The Philippine Online Chronicles

Nation, that our beloved former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is being treated like a common criminal right now is indeed a travesty. There is no question that we should not tolerate this kind of gross ignorance of her civil liberties by the Aquino administration, an administration that has seen it fit to engage in petty vendettas instead of good governance. "Daang matuwid," indeed.

How dare this administration treat not only a former head of state, but a member of the esteemed Hokage clan in this cruel, barbaric manner? The fact that they would even see it fit to cast doubts on the veracity of GMA's medical condition is also cruel and callous, for we all know that her condition is truly life-threatening, which is why she needed to go to Singapore for prompt medical treatment, before she ended up being arrested and thereby banned from travel.

It's pretty telling how the current administration can so effortlessly switch gears from incompetent to hyper-competent out of sheer caprice, don't you think?

While this woman could have languished in illness because of a vindictive government that wants to make itself look better by demonizing its predecessor, it was truly amazing that now, she has made a remarkable recovery: enough to be willing to settle for house arrest in lieu of not being able to go to Singapore. Unfortunately, she's obviously not going to get even that now, is she?

Look at it this way, nation: our beloved former president was gravely ill. She direly needed to go to Singapore for immediate medical treatment. Instead, she had to remain in St. Luke's while she was under hospital arrest. Now, she can continue to instead recuperate at home, a mere week after demonstrating how dire her situation actually was. Do you even realize what we call something as amazing as that?

Nation, we are all witness to a miracle. A miracle of epic proportions that reflects the blessedness of GMA. A miracle, no doubt, that we must attribute to blessed and soon-to-be saint Pedro Calungsod. Because we can. This was the hand of God at work, surely, and when God acts, the people must listen.

We must leave GMA alone, and we must not allow her to merely be treated like some common criminal after all that she has done to make this nation great. Surely, one can feel it in their gut that this miracle was a sign from above, much like the sign from above that gave her the power to go back on her word when she promised before 2004 that she will not run again. That is truly the kind of power wielded by the Divine: a kind of power that we attempt to downplay today in this heathenly Satanic secular world that we find ourselves mired in.

What is it about miracles that make us scoff and roll our eyes at them? Is it not well within the realm of possibilities, especially when we realize how life itself is a miracle of the highest order? After all, f#####' magnets, how do they work, right? Surely, there are miracles left and right happening at this very moment, only with varying degrees of explicability. That GMA's miraculous recovery appears to be on the inexplicable end is hardly relevant, anyways.

Truthfully, the daunting task we are left to consider is just how great these miracles are in the face of a cynical society that only cares about things like facts and the truth, rather than how we feel, and the truthiness that emanates from there. The former president has shown a kind of penchant for blessedness that has been woefully lacking from most other leaders, and here, she brings it all to the forefront, yet people roll their eyes and spit in the face of such evidence.

As such, we have to remember for ourselves the true meaning of Christmas as the season approaches, as exemplified by our beloved former president, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Christmas is about miracles both of the simple and mundane kinds, and of the glorious and wondrous kinds. It's unfortunate that all these miracles are ignored, and viewed with cynical eyes, considering how instead of granting her house arrest, they will instead move her to the VMMC.

It's also unfortunate that people are just laughing at the threats against GMA's life. Why, surely, someone out there wants to sweep the miracles being demonstrated by our former president under the rug, thus, once and for all, conclusively proving the supernatural. Perhaps some godless heathenly secularist is all behind this, for all we know.

Certainly, as the plot thickens and all this drama surrounding our beloved GMA comes to a head, we Patriotic Filipinos cannot help but feel a bit of trepidation over the dangerous precedent being set by the current administration in dealing with people they dislike. The impunity is every bit as blatant, every bit as eyebrow-raise inducing, as the very things they decry. If they can do that to a former president, who's to stop them from doing it to any of us, nation? Is this merely a case of meet the new boss, same as the old boss, if we pretended that our beloved GMA were even half as bad as she was being villified to be?

It is a disturbing reality that we look at today, where we take lightly a threat against a great leader's life just because. Surely, the Aquino Administration would be happy to have her die, and there is no way whatsoever that Arroyo's death would result in a massive backlash against P Noy, turning the erstwhile villain into a martyr. After all, nothing of this sort happened to Noynoy's parents, right?

It's tragic that what ought to be a time to revel in miracles and the wondrous recovery of the former president, we instead find ourselves in this quagmire of depressing proportions. Indeed, the very name of the plot itself sends a chill up our spines. "Oplan Put The Little Girl To Sleep" is truly a despicable travesty that must be investigated at all costs.

The above article is a response to this article. Marcelle Fabie (Pronounced "Fa-bee-yay".), who blogs on www.mistervader.com, is a man who embodies the two greatest characteristics of a Patriotic Filipino®: he is patriotic, and he is Filipino. As an upstanding individual of strong moral fibre, he puts the "grit" in "journalistic inteGRITy." Hard-hitting, fearless (except when it comes to Rick Astley), and unbelievably opinionated, he stands for truthiness, justice, and the Filipino way. He has a Pulitzer, a Nobel, an Oscar, a Grammy, and five other weirdly-named pet dogs. He is also a notorious satirist.

Photo from photoshopped image of the president, while the second image is a screencap from the film "Despicable Me".