Earthquake

Now that classes are over, I can start writing things nobody reads again.

Last Tuesday, October 15, a magnitude seven earthquake struck Bohol. The quake was felt all over Central Visayas including my hometown of Cebu.

I remember waking up early at four o'clock that morning which was highly unusual since I usually get up later at around nine. I took a hike, walking to Banawa and back. It seemed like a normal day. I even thought it would be a good one even since I "started it right" with exercise and breakfast.

At around eight, (8:12 AM according to official news) I was at my computer, as usual, when the tremor started. At first I thought it was a minor thing. After all, very minor earthquakes happen every now and then.

But it didn't stop.

It went on longer than usual and then got much, much stronger. I knew it was serious when I heard the house and all it's contents rattling. The house moaned as the second floor began to sway back and forth. The shaking was more terrible up there as the first floor was concrete but the second was wooden. I remember running into my bathroom thinking that at least the small room seemed solid enough and that half-empty shampoo bottles would hardly become deadly projectiles.

At some point, I must have ran out and opened the door for mom who was banging it and yelling my name. I don't remember doing it but I must have. We both hid in the bathroom.

It seemed to go on forever. The things on my shelves began falling to the floor making a racket. The cover of the air-conditioner fell down with a nerve-wracking bang. Mom kept yelling my name over and over again. I held her arm on one of mine and used my other to hold the door tightly as I stared outside almost incredulous. I didn't know what to do. I just wanted it to be over. 

I couldn't bear hearing my mom yell my name over and over again. It was heart-wrenching as I couldn't do anything to help her. I simply told her to start praying. In retrospect, it was pretty out-of-character of me to do so and more than a bit hypocritical.

After the quake stopped, we made for the staircase. Though, it was finally over, I realized my feet were shaking as if it wasn't. I ran as if I was on the deck of a small boat in choppy waters. As soon as we got out mom began to cry. All the neighbors were out on the basketball court with looks of fear and uncertainty. My cousin and a house helper appeared and we helped mom back inside the house. Mom was hysterical and wouldn't stop crying. We tried to calm her down as best we could, offering her a drink of water. It would be some time before we got back to normal.

Bed-ridden, grandpa slept through it all. To our horror, we found out that his bed, which had no wheels, couldn't fit through the door, neither could the extra bed on the side. A wheelchair was out of the question. Exhausted, we decided that if ever it came to the worst, we would have to carry him out.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't scared. That earthquake was the longest thirty seconds in my life. It's amazing that this old house didn't even seem to be damaged. It would seem termites would get this house before an earthquake would.

What a ride.

Mystery Poster

About a month ago, I passed by a poster of a man put up near a restaurant. What was strange about it was it was just a picture of a man doing the "thumbs up" with his name written below and nothing else. It just seemed a bit odd to have a picture of some random guy out there for no reason.

When I passed by the public market, I saw a whole bunch of similar posters of different people. I wondered what was up with it.

But then, if you lived here long enough, you kind of already know the answer.

As soon as election season rolled around, all they had to do was put stickers on the posters indicating what position the seemingly random guys were running for. 

I guess that's one way of beating the campaigning ban before the election period starts. It's not technically campaigning if its just a poster of a guy with a name since there's no indication he's running for office. You know, you have to marvel at the ways people skirt around the Law. It's like wringing a wet rag, coaxing as much water out of it as possible, looking for every avenue and technicality to defeat the rules.

I don't know whether to be impressed or ashamed.

With Great Power

You know what ticks me off?

About the pork barrel scandal, you get jackasses like Senator Drilon who insist that giving out money is the duty of an elected representative. Otherwise, he says, without the pork barrel,we should just abolish congress altogether. 

Good grief.

He says it like that's a bad thing. Anyway, assuming that we continue the pork barrel as is, does this mean that our lawmakers are gonna be more careful with how they spend the people's money? Not so says Senator Estrada. According to that buffoon, it's not the responsibility of the Senator to verify the NGO involved! Well, how about that!? Senator Enrile apparently agrees with him on this assessment. And I thought Enrile was supposed to be the "smart" one.

What this boils down to is quite simple. Our representathieves just want all the money and power, insisting that it's absolutely necessary to their jobs but at the same time want none of the actual responsibility when it all goes to hell. What two-faced, good-for-nothing parasites.

Sometimes, I wonder if people will ever tire of suffering these idiots.

Ten Minutes

 

They got her.

No wait, they didn't. She surrendered to the President who then had a little chat with her for ten minutes and personally brought her to Camp Crame. Yes, the President of the Philippines personally escorted the suspected mastermind of the pork-barrel scandal. El Presidente even rode the lead car, which is the most dangerous position in a convoy! Who's the boss here?

There's a lot of hubbub in the social media networks. A lot of people are yelling about Janet receiving special treatment or that the President could have made a "secret deal" with her on who to spill the beans on and who to protect. It does seem suspicious. A lot can happen in ten minutes...

Here's my take. What I think happened was, Janet approached the President out of fear of her safety because there's a lot of lawmakers who have no qualms about giving the old deep six to the odd blabbermouth or two. In an effort to look like he's taking charge, Dear Leader jumped at the chance and perhaps imagined himself as a Caesar in his triumph with the reviled enemy as a prisoner in tow. But being inexperienced at taking charge of things and not blaming others, El Presidente instead, only managed to look servile and the whole thing raised more questions. What did they talk about in those ten minutes? Your guess is as good as mine.

The President should know by now that this is the social media age. The vocal "anti-pork" groups are beasts that lurk on Twitter and Facebook. Therefore, they are not so easily swayed by the excuses of his spokespersons or his lackeys in the media. If it looks suspicious, hell will be raised. You can't wrestle the narrative man, it's not like the old days. This whole mythology of The President as the son of heroes with a glorious legacy won't hold, at least, not on people with enough brains to use a computer. The poor maybe, but remember, his enemy right now are the social media kiddies and some of them are quite competent.

What remains to be seen is if the social media crowd can translate their movement into something concrete like a party or voting bloc. Anger isn't enough. That anger must be transformed into a tangible thing; voting power.

As for Janet, well... due process, etc., etc., all that crap.

Oink! Oink!

So the scandal this month is the pork barrel scam. What happened? I thought corruption was gone! Listening to our President, I thought we had turned a new leaf and the sick man of Asia was on the straight and narrow path to rehab!

Oink! Oink!

But it seems there's no curing (no pun intended) the sick man's addiction...to pork. I don't blame our senators. After all, we are really a pork loving people. Look at all the lechon and chicharon we consume despite the health warnings. It seems Filipinos (or is it "Pilipinos" now?) can't stop bad habits like eating too much pork or electing thieves into office. Unfortunately, unlike a typical roast pig served at a town fiesta, the only ones getting fed nowadays are not the townspeople but the vultures and crocodiles in Congress.

As much as I'd like to explain a little bit about the origins of the Philippine Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or"the pork barrel", let's skip that for now. Just think of it as the President's "stash". This stash is allocated in the budget and is worth about 25 billion pesos this year; 200 million for each senatong and 70 million for each representathief.

How it works is that the lawbreaker lawmaker would send a request to Committee,  then through the Senate President or Speaker (presumably collecting grease on the way while they're at it) and then finally to the Department of Budget and Mismanagement or the DBM.  The DBM then releases the sweet, sweet, golden-crispy pork to the implementing agency identified by the lawmaker which is usually a Non Government Organization.

Even those with no cynical bone in their body can see the potential problems with this. The DBM doesn't bother to follow up if the NGOs are on the level apparently. There's very little guidelines as to what kind of "projects" the lawmakers are allowed to fund except that it has to be in their district. Basically, the entire thing hinges on the honesty and good faith of our lawmakers. That's kind of like asking the fox to guard the henhouse.

I call it the President's stash because this "pork barrel" has been the method by which the executive, via the DBM, exerts control over legislators. Think of it this way; the President is the sugar daddy and the lawmakers are the hoes, get it? Lawmakers who fall in the Presidents disfavor, refuse to toe the line or refuse to repeat the mantra that our President is the best ever, can find their funds "unreleased". It's a well known fact that the Arroyos, the President's enemies, don't receive a centavo of the pork barrel. Who knows? Maybe their requests got lost in the shuffle, maybe the department is too busy or maybe their papers got "misplaced". You know how bureaucracies are... bureaucracies with a lot of discretion and next to no oversight.

Which brings us now, to the present scandal. The circus is in town! Step right in and don't worry, you already bought a ticket!

Once upon a time there was a guy named Benhur who worked as an assistant of Janet Napoles, who appears to be the worst boss ever because she allegedly kidnapped and illegally detained him. He filed a case in the Department of Justice against her but it was dismissed. Frustrated, he decided to get even by going to the NBI and spilling the beans on Janet. You see, Janet  as it turns out, is at the center - the very black heart of the Pork Barrel Scam. She allegedly orchestrated the scam by providing fake NGOs for lawmakers to endorse, then she would take the cash for herself after giving the lawmakers their share of the booty.

I'm disappointed that it sounds a tad simplistic but think about this for a minute. This whole thing blew wide open because some guy was pissed and not because of some police investigation or government oversight. It may as well have been an accident.

As expected, the scandal was big news and inspired overly dramatic posts on Facebook and inane "tweets" from the twits on Twitter. An arrest warrant was issued for Napoles on the illegal detention charge but she had miraculously vanished into thin air. It was as if she knew ahead of time the warrant would be issued. It was as if someone on the inside tipped her off. It was as if our government was corrupt at every single level and we know that simply can't be true because our President said so.

So the hunt is on for Napoles, who could be hiding in any of the many large houses she owns; including the upper and lower houses of Congress. Always hide in the last place they expect! Hey, maybe they should ask Lacson for advice on where she may be hiding. He's the expert on hiding like a coward. 

Speaking of cowardice, the noticeable lack of interest and effort by the lawmakers in pursuing this case is palpable. Weren't these the same jokers who ranted and raved and impeached a Chief Justice for not revealing certain things in his statement of assets and liabilities? The hypocrisy is so much that I actually feel physically ill just thinking about it. These same jokers who put on their little robes to play Justice make the former Chief Justice's "crime" look like small potatoes.

Our Honorable Senators

And what of our President? Why, nothing AS USUAL. He seems content to pontificate and ramble as he usually does. No need to even promise he'll do anything about it because we know he won't. His tough talk of fighting corruption rings hollow now, but it always had to people like me who don't drink the yellow Kool-Aid. Today on the radio, he and his lackeys told the press that they just simply needed to "make the system better". Right... like in the same way that the gas chambers in Auschwitz weren't wrong you see, they just needed to "make the system better". Get rid of it. The pork barrel is like shit to flies. Get rid of it you morons. And AS USUAL, the President went to the old stand-by and blamed his predecessor because it all allegedly started then. No, Mister President, your mother's administration came up with the pork barrel. Go whine on her grave.

Even the church is in on it. Nobody is clean in this disaster. Janet loaned out her house in Makati for the favored priests who would attend to her, pray for her and even give her private prayer sessions with the statue of the Black Nazarene. Yes, the very same Black Nazarene that MILLIONS crawl all over each other just to touch and she gets a private session. Even Manny Pacquiao with his billions has to get in line in Quiapo. Not even the Virgin Mary herself has that privilege. What, you gonna try to  bribe God too?

Lining Up is for Losers

Right now Manila is in its third day of flooding. Oh, if only we had the money to build a drainage system! Oh, if only we had say, ten billion pesos that wasn't squirreled away by corrupt legislators, we could have built public works to avert this catastrophe! Oh, we are the gates of hell! Oh, scratch that, we're the River Styx!

And this little piggy went "wee! wee! wee!" all the way to her twenty-eight mansions.

New Year's Revolution

Happy New Year!

There's nothing quite like breaking your resolutions a mere twelve hours in. I don't care though. That buffet was great.

Here's to another year of complaining about things that don't matter.