Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Sunday, February 26, 2006
The Semiotics of a Revolt
Last 24 February 2006, the communists, the military adventurists and the political opportunist tried to hijack the 20th Anniversary of the first EDSA People Power Uprising. Ayala and EDSA became a virtual river of colors - Reds for the Communist fronts, Yellows for the Coryistas, Blues and Oranges for Estrada loyalists, and of course, unless the Environmentalists would turn into a hissy fit, green (for envy) for political has-beens, turncoats and opportunists. You might as well include the military green camouflage for the military adventurists with delusions as self-appointed messiahs. Include the color of money, the peso and the Philippine Composite headed south after performing very well in the recent weeks after coup rumours swirled around the metropolis. Not enough? Include the black armbands, and the white priestly cassocks of highly meddlesome members of the clergy and this is rainbow coalition that would make Joe De Venecia blush. This is the height of the unholiest alliances ever assembled.
First things first. I would beg to differ with the Communist insinuations that they have had a presence in EDSA 1. They have maligned the first EDSA as a bourgeoise revolution, which it was. They discounted and misread the people. After all, the Communist Party of the Philippines espoused and still believed in an armed revolution. The Philippine left, after years of protracted struggle in forcing their obsolete ideologies down the throats of the Filipino public further alienated the mass that they suppose to protect. Communists steal livelihood and coerce rural folk, they extort revolutionary taxes from legitimate businesses, and they turn to burning mobile phone towers and buses when these businesses refuse to be intimidated. And these are supposed to be the army of the people. And these are the same people now crying for blood in the streets hijacking a celebration they were never a part of, actions tantamount to gatecrashing in someone else's party. Of course, getting beaten by truncheons, arrested and hosed down make great photos in frontpages. Local media would lap it up and jockey positions for the best angles (much to the delight of media outfits like ABS-CBN, who would only be to happy to forget the Ultra stampede tragedy). If social climbers try to get themselves photographed in the Philippine Tatler, this is the photo-op of a lifetime for the Reds.
Reality, they said, is stranger than fiction and what could have been strange bedfellows than having delusional military officers with messianic complexes caught sleeping with the communists they have vowed to wipe out? The highly politicized military didn't start with the defections of Juan Ponce Enrile and Fidel Ramos during EDSA 1. It started when Ferdinand Marcos broke military protocol and installed his fellow Ilocanos to sensitive military positions. Bypassed officers became disgruntled. By the time the Ramos-Enrile defections precipitated EDSA 1, the house of cards fell, where defections upon defections bled the Marcos dictatorship. In the case of EDSA 2, the strength of the people was already in the streets and only defections from the top military echelon only hastened the end to Joseph Estrada's regime. It was the coup-de-grace.
If the military adventurists had it their way, we would have had a military junta very much similar to the hated regime in Myanmar. A shift from a democratically elected administration to a military regime would mean curtailment of our freedom (and in no time, erstwhile Red allies being edged out of the power table, would of course troop again to the streets to, what else, but protest.) The reason why coup attempts failed in the past during the Aquino and Arroyo administrations, and will do so in the future, if there would be any, is that like the Reds, the military rebels failed to know the people. Filipinos, being a carefree and freedom-loving people would not take into kindly any violent changes. The Ramos-Enrile defections was in itself a failed coup attempt and if it were not for the people massing around Camps Crame and Aguinaldo, they would have been goners by now. To mount a revolution, one must have a critical mass support and a huge spark enough to propel the people including the fence-sitters to flood the streets once again.
Unfortunately, the people's attention was too divided. The country has not even been finished retrieving the last body and mourning its dead in the So.Leyte killer landslides and then this. The 70-plus dead in Ultra stampede have not even been given justice yet and now this. The peso was its strongest in 3 and a half years. Our economy had favorable reviews from at least two ratings agencies including Fitch and CALPERS. The bourse has been more active than usual. The first casualties of last weekend's fracas? No doubt but the economy. Stocks plummeted. The peso lost ground. And we are back to square one.
Citizen Cory has been busy painting after her retirement from public office. Aside from being a mother to a daughter whose main preoccupation is washing her dirty linens in public, Citizen Cory whose initial claim to fame was a wife to an assassinated leader, was herself a target of repeated coup attempts in August 1987 and another one in December 1989. Growing up privileged and graduated with a degree in French, Cory's regime characterized a return to the oligarchy and the same elitist politics that the Marcos regime discarded. She effectively sat down on land reform, her family being major landholders in Central Luzon (Hacienda Luisita- a sugarcane plantation in Tarlac Province). It was during her term, when protesting farmers were mowed down by bullets in a demonstration in Mendiola, Manila. Owning major stakes in the Hacienda Luisita, the recent rift between Arroyo and Aquino was caused during the recent government investigations in the violent dispersals in the farmer protests in the plantations. It is ironic that Cory who herself faced the same military mutinies and calls for resignation would herself be involved in the same political intramurals. With her, is a coterie of sourgrapes (Bro. Eddie Villanueva- a former Red turned televangelist who ran in the previous elections, and even lost in his own polling precinct in Bulacan), turncoats (Hyatt 10- former DSWD Sec. Dinky Soliman whose traitorous actions was broadcasted to national TV which while stabbing her former boss in the back she serenaded her with flowers and "If We Hold On Together") and opportunists (Senate President Franklin Drilon, who initially even offered his hometown of Iloilo as the new seat of Presidential power should Manila rejected her government only to renounce her a week after during the mounting protests against the "Hello Garci" tapes scandal).
The people have grown tired of the dictatorship of the streets. The rallies last week and the furor at the Marine headquarters only clarified the truth that the opposition is a fragmented bunch with no coherent platforms and alternatives to national leadership and governance. One thing was clear, everyone wants Arroyo out, and install themselves in power. The problem is with the different political persuasions and vested interests, who should be sitting on that seat? A transitional government that would accommodate everyone is a big joke. We have seen that after EDSA 2, and after a few months, disgruntled factions in the civil societies by the likes of Boy Saycon had a very public falling out with the current President. Too many cooks just spoil the soup.
Of course Estrada loyalists are trying to make a comeback. Remember when Marcos loyalists tried to setup a government in Manila Hotel in July of 1986 with Arturo Tolentino as its provisional President? What are the Estradas in power for? Why would you think wife Loi, sons JV and Jinggoy in public office right now? We have yet to know any important legislations emanating from the offices of Senators Loi and Jinggoy Estrada since being elected to power.You have got to give it to Makati Jejomar Binay to hold the Makati Business District hostaged by encouraging demonstrations in Ayala Avenue. Immediate result? Businesses lost money by losing precious man-hours of employment from late workers who have to walk a kilometer or two to get thru their offices. And legitimate Makati residents losing sleep due to noisy protests. Paid crowds from Binay's constituency (with coupons redeemable at the Makati City Hall) molested the well-manicured plants and bushes. I was not surprised when Binay destroyed the MMDA landscaping recently. This mayor has always been aesthetically challenged. Squatting was tolerated by this mayor, after all, this is where he gets his votes during elections. A former activist during the Marcos regime, Binay has been sneered at as traditional politician, having his surname initial plastered all over the city. The Makati success story was never a Binay initiative. It was the Ayalas who made the city the official financial capital of the country, Binay just benefitted from the fallout. While Manila encouraged tourism by investing in beautification projects, Makati with its huge money in its warchest decided to leave it up to the mall developments like Greenbelt, and Powerplant to generate interest in its tourism. By allowing demonstrations in Ayala, Binay just succeded to sabotage the economy. A walk in Greenbelt last Friday night found that most businesses closed after 1 am due to lack of patrons and coup jitters.
Meanwhile, EDSA 2 politicized the Makati Business Club. The questionable participation of some of its members on calls for ousting the President at a time when that same President who gathered enough political will to effect an important business decision for Philippines, Inc. in the form of R-VAT, lowered interest rates, strengthened the local currency and the stock market, leaves one befuddled what exactly does these people want. Its members, not exactly models of business ethics, whose hands are clean enough to call dirt on the President?
This is a country where the government prays and religion runs the government. Although the Church has a moral responsibility to its flock, it has crossed the line several times by influencing (if not coercing) important legislations. It harrangued the bill on reproductive health. It harassed same-sex marriage advocates. It effectively blocked population management initiatives. It meddled in constitutional reform movements. When the leader of the House of Sin called upon the faithful to protect Ramos and Enrile, the people responded. The Church, with its stifling silence and tacit support of the underground movement against Marcos held the moral high ground. Unfortunately, one of the ugly sons of the Marcos dictatorship is also a highly politicized clergy which was even noted and admonished by their Vatican superiors. We have the running priest (Robert Reyes) who took upon himself as the unarmed and modern version of the priest turned communist Balweg (He started a hunger strike, but when media diverted elsewhere, he lost his 15 minutes of fame and casted the hunger strike to oblivion with hardly a notice) and a bishop (Oscar Cruz) who seem to spend most of his time in Senate inquiries rather in the pulpit. The recent Bishops Conference seemed to have learned its lesson by taking a step back from meddling in politics although there are still wayward priests who acted as consorts of these power-hungry maniacs.
Revolutions are a fickle lot, especially with Filipinos who are notoriously historical amnesiacs. It may conjure romanticsm of politics, but in the end, its the country who will pay. How many years did it take after EDSA 1 before a Marcos won a seat in Congress? The novelty of People Power has worn off and the current mass actions only left a bad taste in the mouth. These masses are unwittingly being controlled by the few elites and powerbrokers in this country. A street called EDSA cannot just hold the country hostaged. True and quality change must emanate from the individual, not from any interest groups, not from the government, and certainly not from any street. We are the change. We can effect positive change by being responsible citizens in our daily lives. The color revolutions are over. We already had 20 years of EDSA hangover, it's time to get our act together as a nation, and move forward in one direction as one team.
First things first. I would beg to differ with the Communist insinuations that they have had a presence in EDSA 1. They have maligned the first EDSA as a bourgeoise revolution, which it was. They discounted and misread the people. After all, the Communist Party of the Philippines espoused and still believed in an armed revolution. The Philippine left, after years of protracted struggle in forcing their obsolete ideologies down the throats of the Filipino public further alienated the mass that they suppose to protect. Communists steal livelihood and coerce rural folk, they extort revolutionary taxes from legitimate businesses, and they turn to burning mobile phone towers and buses when these businesses refuse to be intimidated. And these are supposed to be the army of the people. And these are the same people now crying for blood in the streets hijacking a celebration they were never a part of, actions tantamount to gatecrashing in someone else's party. Of course, getting beaten by truncheons, arrested and hosed down make great photos in frontpages. Local media would lap it up and jockey positions for the best angles (much to the delight of media outfits like ABS-CBN, who would only be to happy to forget the Ultra stampede tragedy). If social climbers try to get themselves photographed in the Philippine Tatler, this is the photo-op of a lifetime for the Reds.
Reality, they said, is stranger than fiction and what could have been strange bedfellows than having delusional military officers with messianic complexes caught sleeping with the communists they have vowed to wipe out? The highly politicized military didn't start with the defections of Juan Ponce Enrile and Fidel Ramos during EDSA 1. It started when Ferdinand Marcos broke military protocol and installed his fellow Ilocanos to sensitive military positions. Bypassed officers became disgruntled. By the time the Ramos-Enrile defections precipitated EDSA 1, the house of cards fell, where defections upon defections bled the Marcos dictatorship. In the case of EDSA 2, the strength of the people was already in the streets and only defections from the top military echelon only hastened the end to Joseph Estrada's regime. It was the coup-de-grace.
If the military adventurists had it their way, we would have had a military junta very much similar to the hated regime in Myanmar. A shift from a democratically elected administration to a military regime would mean curtailment of our freedom (and in no time, erstwhile Red allies being edged out of the power table, would of course troop again to the streets to, what else, but protest.) The reason why coup attempts failed in the past during the Aquino and Arroyo administrations, and will do so in the future, if there would be any, is that like the Reds, the military rebels failed to know the people. Filipinos, being a carefree and freedom-loving people would not take into kindly any violent changes. The Ramos-Enrile defections was in itself a failed coup attempt and if it were not for the people massing around Camps Crame and Aguinaldo, they would have been goners by now. To mount a revolution, one must have a critical mass support and a huge spark enough to propel the people including the fence-sitters to flood the streets once again.
Unfortunately, the people's attention was too divided. The country has not even been finished retrieving the last body and mourning its dead in the So.Leyte killer landslides and then this. The 70-plus dead in Ultra stampede have not even been given justice yet and now this. The peso was its strongest in 3 and a half years. Our economy had favorable reviews from at least two ratings agencies including Fitch and CALPERS. The bourse has been more active than usual. The first casualties of last weekend's fracas? No doubt but the economy. Stocks plummeted. The peso lost ground. And we are back to square one.
Citizen Cory has been busy painting after her retirement from public office. Aside from being a mother to a daughter whose main preoccupation is washing her dirty linens in public, Citizen Cory whose initial claim to fame was a wife to an assassinated leader, was herself a target of repeated coup attempts in August 1987 and another one in December 1989. Growing up privileged and graduated with a degree in French, Cory's regime characterized a return to the oligarchy and the same elitist politics that the Marcos regime discarded. She effectively sat down on land reform, her family being major landholders in Central Luzon (Hacienda Luisita- a sugarcane plantation in Tarlac Province). It was during her term, when protesting farmers were mowed down by bullets in a demonstration in Mendiola, Manila. Owning major stakes in the Hacienda Luisita, the recent rift between Arroyo and Aquino was caused during the recent government investigations in the violent dispersals in the farmer protests in the plantations. It is ironic that Cory who herself faced the same military mutinies and calls for resignation would herself be involved in the same political intramurals. With her, is a coterie of sourgrapes (Bro. Eddie Villanueva- a former Red turned televangelist who ran in the previous elections, and even lost in his own polling precinct in Bulacan), turncoats (Hyatt 10- former DSWD Sec. Dinky Soliman whose traitorous actions was broadcasted to national TV which while stabbing her former boss in the back she serenaded her with flowers and "If We Hold On Together") and opportunists (Senate President Franklin Drilon, who initially even offered his hometown of Iloilo as the new seat of Presidential power should Manila rejected her government only to renounce her a week after during the mounting protests against the "Hello Garci" tapes scandal).
The people have grown tired of the dictatorship of the streets. The rallies last week and the furor at the Marine headquarters only clarified the truth that the opposition is a fragmented bunch with no coherent platforms and alternatives to national leadership and governance. One thing was clear, everyone wants Arroyo out, and install themselves in power. The problem is with the different political persuasions and vested interests, who should be sitting on that seat? A transitional government that would accommodate everyone is a big joke. We have seen that after EDSA 2, and after a few months, disgruntled factions in the civil societies by the likes of Boy Saycon had a very public falling out with the current President. Too many cooks just spoil the soup.
Of course Estrada loyalists are trying to make a comeback. Remember when Marcos loyalists tried to setup a government in Manila Hotel in July of 1986 with Arturo Tolentino as its provisional President? What are the Estradas in power for? Why would you think wife Loi, sons JV and Jinggoy in public office right now? We have yet to know any important legislations emanating from the offices of Senators Loi and Jinggoy Estrada since being elected to power.You have got to give it to Makati Jejomar Binay to hold the Makati Business District hostaged by encouraging demonstrations in Ayala Avenue. Immediate result? Businesses lost money by losing precious man-hours of employment from late workers who have to walk a kilometer or two to get thru their offices. And legitimate Makati residents losing sleep due to noisy protests. Paid crowds from Binay's constituency (with coupons redeemable at the Makati City Hall) molested the well-manicured plants and bushes. I was not surprised when Binay destroyed the MMDA landscaping recently. This mayor has always been aesthetically challenged. Squatting was tolerated by this mayor, after all, this is where he gets his votes during elections. A former activist during the Marcos regime, Binay has been sneered at as traditional politician, having his surname initial plastered all over the city. The Makati success story was never a Binay initiative. It was the Ayalas who made the city the official financial capital of the country, Binay just benefitted from the fallout. While Manila encouraged tourism by investing in beautification projects, Makati with its huge money in its warchest decided to leave it up to the mall developments like Greenbelt, and Powerplant to generate interest in its tourism. By allowing demonstrations in Ayala, Binay just succeded to sabotage the economy. A walk in Greenbelt last Friday night found that most businesses closed after 1 am due to lack of patrons and coup jitters.
Meanwhile, EDSA 2 politicized the Makati Business Club. The questionable participation of some of its members on calls for ousting the President at a time when that same President who gathered enough political will to effect an important business decision for Philippines, Inc. in the form of R-VAT, lowered interest rates, strengthened the local currency and the stock market, leaves one befuddled what exactly does these people want. Its members, not exactly models of business ethics, whose hands are clean enough to call dirt on the President?
This is a country where the government prays and religion runs the government. Although the Church has a moral responsibility to its flock, it has crossed the line several times by influencing (if not coercing) important legislations. It harrangued the bill on reproductive health. It harassed same-sex marriage advocates. It effectively blocked population management initiatives. It meddled in constitutional reform movements. When the leader of the House of Sin called upon the faithful to protect Ramos and Enrile, the people responded. The Church, with its stifling silence and tacit support of the underground movement against Marcos held the moral high ground. Unfortunately, one of the ugly sons of the Marcos dictatorship is also a highly politicized clergy which was even noted and admonished by their Vatican superiors. We have the running priest (Robert Reyes) who took upon himself as the unarmed and modern version of the priest turned communist Balweg (He started a hunger strike, but when media diverted elsewhere, he lost his 15 minutes of fame and casted the hunger strike to oblivion with hardly a notice) and a bishop (Oscar Cruz) who seem to spend most of his time in Senate inquiries rather in the pulpit. The recent Bishops Conference seemed to have learned its lesson by taking a step back from meddling in politics although there are still wayward priests who acted as consorts of these power-hungry maniacs.
Revolutions are a fickle lot, especially with Filipinos who are notoriously historical amnesiacs. It may conjure romanticsm of politics, but in the end, its the country who will pay. How many years did it take after EDSA 1 before a Marcos won a seat in Congress? The novelty of People Power has worn off and the current mass actions only left a bad taste in the mouth. These masses are unwittingly being controlled by the few elites and powerbrokers in this country. A street called EDSA cannot just hold the country hostaged. True and quality change must emanate from the individual, not from any interest groups, not from the government, and certainly not from any street. We are the change. We can effect positive change by being responsible citizens in our daily lives. The color revolutions are over. We already had 20 years of EDSA hangover, it's time to get our act together as a nation, and move forward in one direction as one team.
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