Goodbye, Gloria
Forty-eight hours more, and finally the nine-year reign of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is ended. That’s not the same as saying that we can now rest easy. She can still inflict a lot of damage in her final hours as she has sufficiently demonstrated in her last few months in office. In fact, as of this writing, she has just promoted all government lawyers and proclaimed them civil service-eligible. We don’t have to be Einstein to figure out why.
It was as if she desperately needed to shun being labeled a lame duck (like that’s the worst thing you could call her). So to flaunt her muscle, she proceeded to turn the 15-man Supreme Court into 100-percent Arroyo appointees with Chief Justice Corona as the coup de grace. Before that she assigned her manicurist to the Pag-Ibig board, her gardener as Deputy of Luneta Park, General Bangit as AFP Chief, Efraim Genuino to a fresh, six-year term as Pagcor head and thousands of other midnight appointees.
Her Palace mouthpieces alternately taunted the incoming administration to be more statesmanlike while pleading for cooperation, unity and forgiveness. She has allowed herself to be photographed sans makeup, in her jogging suit, with her hair disheveled and wearing her now-familiar scowl. Indeed, all the signs of profound depression are beginning to show as severe withdrawal-from-power syndrome takes place.
Since Ms.Com has said all there is to say to the outgoing president, we asked the readers to send in their farewell messages to PGMA.
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Your administration almost succeeded in making me lose all hope in government. But the Filipino people continue to prove that our faith and idealism remain renewable sources of energy.
Darwin Mariano
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Letter To The X-President
To the one who lost her soul,
Will you ever recover your inner voice?
The one that talks when you make a choice.
Will you ever hearken?
Can you feel remorse?
Will your sleep be troubled?
Are your gas pains worse?
When you look in the mirror
Can you see a halo?
Or a lurking shadow?
Do you still know innocence?
Or a pure intention?
Do you still like fairy tales,
In their childhood version?
Do you feel the jab of a syringe?
Or is your skin a hide, too thick, too singed?
That all the nerves have lost the sensation
Of being touched, being moved to tears
Of sensing pity, guilt or plain old fear
Of losing your soul
Of becoming a ghoul.
Dear Mrs. X President
Can prayers change you?
You still have grandchildren
Who need to know
Who need to listen to and feel and believe
that wonderful thing called a soul.
Ompong Remigio
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I’m not a fan of yours but I want to thank you for working very hard and persevering in the most thankless task of all. You hung in there despite attempts to oust you, providing stability to the country and I believe you did your best. I just wish that you and your team had been more conscientious about curbing corruption.
Tina Mossesgeld
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To Gloria Macapagal Arroyo,
When fate installed you as the president of the Republic of the Philippines as a result of EDSA II, the air was full of the promise of a new dawn for our country. You seemed untainted — often referring to the integrity that you said your late father preached to you.
When the going got rough, you vowed not to run for election at the Rizal commemoration of December 2004. Your people thought that there was hope.
But alas! The glare of power blinds and corrupts. Ambition, and an ego as tall and frail as bamboo, got the better of you. You broke your promise. You made sure that you’d stay at Malacañang for another six years through backdoor dealings that will haunt you till your twilight years.
During the last six years, you got totally intoxicated by the power of the office. You were so high you forgot that Juan de la Cruz is unemployed and hungry. Instead, although you claim otherwise, you saw to it that you and your sons are politically well entrenched.
Now your term is ended. One wonders how fate, which handed you the privilege of uplifting the plight of Juan de la Cruz, will judge you.
Gil Corcuera
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You have besmirched your father’s good name. What a shame!
Vicky De Leon
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Don’t ever think you got away with it. If the Ombudsman doesn’t get you, karma will!
Marl Villapando
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Thanks for the hard work. It would have been nice, however, to have occasionally shown some compassion or even a modicum of understanding for those affected by widespread hunger, inadequate housing, boorish bureaucrats, and corruption. You may have had, of course, such concern in your heart that speaking about them would only have made you cry and you’d much rather work at alleviating them. Unfortunately, these now may be viewed as the fruits of your labor.
Gerry Arellano
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Mrs. Arroyo,
Congratulations po at mananamnam niyo na ang bakasyong siguradong hinahanap ng inyong katawan. Hindi po kasi biro ang mga pinagdaanan ninyo sa palasyo.
At hindi rin biro ang pinagdaanan ng sambayanang Pilipino sapanunungkulan ninyo.
Sa paglipat ninyo ng tahanan sa La Vista, mas-komportable nang kumilos. At mas-madali nang pagtuunan ng pansin ang mga tunay na mahal ninyo sa buhay.
Lalo na si Mr. Arroyo. Medyo bumagsak na kasi ang kanyang katawan.
Pihadong mas magiging madalas at mas natural na rin ang ngiti ninyo.
Sigurado pong matatahimik ang inyong puso at isipan sa paglipat ninyo sa La Vista.
At matatahimik din po ang sambayanan.
Congratulations sa ating lahat.
Simo Pasamba
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Adios Gloria, No Adorada
(With apologies to Jose Rizal)
Farewell, unloved president, un-treasured leader of the land,
Scorn of the surveys most recent, your advisors’ nuisance.
To you eagerly I bid a joyous and jubilant good riddance.
And because they have become more frequent, more blatant,
Must your “achievement ads” become our primetime irritants?
On every corner of this country, deliriously celebrating,
Others bid you farewell, without doubt, without regret.
The place doesn’t matter, city, barrio or municipality,
After nine years of you, through Garci and ZTE, it’s a no-brainer,
You’ve done more and earned more than any predecessor.
Jev Ramos
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Dear GMA,
I’ve been waiting five years for this moment. Until now, I’m still not saying it aloud for fear of jinxing it. But on June 30 at 12 noon, if all goes well, there will be a prayer of thanks from my corner of the country because of you.
Rocky Tirona
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Dear GMA,
I admired you at one point: when you told us you would not run to focus on nation building. Later on, everyone found out exactly how sincere you were.
That’s why everyone knew exactly how sincere you were in saying, “I am sorry.”
Noel Orosa
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We are losing one amazing president! Because if there were a Guinness record for shamelessness, you would win it hands down!
Rizzo Tangan
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There were many more messages sent, but the sentiments were the same. Just varying in degrees of disgust. There is no point in being redundant.
In 2005, after the Garci scandal, someone predicted that Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo would go down in history as the most loathed Philippine leader of all time.
I was right.
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Contact the author at ms.comfeedback@gmail.com.
