The Gall

I didn't bother monitoring the SONA, knowing it would all be lies. But I couldn't help myself today and read some parts of it in inquirer.net (I could spare some energy for scorn today, i figured).

She didn't say some things, and i took the liberty to share what really goes on in her head.

***

I address you today at a crucial moment in world history.

Just a few months ago, we ended 2007 with the strongest economic growth in a generation. Inflation was low, the peso strong and a million new jobs were created. We were all looking to a better, brighter future. (And I was looking to get away with the NBN deal plus many others but damn that Jedi).

"Neither we nor anyone else in the world expected this day to come so soon but we prepared for it. For the guts not to flinch in the face of tough choices, I thank God (Actually I thank the Devil but we are a Catholic country and i must pander to the Catholic Church so it would be scandalous to say that).

For the wisdom to recognize how needed you are, I thank, you Congress. For footing the bill, I thank the taxpayers." (And helping me get away with murder again, I thank my friends on my payroll who have been covering up for me all these years).


"How do we solve these many complex challenges?" (At this point, I will regale them with my economic know-how, mixed here and there with my so-called compassion to appeal to their hearts).


The result has been, on the one hand, ito ang nakasalba sa bayan; and, on the other, more unpopularity for myself in the opinion polls. Yet, even unfriendly polls show self-rated poverty down to its 20-year low in 2007." (My numbers of course, come from the same people who counted my non-votes).

"Nag-aalala ako para sa naka-aawang maybahay na pasan ang pananagutan para sa buong pamilya. Nag-aalala ako para sa magsasakang nasa unang hanay ng pambansang produksyon ng pagkain ngunit nagsisikap pakanin ang pamilya. I care for hardworking students soon to graduate and wanting to see hope of good job and a career prospect here at home." (I say this with barely contained insincerity).

Edwin Bandila, 48 years old, of Ugalingan, Carmen, North Cotabato, cultivated one hectare and harvested 35 cavans. Thirteen years na ginawa iyong Malmar. In my first State of the Nation Address, sabi ko kung hindi matapos iyon sa Setyembre ay kakanselahin ko ang kontrata, papapasukin ko ang engineering brigade, natapos nila. With Malamar, now he cultivates five hectares and produces 97 cavans per hectare. Mabuhay, Edwin! VAT will complete the San Roque-Agno River project. (My tactic has always been to drop the names of the hoi polloi and pretend that I know them and are one with them in their triumphs. I think it works, but that's just me).

Sa sunod na katas ng VAT, may P1 billion na pambayad ng kuryente ng mahihirap; kalahating bilyon para sa matatandang di sakop ng SSS o GSIS; kalahating bilyong kapital para sa pamilya ng mga namamasada; kalahating bilyon upang mapataas ang kakayahan at equipment ng mga munting ospital sa mga lalawigan. At para sa mga kalamidad, angkop na halaga. (Of course for all my efforts it is only right that some of those VAT billions go to me).

We released P1 billion for the victims of typhoon Frank. We support a supplemental Western Visayas calamity budget from VAT proceeds, as a tribute to the likes of Rodney Berdin, age 13, of Barangay Rombang, Belison, Antique, who saved his mother, brother and sister from the raging waters of Sibalom River. (Here I drop names of the masa again, for more effect).

Mula sa buwang ito, wala nang income tax ang sumusweldo ng P200,000 o mas mababa sa isang taon - P12 billion na bawas-buwis para sa maralita at middle class. Maraming salamat, Congress. ( 10 more mentions of Congress and then I would have reached my quota for my friends in Congress. I hope they are noticing it).

"The Land Bank has quadrupled loans for farmers and fisherfolk. That is fact not fiction. Check it. For more effective credit utilization, I instructed DA to revitalize farmers cooperatives." (This line I must say it with righteous indignation lest they still think of questioning my numbers).

To our investors, thank you for your valuable role in our development. I invite you to invest not only in factories and services, but in profitable infrastructure, following the formula for the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway. (I invite you to invest directly with the Office of the President so I can "grow" your money, and mine).

"I ask business and civil society to continue to work for a socially equitable, economically viable balance of interests. Mining companies should ensure that host communities benefit substantively from their investments, and with no environmental damage from operations" (Because God knows, I do much damage already).


"I call on all our government workers at the national and local levels to be more responsive and accountable to the people. (Kayo na lang, kasi ako di ko keri yang mga ganyan).

We are three branches but one government. We have our disagreements; we each have hopes, and ambitions that drive and divide us, be they personal, ethnic, religious and cultural. But we are one nation with one fate. (And your fate lies with me *insert evil wicked witch of the west laugh* and if I can extend that fate beyond 2010, i will!)

"As your President, I care too much about this nation to let anyone stand in the way of our people's wellbeing. Hindi ko papayagang humadlang ang sinuman sa pag-unlad at pagsagana ng taong bayan. I will let no one - and no one's political plans - threaten our nation's survival." (Unless they tamper with my survival of course. Damn that Jedi talaga).

Our country and our people have never failed to be there for us. We must be there for them now
Maraming salamat. Magandang hapon sa inyong lahat. (Thank God this show is over, a little more of that expressed compassion I might gag in front of millions. I must ask my advisors next time if that much drama is really necessary).

***

And that this point, the country collectively sighs in gratefulness too that the great big show of lies and gall is over. Of course some people at home may have destroyed their TVs and radios, and then start a spirited discussion with their friends and family, wishing her bad, bad things.

And then they proceed to watch their afternoon soaps to erase that terrible memory of yet another useless State of the Nation Address.

I say the next one must be ended with a revolution.

Closer

I read this from the Inquirer today. So they are spying on kulasa grounds too. I can just imagine that device in Gate 1. And Ms. Manila, i remember vividly in P.E. class with her whistle on her neck and that all-too-familiar gruff voice. And the students screaming upon seeing Lozada -- that could well be us too, years ago. Scary to think how closer and closer to home Evil has creeped into our collective lives. When will it end?


Big Brother also snooping on ‘Jedi’ at St. Scholastica
By Allison Lopez
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 06:45:00 02/22/2008

MANILA, Philippines -- Wherever the “Jedi” goes, Big Brother’s linemen seem to follow.

Officials of St. Scholastica’s College (SSC) in Manila discovered what they suspected to be either a spy camera or a bugging device installed near the main gate of the campus the night before they were to hold a forum with NBN whistle-blower Rodolfo Noel Lozada Jr.

The device was found perched behind an outdoor tarpaulin ad for the “Mamang Pulis” campaign of the Philippine National Police. It had been placed on top of an electrical utility box fixed to a concrete post near SSC Gate 1 on Leon Guinto Street, Malate.

SSC is the second school to have a suspicious gadget suddenly installed near its premises at about the same time it was hosting Lozada, the former government consultant who exposed alleged anomalies behind the cancelled $329-million National Broadband Network contract.

‘Mamang pulis’

Last week, the PNP installed a surveillance camera in front of Gate 4B of La Salle Green Hills in Mandaluyong City, but insisted it was to monitor traffic conditions on Ortigas Avenue -- not the movement of Lozada’s protectors and supporters based at the school.

SSC security guards first spotted the device at around 10 p.m. Wednesday, according to safety and security officer Vivian Manila.

About five hours earlier, a nun at the Catholic school saw uniformed policemen putting up the “Mamang Pulis” streamer on the same post, Manila told the Philippine Daily Inquirer (parent company of INQUIRER.net).

“This morning, we requested our IT (information technology expert) to see up close what kind of gadget it was,” Manila said. “It was positive. It’s something used as a camera or used to monitor communications.”

Cop says no camera

The school official, however, conceded that “we cannot just touch (the device) because it’s not ours. It’s an outdoor camera according to our IT. He knows because he used to install such devices himself.”

The PNP streamer concealing the device contained the cell phone numbers of the Manila Police District director, Chief Supt. Roberto Rosales; Station 9 commander Supt. Ferdinand Quirante and Pablo Ocampo Street precinct commander Chief Insp. Magno Gallora.
Reached for comment, Quirante admitted that he himself put up the Mamang Pulis tarpaulin with six other officers, but he denied installing a monitoring device behind it.

“We have no capability to install such cameras -- only tarpaulins,” the station commander said.

Quirante said he only learned of the purported camera through media reports and said that school authorities had yet to report it to the MPD.

Form of harassment

“If ever there are cameras out there, it would be for our anti-criminality campaign. But right now there are none,” he said. “We are always doing patrols in our areas but it has no connection to Lozada.”

“If that is (indeed a spy camera), then it’s a form of harassment (aimed at) our school,” said St. Scholastica’s Sr. Mary John Mananzan, OSB, national chair of the Association of Major Religious Superiors of the Philippines, a group providing sanctuary to Lozada.

“We’ve been here for a hundred years and this is the first time something like this has happened,” Mananzan told the Inquirer.

The device at SSC looked different from the spherical gizmo installed in front of La Salle Green Hills. The former has what appeared to be a lens pointed in the direction of SSC’s security supervisor’s office.

Noting this unusual positioning, Manila said the device may actually be for tapping phones rather than for visual surveillance.

“Our IT said we should observe it because it may be for monitoring our communications. These days we’ve actually been experiencing problems with our telephone connections.”

Four telephone lines, including her own direct line, bogged down Wednesday morning, Manila recalled.

Repairmen from the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. had the lines checked later in the afternoon but did not report seeing the suspicious device, she said.

Like a rock star

When he arrived at SSC for the 1 p.m. forum, Lozada -- who once compared himself to a crusading “Jedi,” one of the heroic knights in the “Star Wars” movie saga -- was greeted like a rock star by screaming fans in the all-girls school.

Hundreds of students from grade school to college chanted “Lo-za-da! Lo-za-da!” as he made his way to the packed auditorium.

“I do not want to cause a scandal, but I have been sleeping with the sisters in the last few weeks,” he said, drawing hearty laughter from the audience.

“The sisters would give me blankets. They would stay by my side every night. I would like to enjoin you young people to join the religious and be a sister or a father,” he said.

“We will never abandon you,” Mananzan said in response to Lozada’s appeal to the gathering to “see this thing through together.”

Last thing on mind

Asked by a student whether he had started having thoughts of running for President in the future, a grinning Lozada said: “I really love you. It’s the last thing on my mind.

“As I said I was just trying to save my soul. My wife is just shaking her head,” he said, referring to Violeta, who was seated in the front row.

“I have already been with the government, do I still have to enter politics? Ask my wife,” said Lozada, who resigned as president of the state-run Philippine Forest Corp. on the day he came out with his NBN exposés two weeks ago.

On a serious note, he said Filipinos “should not tire” of people power to fight corruption in government.

“It’s the people who will decide and God who will ordain it. People should not tire of people power. What we should get tired of are people who waste the gains of (our) noble actions … (who) use it for their own purpose,” he stressed.

Entourage

I'm too angry for words, but I have all this energy that need to be displaced somewhat. I hate every single one of them with bloodied hands:















I'm sure there are many more involved lurking in the background. What I still can't wrap my brain around is Joker and Enrile being on the same side.

Projection

GMA on Trillanes et. al:

“You saw it on television. It’s clear that the actions of these few desperate men reveal just how out of touch they are with the hopes and dreams of the average Filipino,” the President told the Filipino community here after her arrival for a two-day visit.
"The actions of these misguided men undermine each and every one of the genuine aspirations of real Filipinos. Instead of working to bring the nation together by working within our democratic process, their actions merely are fuel for selfish motives, for personal gain,” she said, adding that in the end, “the rule of law prevailed.”
“The transgressors will not hold this nation hostage with impunity. They will be punished to the full extent of the law. Justice shall be served and the interest of the people upheld,” said the President.
(http://www.inquirer.net/)


In psychology it's called Freudian Projection:
'A defense mechanism in which the individual attributes to other people impulses and traits that he himself has but cannot accept. It is especially likely to occur when the person lacks insight into his own impulses and traits.'

Everything she said above could be easily directed at herself. I loved the statement where she observes how out of touch those people are to the hopes and dreams of the average Filipino. So out of touch (and brazen) is she that she doesn't even mind that the aspiration of every Filipino - regular or not - is to have her a** kicked from office, an office which by the way she stole. Trillanes' only faults are that 1) he didn't learn from history - it flopped before why do it again? 2) he didn't get the needed mass to achieve tipping point 3) he offered himself up for the power, so now he's just like the rest of them politicians.

But hey this pseudo-president is on the right track of her own impending downfall. Soon, we all hope! And so that proverbial Moonpools and Caterpillars song, 'Soon' comes to mind, "And one day soon, it's gonna happen to you and when it does it won't be prettyyyyy..."

Pardoned

I'm not surprised by the decision at all. Not even by how quickly it was done like she was running out of time or something. Check out her full statement below. Whereas my ass. (Bitter)comments in bright yellow & parenthesis mine.


Arroyo grants pardon to Estrada

By Lira Dalangin-Fernandez
INQUIRER.net
Last updated 06:48pm (Mla time) 10/25/2007

MANILA, Philippines -- Convicted president Joseph Estrada is a free man.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo granted pardon to the 70-year-old deposed leader following a recommendation by the Department of Justice (DoJ), Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said in a press conference on national television.
Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno has been instructed to deliver the order to Estrada at 9 a.m. Friday at his rest house in Tanay, Rizal, said Bunye, concurrent executive secretary. The process of serving the pardon starts when the former president accepts it and would take about three hours to arrange, Bunye said.

President, Bunye said the pardon was granted after Estrada publicly agreed not to pursue any other elective office. It is also part of Arroyo's policy of releasing prisoners who have reached 70 years of age and in recognition of Estrada's six years in detention, much of it under house arrest, Bunye said. With the pardon, “Estrada has been restored his civil and political rights,” Bunye read. But Bunye said the forfeiture decision imposed by the Sandiganbayan anti-graft court remained in force, "including all writs and processes issued by the Sandiganbayan … except for the bank accounts he owned before his tenure as President."
The President’s order in full:
“Whereas, this Administration has a policy of releasing inmates who have reached the age of seventy (70),
“Whereas, Joseph Ejercito Estrada has been under detention for six and a half years, [In his sprawling mansion nonetheless]
“Whereas, Joseph Ejercito Estrada has publicly committed to no longer seek any elective position or office, [but he can always take that back and run anyway or better yet let his son win]
“In view hereof and pursuant to the authority conferred upon me by the Constitution [but which I don't really deserve because I cheated], I hereby grant executive clemency to Joseph Ejercito Estrada, convicted by the Sandiganbayan of plunder and imposed a penalty of reclusion perpetua. He is hereby restored to his civil and political rights.
“The forfeitures imposed by the Sandiganbayan remain in force and in full, including all writs and processes issued by the Sandiganbayan in pursuance hereof, except for the bank account(s) he owned before his tenure as President.”
Bunye made no mention of the political pressure being exerted by Estrada supporters for release following his sentence of life imprisonment earlier this year for massive graft. Bunye said the President's decision was based on a Department of Justice recommendation, which contained the same reasons given in the "whereas" clause of the order. Asked what had prompted Arroyo to act swiftly on the recommendation, Bunye said the President found sufficient reasons to grant Estrada pardon.
"The [fleeting] power of the President [which by the way is just being sustained by pure luck and pangbabraso] under the Constitution is absolute once the conditions for the grant of the pardon are there, the principal condition being that the sentence has already become final then that can set into motion the process of granting executive clemency," Bunye explained. In granting the pardon, Bunye assured that the President had considered all factors, including those opposing it [but the way cheats and thieves think is not how you and I think so consider her thinking useless]. The pardon came amid allegations by some groups that the move was a "political accommodation" to Estrada [and of course some cash has been thrown around in that deal too]. The chief government prosecutor and lawyers who won the plunder case against Estrada also opposed the move by the Palace, saying "the timing is not good" and “too early.” But Malacañang officials said granting pardon to Estrada was a reconciliatory move that could finally pave the way to unity. Estrada, who was sentenced to life in prison by the Sandiganbayan anti-graft court on September 12 for plunder, told the anti-graft court on Monday that he was dropping a motion for reconsideration on his verdict and would seek "full, free, and unconditional" pardon from Arroyo. The President [the epitome of all that is evil and greedy in the world] was reportedly elated when she was told of Estrada's decision. The Sandiganbayan Tuesday granted Estrada's motion to waive his right to appeal his conviction. Dropping the appeal makes the court's decision final and paves the way for the process of initiating a presidential pardon.

* * *
Revolution again, anyone?