Kapuy na!

Once again, our countrymen are politically dismayed and emotionally shattered. I kind of expect this condition as a fallout of the latest detonation of a political bomb called Rodolfo Lozada, Jr. Worse than our people’s feeling of betrayal and indignation, many of us are hopelessly weakened, unable to make up our mind.

We were dismayed when “Hello Garci tapes” surfaced. Culling from the recorded conversations, we surmised that the result of the presidential electoral contest between a sitting president and a vastly popular although less educated challenger was rigged. The woman on the tapes I heard sounded like giving direct orders to a slick operator of a factotum to rape the sanctity of ballots and disregard the will of the voters.

So, we took the streets.

When our president, not long after almost everyone heard the “Hello Garci tapes,” faced national television to apologized for a “lapse of judgment”, my feeling of betrayal could not be placated. Her act confirmed the fraudulent manipulation of the 2004 elections and demolished my confidence in her ability to be honest.

And the demonstrators swelled to frightening numbers.

Even when Her Excellency, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo just assumed power, by succession, we already began to march believing that her reign was tainted with revelations of corrupt practices. For instance, there was this incident when her legal arm got entangled with a bribe-cum-extortion story of 2 million dollars.

We had warm bodies for street parliamentarians when the fertilizer scam exploded. It was so odious the passage of time had not tempered its foul smell. Its alleged brain, instead of being prosecuted by the government for such a 700+million peso plunder, appeared to have the protective cover by the power-that-be in the corridors of Malacañang.

We stormed the streets, in lesser numbers though, in connection with anomaly undertaking were, in fact, in the guise of hiring street cleaners, diverted. Our penal statures describes it as malversation.

I cite these few examples not intending to rub salt to our social wounds. Far from it, I just  remembered that each time these incidents hugged our headlines, many of our countrymen, under different shades, participated in demonstrations.

The apolitical among us plainly wanted to show our concern for good governance. If we protested against particular persons, it was simply because they purveyed the policy against which we demonstrated or the hideous acts were perceived to have been committed with their direct participation or imprimatur.

Those in the political opposition however, had another, most probably selfish, motivation. They marched and mouthed calls for resignation, believing that the growing discontent would embarrass the administrators enough as to vacate their posts.

Of course, there were others who refused to be dragged into the mass actions. Most, if not all of them, had varying proportions of personal considerations. We can’t take away from them their own exercise, or better still non-exercise, of a guaranteed constitutional right.

Ironically, the swirl of protests generated by Mr. Lozada do not reflect the severity of the perceived corruption. The explanation I continue to hear is KAPUY NA! is it kapuy na because we have been demonstrating already for a very long time? Or is it because no matter how much we hit the streets, we do not expect any response from our government leaders?

Kapuy na is the worst form of indifference. We cannot, for reasons of Kapuy na, refuse to take sides in the unraveling social conflict. Kapuy na is like we do not belong to this republic. If we believe that this administration is clean, let us not feel kapuy to march with Sec. Lito Atienza and Gen. Avelino Razon.

On the other hand, kapuy na is our tolerance to the continuing plunder of our meager resource. Kapuy na is allowing corrupt leaders all the room to further the pillage. Kapuy na is in fact, to abandon a peaceful way to remove the scalawags from office and, worse, an invitation to a bloody revolution. Let us throw away kapuy na and if only with our last burst of strength let us get involved!