Baguio Insider

I know, I know, I am prolific today, this being my third post, as I wait to leave for Manila, to attend my paternal grandmother’s 96th birthday party tonight.

My grandma’s being “alive and kicking” at 100 years minus four is something to ponder. Of course her being in full possession of her faculties is simply phenomenal! Ok, maybe a little deaf but too vain to wear her hearing aid. A little blind, too, but there’s no osteoperosis here when she gets up from the wheelchair that tires her less, and stands to her full regal height of 5 feet 8 inches (what if she was really 5′11” and shrank?).

My grandma’s being the last of her generation, all her younger siblings, husband, in-laws, and all her children save my tita Isabel, and even Cardinal Sin with whom she lunched every Thurdsay, having preceded her, reminds me of the time, just a few years ago that she actually wrote her nephew on the Tuason side, Mike “Jose Pidal” Arroyo, alarmed about the news that he was getting massive kickbacks (which, in my family, we call stealing), and how this relates to the tumultuous events in Philippine history today.

We don’t always admit this, but Mike Arroyo’s mom, Lulu Tuason and she are first cousins, which makes Mike Arroyo my dad’s second cousin, which makes Mikey Arroyo, actor turned Vice-Governor turned Congressman my third cousin. I have sat with the latter three times — all very pleasant, for he is pretty well-mannered — in the company of Baguio boy, Eddie Fianza, whom I happen to know. Should I really be admitting knowing all these people?

To her surprise, the Presidential Security Group swooped down Avignon Towers in Makati where she lives, totally unannounced, and Mike Arroyo in all his corpulence (hey, it’s a family affliction that I have inherited, too), steps inside and says, “I assure you, Tita Paching, that they are all not true! And this is why I am here, to give you my personal assurance!” (This was all in Spanish of course, for that is how old our families are). So Mamita, as we call our grandma, announces with authority and confidence to all and sundry at the next party, that “all this talk about Mike Arroyo is simply not true! He personally came and promised me.”

Added (by my mom 2/20/2008): Mamita believe him because he took the time to visit her and deny the allegations in person. It was, to her, an indication of how concerned Mike was about his reputation.

If Mamita could watch TV and hear the news well enough today, she will be alarmed that Gloria, Mike’s wife, is in terrible trouble. Although she has managed to consolidate her power by corrupting all the institutions of Philippine society, the small, scared voice of a minor government functionary, Jun Lozada, with a not so small, not so large job, but just enough to be in the know on the biggest kickback percentage in Philippine history, has implicated her husband in this NBN-ZTE deal. The Philippine President herself has been implicated (especially when his friend and colleague NEDA Chief Neri testified that he informed Gloria of the bribe offer and she said instructed him not to accept it but to proceed with the NBN-ZTE deal anyway). She has been called “evil” twice by Neri who has suddenly suffered from amnesia, too. Maybe because he has taken up residence in Malacanang where is is being ‘protected.’

Jun Lozada, a repentant sinner, speaks softly but his message is loud and clear, heard by the whole nation and the world, unmasking this government and this political system for the oligarchy it is. An oligarchy of the new rich, those in the business of politics, those whom we elect (well, sometimes they steal the elections) and give license to steal from us.

Maybe we can explain to our countrymen who have been kept ignorant of how this rotten system works how it directly hurts them. For they see politicians as saviors and honest businessmen as oppressors. They cannot link their misery to the real cause at this point.

So, for once, Mike Arroyo’s wife, whose size is inversely proportional to his, is kinda running scared. She has been allowed to flex her Presidential muscles in the past by declaring a state of emergency last year, at around this time, using a ‘terrorist attack’ scenario. She also practiced curfew last November when Trillanes threw a tantrum. She is now vacillating between delaring this coming monday a special working holiday or not, issuing press releases that all is well in the Palace. Of course some Filipinos who remember Marcos times see these as ‘dress rehearsals’ for martial law.

Maybe we should stop calling Malacanang Palace “Palace,” lest the occupants there actually believe they were elected kings and refuse to step down until they actually pass away as Marcos was wanting to do had we not shooed him out of the country in 1986. And now Gloria who is doing everything to stay on until past 2010, when her ‘royal’ term ends.

Now she’s rehearsing the Marcos tactic of an alleged assassination attempt. Last week, Muslims allegedly were plotting to assassinate her, this week it’s the 40-year old New People’s Army. The “usual suspects,” really. And like liar extraordinaire Ferdinand Marcos, she expects the Filipino to believe her time and again. Maybe if she came up with another group of people to accuse — how about the ordinary Filipino citizen who has suffered enough oppression from his own greedy countrymen?

For this country is a rich country — lots of fish around our 7,107 islands, ultra fertile soil that Fidel Ramos preferred to convert to golf courses so we would be importing rice from Thailand, gold, silver and copper that we have allowed the Americans and Australians to mine away. With a hardworking, intelligent well-mannered people who find that this system rewards the lazy, inept and greedy. Who study send their kids to study college so they can work abroad and flee this country. Where corruption has become the norm, and those who walk the straight and narrow path are called crazy.

We’re only poor because our national spirit is poor. We have not tapped into that national consciousness that strengthens us to face attacks, internal and global, squarely, resolutely, with confidence, with all the right moves.

We have found the Filipino’s resilience does not serve him well. This resilience is perceived by the rest of the world as weakness, our generosity as weakness.

For the sake of future generations, this self-abuse must stop.

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Finally, the call Marcos made to Diosdado Macapagal whom he accused of corruption was, “Alis Diyan!”

Cory’s people shouted to Marcos, “Tama Na, Sobra Na, Palitan Na!”

Now the people are chanting, “Tama Na, Sobra Na, Kilos Na!”

I find that we keep saying “‘Sobra Na” which translates to “Too Much.” For Filipinos do not act until the last minute, when too much harm has been done, only when things become unbearable. That is simply wrong!

We think it’s patience, legendary, admirable patience. While others actually call it by its correct name, APATHY.

Honestly, no one wants to kill GMA, we just want her to go away and leave us alone. She has caused too much damage to Philippine society already. Shame on her!

Hay naku, I really think Mamita will outlast Gloria’s presidency!

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ERRATA:

My mom corrected me on some facts:

1. My grandmother turned 97 yesterday, and not 96!

2. When Mike Arroyo visited her she was still living in Palladium Subdivision in Mandaluyong and not yet in the condo in Makati.