Typhoon Ondoy: Yes, world, we are alive…and still kicking…

Friends and acquaintances have been asking if I’ve come from Manila and express surprise that I am alive and very much kicking.

Head’s up people: we Filipinos are extremely resilient, and no amount of floodwater is going to change that.

As to why I, for one remain unscathed, it is only because I was in Vigan and Laoag at the height of the typhoon, riding calesas, busy climbing bell towers, checking out zoos, taking photos of lots of nifty 15th century Catholic churches, trying not to get wet and pretty much trying not to get wet.

More on that later.

In the meantime, if you have something to donate, money, clothes, your time, whatever, go to the nearest website supporting survivors of the typhoon and donate, instead of reading my blog.

The audacity of corruption

My friend texts me this in the middle of the night:

“Just use your judgment if it’s reliable info – from a New York Philippine consulate friend; ‘I’m OK sir. Same here, I’m also ashamed about the extravagant stay. Her Waldof suite, $ 3, 500/day, $950/day for the congressmen and others. 60 rooms were occupied in Waldorf. Two days they feasted in Le Cirque charged to our office. At least 50 dined for two nights. They all came in stretch limos, rented for three days. So, I’m sure delay uli sweldo namin, sir.’ “

Who, pray tell, was my friend referring to? Was it some wealthy movie star who’d sold a billion dollars and thus is entitled to spend millions on a Waldorf Suite, meals and stretch limos? Was it some wealthy hip-hop-rapper-producer mogul who’d sold a billion copies of hip-hop CDs and thus is entitled to splurge on bling-bling and what-not? Was it some bizarrely wealthy political figure from a first-world country whose government can afford to spend millions of dollars on him and his entourage?

No. Of course not. For as author Jessica Zafra said, in the Philippines, the ordinary is bizarre and the bizarre is ordinary. And thus, of course, I refer to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her entourage and how much they spent when when they stayed in New York.

This is of course just one in a long list of expenses that GMA has been accused of spending, money which, we may logically assume came from our taxes, or from loans from financial institutions already fed up with lending money to a country that keeps getting bigger deficits despite its best efforts.

This of course, comes in wake of accusations of rigging the recent National Artist Awards, openly demanding that the Supreme Court include more names in a short-list of candidates for justices, rigging the last presidential elections (in which she won), the lingering stench of the National Broadband Network Scandal, her annoyingly persistent calls to change the existing Constitution, persistent accusations of human rights violations that reek of her doing.

Looking at these controversies that have plagued her administration since she took office, I cannot help buts wax nostalgic about those leaders in the past who inspired admiration. Has the era of real leadership gone? Has the era of integrity, magnanimity, dedication, humility, openness gone? Did all these qualities die when GMA came to power?

I believe these died when we allowed GMA into the political arena in the first place. This happened even before EDSA II, but when we elected her vice president. In fact, this began when we elected her as senator. Sure, we can blame God, providence, our culture of unabashed and shameless (emphasis on unabashed) corruption thinly-disguised as something else entirely, our colonial history (because, you know, when all else fails, it is always good to blame the bloody Spaniards, then the Americans, then the Japanese for all these), or perhaps the late dictator, President Ferdinand Marcos and this same culture of corruption which he spawned and even encouraged. We can blame the IMF-WB, the 1997 financial crisis, the GATT-WTO, the endless international and national socio-economic and political events that have continuously conspired to keep us from attaining that elusive first-world status that other third-world countries have achieved or are slowly achieving, long after we have recovered from the latest corruption scandal brilliantly concocted and poorly concealed by Malacanang and its politicos.

Yes, we can blame all these things…but really, we have only ourselves to blame.

Yes, fellow Pinoys, let me say that again: we have only ourselves to blame for the havoc she is currently wreaking in Malacanang. More than that, we have only ourselves to blame for the kind of system that has voted her into power. We have only ourselves to blame for a voting system that permits rigged elections to happen, for an election system that allows politicians to form unholy alliances with powerful individuals and organizations, to use government funds for infomercials, billboards and other shameless advertising tools,  that are really just avenues for premature political campaigning, for a system that perpetuates only dynasties and only the wealthy and powerful into office, for a culture that justifies kickbacks as honorable, for a culture that thinks being frugal and “kuripot” is uncool and unacceptable, and being able to wine and dine and cruise in limos in New York is the height of status…Ultimately, we have only ourselves to blame for the very reasons why GMA and her cohorts are doing what they are doing now.

I know I will get a lot of shit for this, and of course I will. Because it is easier to blame others, than accept responsibility for this, isn’t it?

We blame others because that is the only way we can live with ourselves. Because, really if we start taking a look at ourselves and really examining what is going on – what GMA is doing, is a reflection of what we have become: we have become such a nation of compliant, apathetic people that even though this present administration is staying at the Waldorf Astoria so brazenly, at our expense, all we can do is rant and rave and not do something about it.

What we should do, is do what the late Raul Manglapus did in a speech he gave before (“Land of Bondage, Land of the Free”), indicting the Spanish encomendoro for inventing taxes,  the usurer for debts he cannot pay, but ultimately for the irresponsible leaders who have undermined his confidence in government.

Except, here’s what I suggest:

I indict this government for spending my taxes on Waldorf suites, Le Cirque meals and stretch limos. I indict this government for rigging the last presidential elections. I indict this government for the endless corruption scandals it has brazenly been caught in. I indict this government for the charter change calls it keeps insisting on. I indict this government for what is has done to the Filipino people: make them lose confidence in the government, make them lose confidence in democracy and its ideals, in the things which EDSA stood for. Most of all, I indict this government for the hope and possibility of change and progress it has taken away from Filipinos.

Shame on you. You have no right to be in office.

Your time will come…

Judgment day will come in the 2010 elections. But more than that, judgment day comes when you face God at the end of days and you are called to account for the many sins you have committed on this country of ours.

And when that day comes, may God have mercy on your soul!

Aftermath: What happens now?

So, the late President Corazon C. Aquino has been laid to rest, finally, last night, at the Manila Memorial Park, with full state and military honors, and a pretty nifty 21-gun salute. Nobody deserves that more than her.

Before that, since her death (and during her illness), the news has been filled with nothing but images of her, her legacy, opinions and news of prominent figures and even ordinary people stating their two-cents worth about what she meant to them, to the Filipino people and what her contributions were to the world. I watched the necrological services, been moved especially by Teddy Boy Locsin’s speech eulogy (which you can read here, if you are so inclined) and by Conrado de Quiros’ speechm, as well as moved by the image of her family’s grief, most especially Kris Aquino’s, laid bare for all the world to see. I have watched the mass, and the painstakingly long funeral procession from Manila Cathedral, to Intramuros, to Roxas Boulevard, all the way to Paranaque and finally to the Manila Memorial Park. I have seen a glimpse of the burial itself, and the 21-gun salute after. I have seen the yellow balloons released, the yellow confetti streaming down her coffin, the oceans of mourners from all walks of life flowing down the procession, streams of yellow and Laban-signs, unmindful of the rain and the flood and the heat and the hunger. I watch it all in the comfort of my own home and wish that I could be there, to experience that moment of solidarity, joining the others in our collective grief and sense of loss.

I read Jessica Zafra’s post, “The After”, in which she asks, What do we do now? When all is said and done?

I think about that and I think to myself…it is alright that I did not go to her wake, the necrological service, the procession or even the burial. Not because I prefer going through my grief in the comfort of my home…but because I think more than just actually going to all the services, or going infront of the podium, the camera or other media,  to declare undying devotion and/or admiration for President Cory and all that she stood for, I think I honor her legacy and her memory more by actually committing and re-committing myself to all that she stood for: freedom, democracy, honesty, working for change, making a difference.

I do not like publicly showing emotion, or publicly declaring undying devotion or saying things that I will not live up to.

I feel that I will honor President Cory more by actually getting on with my life and continue making a difference in the best way I can. I honor her by doing simple things: by doing the right thing, not by doing things right. By standing up for what is right. By continuing the fight.

But most of all, by living a life that President Cory would be proud of.

Where were you in 1986?

Note: President Corazon Aquino, the 11th president of the Philippines, has died of cardio-respiratory arrest at exactly 3:18 a.m. Saturday at the Makati Medical Center (inquirer.net). She was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2008 and has since then been waging an ultimately losing battle with her illness. She will be missed. I wrote this to deal with the grief and loss. I mourn the loss of a great president. Pasensya na, nagdadalamhati ako.

I was eight years old when President Corazon C. Aquino came to power. I was in second grade and thus have no memory of martial law, curfews, human rights violations, and the overall fear that gripped the nation for the 20 years that President Ferdinand Marcos was in power. I was in Baguio, I was at home, when news of the revolution flooded our television set. There was nothing on the news but images of massive crowds in EDSA, flashing the L-sign (L for Laban, President Aquino’s party), with the military and their tanks the only thing that kept the people from attaining freedom from twenty years of military tyranny and oppression. I remember the faces of prominent figures I would come to recognize later on, in the Philippine history books I would later study : Juan Ponce Enrile, Fidel V. Ramos, Cardinal Sin and a host of others….but what I would remember would be that woman with the curly hair, and the glasses, wearing yellow, flashing the victory sign, making speeches to the crowds, then after, being sworn in as the 11th President of the Republic of the Philippines. I would later find out that her rise to power had been triggered by the assassination of her husband, the late Senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino, Sr., in 1983, on the tarmac of the then Manila International Airport (now re-named in his honor) – gory images of which I remember seeing when I was five years old, on television, his body on the pavement, blood everywhere – his death President Marco’s last attempt to stay in power.

I may have only been eight, and the significance of that event may have been blurry now that I am older – but I grew up remembering good things about her presidency and what she stood for: the triumph of good over evil, courage, patriotism, social responsibility, freedom, democracy…but most of all…possibility and the many permutations of possibility. For I grew up under a female president, I grew up under a so-called “plain housewife”, and thus I had never known a time when dreaming that I could perhaps be a president as well was impossible. I could be whoever I want to be – and having President Cory Aquino as the national leader, as my national leader, reinforced that, made that possible, encouraged it even. That she was able to topple down the regime of President Ferdinand Marcos was akin to David slaying Goliath, of the woman succeeding in toppling the patriarchy, sexism and misogyny that has been so inherent in any military regime, is not also lost on me and others like me. I grew up knowing and believing change is possible and that one person can make a difference, as she has, during that time. Her being president helped sow the seeds of my own activism, an activism that would grow and bear fruit as I grew older.

And thus she brought to us, most of all, hope.

I grew up and I came of age in her presidency. That is a substantial chunk of my younger years if you realize that a president has six years in office. I was in high school already when her term ended and President Fidel V. Ramos took over as president. Yes, her presidency may have been mired with controversies and coup d’etats, but I remember her most as the only president in living memory who has tried, against all odds, to stick to the ideals of the original EDSA revolution, who had the integrity and principles needed to rise above being a mere politician, who kept her word, who kept the flames of freedom and democracy alive long after her term ended.

Looking at what has been happening to this country, to my country, I cannot help but look back at her time as president with nostalgia, I cannot help but look back and realize that she was greatness-in-the-making. Her greatness did not lie in that she had power, it lay in how she acquired it: peacefully, with no bloodshed, or cha-cha or con-con or mysterious disappearances or missing or added votes or questionable bank accounts or deals. Her greatness did not lie in that she had power, it lay in the fact that when the time to relinquish it came, she kept her word, and relinquinshed it. Her greatness did not lie in that she had power, it lay in her indomitable spirit, her faith, her humility, her belief that she existed to serve, and not to plunder.

You can say what you will about her presidency, her legacy, her life, but ultimately, President Corazon Aquino has left behind a life that has inspired young people like me, to hope that we can change the country, and thus change the world.

And so, as our own current so-called president’s face is shown on the news in the White House looking pleased with herself as she receives undeserved praise from the President of the United States of America, I will go and mourn the loss of one truly great president – the like of which this current president will never amount to, will never measure up to, for as long as she is in power and wreaking havoc on my country. The like of which we may never see again.

Rest in peace, President Cory.

Your legacy will live on…

I will not forget.

If GMA were really honest…

This would be what her speech would be like if President GMA were really honest:

Ladies and gentlemen, before I begin, join me for a moment of prayer for this country that I have shamelessly plundered for eight and a half years. I’d like to thank all the politicians who have traded their integrity and principles to back me and my non-existent political mandate to rule the Filipino people.

The past eight and a  half  years have been one for the history books.

Let me enumerate the key achievements I have made as the president of the Republic of the Philippines:

1. I have managed to make the Philippines poorer than when I first took officer as president.

2. Compared to the past, we have more poor people, higher prices, a bigger budget deficit, and a slower economic growth than is imaginable.

3. I have managed to redefine “democracy” to suit my needs and aspirations.

4. I have managed to make anti-GMA activists and journalists magically disappear. I have managed to ignore, quite successfully, allegations of “human rights violations” – the like of which has never been witnessed before in the Philippines since Marcos took power.

5. I have managed to keep the flames of “Cha-cha” and “Con-con” alive throughout my eight and a half years of presidency, despite much opposition from the left and from people who think I want to continue to stay in power.

6. Most of all, I have proven to people that power does corrupt, and absolute power absolutely corrupts.

7. I have managed to stay in power for eight and a half years despite “Hello Garci”, a so-called “EDSA Revolt” and questions of legitimacy towards my presidency.

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas!

(for full actual speech, click here.)

What do you do when you’re a starving, homeless, unemployed Filipino in Hong Kong who comes across HK$350,545 thrown into a bin?

According to inquirer.net, you return it to the rich Chinese owners, despite the fact that you need it more than they do, despite the fact that you have been abused by your former Chinese employers, that you are broke, homeless, starving and scavenging for food in bins, despite the fact that those same Chinese owners, will only give you biscuits as thanks for your efforts (yes, they only gave biscuits to the Filipino lady). F*cking hell, man!

All that honesty for biscuits!

I’d like to hunt down those Hong Kong owners and shove that money and those biscuits up their arse!

Read full article here.

We are all even more dysfunctional now: Tita Cory, Ate Glo, Madam Imelda and the whole “Filipino pride” debate

Former President Cory Aquino is sick and battling cancer.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is sick because she had breast implants that went awry ( I am dying to come up with something snarky about that, but we’ll save that for later. For now, let me just type…hahahah!).

Perpetual presidential hopeful and one-half of the Marcos dictatorship, Imelda Marcos, is healthy and – horrors! – I think gearing up for yet another stab at politics.

Nowhere is this a very effective summary of the state of Philippine and gender politics than in the medical condition of those mentioned above.

Michael Tan analyzes it best when he writes in his inquirer.net column  “Pinoy Kasi” about “Tita, Ate, Madam” where he effectively describes current Filipino political and gender views based on people’s responses about the three most powerful women in the Philippine political arena today. Out of these three prominent powerful women have emerged the postmodern Filipina archetype.

Nothing like cancer, breast implants and a woman with a penchant for shoes and flair to make us all feel ambivalent about being Filipino.

For that ambivalence verbalized, check out this inquirer post, “Dysfunctionally Pinoy” by clicking here.

Can’t think of anything to write about this now.

NY Times:Ray Bradbury fights for libraries

Ray Bradbury, he who wrote one of my favorite short  stories of all time, “A Story of Love” and “Dandelion Wine” is fighting for libraries. For the full article click here. Some favorite lines from the article include:

“Libraries raised me,” Mr. Bradbury said. “I don’t believe in colleges and universities. I believe in libraries because most students don’t have any money. When I graduated from high school, it was during the Depression and we had no money. I couldn’t go to college, so I went to the library three days a week for 10 years.”

“The children ask me, ‘How can I live forever, too?’ ” he said. “I tell them do what you love and love what you do. That’s the story on my life.”

Before now I would have defended colleges and universities. Now of course, I just think colleges and universities are meaningless. I love that he has a passion for libraries. I used to stay in libraries all the time in college. My high school had no library.My grade school classes had no libraries – the July 1990 earthquake made whatever dreams of a library even more remote. The greatest thing that ever happened to books was thrift shops and book sales. That’s how I got my regular fix of books. God, I’ll miss English public libraries!

Con Ass My Ass!

A break from entertainment:

The nerve of these politicians!

Go out and NOT vote for them in 2010!

Happy Independence Day!

On June 12th, the Philippines celebrates its Independence Day.

To celebrate Independence Day, I post this blog post from Oscar Santos, entitled “Filipinos funny way of loving the Philippines” (for full blog post, click here).

Filipinos’ Funny Way of Loving the Philippines

By OSCAR F. SANTOS, Coconut Industry Reform Movement (COIR) (06/05/09)

FLAG day seeks to promote love of country. These days, everywhere, we see big flags emblazoned with the words, “Pilipinas Kong Mahal.”

But do we really love our country? Maybe so, but we certainly have a funny way of showing it.

The Philippines is blessed with an abundance of natural resources—forests, seas, rivers, lakes, and marine and wildlife. But what do we do?

We pollute the air we breathe, ravage our forests, defile our lakes and rivers, ruin our corals and poison our fish and aquatic life. We litter our streets and dump garbage on our waterways. We treat our natural resources as if they do not belong to us.

Many behave as if they have no pride in being Filipinos. Four out of 10 Filipinos want to leave the country and reside elsewhere. Many are even ashamed of being identified as Filipinos when they go abroad. Our so-called educated avoid speaking their native tongue. To speak with a pronounced native accent is considered “un-cool.” Many struggle to speak English, no matter how broken, because not to be able to is looked down upon.

We are unmindful of our responsibilities as citizens. We close our eyes to the corruption around us. We blatantly break the law, traffic rules most especially, every chance we get. We love to stress our individual rights, but we ignore other people’s. We clean our own backyards, but dump the trash on our neighbor’s side of the street.

We sell our votes and elect plunderers and nincompoops to the highest offices. We give known cheaters seats of honor. Our public officials behave like masters, forgetting that they are public servants. They abuse authority, take bribes, get involved in scandalous contracts, take liberties with public funds, and treat our institutions with utter disrespect.

James Fallows once said that we remain underdeveloped because of our “damaged culture,” having been under Spanish, American and Japanese rule for the last 500 years or so. Randy David puts it this way: “This trait goes by other names. It is the barbarism of mindless profit-seeking, of getting something for almost nothing, of doing brisk business on the despair of others. It is the culture of shabbiness, of mediocrity, of neglect, and of perpetual improvisation. It is the absolute contempt for the public.”

Why do we have no pride in being Filipino?