Archive for November, 2008

So I’ll start a revolution from my bed
‘Coz you said the brains I had went to my head
Step outside, the summertime’s in bloom
Stand up beside the fireplace
Take that look from off your face
You ain’t ever gonna burn my heart out…

- Oasis, “Don’t Look Back In Anger”

I never thought how fighting for something you believe in – in this case, that GMA should be held accountable and responsible for her reckless actions as the President – can be a very personal experience.

Before our intervention got junked at Congress, I got the phone calls from the folks back home saying that I should seriously consider toning down my (admittedly) harsh words for The Government.  For the better part of the week, I’ve been seething, knowing that in the end, that intervention is going to get the royal screwjob.  Which it did; let’s not make any illusions framed or disguised in legalese.

I’ve had some time to reflect on our intervention getting junked.  To be honest, it still makes my blood boil to know about things like partisanship, politics, and the power of the almighty peso and pork barrel funds.  For the indignities that our nation is suffering – not the least of which was to face the threat of division, civil war, and the collapse of its very nationhood in the BJE MOA-AD fiasco – resistance is still necessary.

Yet no resistance can ever be successful without a hope for a better tomorrow.  More than that, no hope for a better tomorrow will ever shine so bright without the conviction that it will happen.  The most important thing is that conviction will not translate to anything without action.

What you need is what they sellin’
Make you think that buying is rebellin’
From the theaters to malls on every shore,
The thin line between entertainment and war
The front line is everywhere, there’ll be no shelter here.

- Rage Against the Machine, “No Shelter”

Some degree of hope makes me think that the august and honorable members of Congress would consider our intervention, but I have the feeling that the way things are going, the intervention – and the possible impeachment of the person occupying the highest office in the land – will be junked.  The batting average for successful impeachments is quite low, and these days you wouldn’t expect anyone to go out to EDSA and, even just symbolically, stand up against the Regime.

Why aren’t we doing that, I do not know.  Maybe we’re just tired, maybe we’re weighed down by things that are smaller than we are.  Or maybe we’ve given up hope in what this country stands for, in what we – as a people – stand for.

I’m not a lawyer or a politician, but I think that Congress should accommodate the bloggers’ intervention.  The BJE MOA-AD was declared to be unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.  That, at least to me, is the damning error (among many other things) that should – from any sane and rational perspective – make Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo impeachable.  Should Gloria Arroyo be guilty of the charge of violating the Constitution, then she should be removed from the Presidency.  The unconstitutionality of the BJE-MOA is an addition to the many impeachable acts that we’re trying the President for.

The Philippines is a country governed by laws, and not by technicalities.

Like I said before: it doesn’t matter if GMA has two years or two days left in her Presidency.  If she is found to be unfit to rule by virtue of a fair evaluation of evidence – or an admission of guilt – then the law doesn’t say that she doesn’t have to pay the price in the name of “stability” and “progress.”  I reiterate: justice, fairness, and freedom are not words or compromises, but are perspectives.

I don’t want to unfairly skew whatever decisions the House will make tomorrow (as if siguro nagbabasa sila ng blog), but I feel that debating on the technicalities of parliamentary procedure is not an act of protecting the Philippine interest.  I think that the interest of the Filipino people, whose country was divided in an act of deception and in a culpable violation of that one doctrine that binds us all, must be addressed.  Not because of technicalities, but because of merits; because of justice, fairness, and freedom.

Of course, I just have the gut feeling that there’s no shelter for those virtues here, when something as simple as citizenship – doing the right thing – escapes the grasp of some people.  I can only hope I’m wrong, and that tomorrow, Congress will stand up for something right, and be the shelter of justice that they’re supposed to be.

Else you know what Rage Against the Machine song I’ll be listening to.

I like to be dramatic every now and then… but in case you’re asking, yes, I am a nervous wreck.  I’m just being honest.

While I think that we can stand up for what we believe in, we all can’t be blamed for having just a little bit of paranoia.  If you’ve known me long enough, though, you probably know that I’m not exactly the poster boy for calm under pressure.  Here’s how things stood for me so far today:

• After breakfast at the office, I wrote a little note on a piece of scrap paper that was to be my scripted speech when the time came that I’ll call my dad to explain that I signed the intervention filed in Congress yesterday.  I managed about two sentences of a rather dramatic script when my dad said, “Whatever your convictions are and if you stand by them, good for you.”  OK, so much for the note.
• I was supposed to go to lunch with my friends at the office, but I was so nervous that I decided to smoke first.  I completely forgot about lunch.  And cigarette breaks.
• I forgot to switch my cellphone to “Silent” mode, so every text message made me jumpy today.  I was expecting my messages today to be more of the negative sort, until I realized that my friends read the paper more than I think.  It’s amazing how you have your friends figured out one day, and you realize how much they really care for the future of this nation.  Perhaps even more than you do.

Yes, I’ve been shaky today.  I think it’s because I signed a document that I wholeheartedly believe in; I believe that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo should be answerable to the public because of the dire consequences and compromises of the BJE-MOA-AD.  The full weight of impeaching the President is somewhere on my shoulders right now.