SONA - SCREWING OUR NATION AGAIN
Brace yourselves folks! The circus is coming to town. A double-whammy with Congress and the Senate resuming with a joint session, plus more prevarications, concoctions and bull with the President delivering her State Of The Nation Address (SONA) on July 27 before a people she and her administration has betrayed and continue to betray, not to mention the nerve of a sinister attempt to amend the Charter in the hopes of perpetuating her to power.
The people will be closely watching too how their legislators will be behaving. Body language is such a clear way of communicating. These solons spend millions and millions to get elected and re-elected, and the public is curious how on earth will they ever recover their political expenses on jobs paying only several thousands of pesos a month. We now eye legislators with much skepticism, and it's their fault. We also know that they left no stone unturned to be elected and be assured of money and power. Most of these solons who will bootlick the President on July 27 as she wags her forked-tongue before a politically-emaciated citizenry will be coming from the same political and business elite she comes from, the same class that has ruled Filipinos for many years and have refused to give up its life-and-death grip on the fate of their constituents.
The political and economic oligarchies remain so entrenched in their positions of power that no poor man can ever hope to get elected to public office. Look at the political landscape. The wives of the solons are governors or mayors and their children are councilors. And that is only the beginning. Other relatives occupy high appointive positions. And so, these political families enjoy almost complete control over their hapless constituents.
Much as we hate to admit it, Singapore's former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew may have been correct when he accused the Philippines of having abused the theory of democracy and that this same abuse has caused many of the country's present ills.
"The trouble with your country is that you ape western democracies too much and you have had too much of democracy," Mr. Lee told Filipinos during a visit to the Philippines some years ago.
Methinks too that the trouble with our country is our culture of impunity where not one big crook really goes to jail - unless politically motivated. No one big fish here really goes to jail for his or her crimes, period. If that big fish goes to jail, it's only for a "vacation."
It's high time we send some to the can again or else we will never learn our lessons, and rest assured, there will be more out there ready and willing to screw our nation again and again.
And remember how the President made a public declaration once saying, "I'm married to the country."
No wonder she keeps screwing the Filipino people.
Brace yourselves folks! The circus is coming to town. A double-whammy with Congress and the Senate resuming with a joint session, plus more prevarications, concoctions and bull with the President delivering her State Of The Nation Address (SONA) on July 27 before a people she and her administration has betrayed and continue to betray, not to mention the nerve of a sinister attempt to amend the Charter in the hopes of perpetuating her to power.
The people will be closely watching too how their legislators will be behaving. Body language is such a clear way of communicating. These solons spend millions and millions to get elected and re-elected, and the public is curious how on earth will they ever recover their political expenses on jobs paying only several thousands of pesos a month. We now eye legislators with much skepticism, and it's their fault. We also know that they left no stone unturned to be elected and be assured of money and power. Most of these solons who will bootlick the President on July 27 as she wags her forked-tongue before a politically-emaciated citizenry will be coming from the same political and business elite she comes from, the same class that has ruled Filipinos for many years and have refused to give up its life-and-death grip on the fate of their constituents.
The political and economic oligarchies remain so entrenched in their positions of power that no poor man can ever hope to get elected to public office. Look at the political landscape. The wives of the solons are governors or mayors and their children are councilors. And that is only the beginning. Other relatives occupy high appointive positions. And so, these political families enjoy almost complete control over their hapless constituents.
Much as we hate to admit it, Singapore's former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew may have been correct when he accused the Philippines of having abused the theory of democracy and that this same abuse has caused many of the country's present ills.
"The trouble with your country is that you ape western democracies too much and you have had too much of democracy," Mr. Lee told Filipinos during a visit to the Philippines some years ago.
Methinks too that the trouble with our country is our culture of impunity where not one big crook really goes to jail - unless politically motivated. No one big fish here really goes to jail for his or her crimes, period. If that big fish goes to jail, it's only for a "vacation."
It's high time we send some to the can again or else we will never learn our lessons, and rest assured, there will be more out there ready and willing to screw our nation again and again.
And remember how the President made a public declaration once saying, "I'm married to the country."
No wonder she keeps screwing the Filipino people.
(Image from www.pinoyweekly.org/)
