OK. So the 10th of June, just two days short of Independence Day, shall now be remembered as the Sunday of National Mourning.
We are all allowed to feel bad for twelve hours. Sige. Let's make it eighteen. Anything beyond that is OA na. After that let's, uh, move on. Going beyond a reasonable limit is already called Major Sourgraping.
We are entitled to ngek-ngek-ngek about how we got cheated. No, it is not only HIM, but US. When it comes to the Ultimate Boxer, we do not think of him as an individual We think of him as the Nation. We give him such unlimited reverence that we even tolerate his singing and are amused by his concerts. We love him that much.
We even turned his mother into a celebrity of sorts --- whether on the dance floor or in various forms of prayerful acts.
Yes, never has the archipelago of a Republic been in a state of collective suspended animation --- almost in a zombie-like trance than when we are watching his fights. Our eyes and ears are transfixed to the internet or the tv set --- as when the Philippine National Fist (which actually sounds better as Ang Pambansang Kamao) clobbers the next opponent in line.
Every punch he renders, every knockout he achieves is a victory for the Filipino people. And his bank account.
Suddenly almost every Filipino of shape, size, color and economic status goes into an auto-nationalist mode, going completely gung ho and cheering for the legendary fighter from GenSan. There is no more doubt about it. The history of world sports has already engraved the name of Manny Pacquiao in its annals as one of the greatest boxers whoever lived.
And as far as this country is concerned, the Pacman (as he is so fondly called) has become the symbol of the country. His image might as well be put side by side with the Philippine eagle, mango, carabao and adobo to represent everything that is about being Filipino. That is all because he is ranked as one of the greatest living athletes in the world.
Yet yesterday... the seeming impossible happened: he was defeated.
No, he was not knocked out of his living daylights. He wasn't even badly bruised (for Marquez left more souvenirs than this opponent). It was because of some silly, subjective, insubstantial, unjustifiable split decision.
Unfathomable. Unimaginable. Unthinkable. And to use the term my grandmother used to expel each time something close to if not completely revolting takes place, "Que barbaridad!"
Didn't his coach say that it was impossible for Pacquiao to lose to Bradley?
Wasn't the betting not about who would win --- but rather what round he would pulverize the jaws of his opponent?
Weren't we all too cocky assuming that Pacquiao will win because he cannot lose? Let me rephrase that: It is only expected that he wins ...because we expect him to do so. It was never in our mindset that he can lose this specific fight. No way!
Even if we were sort of worried about the way he fought in that not-too-impressive performance in the ring with Marquez, the Pacman's arm was still raised when he was announced winner. We all gave a sigh of relief and said, "Oo nga naman. He cannot lose, eh."
Even if he was somewhat bugbog-sarado by Marquez, he still won --- not only because of the technicalities of boxing but because he is Manny Pacquiao. We never questioned that decision because it favored us. More so, the boxing experts had the statistics (and let me not go into that) to prove that he indeed won punch-per-punch ... and that was no example of "cooked in Macau."
Well, unfortunately, this time the invincible lost.
The last time he lost was seven years ago. Wait a minute: don't give me that Feng Shui cycle suggesting that the seven year period of triumph shall now usher in the seven year period of decline and decay. I don't even want to go there and dabble with the cosmic and the supernatural. Besides, Pacquiao will not agree since these things are not found in the Bible.
So instead, let me just figure out what is going in my mind and share what I feel are the five things I learned the day the Pacman was dethroned because of the mere split decision of a trio of mortal judges.
(1) It is not only his caliber as a boxer that matters to us: it is the very image that Manny Pacquiao emulates.
We cheer for him because he is success personified.
He is the underdog who made it big ... and, boy, do we love underdogs! Dear Manny is the King of the Underdogs. We wouldn't be Pinoys if we did not live for underdogs as we continuously and relentlessly see ourselves as the dehados who will wipe out the llamados eventually.
And, come on, let's face it. We are fascinated by Pacquiao's pinnacle of success. It is not only how good he is as a boxer but ... how rich he has become. We cheer for everything he represents and that includes his lifestyle --- and all his material acquisitions.
We even think his English is cute.
We bask in his success story because we (again) love to live vicariously, translating our fantasies and wish-fulfillment through all these heroes we love to create. He is Bernardo Carpio and Malakas thrown into one.
This is also why ...
(2) We have practically adored Pacquiao in mythical proportions --- treating him like a rock star, a movie star, a celebrity extraordinaire.
That much is obvious. And he knows that.
He knows that he has become more of an athlete: he has become a brand. And every brand must have this entire mythology surrounding a persona. He has become --- yes, folks --- an entertainer.
That is why he hosts a game show where he is called Ninong Manny.
That is why he would usually hold concerts right after his fights where all his friends gather together and turn major venues into Grand Karaoke Eyeballs. That is why he has become more than just a boxer --- like Flash Elorde, Anthony Villanueva or Onyok!
He is like Oprah. He knows the extent and power of his popularity. He knows the semblance of omnipotence that comes with wealth. He has turned himself into a brand.
Now is this persona true or not? Does it really matter?
Does that explain why he is the representative of Saranggani in the Lower House of the legislative branch of our government? Mind you, Pacquiao is not in Congress because of a party list of marginalized athletes who do not get adequate support from the government for sustainable training. He is there because he is a duly elected congressman from the South.
Kakayanin ninyo yon?
Mayweather may cackle all the insults his brain can concoct within his range of syntax ... but can he get himself elected in Congress? Of course not! The only government facility that can accommodate him is a prison cell, right?
But Manny --- he of the godlike physical prowess --- walks in the halls where men and women decide the fate of our nation.
That is why regardless of all sorts of stories thrown around about his shortcomings, his secrets ... and even his, uh, indiscretions --- it is really OK lang.
And why? Because he is a rock star far greater than any existing local showbiz personality because only the National Fist ... and his wife, Jinkee ... are worthy of being interviewed by TMZ.
But then, this leads to a fact quite painful to admit:
(3) Manny Pacquiao is not invincible. We are the ones that make him such.
Manny Pacquiao has reached new heights of athletic heroism because we made him this superhero. Attribute this to the confluence of planets --- or maybe just the right timing when media has become so accessible to everyone that information --- and yes, even myths can be created and perpetuated at the click of a mouse.
But this does not mean to diminish the degree of his achievements, mind you. For there is validity in claims that he is an exceptional boxer --- and that his stature in the world of professional sports is one that goes beyond impressive.
Yet we have given him more than that: as mentioned earlier, we do not only forgive him for his shortcomings --- we justified them. And what is worse, we expect him to deliver each time.
We often blind ourselves into seeing what we choose to look at. Perhaps our biggest sin is to mislead Mr. Pacquiao into believing his own press releases. Considering his degree of achievement, what else has he got to prove? But we will not let him rest.
After his fights --- after looking at him tired, battered, beaten --- and raising his hand with Jinkee cheering and Mommy D going into throes of ecstasy possibly because of an apparition of a heavenly representative --- we ask ourselves, "When will we make him stop?"
Will we give him the chance to rest when he is beaten to a critical pulp and left maimed like another icon of the "sport" named Muhammad Ali (who we graciously named a mall for blessing us with the Thrilla in Manila)? Will we only allow him to throw in his gloves when he has become useless? Are we that cruel in making sure that he remains a hero?
Why would he not quit undefeated? Did it have to take a fight that turned out to be a joke like this encounter with Bradley to ratify what we dread the most and refuse to believe?
Why wouldn't The Pacman stop?
Or is it all because of the money? Now this makes us think.
(4) Boxing is not only a sport. It is a business.
The statement stands to corrected. It is not only a business: it is BIG BUSINESS.
It does not only involve millions of dollars in advertising, Pay-Per-View, royalties, product placements, every conceivable contract that would and could accommodate exposure. It involves hotels, accommodations, travel, syndication --- and, best of all, betting.
As a friend pointed out, boxing is really like cockfighting. You take care of the prize roosters, you pamper them, you train them, you give them the best nutrition and physical upkeep. Then you bring them into a ring so that they can go kill each other with people taking sides through high stake betting.
Another friend blogged: boxing is the modern day version of the Roman Empire's gladiatorial fights. You bring in the best of the breed --- trained, muscled, armed. Then you let them loose so that they can go kill each other all over again. With people taking sides through high stake betting.
A lot us scream "Foul!" The results were rigged. Look at the scorecard. Examine the punch-per-punch tabulation: Manny had the advantage yet why did the split decision favor Bradley? Kasi nga ... lutong-Macao, no?!
(Another friend told me: "Watch it. If you say this game is rigged, then does this not open the possibility that the other games where the Pacman won was also rigged?"
I was so upset by what he said that I immediately "unfriended" him in Facebook.
The Pacman does not win by rigging fights! He only loses when he is set-up, no?!
Now I am catching my breath. )
Ok, Folks! Let's get real here.
Boxing is an interesting "sport" --- but it is basically about the money involved. It is the money earned by the promoter. It is the money gathered from all forms of media telecast --- whether in syndication, special feeds, cable exclusives. It is the money earned by sponsors in terms of the media space they purchased. It is the money earned by the boxers themselves as they do not only get paid for beating their opponents to all available synonyms of the word pulp but also a cut in all telecast profits.
Again, it is all about the money! When money is involved ... dared we even think that the seemingly implausible can be made so simple?
Are we being cynical into thinking that business plans can be merciless but whoever said that the insatiable pursuit for profit has to be human or even humane in its considerations? The question of plausibility or integrity is not a necessity: it is about viability and profitability. Period.
At this point, read my lips: R-E-M-A-T-C-H.
It's in the contract.
So this leads me to an even greater learning about what happened on the tenth of June:
(5) There are other Filipino athletes who deserve as much attention and recognition and who go through hell and high water in order to fight their battles carrying the name of our country. They deserve our attention, dedication, care and support as much as if not even more than those who can live comfortably for the next sixteen reincarnations.
Funny ... but nobody really gave much of a hoot to the Philippine Dragonboat team.
Everyone has a question or two about the Azkals or the Volcanoes ... to the point of even saying that they are just glamour boys who pose in their underwear and cause havoc in EDSA.
The Younghusbands are known as endorsers --- but their greater contribution is not that they are pretty boys or that the younger is the object of affection of Angel Locsin. No, they ---together with the rest of the Azkals --- finally brought soccer to the attention of Filipinos. Finally, we have a sport that we can actual excel because it is not height-dependent and that we possess the strength and skills to be masters of the field.
The same goes for the Volcanoes. Bringing the sport of rugby to our country is not only refreshing but provides our young people with other alternatives in their pursuit for athletic excellence.
Yeah, they are all good looking lads --- sometimes looked down upon as half-breeds and questioned about their nationality.
Uh, people of the Philippines: we were all announcing to the world that Jessica Sanchez was the Pinoy Pride whereas we all know that she was born in Chula Vista and that she is an American citizen by birthright. Duh! But we love her because she is a good singer --- and she has Filipino blood. And that was why she sang Star Spangled Banner for Team Bradley.
So why do we suddenly discriminate against half-breeds who come over and give new light and life to Philippine sports?
And what about all the athletes we are sending to the Summer Olympics? Do we even know their names? Do we even exert effort to think about the kind of training they received, the kind of benefits they are rewarded for --- uh, representing our country in the greatest showdown of the world's best?
Do we realize how these people have to literally beg for money for their training? Do we also sense that we can be so much better in so many more sports if we gave these athletes even one fourth of the importance we invest in those we exclusively choose to mythologize?
What about all the other Filipino athletes who have brought equal honor to our country? What about racer Marlon Stockinger? What about the other star athletes who just happen to be in sports that are not as accessible to the general public? What about all these sports people who are into their game ... and not into cameras, magazine spreads about their material acquisitions --- or are known not only for their endorsements?
Yes, what about them?
While Justin Timberlake, Katy Perry, Britney Spears, Bruno Mars, my next door neighbor and Mang Tony, my ever faithful tubero who thinks he can do a better job than Roach --- lament the perfidy of the results of yesterday's fight, we allow ourselves to wallow in a few more hours of mourning.
Then we either move on or wake up.
We move on and get our adrenaline boiling for the November rematch.
Or we wake up to certain inevitable, undeniable and bare facts about the world of professional boxing --- and why what transpires behind the ring is as if not more important as the battle that mesmerizes us to create our Superhero.
Sunday, June 10, 2012
Saturday, June 9, 2012
THE UN-EDUCATION OF THE FILIPINO
Last week's papers stated that approximately twenty-one million kids have gone back to school. More will follow in the days to come.
No wonder the lines leading to the cashier at National Bookstore resembles the queue on the ticket office for a Vic Sotto movie during the MetroManila Filmfest. No wonder there are all these tykes and toddlers running all over the narrow aisles between school supplies, magazines and books, terrorizing their guardians about their stash of goodies needed for the opening day of classes.
No wonder all the parents do not only look tired --- but also bankrupt. I found myself surrounded by screaming hyperactive cubs and zombies passing for mothers and fathers. Amid piles of a variety of pad paper, kaleidoscope of notebooks and boxes of crayons, ballpoint pens and pencils, this is the reality of the month of June in this country.
But this year, things are different in a major way. There was barely any drum roll but for the struggling working class heroes who go through hell and high water to muster enough funds to send their kids to school, the implementation of a Department of Education policy barely understood by the paying public has already sent premature tremors.
The decision to implement the K to 12 program of the Department of Education was met with ambivalence. People didn't exactly know whether to appreciate the Secretary of Education's passionate crusade for a revisionist educational system --- or to dismiss this as yet another attempt at innovation without proper thought or consideration for the reality of economics in this country.
Those who favored the addition of years before a kid can enter college understood the larger context and urgency of the problem. Those who didn't have equally valid reasons to be disgruntled: they felt that they (the parents) were not consulted and that this only meant additional years of scraping the bottom of the instant rice cooker to pay for tuition fees and books.
Well, yes : those who did not understand the benefits of extending schooling by so many more years only saw the immediate impact of the policy to their lives. And indeed, that was cause for alarm.
They would say, "Is it not bad enough that a large percentage of students drop out of school between Grades 1 to 6 then four years of high school? Does it not only increase the odds that Filipino parents will find it all the more difficult to have their children finish all the years required before college?"
May tama ka diyan, Tatang.
Parents who are burdened by daily financial challenges do not even dream of sending their kids to the tertiary level. Lucky are they to even finish high school before they are compelled to give up all dreams of diplomas because they have to help out the family with the daily expenses. In other words, education is not the priority. Survival takes the forefront.
A child of poverty can only get to college if he is resourceful enough to find their own way to fulfill his dreams. A better alternative is to find scholarships for the ones who have the gray matter and the track record to impress foundations and philanthropists willing to take the cudgels for them.
But for the typical Aleng Maria and Mang Pedring, having their eldest child graduate fourth year high school is already more than enough. The term often used to describe the struggle to get a child finish his secondary schooling is iginagapang --- that is, literally crawling and clawing ... and for what? "To be a contractual saleslady or a promodizer at a major department store where she will automatically lose a job after three months?" somebody said, "My God, nowadays --- even the baristas at Starbucks are graduates of Bachelor of Science in Commerce --- and they are now serving lattes and espressos, right?"
You cannot argue with a statement like that because it is true.
Nowadays a high school diploma can only bring you this far because even a college graduate can only go so far as well.
That same friend who was cynical about everything in this country also added, "Whether you finish high school ... or hold a diploma from a dinky college certifying that you are a B.S. Education graduate, the only way for you earn a decent job is to work for a call center. That is the only way he can be assured of earning a minimum of twelve thousand a month ...as compared to what? A nurse in public hospital earning five thousand?"
Despite all my arguments, I knew I had to agree.
There was a time I discovered that one of my housekeepers was actually a graduate of BS Education from a small college in the Visayas. But she would rather work as a maid in Manila because she would earning far much more than being an elementary teacher in a public school in her hometown.
When I found about that, I was so completely devastated. I understood where she was coming from ... but I also began to wonder, "What is happening in this country? Are we really giving that much premium to education compared to other priorities set aside by those who have been elected or appointed to govern and take charge?"
I hope they do. That is what they all say anyway.
I am not against the K to 12 Program pushed relentless by Brother Armin Luistro, he who as now assumed the office of the Secretary of Education.
I see the point clearly: aside from the fact that we are the only nation in the region --- or maybe the world --- who still had four years of high school and even abbreviated the elementary years only until the sixth grade. It is evident that our educational system has addressed the need to speed up studying, to graduate kids fast in order to feed them into the labor force and be of use to their families.
Apparently even that did not work either.
And this is because of reasons cited earlier: Parents working in the fields would rather have their children working beside them helping with chores or taking part of the extensive labor --- rather than to be in a classroom where they hope against hope that something fruitful can come out a chance at literacy.
Even parents in the urban areas realize that they cannot possibly afford the towering expenses to send any if not all of their children to school.
If there is one in the brood who they feel deserves all the support, then the younger siblings will have to stop studying so that the money afforded for education is invested in only one of the children. Of course, this is with the hope that if and when the educated one gets to be a professional or even earn his or her own keep, then it would be his or her obligation to support the family and send the younger siblings to school.
And we revere that as pagsasakripisiyo ng pamilya without realizing that this is symptomatic of a much larger social problem and not a celebration of endearing virtue.
There are two questions on hand that bother me: Do Filipinos still give premium to education? Or do we only see education as a way to claim a certificate to get job as soon as the diploma is handed? In a Third World country still wrestling with the problems of unemployment --- and, despite all these encouraging news that the nation's GNP is growing, growing, growing -- is the diploma still deemed as a necessity to assure a decent, promising life?
Or have we --- out of sheer misery, circumstance or imperative --- stopped viewing knowledge as a guarantee for a good future --- and instead opted for the nitty gritty demands of practicality. How many times have I cringed when I hear comments from kids saying, "Why do I need to study if a diploma only means getting work? Then let me work ... because I can do that without years of college education." Or even worse, "Schooling nowadays is so expensive ... and yet there is no guarantee that if you get that diploma that you can get a decent job."
That way it is easier to understand why young people are dying to be in showbiz ... because of the illusion that media feeds young people that to hit it big in tv and movies is like winning the Grand 6/55 lotto.
If you become a big teen-age star, your house as well as all your belongings get to have a five to six page spread in a movie magazine --- displaying all your signature items and the joys of having a swimming pool cleansed with chlorine --- and you didn't even finish second year high school!
Or another option is to take the practical route. Students agree to whatever their parents want them to pursue for college. After all, he who pays the tuition fee gets to pick the course where that enrollment will be paid.
So are we still surprised why there was this sudden proliferation of nursing schools graduating hundreds of thousands of medical workers whose only dream is to get out of this country and work abroad?
Despite the real interests and choice of pursuit for their careers, parents compelled their children to take up nursing because it was deemed as the most practical degree to take --- since the chances for easier migration are so much better.
Well, yes --- until the bomb dropped. Until the U.S. and other countries were suddenly swamped with foreign nurses so much so that they had to put a lid on the influx because it was already getting out of hand. The result is disastrous from the Filipinos who are fresh graduates of nursing: there is absolutely no place to go to.
Two years of training and experience are required before a nurse can be considered for her foreign application of work permit. But there are not enough hospitals in this country to accommodate all these nurses begging for training. So now hospitals are charging training fees so that nurses can labor for hours without pay (since they are the ones doing the paying). And maybe more ironic is that nursing graduates end up working for the Philippine National Police just in order for them to find a job.
After the frenzy to become nurses, now everybody wants to take up Hotel and Restaurant Management or the Culinary Arts. Everyone wants to stand behind the Front desk of a hotel in Dubai or Abu Dhabi --- or work in its kitchen. Nursing is definitely OUT --- so bring in the chefs.
The second question that bothers me involves the whole system of education: Has the quality of public schools so deteriorated so much so that tests indicate the dismal performance of students in literacy and mathematics? What brought about this decay in curricula or even in the quality of teaching?
Why should we be surprised? In this country, who still wants to be a teacher? All the best minds do not even dream of taking up a Bachelor's Degree in Education. Take it from the mouths of their parents: Walang yumayaman na titser. Why take a college course that assures you of a humble life, devoid of all possibilities of hitting it big as a kazillionaire or even make a decent living to afford little luxuries in life?
Teaching is said to be a vocation ... but definitely a priest leads a more comfortable life. A priest doesn't have to correct papers, make lesson plans and act as a poll watcher during elections.
And a priest has free board and lodging ... which is not what you can say about teachers.
It goes without saying that if the best brains cannot be enticed to choose education as their profession ... or, worse, if the best teachers in our country join the exodus to find a better future in a different time zone, then what happens to the beacons of our classrooms? Who takes care of the minds of the young ... to inspire them to be so much more than the generation that came ahead? Who provides them with role models and choices of directions to take for their tomorrows?
Who tells them that indeed ... there is tomorrow ...and it is one that should not be faced with mere resignation but with the fire of challenge?
This is what makes the situation all too sad.
It is not a matter of two, three or four more years added to the schooling of the Filipino child that makes a whole lot of difference. It is the attitude. It is the discipline. It is the respect for teachers.
It is the passion and hunger for education that has become so seemingly lacking.
No wonder the lines leading to the cashier at National Bookstore resembles the queue on the ticket office for a Vic Sotto movie during the MetroManila Filmfest. No wonder there are all these tykes and toddlers running all over the narrow aisles between school supplies, magazines and books, terrorizing their guardians about their stash of goodies needed for the opening day of classes.
No wonder all the parents do not only look tired --- but also bankrupt. I found myself surrounded by screaming hyperactive cubs and zombies passing for mothers and fathers. Amid piles of a variety of pad paper, kaleidoscope of notebooks and boxes of crayons, ballpoint pens and pencils, this is the reality of the month of June in this country.
But this year, things are different in a major way. There was barely any drum roll but for the struggling working class heroes who go through hell and high water to muster enough funds to send their kids to school, the implementation of a Department of Education policy barely understood by the paying public has already sent premature tremors.
The decision to implement the K to 12 program of the Department of Education was met with ambivalence. People didn't exactly know whether to appreciate the Secretary of Education's passionate crusade for a revisionist educational system --- or to dismiss this as yet another attempt at innovation without proper thought or consideration for the reality of economics in this country.
Those who favored the addition of years before a kid can enter college understood the larger context and urgency of the problem. Those who didn't have equally valid reasons to be disgruntled: they felt that they (the parents) were not consulted and that this only meant additional years of scraping the bottom of the instant rice cooker to pay for tuition fees and books.
Well, yes : those who did not understand the benefits of extending schooling by so many more years only saw the immediate impact of the policy to their lives. And indeed, that was cause for alarm.
They would say, "Is it not bad enough that a large percentage of students drop out of school between Grades 1 to 6 then four years of high school? Does it not only increase the odds that Filipino parents will find it all the more difficult to have their children finish all the years required before college?"
May tama ka diyan, Tatang.
Parents who are burdened by daily financial challenges do not even dream of sending their kids to the tertiary level. Lucky are they to even finish high school before they are compelled to give up all dreams of diplomas because they have to help out the family with the daily expenses. In other words, education is not the priority. Survival takes the forefront.
A child of poverty can only get to college if he is resourceful enough to find their own way to fulfill his dreams. A better alternative is to find scholarships for the ones who have the gray matter and the track record to impress foundations and philanthropists willing to take the cudgels for them.
But for the typical Aleng Maria and Mang Pedring, having their eldest child graduate fourth year high school is already more than enough. The term often used to describe the struggle to get a child finish his secondary schooling is iginagapang --- that is, literally crawling and clawing ... and for what? "To be a contractual saleslady or a promodizer at a major department store where she will automatically lose a job after three months?" somebody said, "My God, nowadays --- even the baristas at Starbucks are graduates of Bachelor of Science in Commerce --- and they are now serving lattes and espressos, right?"
You cannot argue with a statement like that because it is true.
Nowadays a high school diploma can only bring you this far because even a college graduate can only go so far as well.
That same friend who was cynical about everything in this country also added, "Whether you finish high school ... or hold a diploma from a dinky college certifying that you are a B.S. Education graduate, the only way for you earn a decent job is to work for a call center. That is the only way he can be assured of earning a minimum of twelve thousand a month ...as compared to what? A nurse in public hospital earning five thousand?"
Despite all my arguments, I knew I had to agree.
There was a time I discovered that one of my housekeepers was actually a graduate of BS Education from a small college in the Visayas. But she would rather work as a maid in Manila because she would earning far much more than being an elementary teacher in a public school in her hometown.
When I found about that, I was so completely devastated. I understood where she was coming from ... but I also began to wonder, "What is happening in this country? Are we really giving that much premium to education compared to other priorities set aside by those who have been elected or appointed to govern and take charge?"
I hope they do. That is what they all say anyway.
I am not against the K to 12 Program pushed relentless by Brother Armin Luistro, he who as now assumed the office of the Secretary of Education.
I see the point clearly: aside from the fact that we are the only nation in the region --- or maybe the world --- who still had four years of high school and even abbreviated the elementary years only until the sixth grade. It is evident that our educational system has addressed the need to speed up studying, to graduate kids fast in order to feed them into the labor force and be of use to their families.
Apparently even that did not work either.
And this is because of reasons cited earlier: Parents working in the fields would rather have their children working beside them helping with chores or taking part of the extensive labor --- rather than to be in a classroom where they hope against hope that something fruitful can come out a chance at literacy.
Even parents in the urban areas realize that they cannot possibly afford the towering expenses to send any if not all of their children to school.
If there is one in the brood who they feel deserves all the support, then the younger siblings will have to stop studying so that the money afforded for education is invested in only one of the children. Of course, this is with the hope that if and when the educated one gets to be a professional or even earn his or her own keep, then it would be his or her obligation to support the family and send the younger siblings to school.
And we revere that as pagsasakripisiyo ng pamilya without realizing that this is symptomatic of a much larger social problem and not a celebration of endearing virtue.
There are two questions on hand that bother me: Do Filipinos still give premium to education? Or do we only see education as a way to claim a certificate to get job as soon as the diploma is handed? In a Third World country still wrestling with the problems of unemployment --- and, despite all these encouraging news that the nation's GNP is growing, growing, growing -- is the diploma still deemed as a necessity to assure a decent, promising life?
Or have we --- out of sheer misery, circumstance or imperative --- stopped viewing knowledge as a guarantee for a good future --- and instead opted for the nitty gritty demands of practicality. How many times have I cringed when I hear comments from kids saying, "Why do I need to study if a diploma only means getting work? Then let me work ... because I can do that without years of college education." Or even worse, "Schooling nowadays is so expensive ... and yet there is no guarantee that if you get that diploma that you can get a decent job."
That way it is easier to understand why young people are dying to be in showbiz ... because of the illusion that media feeds young people that to hit it big in tv and movies is like winning the Grand 6/55 lotto.
If you become a big teen-age star, your house as well as all your belongings get to have a five to six page spread in a movie magazine --- displaying all your signature items and the joys of having a swimming pool cleansed with chlorine --- and you didn't even finish second year high school!
Or another option is to take the practical route. Students agree to whatever their parents want them to pursue for college. After all, he who pays the tuition fee gets to pick the course where that enrollment will be paid.
So are we still surprised why there was this sudden proliferation of nursing schools graduating hundreds of thousands of medical workers whose only dream is to get out of this country and work abroad?
Despite the real interests and choice of pursuit for their careers, parents compelled their children to take up nursing because it was deemed as the most practical degree to take --- since the chances for easier migration are so much better.
Well, yes --- until the bomb dropped. Until the U.S. and other countries were suddenly swamped with foreign nurses so much so that they had to put a lid on the influx because it was already getting out of hand. The result is disastrous from the Filipinos who are fresh graduates of nursing: there is absolutely no place to go to.
Two years of training and experience are required before a nurse can be considered for her foreign application of work permit. But there are not enough hospitals in this country to accommodate all these nurses begging for training. So now hospitals are charging training fees so that nurses can labor for hours without pay (since they are the ones doing the paying). And maybe more ironic is that nursing graduates end up working for the Philippine National Police just in order for them to find a job.
After the frenzy to become nurses, now everybody wants to take up Hotel and Restaurant Management or the Culinary Arts. Everyone wants to stand behind the Front desk of a hotel in Dubai or Abu Dhabi --- or work in its kitchen. Nursing is definitely OUT --- so bring in the chefs.
The second question that bothers me involves the whole system of education: Has the quality of public schools so deteriorated so much so that tests indicate the dismal performance of students in literacy and mathematics? What brought about this decay in curricula or even in the quality of teaching?
Why should we be surprised? In this country, who still wants to be a teacher? All the best minds do not even dream of taking up a Bachelor's Degree in Education. Take it from the mouths of their parents: Walang yumayaman na titser. Why take a college course that assures you of a humble life, devoid of all possibilities of hitting it big as a kazillionaire or even make a decent living to afford little luxuries in life?
Teaching is said to be a vocation ... but definitely a priest leads a more comfortable life. A priest doesn't have to correct papers, make lesson plans and act as a poll watcher during elections.
And a priest has free board and lodging ... which is not what you can say about teachers.
It goes without saying that if the best brains cannot be enticed to choose education as their profession ... or, worse, if the best teachers in our country join the exodus to find a better future in a different time zone, then what happens to the beacons of our classrooms? Who takes care of the minds of the young ... to inspire them to be so much more than the generation that came ahead? Who provides them with role models and choices of directions to take for their tomorrows?
Who tells them that indeed ... there is tomorrow ...and it is one that should not be faced with mere resignation but with the fire of challenge?
This is what makes the situation all too sad.
It is not a matter of two, three or four more years added to the schooling of the Filipino child that makes a whole lot of difference. It is the attitude. It is the discipline. It is the respect for teachers.
It is the passion and hunger for education that has become so seemingly lacking.
Friday, June 8, 2012
SKIN DEEP
I am quite sure they didn't even imagine for one millisecond that this whole thing was going to explode right on their faces.
Well, some say that what transpired was a simple case of overreaction. The internet is fertile ground for an exercise like that. All you need is to create some form of provocation ... and before you know it, there is an avalanche of seething opinion resembling that of a river of lava flowing out of a volcano of hate coming right your way to completely annihilate you.
There is this whole mob thingy that is generated by the world wide web, a friend opined. Once it becomes fashionable to bash something, someone or an issue, everyone will come attacking your way like a lynch mob. This is so simply because it has become the latest form of recreation. Bashing someone is a form of therapeutic amusement to vent our anger and frustration into something in particular. It intensifies our sila and tayo dichotomy.
Especially in our country, we cannot --- I repeat --- we cannot and can never exist without a controversy or an issue or a preoccupation of sorts to totally grab our attention with matching imagination.
So whether it is a badly choreographed action scene at the airport where a revered member of the telenovela royalty showed her hidden talent as an action queen --- or Miss 1999 finding God and bashing the entire gay community as a sign of her newfound vocation --- or even feeling cheated because the runner up of a high rating American reality show happens to possess Filipino lineage and was eased out by a white bread strumming songs about haystacks, we must always have something to fight for, to root for ... or simply to discuss while eating our bags of Boy Bawang or Tokyo San Crunch Coated Peanuts.
Well, as a friend of mine pointed out again, "Eh, kasi naman nagpaka-controversial pa, eh."
But I do not think it was that. This is not like the other clothing line that completely conquered the entire vista of the Guadalupe Bridge if you are northbound, plastering the whole stretch of the horizon with scantily clad rugby players (which, according to some very conservative mayor, could actually provoke not only traffic hazards --- but possibly suicides). And that became controversial only because somebody actually believed that the sight of giant men in skivvies would be invitations to dirty thoughts and phallic fantasies. Oh, dear. That ... or penis-envy, actually.
However this new controversy has got nothing to do with various states of nudity. This was all about percentages. And races. And skin color. And even thus more dangerous because it is pseudo-scientific.
There is nothing really wrong in trying to genetically deconstruct permutations of the human species. It is tantamount to diminishing people like sachets of three-in-one-coffee, trying to figure out what is the right proportion for the perfect mix. And, besides, the campaign was supposed to be ( I repeat that with greater emphasis: supposed to be) pro-Filipino.
The attempt of the ad campaign to underline the significance of buying Filipino was not subtly put at the end of the copy --- as if to insist that it is not only more fun in the Philippines --- but we actually can dress better. That was not the issue all together. It is about the careless declarations ...and a case of really bad writing.
OK, I get that entire logic about mix-and-match.
It is, after all, a female fashion brand that sells separates and hopes to encourage tasteful combination of tops, skirts and pants. But to equate this with interracial identity --- and to diminish everything to a series of pat equations --- is not only verging on the prejudicial but even fallacious and, yes, insulting.
For who in his/her right mind would concoct a marketing campaign that would even dare say that the perfect recipe for a "world class beauty" is the Filipina mixed with foreign blood?
Uhm, to think that this campaign is targeted for the consumption of Pinays in the marketplace who do not necessarily have Australian, British, African, Chinese or Indian blood. Duh!
Or did the copywriter really believe that there is still any one of us Filipinos out here who is untouched by some foreign race or another? Perhaps. But to singularly point out that by having any semblance of being a half-breed is superior is ...uh, hel-ler.
But leave that as you wish: let us give the benefit of the doubt that it was all about the wording and the copy that really screwed it up.
To think that before an ad is brought out to print ... or launched as a full fledged campaign, the nitpicking and the scrutinizing not to mention the nearly-neurotic pambubusisi of ad men can reach the level of the manic.
And they did not see that this would happen? They did not even have an iota of clue that Filipinos will feel slighted by the mere suggestion that the hybrid is superior than she with the purest of pedigree? Tell me about gross miscalculations. Or, as a feminist friend of mine said, textbook insensitivity. OK, somebody even suggested "borderline stupidity."
Again, leave it at that: the campaign wanted to celebrate diversity as unity. I would like to think of it as that.
But it also proved that the copy is mightier than the theme. Enter Madonna singing the bridge of her song Four Minutes: "The road to hell is paved with good intentions."
The brand wanted to show that there is no single look for the Filipina for, indeed, we cannot specifically pinpoint much less paint a thorough and precise image of who and what is the Filipino today. The mixture of races and cultures constitute the dynamism of racial evolution --- inasmuch as our younger generation are much taller, think digitally and believe that globalization --- even acculturation --- are all inevitable.
But still that is no excuse to announce that she who has mixed blood has superior beauty --- because this is precisely the kind of thinking that has yielded such cultural schizophrenia in our sense of aesthetics.
Yes, indeed --- Nikita looked beautiful because she is supposedly 60% African and 40% Filipino.
For indeed, Nikita is beautiful. Period. And she is a Filipina born of both black and brown parents in Mindanao. Period. I like that. Because she is black. And she is beautiful. And she shatters this whole botica brainwashing we get from media insisting that Maganda ang maputi, sumpa ang maging maitim --- kaya, Ate, mag-ambisiyon kang magmukhang anak araw at magtago ka sa araw para hindi kang mangitim.
This is the kind of thinking that has existed since the time of movies like "Cofradia" where the happily-ever-after comes when the black paint is washed off Tita Gloria Romero so that she can transform into her full mestiza glory.
This is also the kind of mindset we feed young people --- which is why we still have characters in our television shows who are painted as black as black can get --- and shown to be inferior to their relatively more pale-skinned companions. To be black is to be isolated --- because you do not fit in. The year is 2012 and we still encourage that kind of bigoted thinking.
Worse is the equation that senyorita ang mga mapuputi, kasambahay ang mga maiitim. Yeah, right: bring out the frailles and all the Dona Victorina wannabes with pig ligament implants to gift themselves aquiline noses.
Sheeesh.
That is why we are peddling skin-whiteners so that women (in a matter of only weeks) can begin their crusade to become albinos. Yes, your dermatologist will still remind you to keep away from the sun because it can cause wrinkles. Your doctor will also warn you that sunbathing, when pushed to the extreme, can create adverse effects including skin cancer. But I have yet to hear any representative of the medical profession (of whatever specialization) telling anyone that paleness of skin is healthier than anyone born with darker pigmentation.
That sort of thinking was not prescribed by medicine --- or dictates of health. They are ploys of people selling products and services --- while pre-conditioning the woman that there is a template of beauty and it is usually what she is not and can never achieve.
Now it is the choice of any thinking individual to encourage such prejudices and misconceptions or to finally be awakened by the fact that the beauty of any woman --- of any human --- can only come by accepting who she or he is and celebrating the qualities inherent in his race. That specifically includes skin color. And that has got nothing to do with percentages of racial mixture at all.
This brings to mind a beautiful memory.
Twelve years ago, a group of Filipinos attended the Berlin International Film Festival. One of the actresses who joined the entourage of Filipinos was Ana Capri.
Ana, a native of Infanta, would walk among the winter-clad international crowd of cineastes and movie diehards unconsciously creating quite a stir. In the sea of blonde and blue-eyed whites, she who was noticed had black hair, barely any make-up and stunning with coffee colored Filipina skin.
Everywhere she went, people turned around and looked at her. And when the German press wanted to photograph the sample of the beautiful Pinoy --- it was the brown-skinned girl who emerged most extraordinary. And most beautiful.
What is so difficult to understand about that? Why is it so hard for Filipinos to accept that when the world can apparently see what we refuse to acknowledge?
The clothing brand came out with its perfunctory apology and promised to bring down all the paraphernalia of the campaign. The apology was short, precise and ...well, less wordy than the fatal copy. Considering the proliferation of memes that emerged from the play with equations, perhaps it still served its purpose for being publicity. After all, the brand got talked about. Maybe not in a very nice way ... but they still got talked about. And, as somebody reacted in my Twitter account, let us just hope that this translates into sales.
OK ... on to the next controversy, Folks.
Well, some say that what transpired was a simple case of overreaction. The internet is fertile ground for an exercise like that. All you need is to create some form of provocation ... and before you know it, there is an avalanche of seething opinion resembling that of a river of lava flowing out of a volcano of hate coming right your way to completely annihilate you.
There is this whole mob thingy that is generated by the world wide web, a friend opined. Once it becomes fashionable to bash something, someone or an issue, everyone will come attacking your way like a lynch mob. This is so simply because it has become the latest form of recreation. Bashing someone is a form of therapeutic amusement to vent our anger and frustration into something in particular. It intensifies our sila and tayo dichotomy.
Especially in our country, we cannot --- I repeat --- we cannot and can never exist without a controversy or an issue or a preoccupation of sorts to totally grab our attention with matching imagination.
So whether it is a badly choreographed action scene at the airport where a revered member of the telenovela royalty showed her hidden talent as an action queen --- or Miss 1999 finding God and bashing the entire gay community as a sign of her newfound vocation --- or even feeling cheated because the runner up of a high rating American reality show happens to possess Filipino lineage and was eased out by a white bread strumming songs about haystacks, we must always have something to fight for, to root for ... or simply to discuss while eating our bags of Boy Bawang or Tokyo San Crunch Coated Peanuts.
Well, as a friend of mine pointed out again, "Eh, kasi naman nagpaka-controversial pa, eh."
But I do not think it was that. This is not like the other clothing line that completely conquered the entire vista of the Guadalupe Bridge if you are northbound, plastering the whole stretch of the horizon with scantily clad rugby players (which, according to some very conservative mayor, could actually provoke not only traffic hazards --- but possibly suicides). And that became controversial only because somebody actually believed that the sight of giant men in skivvies would be invitations to dirty thoughts and phallic fantasies. Oh, dear. That ... or penis-envy, actually.
However this new controversy has got nothing to do with various states of nudity. This was all about percentages. And races. And skin color. And even thus more dangerous because it is pseudo-scientific.
There is nothing really wrong in trying to genetically deconstruct permutations of the human species. It is tantamount to diminishing people like sachets of three-in-one-coffee, trying to figure out what is the right proportion for the perfect mix. And, besides, the campaign was supposed to be ( I repeat that with greater emphasis: supposed to be) pro-Filipino.
The attempt of the ad campaign to underline the significance of buying Filipino was not subtly put at the end of the copy --- as if to insist that it is not only more fun in the Philippines --- but we actually can dress better. That was not the issue all together. It is about the careless declarations ...and a case of really bad writing.
OK, I get that entire logic about mix-and-match.
It is, after all, a female fashion brand that sells separates and hopes to encourage tasteful combination of tops, skirts and pants. But to equate this with interracial identity --- and to diminish everything to a series of pat equations --- is not only verging on the prejudicial but even fallacious and, yes, insulting.
For who in his/her right mind would concoct a marketing campaign that would even dare say that the perfect recipe for a "world class beauty" is the Filipina mixed with foreign blood?
Uhm, to think that this campaign is targeted for the consumption of Pinays in the marketplace who do not necessarily have Australian, British, African, Chinese or Indian blood. Duh!
Or did the copywriter really believe that there is still any one of us Filipinos out here who is untouched by some foreign race or another? Perhaps. But to singularly point out that by having any semblance of being a half-breed is superior is ...uh, hel-ler.
But leave that as you wish: let us give the benefit of the doubt that it was all about the wording and the copy that really screwed it up.
To think that before an ad is brought out to print ... or launched as a full fledged campaign, the nitpicking and the scrutinizing not to mention the nearly-neurotic pambubusisi of ad men can reach the level of the manic.
And they did not see that this would happen? They did not even have an iota of clue that Filipinos will feel slighted by the mere suggestion that the hybrid is superior than she with the purest of pedigree? Tell me about gross miscalculations. Or, as a feminist friend of mine said, textbook insensitivity. OK, somebody even suggested "borderline stupidity."
Again, leave it at that: the campaign wanted to celebrate diversity as unity. I would like to think of it as that.
But it also proved that the copy is mightier than the theme. Enter Madonna singing the bridge of her song Four Minutes: "The road to hell is paved with good intentions."
The brand wanted to show that there is no single look for the Filipina for, indeed, we cannot specifically pinpoint much less paint a thorough and precise image of who and what is the Filipino today. The mixture of races and cultures constitute the dynamism of racial evolution --- inasmuch as our younger generation are much taller, think digitally and believe that globalization --- even acculturation --- are all inevitable.
But still that is no excuse to announce that she who has mixed blood has superior beauty --- because this is precisely the kind of thinking that has yielded such cultural schizophrenia in our sense of aesthetics.
Yes, indeed --- Nikita looked beautiful because she is supposedly 60% African and 40% Filipino.
For indeed, Nikita is beautiful. Period. And she is a Filipina born of both black and brown parents in Mindanao. Period. I like that. Because she is black. And she is beautiful. And she shatters this whole botica brainwashing we get from media insisting that Maganda ang maputi, sumpa ang maging maitim --- kaya, Ate, mag-ambisiyon kang magmukhang anak araw at magtago ka sa araw para hindi kang mangitim.
This is the kind of thinking that has existed since the time of movies like "Cofradia" where the happily-ever-after comes when the black paint is washed off Tita Gloria Romero so that she can transform into her full mestiza glory.
This is also the kind of mindset we feed young people --- which is why we still have characters in our television shows who are painted as black as black can get --- and shown to be inferior to their relatively more pale-skinned companions. To be black is to be isolated --- because you do not fit in. The year is 2012 and we still encourage that kind of bigoted thinking.
Worse is the equation that senyorita ang mga mapuputi, kasambahay ang mga maiitim. Yeah, right: bring out the frailles and all the Dona Victorina wannabes with pig ligament implants to gift themselves aquiline noses.
Sheeesh.
That is why we are peddling skin-whiteners so that women (in a matter of only weeks) can begin their crusade to become albinos. Yes, your dermatologist will still remind you to keep away from the sun because it can cause wrinkles. Your doctor will also warn you that sunbathing, when pushed to the extreme, can create adverse effects including skin cancer. But I have yet to hear any representative of the medical profession (of whatever specialization) telling anyone that paleness of skin is healthier than anyone born with darker pigmentation.
That sort of thinking was not prescribed by medicine --- or dictates of health. They are ploys of people selling products and services --- while pre-conditioning the woman that there is a template of beauty and it is usually what she is not and can never achieve.
Now it is the choice of any thinking individual to encourage such prejudices and misconceptions or to finally be awakened by the fact that the beauty of any woman --- of any human --- can only come by accepting who she or he is and celebrating the qualities inherent in his race. That specifically includes skin color. And that has got nothing to do with percentages of racial mixture at all.
This brings to mind a beautiful memory.
Twelve years ago, a group of Filipinos attended the Berlin International Film Festival. One of the actresses who joined the entourage of Filipinos was Ana Capri.
Ana, a native of Infanta, would walk among the winter-clad international crowd of cineastes and movie diehards unconsciously creating quite a stir. In the sea of blonde and blue-eyed whites, she who was noticed had black hair, barely any make-up and stunning with coffee colored Filipina skin.
Everywhere she went, people turned around and looked at her. And when the German press wanted to photograph the sample of the beautiful Pinoy --- it was the brown-skinned girl who emerged most extraordinary. And most beautiful.
What is so difficult to understand about that? Why is it so hard for Filipinos to accept that when the world can apparently see what we refuse to acknowledge?
The clothing brand came out with its perfunctory apology and promised to bring down all the paraphernalia of the campaign. The apology was short, precise and ...well, less wordy than the fatal copy. Considering the proliferation of memes that emerged from the play with equations, perhaps it still served its purpose for being publicity. After all, the brand got talked about. Maybe not in a very nice way ... but they still got talked about. And, as somebody reacted in my Twitter account, let us just hope that this translates into sales.
OK ... on to the next controversy, Folks.
Saturday, June 2, 2012
SEVEN THINGS I LEARNED ABOUT THE CJ IMPEACHMENT TRIAL
Forty-four days and so many millions of pesos later, I still would like to think that there is more to learn about the recently concluded impeachment trial that ousted the head of the Judiciary branch of this Republique.
Considering how much time, energy, attention and money given to the live coverage of the trial, then there must be something more to all this. Those afternoons spent glued on the tv set should be worth so much more than to watch bungling congresspeople grope with the procedures of law. Those hours should offer so much better than provide a sampling of various ways of making a fool of one's self with the hope of still winning a higher public office in the next elections.
It cannot just be another hatchet job to get rid of some unpopular official who is a roadblock to the Yellow Brick Road of Righteousness.
Too bad that Auntie Merceditas backed out before her rites of Senate exorcism began. We missed out on the chance to have her grilled by Miriam and interrogated by Big Bear Frankie.
So wasn't it just wonderful that the (Ex-)Chief Justice Renato Corona had the guts and gumption to put up a fight? He could have just quit right at the start --- but he decided to appear on the balcony of the Supreme Court and re-enact my favorite scene from the Webber and Rice musical, Evita without singing a single line from the chorus of Don't Cry for Me, Ermita. Complete with very polite tears, mind you.
I should have known that the theatrics would begin right there and then. Let the games begin!
Many would have been very disappointed if he buckled down to pressure like Auntie so thank God that CJ Renato complied with the demands of the script that was supposedly the blueprint of history. Besides, he looked like he was in a fighting mood --- perhaps thanks to the support he received from the members of the judiciary ... and most especially because he was well represented by my favorite spokesperson (definitely more camera-friendly, charming and even oh-so-cute) Midas Marquez.
(I mean, Midas has become more of a personality than anybody immediately recognizable in those august halls. If I were asked to name as many members of the Supreme Court as I can rattle off all the provinces in the archipelago randomly, I'd fall flat on my face. But I can never forget, lest ignore --- Midas. After all, in this day and age, how many people do you know who are named Midas, right?)
Between anyone who does the talking for the President in Malacanang --- and our idol Midas --- he wins the Outstanding Charmer for a Spokesperson Award.
Well, that's maybe because all those who does the speaking for the president look like they are in dire need of Milk of Magnesia --- or any other form of over-the-counter laxative. They present themselves as being all too uptight --- like they were suffering from some kind of terminal constipation. You just want them to loosen up a bit, let their hair down and learn the art of sense of humor. You want to overfeed them with yogurt.
The battle to wipe our graft and corruption must be sooooo exasperating that it drains anyone involved in this Holy Crusade of all forms of humor. They are so unlike their boss.
And there are many of us who really feel bad that Midas is co-terminus with (Ex) CJ Renato C. We feel even worse that we have just concluded Telenovela ng Bayan entitled Coronang Tinik sa Lalamunan. It has been practically a week since the final telecast and we still feel lost --- the same way kind of cold turkey we experienced when Santino finally went up to heaven with Bro and met up with the Blessed Virgin Mary in the person of Dear Ate Charo.
After getting used to the same kind of lazy afternoon entertainment like Flor de Luna or Gulong ng Palad, it is hard to adjust to the reality that we now only have PBB Teen Edition 4 to satisfy our penchant for voyeurism.
But very much unlike the Finale of American Idol, this week's big media showdown at the Senate was more of an expected conclusion --- just like a Star Cinema movie. When the overwhelming 20-3 Guilty Verdict was proclaimed by the Superb Senate President JPE, everyone already knew it was a foregone conclusion. If it swung any other way, we would have blurted, "Weh!"
As I said, it was just like a Star Cinema movie: you already know it is going to be somebody's happy ending and you still want to feel pleasantly surprised and even jubilant. Just like what happened to Coco and Angeline. Or John Lloyd and Sara. Or Sam and Toni. That is because, despite all obstacles and castigations of Miriam --- love will always find its way. In this case, replace the world love with ephemeral justice.
We will never be happy with the outcome not unless it is a happy ending. Happy for the people at the Palace, that is.
So let's leave it at that.
OK. OK. It was the beginning of a new chapter of Philippine political history. This is a reason for celebration --- so much so that it can be cause enough for the APO Hiking Society to have a reunion and write another song to herald a turning point of political events. Perhaps it can be a song entitled Bring a Yellow Army Around the Poor SC ...or something like that.
After all, this is the very first time that an impeachment trial really concluded without the middle class gathering at EDSA for yet another ritual of public indignation turning into a street party-dash-flash mob.
If the event should be so important, then let us enumerate the lessons that we have all learned here:
(1) Senators do not necessarily look good in crimson robes. This was the idea of my favorite Senator, The Dame Miriam.
Well, yeah, if you primp the twenty-three in black togas, they will look like mutant emperor penguins or the faculty members of the History and Social Sciences Department of some university that has yet to be accredited by the minions of Brother Luistro. But the choice of maroon (or dried blood red, as some described it) made them look like devotees of the Nazareno of Quiapo waiting for the procession to pass by MOA then filter to the Senate premises in Roxas Boulevard.
Although the toga looked good on some (Oh, anything Pia and Loren wear can look fabulous with the right accessories, said a very excited fashion stylist who is into Experimental Goth) and ill-fitting on others (Well, yeah --- it is really hard to find a style that will agree with such a wide range of physical types --- from Drilon to Trillanes). There are some senators who were just literally drowned by that shade of maroon adding aggravation to the fact that, well, they have no distinct personalities.
But I guess the main reason why they chose the deep red togas was because it was definitely more telegenic.
It was as innovative as Conchita Morales Carpio coming in her palaban red suit when she testified ... or no less than the (Ex) Chief Justice who came to court in a baby pink tie. I mean, try to beat that fashion statement. I do not think even Ping Lacson would dare wear a pink tie to face his twenty-two other senators ... but (Ex)CJ's style would have looked equally spiffy on Ralph Recto. Or especially Bong Revilla, di ba??
(2) There is a substantial difference between age and vintage. Truly smart people are like wine that evolve into higher forms of taste while mediocre ones just turn into vinegar.
Let it be put on record: when I turn 88 years old, I want to be like Juan Ponce Enrile. Let me put it in another record, I am also in awe of Retired Justice Serafin Cuevas. Add Conchita Morales to the list.
These people are not Senior Citizens: they are Jedis.
If I come close to eight decades of human existence and possess such sharpness, keenness and broadness of thought and mind, then I know God placed me here on this planet with Purpose and not out of bored whim.
Right this very moment I want to interview all three illustrious personas to ask what sort of regimen or diet they followed. Whereas people half their age in that court literally pissed in their pants and bungled in a manner that added new definition to the word "nincompoop", Enrile and Cuevas were literally dancing figure-eights right on the foreheads of people less than half their ages.
One thing proven by the trial is that this prejudice against old people --- especially the young ones who think that being old is equated to being useless --- should be whacked right on their heads.
Read my lips, Kids: Being young does not give you all the excuses to prove to the world that you are better --- and that you can replace the old guards with equal competence and candor. If Enrile, at age 88, can comb through the Law and throw those balls right into the faces of the stuttering young congressmen, one really has very valid reasons to worry.
Are these the lawmakers who will eventually inherit the mantle of running our country?
As an avid student of Philippine history said, gone are the days of the Titans of Filipino politics. Gone are the Carlos P. Romulos, the Lorenzo Tanadas, the Claro M. Rectos.
Shall it ever reach a point in our country that in the kingdom of the blind ... the one-eyed man gains the right to be king? Scary thought, isn't it?
(3) Everyone wants his spot in the limelight.
There is a really ugly-sound word from the streets to best describe the incessant need on the part of people to have the camera directed at their faces. The term is epal (which really sounds somewhat indecent although it is not.)
As the impeachment trial unfolded, I do not blame the more knowledgeable senators to be not only impatient ...but infuriated.
In that delicious attempt to perform in front of the camera in order to prove to the audience (which can also be read as voters for the midterm elections), some of our lawmakers did not only succeed in shooting their feet while attempting to dance. They received a series of tongue lashings from the more credible and experienced senior senators as if to prove once and for all that you have to look before you leap ... most especially when you can't even spell parachute.
The art of epal is not and was never limited to the boys and girls of the Lower House. The senators are equally guilty ... but then again, there should be a substantial difference between somebody who is merely umeepal from someone who indulges in a heart wrenching, nerve wracking mind-boggling soliloquy that can create havoc down to the level of the tectonic plates.
This leads us to ...
(4) There can only be ONE and ONLY ONE Miriam Defensor-Santiago!
Oh, come let's face it. You either love her or hate her. There's no such thing about being ambivalent about this senator.
You love her for the following reasons:
(4.1) You marvel at her extraordinary vocabulary --- because her polysyllabication is like an adventure into Thesaurus Wonderland. It helps a lot that she has this accent that is either endearing or disturbing --- but either which way, when she talks --- you better listen because ...
(4.2) You have no other option but to listen to her. She never merely states: she declares. There is nothing lukewarm about her because she is passionate --- and that is why you either passionately love her or you despise her because ...
(4.3) You are in awe with the brutality of her frankness. You are sometimes shocked out of your wits with the way she calls a spade a spade ... or fifteen synonyms referring to all the other suits of a deck of cards. And you have known that right from the very beginning of her career in public office. No one can outdo her when it comes to eloquence more so if ...
(4.4) You admire her because she says it as it is and not to please anybody else but to serve the purpose of truth. And sometimes truth can hurt --- especially if that is not exactly what you want to hear.
Some people only listen to what they want to hear --- and when Miriam smacks them right on the face with This is How It is --- they automatically accuse her of being insane.
Maybe there is something insane about her ways but she is never going to take the popular side just for the sake of the applause meter. When she voted to acquit (Ex) CJ Renato, the other side raised their brows, chuckled, whispered invective against her, tweeted that she was insane, etc., etc. But then let us see.
She was equally castigated when she chose to side with Erap during that first attempt at a Senate impeachment trial: she was against the opening of that magic envelope --- and people hated her for choosing the unpopular side. Whereas it spelled the death of some political careers --- certainly not Miriam's. She is still very much around --- and kicking and fighting.
There are actually very definite reasons why people hate her: one feels this way because ...
(4.5) You can't stand her guts. You actually think she talks too much --- and when she goes on a roll, you have this strange desire to call Dial-a-Jesuit to exercise the rites of exorcism. You cannot stand the way she shoves herself into people's faces and not believing in the principles of privacy of space. Worse than than that ...
(4.6) You can't stand the way she foists her intelligence ...making everybody look stupid. You somehow have a feeling that she sucks the living breath out of people the moment she sees them cowering to her verbal attacks, emphasizing on their stupidity or mediocrity to highlight her superiority. Moreover ...
(4.7) You really think she is a bully. Just because she can get away with it, she will get away with it and you cannot stand that. When JPE suggested that she conclude her talk justifying her decision whether to convict or acquit the (Ex) CJ, Miriam flashed a look at the direction of the Senate President and said, "I thought I was unlimited."
Half the world somersaulted with laughter and cheers --- for only Miriam --- yes, only Miriam --- is capable not only of doing that but saying it in that fashion.
The other half of the world grit their teeth, fumed with anger and certified that the senator was insane. They were only too glad that she is about to exit the halls of the Senate to work for an international court.
But regardless of what you think and how you feel about her, you must admit: there can be nobody and there will be nobody, nobody like her!
( Note: Let's see if the people who hate her so much will still have the same seething aversion for the Most Verbose and Vociferous Lady Senator the moment the discussion of the RH Bill is brought to the floor of the Upper House. Tingnan nga natin kung ilan ang mabubuwisit sa kanyang pagkalukis ... o ilan ang makikipalakpakan. The saga continues.)
(5) Dramas do not necessarily work. Better yet, if you choose to turn an event into an episode of a telenovela, make sure you have a well-structured and well-planned script. Otherwise, you'd just be another sad story.
Who ever concocted that scenario for (Ex) CJ Corona the day he decided to take the witness stand should be given lobotomy ... through the foot.
When the ex-Chief Justice returned to the halls of the Senate, impeccably dressed (and that pink tie!) to swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth --- he actually could have turned the tables to his advantage.
When he dramatically signed a waiver, giving access to all the government agencies (including all those curious, malicious, vociferous, cantankerous and doubting), the moment was his. Suddenly, there was stunned silence because people thought he meant business, throwing the books right at the faces of the Prosecution.
But when named his conditions --- and demanded that waivers were also signed by the 188 lawmen who want him ditched --- including Big Bear Frankie --- everything went downhill all the way. (Days later he would come back, erase the conditions he set but that was already after the fact). His hope to create drama simply backfired --- because people who never trusted him had the bullets stuffed to their guns and accused him of merely bluffing.
No, no, no, Sir! The moment he said, "The Chief Justice would like to excuse himself ..." and stood up and left --- that was the end of the game.
The confusion that followed was not really one of chaos or mayhem. As a matter of fact, it sealed the deal.
Whoever still had hope that Corona would be acquitted threw in the towel.
Whether or not the judges would stick to the tenets of the law to keep or oust the man, his behavior somewhat betrayed a flaw in character that the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court could not possibly possess much less flaunt. As a good friend of mine said, "If the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court could not respect the rules and protocol of any court, what right has he to be the head of all judges?"
Let us give the man the benefit of the doubt: he may indeed be very sick --- or even sickened by his situation. But the exit was too pat, too scripted, too contrived. In other words, it was just so badly staged. Or just badly acted out.
This is blunder at its best --- and all because Pinoys think a little drama here and there can create wonderful sound bytes and visual testimony. A dramatic walkout would go down the annals of Philippine history as the highlight of an event that would
top the Nielsen Ratings. Well, after all, this is a tv show, di ba?
What should have been a monumental episode of Maalaala Mo Kaya? ended up being a very bad episode of Banana Split.
If for one second the authors of that scenario believed that the people would buy that sort of drama even on a soap opera afternoon --- the answer is: Not!
And that is because ...
(6) This is a political exercise. This is not only about legality but a showcase of politics.
Granted such, senators will not necessarily vote according to legality alone --- but according to the barometer of public opinion. My Mama would shout, "Naturalmente!"
Assuming you are senator/judge and you are made to decide under the brutal scrutiny and magnifying glass eyes of the public, would you really dare to go against the current of opinion?
After the man walked out on your most sacred home upright, proud and erect ... only to claim he was having a diabetic attack, wheeled back on a wheelchair --- uhm, politicians are not exactly remembered to be ever-forgiving living saints, right?
If you know that the very machinery of the government is working to oust this man --- and that media has practically masticated this fellow, then you need to be Joker Arroyo, Bongbong Marcos or Miriam Defensor to cast a vote against the tsunami of prejudgment.
This leads me to my final realization while watching the impeachment:
(7) Senators love to talk about themselves while trying to decide the fate of others.
When each of the senator/judges approached the podium to give their verdict on Article 2 of the trial, the illustrious senators all found ways to relate their assessment based on their personal experiences.
That cannot be helped. Jinggoy and Alan related the events to their fathers. Mr Villar talked about how he was so maliciously and viciously maligned during the most recent presidential elections (ceaselessly saying that he has forgiven and forgotten but nonetheless still remembering and recounting).
Of course, the three who voted acquittal were the ones most remembered --- with Miriam topping the charts with a speech that may well become an oratorical piece to be recited, repeated and resurrected in inter-school elocution contests. Joker was wry and straight to the point. And Bongbong was still being mercilessly judged not for what he said but for what his father did.
Ah, well ... as I said earlier: it was, after all, a political exercise.
At the end of the day, the government got what it wanted. Everybody was just too happy that it was all over ... because if the (Ex) CJ was acquitted, there were threats that there will be another filing for impeachment as soon as the grace period of the year was over.
Panginoon kong Lord, maraming salamat at natapos na ito! Another season for congressmen cross-examining witnesses like they were trial lawyers undergoing their summer OJT can be so exasperating --- and after two weeks --- definitely boring.
Besides we did not elect these senators to star in a daily afternoon soap opera.
Can we please let them go back to what they are supposed to be doing? Like interrogating and investigation whatever-whoever for the aid of legislation?
Oh, there should be an eighth learning added here somewhere. Perhaps this is equally important:
(8) It is all about public perception. It is all about how media conditions people to react to an issue, to have an opinion about a person and his character and to decide on what to do or think.
The next time a Big Somebody is threatened with impeachment, he should not hire a lawyer first. He should look for a PR man who can spin things with media so that the public is not clouded with an overload of information --- about 80% of which are as credible as the gossip among fish wives.
It is all about what people are made to think --- rather than what is necessarily true. It is all about what people feel --- and believe. And what media makes people think is real is not necessarily true. But that is the way it works.
And that's how it is and will be. People would like to believe they are thinking. But somewhere along the way, somebody conditioned their minds to think they are actually thinking.
Considering how much time, energy, attention and money given to the live coverage of the trial, then there must be something more to all this. Those afternoons spent glued on the tv set should be worth so much more than to watch bungling congresspeople grope with the procedures of law. Those hours should offer so much better than provide a sampling of various ways of making a fool of one's self with the hope of still winning a higher public office in the next elections.
It cannot just be another hatchet job to get rid of some unpopular official who is a roadblock to the Yellow Brick Road of Righteousness.
Too bad that Auntie Merceditas backed out before her rites of Senate exorcism began. We missed out on the chance to have her grilled by Miriam and interrogated by Big Bear Frankie.
So wasn't it just wonderful that the (Ex-)Chief Justice Renato Corona had the guts and gumption to put up a fight? He could have just quit right at the start --- but he decided to appear on the balcony of the Supreme Court and re-enact my favorite scene from the Webber and Rice musical, Evita without singing a single line from the chorus of Don't Cry for Me, Ermita. Complete with very polite tears, mind you.
I should have known that the theatrics would begin right there and then. Let the games begin!
Many would have been very disappointed if he buckled down to pressure like Auntie so thank God that CJ Renato complied with the demands of the script that was supposedly the blueprint of history. Besides, he looked like he was in a fighting mood --- perhaps thanks to the support he received from the members of the judiciary ... and most especially because he was well represented by my favorite spokesperson (definitely more camera-friendly, charming and even oh-so-cute) Midas Marquez.
(I mean, Midas has become more of a personality than anybody immediately recognizable in those august halls. If I were asked to name as many members of the Supreme Court as I can rattle off all the provinces in the archipelago randomly, I'd fall flat on my face. But I can never forget, lest ignore --- Midas. After all, in this day and age, how many people do you know who are named Midas, right?)
Between anyone who does the talking for the President in Malacanang --- and our idol Midas --- he wins the Outstanding Charmer for a Spokesperson Award.
Well, that's maybe because all those who does the speaking for the president look like they are in dire need of Milk of Magnesia --- or any other form of over-the-counter laxative. They present themselves as being all too uptight --- like they were suffering from some kind of terminal constipation. You just want them to loosen up a bit, let their hair down and learn the art of sense of humor. You want to overfeed them with yogurt.
The battle to wipe our graft and corruption must be sooooo exasperating that it drains anyone involved in this Holy Crusade of all forms of humor. They are so unlike their boss.
And there are many of us who really feel bad that Midas is co-terminus with (Ex) CJ Renato C. We feel even worse that we have just concluded Telenovela ng Bayan entitled Coronang Tinik sa Lalamunan. It has been practically a week since the final telecast and we still feel lost --- the same way kind of cold turkey we experienced when Santino finally went up to heaven with Bro and met up with the Blessed Virgin Mary in the person of Dear Ate Charo.
After getting used to the same kind of lazy afternoon entertainment like Flor de Luna or Gulong ng Palad, it is hard to adjust to the reality that we now only have PBB Teen Edition 4 to satisfy our penchant for voyeurism.
But very much unlike the Finale of American Idol, this week's big media showdown at the Senate was more of an expected conclusion --- just like a Star Cinema movie. When the overwhelming 20-3 Guilty Verdict was proclaimed by the Superb Senate President JPE, everyone already knew it was a foregone conclusion. If it swung any other way, we would have blurted, "Weh!"
As I said, it was just like a Star Cinema movie: you already know it is going to be somebody's happy ending and you still want to feel pleasantly surprised and even jubilant. Just like what happened to Coco and Angeline. Or John Lloyd and Sara. Or Sam and Toni. That is because, despite all obstacles and castigations of Miriam --- love will always find its way. In this case, replace the world love with ephemeral justice.
We will never be happy with the outcome not unless it is a happy ending. Happy for the people at the Palace, that is.
So let's leave it at that.
OK. OK. It was the beginning of a new chapter of Philippine political history. This is a reason for celebration --- so much so that it can be cause enough for the APO Hiking Society to have a reunion and write another song to herald a turning point of political events. Perhaps it can be a song entitled Bring a Yellow Army Around the Poor SC ...or something like that.
After all, this is the very first time that an impeachment trial really concluded without the middle class gathering at EDSA for yet another ritual of public indignation turning into a street party-dash-flash mob.
If the event should be so important, then let us enumerate the lessons that we have all learned here:
(1) Senators do not necessarily look good in crimson robes. This was the idea of my favorite Senator, The Dame Miriam.
Well, yeah, if you primp the twenty-three in black togas, they will look like mutant emperor penguins or the faculty members of the History and Social Sciences Department of some university that has yet to be accredited by the minions of Brother Luistro. But the choice of maroon (or dried blood red, as some described it) made them look like devotees of the Nazareno of Quiapo waiting for the procession to pass by MOA then filter to the Senate premises in Roxas Boulevard.
Although the toga looked good on some (Oh, anything Pia and Loren wear can look fabulous with the right accessories, said a very excited fashion stylist who is into Experimental Goth) and ill-fitting on others (Well, yeah --- it is really hard to find a style that will agree with such a wide range of physical types --- from Drilon to Trillanes). There are some senators who were just literally drowned by that shade of maroon adding aggravation to the fact that, well, they have no distinct personalities.
But I guess the main reason why they chose the deep red togas was because it was definitely more telegenic.
It was as innovative as Conchita Morales Carpio coming in her palaban red suit when she testified ... or no less than the (Ex) Chief Justice who came to court in a baby pink tie. I mean, try to beat that fashion statement. I do not think even Ping Lacson would dare wear a pink tie to face his twenty-two other senators ... but (Ex)CJ's style would have looked equally spiffy on Ralph Recto. Or especially Bong Revilla, di ba??
(2) There is a substantial difference between age and vintage. Truly smart people are like wine that evolve into higher forms of taste while mediocre ones just turn into vinegar.
Let it be put on record: when I turn 88 years old, I want to be like Juan Ponce Enrile. Let me put it in another record, I am also in awe of Retired Justice Serafin Cuevas. Add Conchita Morales to the list.
These people are not Senior Citizens: they are Jedis.
If I come close to eight decades of human existence and possess such sharpness, keenness and broadness of thought and mind, then I know God placed me here on this planet with Purpose and not out of bored whim.
Right this very moment I want to interview all three illustrious personas to ask what sort of regimen or diet they followed. Whereas people half their age in that court literally pissed in their pants and bungled in a manner that added new definition to the word "nincompoop", Enrile and Cuevas were literally dancing figure-eights right on the foreheads of people less than half their ages.
One thing proven by the trial is that this prejudice against old people --- especially the young ones who think that being old is equated to being useless --- should be whacked right on their heads.
Read my lips, Kids: Being young does not give you all the excuses to prove to the world that you are better --- and that you can replace the old guards with equal competence and candor. If Enrile, at age 88, can comb through the Law and throw those balls right into the faces of the stuttering young congressmen, one really has very valid reasons to worry.
Are these the lawmakers who will eventually inherit the mantle of running our country?
As an avid student of Philippine history said, gone are the days of the Titans of Filipino politics. Gone are the Carlos P. Romulos, the Lorenzo Tanadas, the Claro M. Rectos.
Shall it ever reach a point in our country that in the kingdom of the blind ... the one-eyed man gains the right to be king? Scary thought, isn't it?
(3) Everyone wants his spot in the limelight.
There is a really ugly-sound word from the streets to best describe the incessant need on the part of people to have the camera directed at their faces. The term is epal (which really sounds somewhat indecent although it is not.)
As the impeachment trial unfolded, I do not blame the more knowledgeable senators to be not only impatient ...but infuriated.
In that delicious attempt to perform in front of the camera in order to prove to the audience (which can also be read as voters for the midterm elections), some of our lawmakers did not only succeed in shooting their feet while attempting to dance. They received a series of tongue lashings from the more credible and experienced senior senators as if to prove once and for all that you have to look before you leap ... most especially when you can't even spell parachute.
The art of epal is not and was never limited to the boys and girls of the Lower House. The senators are equally guilty ... but then again, there should be a substantial difference between somebody who is merely umeepal from someone who indulges in a heart wrenching, nerve wracking mind-boggling soliloquy that can create havoc down to the level of the tectonic plates.
This leads us to ...
(4) There can only be ONE and ONLY ONE Miriam Defensor-Santiago!
Oh, come let's face it. You either love her or hate her. There's no such thing about being ambivalent about this senator.
You love her for the following reasons:
(4.1) You marvel at her extraordinary vocabulary --- because her polysyllabication is like an adventure into Thesaurus Wonderland. It helps a lot that she has this accent that is either endearing or disturbing --- but either which way, when she talks --- you better listen because ...
(4.2) You have no other option but to listen to her. She never merely states: she declares. There is nothing lukewarm about her because she is passionate --- and that is why you either passionately love her or you despise her because ...
(4.3) You are in awe with the brutality of her frankness. You are sometimes shocked out of your wits with the way she calls a spade a spade ... or fifteen synonyms referring to all the other suits of a deck of cards. And you have known that right from the very beginning of her career in public office. No one can outdo her when it comes to eloquence more so if ...
(4.4) You admire her because she says it as it is and not to please anybody else but to serve the purpose of truth. And sometimes truth can hurt --- especially if that is not exactly what you want to hear.
Some people only listen to what they want to hear --- and when Miriam smacks them right on the face with This is How It is --- they automatically accuse her of being insane.
Maybe there is something insane about her ways but she is never going to take the popular side just for the sake of the applause meter. When she voted to acquit (Ex) CJ Renato, the other side raised their brows, chuckled, whispered invective against her, tweeted that she was insane, etc., etc. But then let us see.
She was equally castigated when she chose to side with Erap during that first attempt at a Senate impeachment trial: she was against the opening of that magic envelope --- and people hated her for choosing the unpopular side. Whereas it spelled the death of some political careers --- certainly not Miriam's. She is still very much around --- and kicking and fighting.
There are actually very definite reasons why people hate her: one feels this way because ...
(4.5) You can't stand her guts. You actually think she talks too much --- and when she goes on a roll, you have this strange desire to call Dial-a-Jesuit to exercise the rites of exorcism. You cannot stand the way she shoves herself into people's faces and not believing in the principles of privacy of space. Worse than than that ...
(4.6) You can't stand the way she foists her intelligence ...making everybody look stupid. You somehow have a feeling that she sucks the living breath out of people the moment she sees them cowering to her verbal attacks, emphasizing on their stupidity or mediocrity to highlight her superiority. Moreover ...
(4.7) You really think she is a bully. Just because she can get away with it, she will get away with it and you cannot stand that. When JPE suggested that she conclude her talk justifying her decision whether to convict or acquit the (Ex) CJ, Miriam flashed a look at the direction of the Senate President and said, "I thought I was unlimited."
Half the world somersaulted with laughter and cheers --- for only Miriam --- yes, only Miriam --- is capable not only of doing that but saying it in that fashion.
The other half of the world grit their teeth, fumed with anger and certified that the senator was insane. They were only too glad that she is about to exit the halls of the Senate to work for an international court.
But regardless of what you think and how you feel about her, you must admit: there can be nobody and there will be nobody, nobody like her!
( Note: Let's see if the people who hate her so much will still have the same seething aversion for the Most Verbose and Vociferous Lady Senator the moment the discussion of the RH Bill is brought to the floor of the Upper House. Tingnan nga natin kung ilan ang mabubuwisit sa kanyang pagkalukis ... o ilan ang makikipalakpakan. The saga continues.)
(5) Dramas do not necessarily work. Better yet, if you choose to turn an event into an episode of a telenovela, make sure you have a well-structured and well-planned script. Otherwise, you'd just be another sad story.
Who ever concocted that scenario for (Ex) CJ Corona the day he decided to take the witness stand should be given lobotomy ... through the foot.
When the ex-Chief Justice returned to the halls of the Senate, impeccably dressed (and that pink tie!) to swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth --- he actually could have turned the tables to his advantage.
When he dramatically signed a waiver, giving access to all the government agencies (including all those curious, malicious, vociferous, cantankerous and doubting), the moment was his. Suddenly, there was stunned silence because people thought he meant business, throwing the books right at the faces of the Prosecution.
But when named his conditions --- and demanded that waivers were also signed by the 188 lawmen who want him ditched --- including Big Bear Frankie --- everything went downhill all the way. (Days later he would come back, erase the conditions he set but that was already after the fact). His hope to create drama simply backfired --- because people who never trusted him had the bullets stuffed to their guns and accused him of merely bluffing.
No, no, no, Sir! The moment he said, "The Chief Justice would like to excuse himself ..." and stood up and left --- that was the end of the game.
The confusion that followed was not really one of chaos or mayhem. As a matter of fact, it sealed the deal.
Whoever still had hope that Corona would be acquitted threw in the towel.
Whether or not the judges would stick to the tenets of the law to keep or oust the man, his behavior somewhat betrayed a flaw in character that the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court could not possibly possess much less flaunt. As a good friend of mine said, "If the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court could not respect the rules and protocol of any court, what right has he to be the head of all judges?"
Let us give the man the benefit of the doubt: he may indeed be very sick --- or even sickened by his situation. But the exit was too pat, too scripted, too contrived. In other words, it was just so badly staged. Or just badly acted out.
This is blunder at its best --- and all because Pinoys think a little drama here and there can create wonderful sound bytes and visual testimony. A dramatic walkout would go down the annals of Philippine history as the highlight of an event that would
top the Nielsen Ratings. Well, after all, this is a tv show, di ba?
What should have been a monumental episode of Maalaala Mo Kaya? ended up being a very bad episode of Banana Split.
If for one second the authors of that scenario believed that the people would buy that sort of drama even on a soap opera afternoon --- the answer is: Not!
And that is because ...
(6) This is a political exercise. This is not only about legality but a showcase of politics.
Granted such, senators will not necessarily vote according to legality alone --- but according to the barometer of public opinion. My Mama would shout, "Naturalmente!"
Assuming you are senator/judge and you are made to decide under the brutal scrutiny and magnifying glass eyes of the public, would you really dare to go against the current of opinion?
After the man walked out on your most sacred home upright, proud and erect ... only to claim he was having a diabetic attack, wheeled back on a wheelchair --- uhm, politicians are not exactly remembered to be ever-forgiving living saints, right?
If you know that the very machinery of the government is working to oust this man --- and that media has practically masticated this fellow, then you need to be Joker Arroyo, Bongbong Marcos or Miriam Defensor to cast a vote against the tsunami of prejudgment.
This leads me to my final realization while watching the impeachment:
(7) Senators love to talk about themselves while trying to decide the fate of others.
When each of the senator/judges approached the podium to give their verdict on Article 2 of the trial, the illustrious senators all found ways to relate their assessment based on their personal experiences.
That cannot be helped. Jinggoy and Alan related the events to their fathers. Mr Villar talked about how he was so maliciously and viciously maligned during the most recent presidential elections (ceaselessly saying that he has forgiven and forgotten but nonetheless still remembering and recounting).
Of course, the three who voted acquittal were the ones most remembered --- with Miriam topping the charts with a speech that may well become an oratorical piece to be recited, repeated and resurrected in inter-school elocution contests. Joker was wry and straight to the point. And Bongbong was still being mercilessly judged not for what he said but for what his father did.
Ah, well ... as I said earlier: it was, after all, a political exercise.
At the end of the day, the government got what it wanted. Everybody was just too happy that it was all over ... because if the (Ex) CJ was acquitted, there were threats that there will be another filing for impeachment as soon as the grace period of the year was over.
Panginoon kong Lord, maraming salamat at natapos na ito! Another season for congressmen cross-examining witnesses like they were trial lawyers undergoing their summer OJT can be so exasperating --- and after two weeks --- definitely boring.
Besides we did not elect these senators to star in a daily afternoon soap opera.
Can we please let them go back to what they are supposed to be doing? Like interrogating and investigation whatever-whoever for the aid of legislation?
Oh, there should be an eighth learning added here somewhere. Perhaps this is equally important:
(8) It is all about public perception. It is all about how media conditions people to react to an issue, to have an opinion about a person and his character and to decide on what to do or think.
The next time a Big Somebody is threatened with impeachment, he should not hire a lawyer first. He should look for a PR man who can spin things with media so that the public is not clouded with an overload of information --- about 80% of which are as credible as the gossip among fish wives.
It is all about what people are made to think --- rather than what is necessarily true. It is all about what people feel --- and believe. And what media makes people think is real is not necessarily true. But that is the way it works.
And that's how it is and will be. People would like to believe they are thinking. But somewhere along the way, somebody conditioned their minds to think they are actually thinking.
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