Consumers Domain
Elections -- The Grand Trapo Show
"Because its murder by numbers one two three
It's easy to learn as your ABC..."
--From "Murder by Numbers" by the Police
Here comes another election and the nation is now gearing up for another grand variety show, a circus of sorts, complete with production numbers, games, magic and intermissions. The different participants already have tidied up their props and costumes. The clowns are all dressed up. The magicians have rehearsed their old tricks as well as assembled some new stunts.
Now the chief magician who occupies the seat in Malacañang has just signed the 2007 budget. She dubs the budget as a "social payback". This budget she asserts, as she had asserted in the past, is a pro-poor budget that will increase government spending for social services (The truth is debt servicing still eats up the biggest chunk of the 2007 budget). Well, we have proven that wrong for several years already.
What is most likely to happen is that this "payback" will be for no one else but for Gloria's assistant magicians, the likes of Garcillano, who can do their tricks once again.
Then here is one clown who wants to bring back the Anti-Subversion Law. This law utilized by the Marcos regime to repress dissent was repealed after the ouster of the dictator. Hermogenes Esperon, a Hello-Garci veteran, is part of the intermission number instigated by Malacañang that is aimed to harass and discredit genuine party-list organizations.
Of course let's not forget the showman Norberto Gonzales who have been busy with his anti-communist red baiting. If Gonzales would have his way he would wipe out all the community based Party-List that he accuses to be fronts of the NPA. This campaign already had Satur Ocampo of Bayan Muna arrested and more harassment is to come.
And in a recent move, Malacañang, is now using the military to sow intrigues among the Party-List organizations. Take for example the recent press conference of the military where they claimed to have recovered documents after an encounter against the New People's Army.
The military claims that the documents mention about a rebel plan that includes identifying candidates and supporters of party-list groups allegedly fronting for Malacañang. This purported "list" of the NPA includes Alliance for Nationalism and Democracy (ANAD), Partido Demokratiko Sosyalista ng Pilipinas (PDSP), Akbayan, Sanlakas, Partido ng Manggagawa (PM), Akap, and Aksa.
Clearly, including Akbayan, Sanlakas and PM, groups that have been vocal against Gloria Arroyo, as groups "fronting for Malacañang" is a calculated intrigue to pit the different party-lists against one another.
More on this grand trapo show next time...
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(This column would like to share an insightful statement below from the former President of the U.P. System.)
Why I Support Trillanes For Senator
Francisco Nemenzo,
Former President, University of the Philippines
Captain (Lt. S/g) Antonio Trillanes IV represents the thinking, principled and patriotic soldiers. Since 2003 he has been kept in detention for leading a protest against corruption in the highest levels of government and the military. Although denied the right to campaign, he continues the struggle for an AFP that protects and serves the people, not one that acts as the coercive tool of the ruling class.
I support Capt. Trillanes for the symbolic value of a political prisoner beating the rival candidates who have the freedom and all the money to move around in private planes, maintain a political machine, pay for media advertising, and buy election inspectors. Every vote for Trillanes is a vote against traditional politics and a slap on the faces of GMA and Gen. Esperon.
If elected senator, Trillanes will not be a mere decorative figure. Intelligent and articulate, he can stand up to those charlatans who have brought our country to ruin. He graduated from the Philippine Military Academy cum laude and holds a Master of Public Administration degree from the University of the Philippines. He is not a soldier who blindly obeys, even if ordered to harass the mass movement or cheat for a crooked and illegitimate commander-in- chief. He is being gagged because the high and the mighty see him as a threat to the system of elite rule.
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