A Show of Force

Today, the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) held a national rally "for peace". For those who don't know, the INC is an independent non-trinitarian Christian church and they're a pretty big deal here in the Philippines. 

The INC insisted that the rallies were not at all political but moral, which means it was definitely political. Who the hell calls for "unity" during an election season, a time when lines are drawn?

The rallies were simply a show of force. What other group can force Imperial Manila to declare a local holiday just because of all the traffic their event would cause? It was estimated that more than a million ballots showed up in Manila. The pictures showed a sea of ballots wearing white, flooding the streets and filling the Quirino Grandstand. This isn't even counting the ballots that held their own rally in my city. While not as dramatic as one Manila, it was reason enough for work to be called off early.

The INC has its detractors, the most fervent of which denounce it as a cult. The INC denounces the trinity, believes their founder was God's last prophet, and other boring run-of-the-mill "we know better than the Pope" stuff. Churches like these are a dime a dozen but the difference with the INC is that they're smart. To survive in a predominantly Roman Catholic country, they've had to play the political game and they play it very well.

I don't hate them. To be frank, I admire them in a political sense. I find it ironic that in a dysfunctional democracy like ours, it's only this group of weirdos that's doing things correctly. The INC is an excellent political party regardless of how one feels about their beliefs.

Critics who decry the INC's tactics of bloc voting are just salty. Why wouldn't members of the INC vote for whoever their leader tells them to? That's how political organizations in a democracy work. That they're a religious group is irrelevant. People are free to band together for any cause. In this case, I assume that the INC's cause is, at its simplest, freedom to conduct its business without interference from the government. Is it up to something nefarious? Who knows? Who cares? Everyone is up to something nefarious.

If people were smart, they'd follow the INC's example and band together to form their own voting blocs. That's how you get political power. Sadly, the most people can muster is their own local interests. Barangay Kamunggay will vote for whoever can promise something good for Barangay Kamunggay. At worst, people vote at the smallest level. They vote for whoever can provide for their family or (gasp) their individual selves.

Imagine if Filipinos got together based on an idea and formed a voting bloc to elect people supporting that idea. Crazy. Not in a low-trust society. This is what communists should be doing but instead of doing the groundwork, they'd rather hide in the jungle and pretend the eighties never ended.

The INC's "second resurrection" has a higher chance of happening than Filipinos learning to organize themselves to be a persistent threat to the system.

Sleeping Satellite - Tasmin Archer

Cyberpunk 2077 OST - Antagonistic by Chris Cardena and Sebastian Robertson & Pacific Avenue

The Manchurian Candidate

Alice Quo?

Guo vadis?

By now you've probably learned everything about Alice Guo, the mayor of Bamban, Tarlac. No sweat since there's not much to learn in the first place. 

Her life was a blank until suddenly, she's running the whole damn show. To be fair, you could say the same for the spoiled scions of our political dynasties, many of whom haven't accomplished anything noteworthy except emerging from the right slit.

So who is she? Since she doesn't have much to say about her identity, the system has decided to pick one for her. How does "Chinese spy" sound? She looks the part. Can speak it too. 

As funny as the jokes and memes have been about this whole "issue", it's quite disturbing when you think about it. The "Chinese spy" bit isn't what bothers me (she isn't) but the whole circus performance the powers that be have arranged for our entertainment. You can tell this is a show since they dragged her ass to the Senate because this is undoubtedly their purview, right?  We can clap and laugh on cue like a good studio audience but on should analyze the undercurrents. What do they want us, the people, to think? Why her? Why now?

I'm no expert but I can think of a few things.

First of all, is she really a Chinese spy? Of course not. The Chinese aren't dumb. If they wanted to infiltrate our political system, such a high profile position (and an elected one at that) is not the way to do it. Think really hard. What do the Chinese gain from controlling the office of the mayor in Bamban,  of all places? Control of the strategic sugarcane reserves?

Even if we were to accept the premise that she's a foreign puppet, are we seriously suggesting that the majority of the population of Bamban were tricked by the Chinese, and the latter left no trace? Was the system itself rigged? How? Nobody's asking, of course. The attention is oddly all on her.

I offer a simpler explanation. She was installed by the local Philippine Offshore Gaming Operation (POGO) of whom she also has an interest in. POGOs are big money and rake in a lot of tax revenue. They bought her that office. We know people can be bought off. Power brokers will play along and marshal the votes needed for the right price. It was a marriage of convenience between the political system and the richest player in town. Having a stooge in office does wonders to help your business run smoother and avoid prying eyes. It's not that China installed this living enigma into office like some spy thriller, but rather that the dominant local interests, who happen to be Chinese, found it convenient to have a friend in a high place.

To me, Alice Guo is just your typical corrupt politician whose cozy with the local bigshots. I admit there's a non-zero chance that she is a spy but it's a tiny chance. The Chinese know there's more than one way to skin a cat. They've probably infiltrated us already in ways we don't know about. Corruption is the rule here and politicians sell out to anyone. 

But it's depressing to think that even mere Chinese businessmen can get us now.

You might think that the Chinese government used the POGO to plant Alice then.. To that, I'm very sorry to say that there are many other POGOs in the country. What makes this one POGO in Bamban different? If the Chinese intelligence apparatus spreads its tendrils through these institutions, they're spoiled for choice.

We know the government won't get rid of POGOs. There's too much money in it.

Sinophobia

Now that I've offered a more likely explanation, what's the point of all this hysteria then? I'm sure you've noticed that Alice Guo is already treated as a spy by the talking heads. 

I find it disturbing that a Philippine senator can so casually suggest that our electoral system, which we praise as the greatest gift God ever gave us, has been compromised by foreign powers. I also find it disturbing how the people have gone all in on Alice Guo being a spy without solid proof. The possibility that she's just a non-citizen isn't even considered anymore. We are treating this as if the worst case scenario has already happened.

What do the powers that be want us to think?

No need to beat around the bush. We're being taught to fear China - to hate China. Great forces are moving in the world and the Philippines is a pawn on the board. Whose pawn? Why, we're the pawn of our other frenemy, the United States of America.

If you've no stomach for "conspiracy theories", the piece ends here.

America has been spoiling for a fight with China for some time now. The Philippines is part of the ring physically surrounding and containing China, which includes Japan and South Korea. The Philippines is a weak country and it can't make deals with China without kuya America in the room. What does kuya say? The only language America seems to speak is escalation if the clown show in Europe is to be observed. So the Philippines has embarked on this campaign of provocation against China. Just a few weeks ago, human shields civilian fishermen were sent on a suicide run supposedly through a Chinese blockade. Did nobody find that odd? Duterte was on good terms with China but now we're stirring the pot. Why? 

The average Filipino dislikes the Chinese but doesn't hate them. It would serve certain interests if the sentiment could be turned up a notch. Look at the big picture. Look at the things Senator Hontiveros and her ilk are implying. This is a very serious matter.

What I'm trying to say is that the Alice Guo program isn't for our amusement. We're the ones being programmed but for what?

City Mouse Country Mouse

During Holy Week, many people take the opportunity to return to their families in the provinces on the long weekend. It gets really nice and quiet in the city as a result.

When trying to come up with something to write, I made the terrible mistake of browsing Facebook for ideas. There was a minor fuss about some Facebook posts by city slickers sarcastically quipping about how the "main characters" have all gone home to the provinces. Honestly, I didn't and still don't know what this meant exactly. I could only guess that people in the city don't like people from the province? If that's the case, I'm sure the feeling is mutual.

Sometimes I think that most of my negative opinions and beliefs about the Filipino character come from the fact that I live in a city. To live in the city is to be surrounded by strangers. That's when you really learn what "low-trust society" means. You can't trust anyone around here. But could things be different in some stereotypical "barrio" in the hills where everyone knows everyone? 

I can't help but notice this tendency, which I am also guilty of, to inflate the goings on in the city with the general condition of the rest of the province. It's even worse for a metropolis like Manila where happenings there are taken as the concern of the whole country. 

I can think of two reasons why cities are prioritized by the government and by the media. The first reason is that democracy is essentially a numbers game. Naturally, the place with more people gets more attention. The issues of the city seem more important since the voice of the people is just louder. 

The second reason is that cities are more developed in terms of infrastructure. It's easier for the government and mass media to operate in a place with transportation and communication networks. The provinces and far-flung places meanwhile, are notoriously neglected. Are they neglected because they are undeveloped or undeveloped because they are neglected? Regardless, the government can easily operate in the city and since politicians don't like to work too hard, they concentrate their efforts here. This also relates neatly to the first reason, that is, that there's more voters in the city.

Is the enmity between city folk and provincial folk real? I think it exists to some degree - the term "imperial Manila" didn't arise from nowhere. It's not as serious as outright hatred, though. It's more about the fact that you need to go to the city to avail of services or to find a high paying job. In my opinion, city folk have no right to complain about provincial folk coming in to inconvenience them with their presence. I'm willing to bet money that, if given the choice, people would rather not go to some hellhole like Manila to process their papers or whatever if the same could be done in their hometown. It's just another consequence of poor development and government neglect. The people have no choice. 

The "city versus province" paradigm is just another fact of life. 

Rule The World - ricky retro , Scorz

The Passion of the Quiboloy

 Some friends of mine encouraged me to write again but I couldn't come up with a good topic. I decided to look up current events for some ideas. Imagine my immense disappointment when I discovered that the topic of the day was the trials and tribulations of Apollo Quiboloy.

What a nice topic for the Lenten season.

For those who don't know, Apollo Quiboloy is an alleged pastor and the leader of the church called the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KJC). He also calls himself the "Appointed Son of God" and claims to have the power to stop earthquakes and TV networks. Must I go on? Is there really a need to elaborate? You probably already have some idea of what kind of person he is. Imagine the stock character of the sleazy evangelical / cult leader and you wouldn't be far off the mark. 

So why does this clown matter? The KJC practices tithing and claims to have four million members in the Philippines and two million members abroad. Therefore, Quiboloy has the two essential ingredients for power - money and influence. His followers have made him very rich and will vote for whoever he tells them to. He's too big to ignore. True enough, politicians, including presidential hopefuls, court his favor. It's not hard to imagine him and his followers  being able to move the needle in the elections of some small municipality or barangay. 

Quiboloy is also wanted by the U.S. for sexual abuse and sex trafficking.

Sensing a dying animal, the vultures in congress are swooping in to take advantage of the situation. Rather than let the justice system run its course, the Senate has demanded that Quiboloy appear to explain himself. 

Dragging Quiboloy to the spotlight isn't the Senate's job. Yes, the Senate has the power to conduct investigations but it's supposed to do so only "in aid of legislation". Sure, you can make some excuse about how grilling this clown could lead to some legislative breakthrough, if you were an incredibly naive person. The purpose here is twofold: to grandstand at his expense, and to force his supporters to defend him and tar themselves in the process.

My problem is that all of this hubbub is an incredible waste of time. Does the Senate really have nothing better to do? What troubles me is just how naked all of this is. In the old bygone days (10 years ago) the Senate at least made some effort to hide its grandstanding. Now they're not even trying. It really is a circus and they want that spotlight.

Make no mistake, I'm not defending Quiboloy but the Senate is making it extremely difficult not to feel some sympathy. I see this as a private person versus an overreaching government. Imagine if the legislature decided to have some fun at your expense and you can't even "fight back" like you could in court. It'll be a public spectacle, our crucifixion of the condemned. Jeez, Pilate would have given a fairer trial.

Why would Quiboloy even agree to appear in the first place? Going in front of the Senate will not help him or his case in any way. Why go? So they can put a bag over his head the minute he goes in the building? 

I'm kidding. There absolutely is a chance he'll appear in the Senate just to showboat. If nothing else, he would love to play the part of the martyred Christ before they take him away. Philippine politics really is insane like that sometimes.

Just ship him to the U.S. and be done with it.