(another piece written during my Philo “Kapihan sa 309” Class)
A lot of people’ll agree with me when I say that for the past weeks, my life revolved around law school. It’s saddening on my part to come into a realization that up until now, I have yet to come up with an entry regarding my stand on the multifarious issues that our country is currently trying (desperately if I may add) to face. One good thing about my staying in Starbucks every night is that I am able to converse, argue, debate and laugh with a lot of very opinionated people. In a way, I continued to learn and to understand the different sides and even depth of the issues or should I say, controversies.
Since this is my blog, let me indulge a little by looking back at what for me triggered all these. I believe it all started in EDSA 2. It is given that for a lot of people (even for me) EDSA 2 was a demonstration of the victory of the people. It was a culmination of a long standing doubt pointed at the incompetence of a “bearded” President (“wag jan, may kiliti ako jan..”). But I think, what a lot of us forgot to take into consideration was the losing of that “MAGIC” that was once EDSA Revolution. It was the initiation of this whole mockery of the democracy that we have long abused.
By putting GMA to office through an extra-constitutional means, we have also invited the establishment of a shaky mandate of the President. The elections came and after the SMOG (smoke’s too cliché) has been cleared, the LITTLE PRINCESS was announced by both COMELEC and NAMFREL as the new president. The next thing was inevitable, she was accused of having cheated. It is in our nature to doubt, so we assumed that she cheated. Let me stretch this by saying that I am certain of the fact that if FPJ or Ping or Eddie Gil (… puking) won, they would eventually find pieces of evidence that whoever won cheated. Tradisyon eh.
What am I driving at? I think it’s but appropriate to quote Ping Lacson when he announced his acceptance of the success of GMA, let me paraphrase it because I’m only writing it according to my recollection, “Assuming that someone cheated, the candidates who failed to protect the votes entrusted to them by those who believe in them doesn’t even for a second deserve the votes of those who believed in them." It’s but pertinent to point out that I am definitely not PRO-cheating, but life is unfair in itself, and if our own apathy or tolerance brought us GLORIA in a rusty platter, then we have to stand by what the consequences of our actions are, that’s what we deserve. Granted that she cheated, does this mean we have to be stuck in this pseudo reality? I DON’T THINK SO.
When the GLORIAGATE SCANDAL emerged without warning but also without anything new, our economy (which by the way was actually improving in its own microscopic way) is once again bombarded with hesitation and even fear on the part of the investors. The president for a time maintained her silence (which I thought was the right thing to do) until she came up with a “Maalaala Mo Kaya”-inspired statement charged with an obviously fake begging for sympathy aggravated by the choreographed tilting of head, teary-eyed routine. My family was laughing while watching her statement because it was an ill-decided scheme. If she was trying to assure the masses, I think it’s to no avail because they will not be swayed by a non-actress (pun intended). If she was trying to fool the middle and upper class, she should’ve guessed that we wouldn’t dig a Nora Aunor rendition of apology. If she was trying to assure the investors / the business community, she should’ve stuck with her usual firm, straight to the point, all business façade. It was a mistake on her part to come up with the “Drama, drama, drama…”
Meanwhile, the opposition is livelier than ever. They are persistent in questioning the validity of the government and prying into the littlest of loophole that they get their already owl-like eyes on. Under normal circumstances, it’s tolerable. But at present, the opposition, to my opinion, has been diminished to a power-hungry group of people whose only goal is to be on top again. I don’t blame them; it is now that they are actually seeing a teeny-weenie twinge of light at the end of a quite long, time-consuming, exhausting, spelunking-on-the-cave that is the Philippine political system.
I’m to my bones appalled at the rate things are going now. The call for forced resignation will only start another trend that I’m sure we will not be able to handle in the long run. If GMA resigns, will there be an assurance that Noli de Castro will not be called upon in the future to resign? We are all living in fear that the next president will not be good enough. I am one of those guilty of moving on because I don’t see anyone who can actually step up to lead this country. At this time, a significant number of people from the President’s side already resigned and withdrew their support for her. The scenarios are unfolding right before our eyes. I say we shouldn’t all be caught up in a supernova of emotions. We should once and for all try to THINK.
Won’t it be more comforting for us to know that we have exhausted all means to find out if she did cheat? We cannot be ruled by our own emotions, we should be able to decide after the LEGAL PROCESSES, that were meant to resolve these kinds of disputes, are put into practice. After all, they aren’t called processes for nothing. One of my friends asked me, “ERAP wasn’t given the benefit of the doubt, we all were eager to let him resign.” That was a good point, but to say that he was totally deprived of these processes is absurd. We tried to give him the chance to prove his claim through impeachment proceedings but the senators on his side didn’t want whatever was in the envelope to be presented. Even Marcos was given the chance to redeem himself through the Snap Elections, but he decided to cheat again. Why not give GMA that option to redeem herself too?
This is my stand. Let us all follow what should be followed. If emotions and free-judgment will rule over the law, then it will only prove how disrespectful we are of the LAW that we, in the first place, created to protect us.
