Sons of the Revolution

I find it amusing that "Bongbong" Marcos is proving to be more intelligent that "Noynoy" Aquino. It's like the late Ferdinand Marcos' vengeance from beyond the grave. The late heroes' have messed up children while the dead dictator has a more competent one.

"Bongbong" is a silly nickname but I suppose you must do what you can to endear yourself to the unwashed masses. To be fair, "Ferdinand Marcos Jr." might not evoke the right feelings with the slower people. Nevertheless, he is not his father. I believe children should not be made to suffer for the sins of their father (or fathers if the case may be). 

I remember this one time when "Bongbong", I'll just call him Marcos Junior from now on or something, gave his speech during the trial of the former Chief Justice, I was actually impressed. He gave his reasons why he would not vote to impeach and said reasons were rooted in legal thinking, which was refreshing since the whole exercise seemed more and more an overdose of politics as usual.

Fate has a cruel sense of humor. The son of the hero is turning out to be the worst thing that's ever happened to us post-revolution. I'm not a big supporter of Junior but what if the savior of the Philippines turns out to be the son of the great villainous dictator?

I don't know whether to laugh or cry sometimes.

In Defense of the "Haters"

Holy Week came and passed. Holy Week is that time of the year when Filipinos set aside some special time for God and attend to spiritual matters. After that, it's back to the usual sinning and immorality.

El Presidente claims to have spent the Holy Week praying for his "haters". His words: "Siguro pagmumuni-munihan ko 'yung 'di ba some quarters have this intense hate that they have continuously exhibited. Siguro I'll concentrate in praying for them."

I've already gone over previously that if you look at the President as an egotistical narcissist, every stupid thing he says and does begins to make sense. His hypersensitivity to hearing bad things from people, whether it's his own men or his critics, is further evidence of my humble theory.

I wonder what he was praying for specifically. Was he praying for them to have good health and long lives or was he praying for God to shove lightning bolts up their asses, given that he's a vindictive man-child? I digress.

I find the use of the word "hate" a very interesting choice. What is hatred? Simply put, hatred is an intense and passionate dislike for something or someone. "Hate" was a very revealing choice of word because hate is seen as something negative. In a Christian culture such as ours, "hate" is seen as something to be avoided. To hate is to sin; we must love God and neighbor. Hatred is evil and is not seen as a positive in any way, at least over here.

PNoy dismisses his critics as merely people who have intense hate for him. Hate is a very strong word. In this way, he paints his critics as evil people who hate. To be fair, there are probably people who do hate the President but remember that there are also people who simply disagree. There are those who criticize not out of personal hatred but out of, I dunno, genuine concern for national affairs or sense of civic duty to hold leaders accountable for mistakes?

To lump all your critics into one category, no matter how valid and fair their grievances, is a whole lot easier than having to deal with them. If you simply say they're "haters" then it becomes easier to dismiss them rather than having to listen to them. To label someone a "hater" makes them evil and it makes them seem irrational. Better to call them haters than critics. "Critic" has an air of legitimacy to it. "Hater" on the other hand, delegitimizes a person.

In the broader culture, it's becoming trendy to simply label your critics as haters. "Haters gonna hate" is the popular phrase. The point of the hater label is to dismiss criticism outright. "You're a hater, I don't have to listen to you since you just hate for no reason!" Pop culture is narcissistic and whatever convenient delusion we cook up for ourselves to block out "negativity", we are eager to use. So call them haters! That way, you don't have to engage. There doesn't have to be any actual debate or exchange of ideas. That way, you don't have to change. Nothing changes. Everything stays exactly the way it is because you're already perfect the way you are, right? Narcissists are so into the present.

The hater label is problematic. It is not good also to label every critic as a hater. If a person is making valid criticisms out of real concern for you, a knee-jerk reaction to label that person a hater won't do either of you any good. Taken to its extreme, just look at the President. He doesn't listen at all to his critics. To PNoy, everyone who doesn't toe the line and say what he wants to hear, is just a hater. No need to talk. No need to answer questions. NO NEED TO APOLOGIZE. Just shut them out. After all, that's democracy, right?

For the record, I don't hate PNoy; I pity him.

Some Thoughts On "PNoy Resign"

Ah, the dreaded "R word". It seems that every President in my lifetime, save Ramos ( I was too young to remember though he probably had his own calls), has and will always endure calls for his or her resignation. "Erap resign!" was once the call but then came "Gloria, resign!". Now it's "PNoy resign!". It's either a sign of our malfunctioning democracy or of a vibrant one, depending on who you ask.

There seems to be a fear that PNoy's resignation will cause chaos in our country. I don't think so. A president voluntarily resigning isn't as cataclysmic an event as the media makes it out to be. Our constitution has provisions dealing with the matter of succession. An event like this was foreseen long ago. The framers of our constitution may have been meddlers but they weren't stupid. A smooth and orderly transition is quite possible.

The ones we should fear are those calling for special "transitional bodies" or whatever kind of committee they want to take over, when the President steps down. Let's just follow the constitution at least once in our lives, OK? One who talks of a succession order other than the one provided for in the constitution betrays his secret motives.

The calls for PNoy's resignation aren't as strong as you would expect in relation to his abysmal approval numbers. Lawmakers are noticeably hesitant as well and are wish-washy when it comes to exercising their power of impeachment. The reason is obvious. PNoy's resignation would mean that Vice-President Binay would temporarily take the reins. Binay is the strongest contender for the next presidential election. He has many rivals and it's reasonable to believe that they fear giving Binay such powers if only for a while. Binay temporarily exercising the powers of the President would allow him to consolidate his advantage over others. This is a political calculation which, I believe, is saving PNoy from being booted out right quick. It's ironic to me that if Mar Roxas had been the Vice-President, there would have been no such deterrent since nobody is scared of him.

Personally, I don't feel strongly either way about the issue. If PNoy resigns, then that's OK by me. If he doesn't, then that's fine too. It will be a source of humor at least, to wonder how he'll screw up next and how badly. At least I'll have something to write about.

God save our republic.

The Lame Dove President

First of all, what happened to those SAF officers was barbaric. Those men didn't deserve to go out like that. It goes to show you how depraved and cruel our foes really are and how inept our political leadership has become.

So who's fault was it? Don't bother asking El Presidente. His entire term has been nothing but excuse after excuse after excuse. The only thing he seems to do is point fingers and blame his enemies whether real or imaginary. This is an absentee President totally devoid of any leadership qualities. He has proven once and for all he is incapable of making smart decisions and taking responsibility for his actions. I'm done. I've had it. I don't want to see his face on my TV or on the newspaper, I can't stomach it. I wish PNoy, his airhead sister Kris and his entire stupid entitled family would just fuck off forever from media and politics. It's abundantly clear they're no good; no good at all.

On Peace

I'm sick and tired of all the talk of "peace" making the rounds in the newspapers and media. The administration is hammering away on their talking point that we mustn't let the massacre stop the peace process. The administration has displayed an alarming lack of empathy and understanding. It's as if the lives of those men didn't matter. It's just 44 little speed bumps on the road to peace. How can a people so proud of its spirituality during the papal visit treat life so cheaply?

What irks me the most is this notion that "peace" will be the eventual result of the Bangsamoro swindle. Haven't you noticed? People seem to just assume that we're on a road to peace. I've got some bad news. Don't assume peace will be the definite and inevitable result of all this. That's what everyone thought when the Philippines made a deal with the MNLF long ago. Remember those jokers? Then we had the ARMM, an autonomous region just for the Muslims. Did lasting peace come? No. It's 2015 and we're still dealing with the MILF, a group that uses terror and violence to get their way. Now there's a BIFF group that claims to want a piece of the pie. It seems every time an administration has the hubris of assuming that peace will be achieved through pieces of paper, some alphabet soup organization just comes out of nowhere and ruins everything. What's next? Will we cut a deal with the BIFF too down the road only to have some group like, say, the STFU, to emerge and cause chaos?

Sometimes you have to fight for peace. I'm sorry if that sounds so terrible but it's true. Some people just cannot be reasoned with or have no intention to make nice at all. Just look at how those barbarians butchered the corpses of those officers. Do you want to put them in charge? Does the MILF even speak for the people of Mindanao? Did anyone elect them?

PNoy is hopelessly naive if he thinks this Bangsamoro deal will result in sunshine and rainbows in that godforsaken ass-crack of a region. His peace plan is in serious doubt now. So we've had an incompetent president who accomplished nothing of consequence throughout his entire term and now places all his chips on this gamble with a bunch of 7th Century barbarians. He's not a lame duck president; lame dove is more like it.

What Now? Politics...

If we had a real leader, we would have had an answer for this by now. Instead, we have politics rearing its goddamn ugly head again. You know, I never though I'd see the day that such blatant and shameless politicking would actually get a lot of people fucking killed but it's happened. We've hit rock bottom.

So PNoy and his buddy, suspended Chief of Police, Purisima did this? Again, nobody takes responsibility. The buck stops where? Why was Mar Roxas kept out of the loop? Why were so many people kept out of the loop? Why did nobody send any reinforcements? This whole thing stinks to high heaven. This whole thing stinks all the way to Malacanang.

What the hell is happening to us?

The Yellow Card And The Yellow God

The SONA yesterday was quite amazing in the fact that Pnoy somehow resisted the urge to defend the DAP and to take passive-aggressive swipes at the judiciary. Otherwise, it went as expected. He touted the achievements of his administration and painted the picture that the Philippines is fine and dandy.

What was most interesting to me about the speech yesterday, however, was the pathetic retread of the "struggle". If you're Filipino, you know what I mean. The story of Marcos, martial law, Ninoy, Cory and yellow ribbons. At this point, it's not so much our history as it is "his story" - specifically, Pnoy's story where he is the righteous hero of course. The part of the speech where he echoed the words of his father and tried to rekindle that old "laban" feeling is, in my opinion, the most important part of his speech without a doubt. Nothing else matters. The carefully staged part of the speech where Pnoy said, "The Filipino is worth living for." and the camera zoom on the tears of his family was the key. It was the play, the money shot, the climax, the master stroke, etc. 

Did another boyfriend leave her, or something?

The listing of achievements is secondary, as whether or not something is an achievement takes time. The primary thrust of the speech was the reminder that Pnoy was "the one". Just as we Filipinos are slaves of our own wretched history, so is Pnoy a slave to his own mythology - that of the son of the heroes of martial law, Ninoy and Cory.

When you think of it in this manner, it isn't so hard to see why Pnoy acts in such a self-righteous and overzealous manner. For him, the events of the eighties never ended. The story is continuing and he is the continuation. He sees the world as history unfolding in a storybook manner where there are clear sides of good (him) and evil (his critics). To put it bluntly, he has his bald head shoved up so far his own ass that he believes in his own hype and his own aura of do-no-wrong incorruptibility. EDSA was the promise and he is the fulfillment. Why do you think he wears that yellow ribbon on his barong all the time? That's what it's about. That's what it has always been about.

Symbols have weight. (source)

Logically, it does not make sense. Just because Pnoy is the son of Ninoy and Cory doesn't mean he is "good" as the culture portrays his parents to be. But Pnoy believes it. His sycophants reinforce his belief. Again, he is a slave to myth but not history. It's almost like a religion, come to think of it. All of this hinges on the belief that Pnoy is the hero and can do no wrong because he is the son of heroes. He is the yellow warrior, the knight in golden armor who fights monsters; monsters like a sickly old woman and a hapless magistrate.

Maybe I'm going too far, but ask yourself if Pnoy would have been elected if he weren't an Aquino. Remember that the man rode on a wave of sympathy from the death of his mother. Frankly, if Pnoy weren't an Aquino, his speech yesterday wouldn't have any impact.

If Pnoy were smart, he'd be guilty of mere exploitation; of milking the family name and history. Based on his words and actions though, I think the man honestly believes the hype. In a way I feel sorry for him that he is unable to step back and view things from a normal point of view instead of yellow-tinted glass.

The most disturbing part of the speech was Pnoy's assertion that his enemies were not only his enemies but were enemies of the people as well. That is why the reinforcement of the myth was the most important part of the speech yesterday. Pnoy is the supposed force of good. He is the product of people power. Therefore, he represents the people. He is the people. The people are him. He is the Philippines. L'etat c'est moi. So stop wondering why Pnoy acts the way he does. There is nothing more dangerous in this world than a zealot.

In soccer, a yellow card is a warning that you have committed an offense. Pnoy has been warned but for him, the yellow card is one he plays to gather sympathy and reinforce the beliefs of his worshipers. But warnings should be heeded and he who fights the "monsters" of the present should see to it he does not become one himself.

History has a nasty habit of repeating itself.