Alleba Politics

After touring the country, giving talks, revealing secrets, earning both praise and criticisms Jun Lozada now takes on blogging. In his first entry, Lozada gives a message to the youth.

People generally find hope in their reality, but our current situation is creating a very strong tension within the general society and amongst the institutions, groups, families and even individuals that makes up this society, a tension of holding on to both living in our reality and holding on to our hope….

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Last Saturday, I attended a lecture on Poetry and Politics by National Artist Bienvenido Lumbera. He read four poems from his new book Poetika/Politika. The last one, received the most reaction.

He read Nabosesan…

Hello Garci?!

Commenting on the NBN fiasco, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had been quoted as saying… “This type of charges emerged even in previous administrations as part of our less than impressive political culture.” The gall to criticize the country’s “less than impressive political culture,” when she herself has abused this political culture, and has even added a new level of brazen lying, cheating, and stealing when she promised not to run in the 2004 elections, when she was involved in the “Hello Garci” scandal, and refuse to be investigated. KAPAL!

And when she was already in power as the country’s “president,” did she do anything to change this political culture that she is criticizing? NO! She has practiced and espoused patronage politics, she had given power, and prestige to those who remain loyal to her. Need I even mention the replacement of de Venecia by Nograles as the Palace’s biggest lapdog Speaker of the House?

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These “politics of the streets,” etc. led by diverse groups of conflicting interests and the Arroyo regime reacting to them are nothing new; we’ve been there, done that: in EDSA 1, EDSA 2 and EDSA 3 (if the Oakwood Mutiny is lumped with both).

As we all see/experience, the long-run results are the same: ever-worsening existence for the majority. Because we, the so-called educated among the middle class and up, only talk among and plan for ourselves, only think within a caged mentality, without looking at and/or avoiding the need to deal with the root causes of our socioeconomic problems, which requires questioning our basic assumptions: the socioeconomic system we inherited from America and unquestioningly practice/propagate. We do not question because we profit from it.

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I would like to address this to those in the military and PNP who entertain violent or nonviolent extra-constitutional means for a change in leadership. Please give this careful thought and consideration. We as a country and people are not prepared for this.

I also address this to my fellow Filipinos who are tired and frustrated with the current situation.

I personally believe that GMA is the worst leader this country has had so far. Her own corruption, along with her acceptance of the corruption of her husband and relatives, is no different from the corruption of Marcos, FVR, and Estrada. For Marcos, the staggering amount of sequestered cash, accounts, jewelry, and properties, showed us the magnitude of his greed. Cory was an honest president. However, her hesitation to condemn/stop the corruption of her immediate relatives was seen by others as a welcome sign, saying “come join the government and make your fortune.” Ramos comes next to GMA as our country’s worst leader. He used the media to show the country how “good” we were doing. In reality, we were doing quite badly. The world economy then, with the USA in particular, was performing well as it recovered from mid-90’s financial crisis. Hot money was flowing to this part of the world. It was allocated to Thailand, China, Malaysia, Hongkong, Indonesia, and, lastly, the Philippines. We had the smallest allocation. We were last and got the latak. If you look closer then at the economic growth that FVR was bragging about, we may have had positive figures but we were actually the worst performing country in Southeast Asia. Today, even Vietnam is ahead of us in growth. It was during FVR’s time that I first heard of corruption in the billions for single incidents. NAIA3/PIATCO, PEA/AMARI, Clark Centennial project, NPC/IPP anomalies, these were all started during FVR’s term. Now, they are still existing problem projects, though he made his money already. He privatized a lot of government assets and got his percentage. This percentage, to his mind, was not corruption. What I know is, he was elected as president by the Filipino people and paid as president. Therefore that money belonged to the country. He was selling Philippine assets. Ask people who knew about his shenanigans. It was under FVR that a surrogate/mistress first lady was given presidential security guards. This practice was something Estrada merely continued. FVR and Estrada had the same womanizing values and corrupt way of life. Public service was their way to enrich themselves. FVR was just the smarter one, whose corruption was of a grander magnitude but so cleverly hidden.

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