Who are these 'middle forces'? - Gotcha

The Silent Protest Movement may have quieted down-till last night? -- but so-called middle forces are still grumbling. Vice President Gloria Macapagal is finding this out from province sorties as Cabinet member and reluctant opposition leader. Chatting with business and churchmen, NGO do-gooders, even local officials, Macapagal notes a high level of disenchantment with the Estrada administration. While middle forces will always be a dissatisfied lot given the causes they espouse, what alarms Macapagal are solutions they talk about with candor: coup d'etat, assassination, rebellion.

That things have gone this far can only be traced to failure of the system the administration represents. The middle forces have been around since the Aquino and Ramos terms. They had manned the ramparts at EDSA '86, then returned to their locales to push their fervent causes: clean air and sea, honest government, jobs-food-justice for all. Sometimes they scored, oftentimes they lost, boiling up to frustration, impatience, anger.

They had thought that the rise of a new President from the esrtwhile opposition was a chance to step up their work. After all, many colleagues from the middle forces had campaigned for Joseph Estrada. But they soon found out he didn't have a program of government after all. Worse, when they cried out for action and attention to their causes, Estrada and Co. assumed a siege mentality. He taunted their legitimate criticisms, dismissed them as sour grapes, accused them of destabilizing his reign. Estrada's partymates sensed things falling apart and decided it was every man to himself. Usual government mechanisms for redress of grievances broke down as bureaucrats started to make hay while the sun shines. It only further alienated the middle forces.

Macapagal thinks it's not to late to pull the polarized forces back together again. While twitting "adventurists" who promote even milder solutions like forced resignation and snap election, she advises the administration to listen up and take the grumblings seriously. She also offers to mediate and patch things up between the middle forces and an isolated Estrada, who's trying to win back performance ratings with a new image and a "Cabinet roadshow."

Patching things up is a very Filipino trait. It stems from a cultural and religious belief that contending parties need not fight forever, that mutual acknowledgment of mistakes lessens animosity, that dialogue leads to understanding and partnership. But Macapagal knows that the middle forces have made up their minds. Any mediation should lead only to reform. For, they're fed up with what's going on.

And why not? The middle forces come from the middle class -- professionals and students, entrepreneurs and managers, employees and artists who glue the republic together. By education, upbringing and bent, they are the most politicized of the social classes. They read up on history and keep abreast of current events. They know their worth in society and potential to rise. They aspire for security to work and worship, to send children to the best schools they can afford, to travel and enjoy life. They compare good news abroad with bad realities at home, and adopt what can work for the better. To a large extent, they serve as buffer for conflicting class interests of the elite and the masa.

The middle forces, the middle class, also makes democracy work -- at least on paper. They may have been the hippies of the '70s and rockers of the '80s, but they're no bums. They pitch in the bulk of government revenues -- 39 percent -- to run the bureaucracy and fund programs for the poor. (Taxes from the elite make up 33 percent; from the masa, 28 percent.) There's no escaping income and service contracting taxes for the middle class; these are withheld at source. Besides, they believe that good government requires good citizenship, and thus hurdle red tape to secure licenses and permits.

Because they're the most politicized class and the biggest collective taxpayers, the middle forces are also the most vocal against crooked, inept and abusive officials. It's their right -- and duty -- to be so. Thus, they resent it when officials call them bellyachers who offer no alternatives. Why, it's the officials who aren't listening.

They've had enough of watching juicy government contracts going to Malacanang favorites, legislators scrambling for pork, judges selling decisions. They're tired of mulcting cops, do-nothing bureaucrats and grandstanding pols who can't keep peace and order, maintain roads, clean up the surroundings -- yet keep asking for more money through new and higher taxes. They want change and they want it now.

Estrada believes he is still popular with the masa and can muster bigger support by pitting them in a class war with the hated middle forces. He has not responded to Macapagal's offer to mediate. Perhaps, he's pissed with the idea, for Macapagal gave the advice through the hated press. As for the middle forces, they can only snicker at the idea of a class war, since it's them who organize and lead the masa anyway.

INTERACTION. Danilo Lupena, mailcity.com: Thieves waylaying tourists within hours of arrival, Abu Sayyaf kidnappings, recurring air and sea tragedies -- what more? I'm a small guy who supplies wrought iron to a firm that has foreign clients. They cancelled appointments in fear of what's going on. I'm sure they'll look for suppliers elsewhere in Asia. Who can I turn to?

I wish I know, Danilo.

Ellen Gumagay-Tabora, carefirst.com: From Maryland, it's painful to learn of how things don't work back home and not being able to do anything about it. One Sunday, my husband and father were manning our store when two drunks started to argue and gird for a fight. They tried to break them up and got beaten up instead. With eyes bleeding and swollen, my husband went to the police to file a complaint. They told him they can't arrest his maulers until they get a medical certificate. That's absurd!

Those cops were just lazy to act on a distress call, Ellen.

Elias Fernandez, Antipolo City: What right has our governor to name the new, expensive sports center after himself or a family member, when he used taxpayer and not personal money for it?

None whatsoever, Elias.

Robert T. Arciaga, Vancouver: Regarding the recent Davao plane crash, I can't understand why congressmen get huge allowances and pork barrel, yet there's no money for air traffic radars for the people's safety.

This, and more, is what middle forces are grumbling about, Robert.

YOUR BODY. CNN reports on a new antibiotic in the U.S. designed to attack deadly drug-resistant bacteria. Made by Pharmacia & Upjohn, Zyvox is billed as the first in a new class of antibiotics in 35 years. It can treat "gram-positive infections" commonly found in hospitals and nursing homes. Gram-positive includes pneumonia, skin and soft tissue, and deadly blood stream infections called bacteremia.

OUR WORLD. The coelacanth, a "living fossil" fish once thought to have become extinct with the dinosaurs, won protection last week when a U.N. conference banned all international trade in the species.

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