Remembering

I felt this deserved another post.  I cannot underscore how tragic it was to read about the gunning down of Ka Rene Penas.  My heart goes out to all the Sumilao farmers and agrarian reform advocates who must feel terribly sad, incensed, and yet helpless at the situation.  It is a sad, sad day to find our country has not changed one bit since 1984, since the time of ambushes on opposition voices.  How tragic to find that we are going down the route (if we are not already somewhat there) of China, Burma, North Korea, and all those other states where the threat of being silenced has kept opposition to a minimum.

Whether or not the government had to do with the gunning down of the symbolic figurehead of agrarian reform in the country today, they are accountable for it.  Human rights violations of this sort — the senseless silencing of advocates — have never stopped occuring over the past two decades. But for someone like Ka Rene to be assassinated is a disturbing sign that perhaps our democracy as we know it is on the verge of crumbling.  When the day comes that people become afraid to speak up because they fear for the lives of their families, we no longer live in a democracy, but in a bastardized mafia-run state version of it.

I don’t think I am overreacting.  If I’ve said many things about the state of affairs back home lately, it is only because I love the country, with a fierce intensity that I think everyone who’s ever had to leave feels for the hometown of his memories.  And that is why all of this — the thought that our congressmen could so blatantly abuse their power and get away with it, the thought that an honest man who believed in changing the system should have to die fighting for it — makes me terribly sad about everything.

Filed under: philippines

Bastusan

By Pat Roque,  AP Photo

It was incredibly sickening to watch the events of Tuesday’s vote in Manila’s House of Representatives unfold, even andespecially from far away, where the actions of the pompous House majority only seem to gain a more glaring, unflattering clarity.  It is an absolute contempt for the democracy that our congressmen even think they can pull off something like this and get away with it.  And how Malacanang can keep claiming it had nothing to do with the vote – nothing whatsoever — is disgusting.

It is insulting to us as a Filipino people that our very own leaders — people who we elected — think that we won’t mind the fact that they would vote for an amendment that is clearly not in the best interest of the country.  In what parallel universe can a system which allows for a strongman rule (be it in the hands of the president or a prime minister) be acceptable?  

What infuriates me most is the fact that these politicians all vowed once upon a time never to forget the lessons of Edsa.  It is a complete mockery of the democratic ideals which our republic is founded on and a great betrayal against every single Filipino who believed that the system could work.  Every single one of these congressmen should be utterly ashamed.  Shame on every single one of you.  If I could only list down every single one of the 174 congressmen who voted for the sham of a bill, I would.  But our ridiculous, red-taped congressional website doesn’t even post records of votes.  So many expletives I could hurl at the mockery of a legislative system we have right now.  Well thank you, Congress.  Thank you for finally convincing me of something that others have tried to get me to understand in the past: our government is not worth believing in.  It has absolutely no shreds of credibility left to its name.  And people wonder why so much talent, so many idealists choose to put all their efforts towards nation-building elsewhere.  

This is why.

Filed under: philippines