The Devil in Mrs. Arroyo - 12 July 2006

They say that the greatest trick of the devil is to fool us into believing that he or she does not exist. Such adage can be modified to reflect contemporary political conditions. Judging the methods by which she continues to hold on to power, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s greatest trick is to convince us that we are all devils and share the same vile characteristics as her. A year since the “Hello Garci” issue broke out, the nation has been plunged into the depths of a spiraling social crisis and one of the clever means by which she continues to hold on to power is by deftly deploying a brand of political cynicism that conveniently labels legitimate dissent as the handiwork of evil “destabilizers.” Through this rubric, the common folk is made to understand the vile motives of those who challenge her administration.

This government has successfully peddled this culture of cynicism where the lowest common denominators of our political and social life are now used as the arbitrary standard upon which all dissent is measured. Accused of holding on to power despite allegations of cheating which she has so far failed to disprove, her administration retorts by labeling her enemies as power grabbers and coup plotters who could not wait for their turn. When young idealistic soldiers who have come face-to-face with the enduring wars in the countryside finally said enough is enough and that change must come by any means, they dismiss their dissent as military adventurism financed by big time business interests. The favorite red bogey of an imminent communist threat is once more resurrected to pull the fractious military ranks and even misinformed liberals towards their side. The urgency of addressing the root causes of this 40-year insurgency is placed in the back burner for the sake of political expediency. In the meantime, more of our idealistic young are sacrificed in the name of a billion peso anti-insurgency drive which has so far victimized activist UP students like Karen Empeno, Sherlyn Cadapan who remain missing until now together with hundreds of murdered journalists, peasant leaders, and advocates of genuine social change since the beginning of her term.

The cynical game that Arroyo is playing peddles a culture of distrust that serves her interests well. Not only has it effectively lowered the standards by which we measure our leaders but it has also stricken significant sections of the populace in a state of malaise. Amidst the flurry of accusation and counter-accusation coming from multiple sources, the middle class vacillates as they struggle to keep their jobs amidst the threat of downsizing and contractualization. It does not help that many of those affected by the continuing economic and political crisis do not have as of yet the compulsion to march into the streets and demand her ouster as they break back and bone just to make ends meet. With government having been long discredited as a possible source of reprieve, the people look to other institutions for guidance but fail.

The past week’s events have shown us to what great lengths this illegitimate administration will go to preserve its interest and consolidate its strength. And it seems that institutions that use to represent legitimate resistance and crucial leadership in critical times have absconded to the display of violence and corrupting power of this regime.

First, it was the Bishops who, in the past, had always drawn from the virtuous example of Jesus as the courageous shepherd of the poor and the downtrodden in their discernment of the righteous path for their flock. The Bishops have issued their most recent pastoral statement that manifests their complacency if not outright cynicism amidst the unabated continuity of state-sponsored abductions and killings. By taking a centrist position amidst the continuing political crisis, they have, unwittingly, casted their lot with the dominant power who continues to wage a “dirty war” where vocal critics of the government among the students, activists, and civilians have become the primary targets. One would expect that with the witnessing courage of Christ to speak the truth and side with the oppressed, the Bishops would not hesitate about making a clear stand in these confusing times. However, they have decided to manifest their apparent confusion to their flock even displaying an irresponsible cynicism towards movements of resistance seeking their just reprieve in either constitutional or non-constitutional means.

Second, there are the idealistic young officers who, one by one, are turning their backs to a cause that they were ready to die for with all spunk and bravado a few years ago. One thought that among the various sectors clamoring for change, it is the soldiers who can muster one of the highest degrees of militance and sacrifice given their training and exposure. Yet, when they find themselves accosted by the military leadership they once accused of being corrupt and complicit to cheating in the last elections, they strangely profess a new-found faith in God and the System. These officers once exemplified a kind of patriotic commitment that did not place a wedge between their love for the country and their commitment to their respective families. Nowadays, they sheepishly pronounce their mistakes and prop their families as the cause for the change in their principles. Indeed, just like the Bishops, this position of cynicism sends the message that the carnage of activists, the abduction of students, the continued stay in Malacanan of a cheating president, a corrupt bureaucracy plus the patent lack of moral direction for the country among others is acceptable while their careers are salvaged. It is indeed heart-breaking to witness how, in the glare of news cameras, they sell their souls to this devil of a president by ratting about their comrades and their plans. Our admiration and solidarity remains with the true patriotic officers of the people who also have families and children to think about yet remain steadfast to the cause of change.

Complementing the propaganda and double-speak cynicsm being peddled by government is a military machinery that is unflinching in its vulgar display of state power. We witness this in the streets of Manila where police inflict injuries upon peaceful demonstrators who are merely practicing their right to self-expression and freedom of assembly. The deployment of mad generals in the outskirts of Manila has placed whole towns and provinces into virtual military garrisons. The rash of abductions and killings in these areas is a potent warning to those who dissent.

Thus, what Gloria-Macapagal Arroyo does figuratively speaking is to hold a mirror before us and tell us that her faults are ours and there are worse alternatives. This stance of extreme political cynicism smacks of a thick-faced desperation that is at once honest in its admission that there is a crisis of legitimacy that she cannot resolve. She then turns to a mercenary section of the military to provide the military support without which she cannot effectively govern. It is apparent that the two-pronged tactic is to first divide and confuse the public in the hope that they will cease from all attempts to remove her from office and to follow through the ensuing confusion and cynicism by dispensing state violence against those who still dissent in order to meet the objective of quelling all resistance. Those that she cannot demoralize, or buy, will be dealt with by the violence of the state.

In the meantime, the body count rises and even more people lose hope. However, there is a threshold to all these as history has proven. Once the people overcome the cynicism that the devil placed in their hearts and replace it with the hope that we deserve better then they will wrest the destiny of this nation from the murderers, cheaters, weaklings, and the unprincipled.

Waking Up - 4 July 2006

“Paalsin na ang mga pusang iyan!,” I muttered to myself this morning. The neighborhood cats were at it again. Just as the daily news always report the death or abduction of activists in alarming regularity, the cats never fail to mess with the trash left the night before. Now I have to sweep the apartment’s front and clear the scattered litter lest the feisty woman next door who always keeps her part of the shared driveway spic and span (while stowing her trash in our section) finally have something to say. This has been my daily morning ritual and it sets the general tone of my everyday existence as a struggling lower-middle class professional barely able to afford a lifestyle I foolishly maintain. I mean, aside from being bothered by cats, the month’s rent is already due and my check has not cleared yet. And don’t get me started. There are also debts big and small, life plans that never get off the ground, and still, after all these years, a general uncertainty about my “future”. The only thing I am sure about is the continuous expansion of my girth. All these, taken together, make my morning coffee taste even bitter than it should. Of course, this could be due to the onset of hereditary diabetes (I googled it you know, search => bitter taste in the mouth). Sometimes, I wonder why I even bothered making that cup or why wake up at all.

So here it is, the ranting of a self-indulgent fatso ready to inflict upon the world my middle class sense of dissatisfaction about everything and everyone around me. I am ready to fire away and tell you about my existentialist problems regarding how, to my own purposive sampling, very few people actually deserve the air they breathe or why sometimes, after listening to Sigur Ros (erased, pretentious alert!), it makes breathing a little more worthwhile. These, despite my knowledge of the M & M’s (I meant MLMs, Marxism-Leninism-Mac ism! Ooh, so pomo). But I won’t.

It was something that my wife said that compelled me to suspend all my mundane concerns and take a step back to assess matters in the light of the events that are taking place around me. If there is any truth to the tenets of Sociology, then this might as well be about all of us who have the unfortunate fate of being born into this hell-hole of a country.

Just a few minutes ago, we were capping our day with those small conversations partners have before they sleep in order to take stock of the day’s events. You see, Karen Empeno, was her student in Sociology in UP-Diliman. It has been more than week since Karen, together with Sherlyn Cadapan, both UP students, and Manuel Merino, a farmer, were abducted by armed men. They were working as volunteers for farmers’ organizations in Bulacan. They have not been heard of since then. This afternoon, Karen’s parents visited the campus to solicit support from faculty and students and my wife had to accompany them. In our bedtime conversation while the evening news was blaring in the background, my wife spoke about how Karen’s parents handled themselves with a quiet dignity as they talked to university officials, faculty, staff and students. They are of simple origins from Bataan, the mother – a public school teacher and the father a retired bank employee. Sarah suddenly fell silent and I thought she must have been thinking about how Karen’s parents were feeling. I asked her what she was thinking about, and replied that she was wondering what was happening to Karen that moment. I fell silent too and watched her as she dozed to sleep in a record time of 5 seconds. I adore her in this sense. She would just twist her body with a rocking motion and she’s off to lala land. Usually, this is my cue to get my focus back to the news but this time around, I stared at her longer and was plunged in a moment of reverie. I pursued Sarah’s last thoughts before she fell asleep and began wondering what could be happening to Karen right now?

It was a chilling thought alright. Images of men, swinging light bulbs, cigarettes and broken bottles. Shrieking sounds and shouting then of deathly silence as young, frail, and mangled bodies try to recover from the ordeal. These animals are testing if their flesh and bones are as strong as their principles. These harrowing images are not new and unusual and I wish Karen and her friends are spared from such pain. But you cannot reason with madness. One can perhaps say that the blood of the young has written the narrative of this nation in the many military camps and safe houses across the decades. And if my fears are correct, Karen joins those who have given more for this country than the rest of us.

Karen was a student of Sociology in UP who thought that the promise of the discipline lie in serving the interests of the country’s poor. While gathering data for her undergraduate thesis, she volunteered for a farmer’s organization. Like many of us who have passed through the portals of the University, she has taken to heart our credo as Scholars of the People. The townspeople identify the military as the people who took her and companions. Her idealism and academic pursuit has been met by an irrational madness of Gloria’s private army.

Its already 3 am and my wife is twisting and turning in her sleep. I figured she is having nightmares. I am not surprised. This world is cruel to those who dream. Tonight, when I finally call it a day, I will hold my wife tight and remember the quiet heroism and sacrifices of the likes of Karen and Sherlyn, and Manuel. Wherever they are, I wish that they know that, this very moment, a whole army of dreamers is restlessly sleeping. Soon they will wake up.

In the meanwhile, I expect to see the trash once again scattered tomorrow morning by the scavenging neighborhood cats. But I won’t mind them that much. In fact, I might even throw them a bone or something (fish bone ba). After all, they are the least of my concerns. Because above the din of inanities that clutter my daily life, beyond my preoccupation with the mundane and the personal, is a conviction that is shared by many more like you who are waking up. We are putting the blame squarely on the one who is tearing this country apart just to keep herself in power. And we have a collective shout: “Patalsikin si Glora!”