TAMA NA--ITAMA NA!! These were our words to the public as we walked amidst the rain from don bosco to paseo de roxas, getting encouragement from bystanders and motorists by cheering us and blowing their horns. Joining my very first rally (despite receiving a text mesage from boy etnad saying "wag kaung sasama sa rally ni karen") i was overwhelmed with how the Filipinos, particularly the students and church leaders, react to our present situation. (And i was starstrucked to see former VP Teofisto Guingona standing a few feet from me--Mama, ibili mo na ko ng camera!!) Our school president got tired of signature campaigns, and decided to take the next step and join the interfaith rally along with at most 80,000 people. Students from Basic Education Curriculum from all over Manila who were too young to join conducted a noise barrage at exactly 3 pm.
The night before, Coco Pimentel visited our school (Ma, ung camera!!) and talked about electoral fraud and corruption, informing us that because of the NBN-ZTE anomaly, our already burgeoning debt just increased by P400 per individual.
Really, would it hurt us not to have broadband connections in our government offices, when more than half of the youth can't afford to go to school? When we are always flooded, but we buy our drinking water? When school in remote places share a book, or doesn't even have one? Presently, our social pyramid experiences a volcanic effect. Just like what Pimentel explained, one is either very rich, or very poor--the number of middle-class people decreases. There are thousands of projects they can focus on. If the administration can really have $329 million (more than 16 billion pesos), then why put it on a project that can be considered a luxury? (Only one in ten Filipinos own a computer, and not all even have internet connection.)
Luigi Tabuena of the Black and White movement stressed that if you followed the senate hearings, you don't need to be a rocket scientist to know who is telling the truth and who is not. They put war paints on their faces because "it is a war, we've come here to make a statement.. and i know that all over the country this is happening, in different sectors and different magnitude." (Watch his interview.)
Too bad i really admire GMA for being a great economist. And I realized she really is--to the extent of seeing the country as one great business. She invested money in order to win, and now she's getting it back--plus interest. In Pimentel's words, she wouldn't care about the people because "they didn't vote for me, they didn't put me here--i bought my way here!" (Remember the Garci scandal: "Hello Garci, would I still lead by a million votes?")
It is deeply saddening that Philippines could never have a great President for the lure of money and power is too much, but i just hope that our system could change.. even just a bit.. because Filipinos our getting sick of it all and are trying to find Utopia in foreign soils (as if there is one), and i don't want to be one of them. I love being a Filipino, and as much as i wanted to tour the Europe and the Disneyland, i feel proud that hundreds of thousands of tourists went to our country for our own natural treasures. I will always come back to the Philipines and experience them firsthand.
