Either we reform or go our separate ways - GOTCHA by Jarius Bondoc

Eat your hearts out. A hefty slice of pork preceded Joseph Estrada’s Thursday rally in Caloocan. National Food Authority’s Pedro Hernando Jr. gave Rep. Luis Asistio P20 million in rice as ERAP (Emergency Relief Assistance Program). Budget chief Ben Diokno had approved it under Special Allotment Release Order number BMD-D-0000359.

Wouldn’t other LAMP congressmen want similar slabs? But Diokno can’t favor everyone from an almost-empty national treasury.

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A new poll shows that 45 percent of Filipinos find the impeachment trial credible. Only 28 percent feel otherwise, yet 27 percent are ambivalent. Corollarily, business confidence has grown from 58 percent in 2000’s third quarter to 70 percent in the last quarter.

Joseph Estrada’s spin doctors expectedly will pounce on the figures to bolster their usual claims: that his lawyers are winning in spite of piling evidence and testimonies of crime and coverup, that his economic policies are working. Yet with no more public-perception surveys on Erap’s guilt, they can only employ Goebbel’s big-lie tactic on AM radio. They used to bankroll such tracking polls. But presidential aide Robert Aventajado must have found it crazy to spend P650,000 fortnightly, if only to prove that the Erap-is-guilty bar is rising in the charts.

Malacañang would be averse to extrapolate the 45-percent response. Chances are, most respondents want Erap convicted in the end, but in the meantime are enjoying the greatest telenovela in town. They wish to learn salacious new details about Erap’s wealth, how he hid it behind aliases, and which senators will shame themselves to the end in his defense. But they’re counting on conviction. The 28 percent who don’t believe in the trial can only have made up their minds about Erap. They’re the marchers who, wary of crooked acquittal, wish he’d just resign instead of marring the impeachment process with technicalities or money.

Combine the two sets of respondents, and the 70 percent who grew confident about the business climate becomes understandable. The 58 percent of respondents who had little faith in July-Sept. could see no light at end of the long, dark tunnel of cronyism and confused directions. The jueteng exposé, consequent protest rallies, and Erap’s impeachment gave them hope that bleak days are almost over. There were false starts when the peso and stock market rose with news of negotiations for Erap’s graceful exit, then sank from realization that he wasn’t resigning after all. There were even scary forecasts, borne by rising unemployment and sliding sales, that economic recession would set in first half of 2001. Confidence grew nonetheless to 70 percent. The December start of trial and appearance of courageous witnesses buoyed hopes up. The people shall overcome, just that Erap first has to go, for they see in him the embodiment of everything that’s wrong with the system.

People who want Erap out are praying that constitutional successor Gloria Macapagal Arroyo would do better. A good number want assurance aside from faith. They see such assurance in their own hands – in reforms of the system the moment Erap is out, so Arroyo will indeed do better.

The opportunity is godsent. Never since the 1983 assassination of Ninoy Aquino and the 1986 EDSA Revolt have Filipinos found chance to link arms to set things aright. They can’t blow it now. They’ve learned sad lessons of complacency under post-Marcos governments. Though rocked by coup attempts, Cory Aquino restored political freedoms. Still, her own brother Peping Cojuangco rues that they wasted many chances for mass education in democratic power. Fidel Ramos strived to modernize the economic culture. Yet his own men now lament their failure to clip traditional politicians who thrived on people’s dependence on them.

To their credit, the two Presidents had brought the country to a level of political and economic stability. So much so that not even the wayward ways of their successor could tear down what they built. But a new world culture evolved faster, a global economic merry-go-round whirled dizzier than ever. A half-prepared, ill-trained people couldn’t keep apace, weighed down as they were by a system that wasn’t attuned to the developments. Only a select few understood the events; the rest of the nation sank deeper in poverty and ignorance. Then came Erap, promising hope in the form of doles to the poor, enough to save them for the night but leaving them still unequipped to rise higher the next day.

The task of reform is daunting. The class gap has stretched so wide, the country has slid so deep, for things to change in a snap. Prof. Randolf David pictures society today as "a thin layer of rich and successful people floating in an ocean of abject poverty, an intellectual aristocracy that can stand with the best in the world but unable to dent the ignorance and superstition gripping the broad masses, a world-class managerial technocracy that can run giant firms in other shores but immobilized in its own by the idiosyncrasies of an obsolete political culture, a people with a very high sense of the possible but neutralized at every point by a political leadership without any sense of what is achievable except what can be creamed off the earnings of a gambling culture."

Yet, institutions are in ferment: the church, media, professional and business circles, academe, segments of the bureaucracy, even the military. More and more Filipinos are crying enough is enough, and telling the rest, "Matauhan na tayo." Let’s change to survive crisis, or perish as a people.

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INTERACTION. Dexter Meniola, hotmail.com: Erap’s men said they, too, will have bombshells in the impeachment trial (Gotcha, 3 Jan. 2001). Then came the Metro Manila bombings . . .

Joey Legarda, Makati: How can the PNP protect the public from terrorist bombers when it’s busy wiretapping the Opposition.

Hanzel Leano, edsamail: Erap drones, like a broken record, to reform (Gotcha, 1 Jan. 2001). Yet he keeps blaming his woes on others instead of working for results. He can’t even decide if he’s Joseph Ejercito or Estrada or Jose Velarde.

J. Tadeus Aguilar, hotmail.com: It’s time he realized he’s not working hard enough, not since his "mahih-Erap" years.

Jose Guerrero, msn.com: It’s easy to explain how Erap got P500 million from a monthly salary of P50,000. The National Treasury mistakenly credited his account with four more zeroes than necessary. Yeah, and we’re all dumb.

Jerome Serina, mozcom.com: He should stop blaming "cronies of past Presidents." His economic and political failures caused the loans to be unpaid. If government banks aren’t pursuing them, why should he?

(Alias) Jose Velarde: I’m not the President. No one can testify to be only a foot away when I signed Joseph Estrada on any Republic Act or executive order. I didn’t come out before to deny being President because my existence is immaterial and irrelevant to national issues. I decided to come out now because of sensational reports that the President is Jose Velarde. I loll in luxury while Estrada eats with his hands and works all day long. I build mansions for my mistresses, he only recognize illegitimate children. These are but little differences. The big one is that I set off five bombs last Saturday to kill innocent civilians with no compunction. Estrada has called me a desperate coward. I may very well be.

Cris Sana, aol.com: Pity us for not having selfless leaders, only pols steeped in self-aggrandizement and ill-gotten wealth (Gotcha, 27 Dec. 2000). Most senators, congressmen, governors, mayors are, as the Bible says, like white-washed tombs that look spic and span on the outside but so full of rot and filth.

Cornelius Cruz, hotmail.com: If Clinton is the Teflon Kid, Erap must be Velcro Boy. All charges stick and stink.

Thank you, Cecilia B. Chiongbian, Rodney Rafols, Ramon Mayuga, Marciano Dimacali, Victor Sumagaysay, Msgr. Ramon B. Aguilos, Willie Vicedo, Bess Icasiano, Joe Navidad, Vee Santos, N.G. Espiritu, Magi & Adel Gunigundo, Atty. Sonny Castro, Jerry Celis, Megan Canda Smith, Ernesto Garcia, Mark Marquez, E.J. Saguil, Lino C. Eballe, Abel Coloma, Arch. Normandy N. Canlas, E.C. Ibazeta, Marianne Lim, Gigi H. Majeed, Mario Primo DeRivera, Joshua Santiago, Joel A. Bernasor, Eric M.C.

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Thursday’s incident at the Senate might leave an impression that all products of U.P.-Beloved are quirky. Well, most of us are. But an intrepid few don’t grow fangs and fur during the full moon. And Jan. 4 was a quarter moon.

Too, not all U.P. lawyers – or engineers, doctors, managers – move from job to job for such "lofty" aims as higher pay and promotion. Many do so for silly reasons like influencing the course of history or heeding the call of God. They get fired or thrown out for this, too, even if it’s not a full moon.

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That other incident proved there’s a thing as male menopause, and a symptom is gender schizophrenic-paranoia with microphones.

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