The Philippine Online Chronicles

@gangbadoy, and The Undecided Bloc: You’ve had many questions in “a Frankenstein letter from the Undecided.”  Many of which are salient.  Perhaps, I can offer you some insight and I hope you would indulge me for a bit.  I aim to recount what has come before; to put our current politics into its proper context at this moment, to speak of Tomorrow versus Congresswoman Arroyo.  I plan to talk about where does all this leave us and in between, hope to walk you through the difference between sobriety versus wowowee, between hope and cynicism; about courage and inaction; and brightest day and blackest night.

What has come before?

For some time there was this writing on the wall and it explained how for far too long government was reporting gross national product (GNP) that could not be felt by ordinary Filipinos.  I don’t know if you can see the field for what it is or feel the air change.  I am hesitant to say that this is still, good versus evil as it was back in 1986.  Even though there has been a lot of poaching and pillaging in pensions, for example, I am hesitant to say we are at a crisis point because our state of affairs is nothing new.

Our country is not known for its sense of urgency and many of you feel lost and troubled and hurt.

You are sickened perhaps that for far too much and for far too long, we seem to have surrendered personal excellence and community values in the pursuit of material wealth.   You are disturbed by the thought that as government pronounced for years the growth of our gross national product, and rightly you ask yourselves: “where is it?”

Half of our population is without jobs.

Many of our people are starving.

We are a tired nation that can no longer afford to be a tired nation.

We are a nation that can no longer afford to be a poor nation.

Yet, here we are. This is our blackest night.

You are disturbed because our candidates seem small and shallow.  It seemed that nothing would ever change.  You look at the measure of these men and find them wanting.   Some of you may even look at these men as cowards and hypocrites and you think they are blinded by false morality.

Who then will save us?

For the longest time, our leaders pronounced this is a strong republic and that with sipag at tiyaga and galing at talino, we can become an even better nation.

These same people have brought us to this moment in time.

These same people have dangled their competence before us.

People turn to Wowowee and Eat Bulaga.  Noble intensions sure, but at what point does it become preying upon our people’s poverty?

For years, their competence is said to account for our Gross National Product.  Are you not sickened that if we judge the Republic of the Philippines by our Gross National Product, then we must count the sorry state of our education system?  It must account for our jails filled with juvenile delinquents.  It must include the countless victims of injustice, silenced like the victims of the Maguindanao Massacre. That Gross National Product now also accounts for an Energy shortfall, which certainly damages the economy. That’s just to name a few.

Is that what competence and experience can bring to the table?

Who will save us?

This is where our politics is at the moment.

Erap Estrada’s and Gibo Teodoro’s numbers can’t make the difference in the race.

Perlas while somewhat impressive (word used lightly) on his own merit will be hard pressed to win.  He would make a good cabinet secretary.

Gordon on the other hand is a bit nutty, with his Kindle for education stance.  Seriously? Kindle? We can’t even afford school buildings, much less power plants to supply power for the entire country.

Unless the numbers change soon, then it is a War between two titans: the Nacionalistas versus the Liberals.  This is why we are at a crossroad.

The line is drawn between the cynics and the idealists.

This is a battle between the old and tired ways and the new.

It is the conflict between the traditional and the non-traditional.

It is the fight between a well oil-machine that increases ad spending and furthers transactional politics and a campaign driven by volunteers.

It is the difference between the assumption that Filipinos can be fooled and bought for as opposed to the belief in the Filipino spirit.

It is a War between pessimism and hope.

It is the difference between being human and our raison d’être.

This is why Manny Villar.   By his own accord, Villar achieved greatness by being a self-made man.  His is a rag to riches story that can be appealing to the impoverished poor and yet, was he also too busy with his C5?

With that experience, expect another six years of the same tired and crude politics. Expect that it is a validation of nine years of failed leadership that has created an Energy shortfall, which is the least of Arroyo’s evils but damages the economy greatly.

Expect transactional politics will still be the norm.

Expect that Villar will not defend the constitution from charter change, ergo it becomes an option he could dangle before a Congresswoman Arroyo.

Expect that Villar will not support any sort of Reproductive Health Law.   He is a known religious conservative.

Expect that the supposed Pro-business, pro entrepreneurship Villar will not stay his hand from raising taxes as he faces at least 300M in revenue shortfall.

Expect that since he is spending all his money on winning, how then will he get it back?

It will be the same old thing all over again, under a different color.

Be prepared.

Villar is right about one thing.  Well, he pays lip service to it: the rich must help the poor.  But not the way he does it: through wowowee and Eat Bulaga.

To be swayed by Villar, Teodoro or Gordon is best described by these immortal words: “It’s a trap!”

Tomorrow versus Congresswoman Arroyo

On the other hand, should the Liberals win for President, then post Election Day, the looming threat over that horizon is Congresswoman Arroyo who is like the big boss in every video game.  It is that challenge that will have to be met.  Oh, that isn’t a conspiracy theory.   It wouldn’t be unreasonable for us to expect that she will fight tooth and nail to protect herself and her family.  That’s what Arroyo fears the most.

A Liberal Party victory for President in May does not and cannot assure that there will be political peace.  Our political troubles will not go away.  If you are from the Yellow Army, expect your services to be needed.  Prepare your hearts.  Prepare your minds.  This is a long campaign.

This is why Noynoy Aquino. He has had no designs on power but when greatness was thrust upon him, he was willing to take a stand knowing full well that he is only human who believes “kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap”

Noynoy Aquino and Mar Roxas can’t do it alone.  He doesn’t have a power ring powered by the emotional spectrum to be the most powerful weapon in the universe.

Noynoy Aquino can’t leap tall buildings, can’t run faster than a speeding bullet and he isn’t more powerful than a locomotive.

Noynoy Aquino and Mar Roxas, though dynamic duo, do not wear capes and cowls.

Noynoy and Mar Roxas, they don’t have a monopoly on knowledge and skill set.  They know what they don’t know.

The greatest threat to an Aquino Administration of course would be what, Randolf S. David in “Theorizing and Living the Transition: The Aquino Government’s First Seven Months,” called, “as inertia of the old structures.” As David put it, “the primary question remains: what does it take to consolidate popular democracy?”  So too will the same conditions arise when Noynoy Aquino becomes president. As evident with the rise of congresswoman Arroyo who will undoubtedly raise her Legislative Army and fight tooth and nail to defend her position. [Thanks by the way to Sparks for the link.]

Expect that Aquino will be faced with a power crisis that he must act upon swiftly and decisively.

Expect that Aquino will be faced with a water crisis as El Nino heats up.  He must deal with that as he fulfills his campaign promise to fight corruption and to rebuild our fallen institutions.

The RH Bill Talk with Risa Hontiveros must continue.

Expect that an Aquino Administration that does not act with political cowardice.

An Aquino Administration, more than a Villar Administration will be more receptive to revisiting Reproductive Health bill if it becomes the Responsible Parenthood Bill.  This bill must be firm in addressing the serious problem on population.  It must also enable parents to ensure that each and every child they bring into this world has the opportunity to lead a good life.  It must make government a supporting role to this parental duty, with the parents deciding on their own what family planning method to use.  The government will naturally provide education so that parents can make an informed decision.

Expect that there will be no magical solutions to every problem and every concern.

We must right this ship of state through TG Guingona’s Budget Advocacy.

No matter who the next president is then he must face a nation with a growing fiscal deficit.  He must accelerate plans to ensure another Ondoy does not happen.  He must strengthen the information the country gets by updating our Weather Service.

Translation: the conditions for electoral victory in May 2010 will be vastly different from how to govern post Election Day.

There are just some of the things a future president will face.

Where does that leave us?

The past nine years we have seen a version of what the presidency can do.  It has turned the very institutions of our democracy, and bent it, and twisted it into a travesty of what democracy is and what it ought to be.

Even as that is happening, the world outside of our archipelago is different now.  There is a New Frontier out there.  Yes, there are many questions of poverty and financial ruin, of fear and terror.  Yet, we live in a world where there is an unprecedented explosion in human communication and possibilities and the clarion call for true Internet Freedom.

The power of technology, of these Internet it seems in some days that we are Superpowered too; that the Everyman is Super.  A hundred years ago the things we take for granted, would seem magical for most people.

The Undecided Bloc wants to be dazzled.

Many women fall prey to sweet sounding language: tall tales of the universe conspiring to bring two hearts to beat as one.   How many men, lulled by good intensions will be convinced to lend their hands to the likes of Villar, Teodoro and Gordon?

The Undecided Bloc wants to be dazzled.  To be dazzled is a false gospel.

For many years, many of you complain at the sad sorry state of our national affairs, taking to the streets to protest.  Many of you blog to complain about the hypocrisy of it all and there are those among you who sat in your living rooms grumbling at how Arroyo is this and that.  How things will not change, no matter who sits in office?

The Undecided Bloc wants to be dazzled. To complain and to do nothing is inaction.

Many of you expect greatness from Noynoy Aquino and Mar Roxas, as if they are a power who can descend from the sky to set things right.  Why then do you not expect greatness from us? For many of you, we’ve stood side-by-side one morning, greeting, “Good Morning, Manila! The Asses have it.”   We’ve fought to break the Great Book Blockade of 2009.

Why then at this hour when we need troops, when we need your steel, do you waiver?

Why then are we envious of other countries for their love country while watching movies, and lament at the sorry state of our Republic, but do not act?

Why then do you hide behind our Ivory Towers, pontificating?  Is that empty rhetoric?

This is the moment when we take our discussion to a higher, more adult level.

This is the moment when we cease to stop paying lip service, talking about being on the “right side of history.”

This is the moment when we take our keyboards and pound them for the greater good.

This is the moment when we move to act.

The time for neutrality is over.

The Competent say we can be great.  They say we will pursue material wealth, but as nine years attest that competence does not include the glamour of bright and beautiful, the richness of our poetry, the depth of our music, the strength of our marriages and the enduring force that is the Filipino family.

Their competence is proof of our leadership’s blindness to see beyond their petty concerns and see what our people truly need.  They do not imbue intelligence in our public discourse nor raise the integrity of our public officials. Neither do they heal the deafness of our People and open our theologians’ eyes to the fundamental gospel that incapacity is the greater evil gripping our nation, more than our outrage about the true nature of our public officials.

We are angry at Arroyo’s greed.  We talk about Villar’s C5 at Tiaga.  We recall Gibo’s incompetence at Ondoy.  We laugh at Estrada.

Are we just playing lip service?

Do you think Arroyo, Villar, Teodoro and Gordon will just sit back and let Integrity win?

Open your eyes!  Look at the field!  We are at War!  We have a duty.

It is time to volunteer.  It is time we do it ourselves.

We talk about how the system is broken and how uninspiring Noynoy Aquino is. Ask not what Noynoy Aquino could do for you; ask what you could do for your country.

This is the depth and breath of our nation today. This is hope over cynicism. This is Volunteerism over Transactional Politics.  This is light and darkness in an epic struggle: “to care so mightily about the country one can still dare to hope, or to surrender to the past while cloaking it in appeals to pragmatism.”

This is our Brightest Day.

It is about Courage!  It is about steel.  These times demand invention and innovation.  These days demand we have imagination.  These days demand, decision.  These days demand idealism.

Kennedy did not lie.  There is a New Frontier before us.  It is a clarion call for you, for every Filipino across every economic state, and regardless of faith: “we must be strong, of good courage. We must not be afraid, neither be dismayed.”

Courage is what we need, not dazzle.  It is through a leadership built on the foundation of integrity that breed competence and commands respect and not high rhetoric.  It is belief in the Filipino’s undying and incorruptible spirit as opposed to the belief that the Filipino can be fooled and bought for.

Our Philippines, we all agree can no longer be a tired or Tory nation.

Who then will save us?

Don’t expect a power greater than ours to descend from the sky to set things right.  Don’t expect great things from our President but instead expect great things from us.  To borrow these words from Kennedy, “our ends will not be won by rhetoric, we can have faith in the future only if we have faith in ourselves.”

Kung walang pagod, meron bang corrupt?

Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap.

This is the depth and breadth of it all. We are at War for tomorrow, winner take all.  It does not end on May 10, 2010.  That is just the End of the Beginning.  This is the moment we have been waiting for since 2004.   We have the ability to overcome Cynicism.  This is our time to choose Integrity over Competence.  This is our opportunity to right wrongs.  It is our time to shape tomorrow,  all hands on deck.  Instead of waiting to be dazzled in blackest night, in brightest day: enlist, and help take back our tomorrows.

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