 1986, but this time no amount of courage can make us stop smoke belching flying buses driven by a maniacal drivers along EDSA. While the EDSA Shrine has the prominent statue of the Virgin Mary for inspiration, San Carlos Seminary has the view of the Mesolipo advertisement billboard of Dra. Belo.

And so the question remains… Will there be an EDSA 4? As Melanie Marquez would say “you can fool me once, you can fool me twice, you can even fool me thrice… but you can never fool me four.” This is the story of our lives. Same shit, different politicians. It constantly amazes me how resilient, humorous, masochistic, and patient we are as a people. God Bless the Philippines, indeed!

(received via email)

Stalemate

A new day brings about a stalemate in Philippine politics. With PGMA’s firm stand (some say bravado, or even hubris) on staying on as president last night, the flurry of rallies and calls for resignation seem to have gone back to a simmer.

Who knows what the next few days will bring? Stay tuned. I recommend Inq7.net.