Powerlessness?

Frustrating it is -- and perhaps to an outsider, amazing -- how willing it seems that living in Las Islas Filipinas gives license to the powers that be to screw ordinary folks six ways from Sunday. Sometimes I wonder if there is in fact basis for the oft-repeated analogy between Juan dela Cruz and his carabao -- far too patient for his own good, and only after his back is full of bloody stripes will he decide to gore the fool bearing the whip.

No, wait, maybe only after that fool doing the whipping decides to sprinkle rock salt and pour raw vinegar all over the open wounds.

Okay, maybe not even then. I don't know.

What makes the Filipino so bloody damned patient, that the old saw "when rape is inevitable, relax and enjoy it" becomes so banal for him that getting sodomized by the powers that be is no more than a matter of course?

***
I thought of that after putting up a couple of posts over at Filipino Voices yesterday, while I was taking a break from the usual study grind.

In Cha-Cha, Presto Marcato con Moto, we presented a list of bills and resolutions proposed by our legislators towards amending the Constitution. While quite a number of them do not use words and phrases that would give rise to suspicion (not that the fact that these resolutions were filed do not in and of themselves give rise to such suspicion), quite a number of them are far too brazen in presenting their goals.

Consider -- a fair number present their goal of amending the Constitution thusly: "The bill seeks to constitute a constitutional convention for the purpose of amending the present Charter in order to make it more responsive and more relevant to the times."

Fairly tame. I would even dare describe it as being deceptively tame.

However, quite a number of them make it clear what some of these legislators' goals are. For instance:

HR00548, authored by Hermilando Mandanas (LP, 2nd District Batangas) seeks to unite the executive and legislative branches of government, purportedly to promote efficiency in governance. In layman's terms, Mandanas proposes that we go parliamentary.

Over at a recruitment meeting of the think tank Philippine Intellectuals and Social Scientists Organization to Nullify the President of the Archipelago, otherwise known as PISS ON THE POTA (okay, okay, I'm kidding; it was just a group of bloggers having a Plurkfiesta), Manolo explained to Sparks how a parliamentary system of government will nullify any and all national issues, such as her advocacy for the reproductive health bill. Apparently, the deputies of Parliament (the "dePUTAdos", as Ding likes to call them), will not have to think about national issues; instead, each dePUTAdo will worry about only two things: getting elected and staying elected by his fiefdom (therefore will worry only about pandering to local issues) and making sure he stays in the good graces of his party, the ruling coalition, and the prime minister. By toeing the party line and the prime minister's whims, the deputy will ensure for himself his slice of pork.

My, my. Isn't that a good deal for our legislators?

HR00730 by Adam Relson Jala (LAKAS-CMD, 3rd District of Bohol) wants to propose a unicameral legislature.

No two Houses to provide check and balance within the legislature? How rather convenient for legislation, yes?

Mandanas likewise proposed HR00550, proposing that elective officials now have longer terms, while HCR0010 by Jose Solis (KAMPI, 2nd District Sorsogon) wants to lift term limits.

Well, now. Longer periods of seat warming. How nice for them, hmmmm?

However, all these proposals can and just might be unrecognizable from the final proposal. See, as that brilliant professor ATM explained in Consti 1 class quite some time ago, all these bills and resolutions will be debated on in the committee, and the final draft for the plenary can be something totally different from that which was proposed earlier. One could very well surmise that the committtee would just consolidate all these proposals to a single bill for proposal to the plenary.

Of course, while the Senate does not sponsor a similar bill in parallel, Congress will be stuck. Nonetheless, what are the chances that the politicos in the Upper House will not propose something that they will benefit from?

I don't know, you tell me.

Welcome to the world of political ass-rape.

***
Speaking of the Senate, we had a bit of discussion of the implications of senator and architect of Marcos-era martial law Juan Ponce Enrile ascending to the post of Senate President.

One point of view is that GMA should be pleased, what with Enrile ensuring the Senate's complicity towards Charter Change. Any opposition by the Senate toward Congress' moves in the voting jointly vs. voting separately issue will be at best pro forma.

Interestingly enough, Ding has a post talking about administration allies being appointed to the judiciary. He says that his sources say that Solicitor-General Agnes Devanadera, Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez, and election lawyer Romulo Makalintal (of that Power Joints billboard, by the way) are shoo-ins for the Supreme Court, with Justice Dante Tinga being tapped to the Ombudsman post (perhaps to further ensure the political survival of the administration and its allies?).

Hmmm. Shades of preparation for a redux of Javellana vs. Executive Secretary?

The other point of view is that Enrile is now third in line for the Presidency. If by some means he is able to co-opt the cabinet and have them declare GMA and Vice-President Noli de Castro as physically incapacitated, he gets to be President.

Heck, if someone shoots both GMA and Noli dead, Enrile gets to be the President.

However the means employed, should Enrile ascend to the Presidency, he will then have the power of the office to declare what he helped design thirty years ago.

Hail the conquering hero.

(I wonder if GMA and her minions thought about that?)

***
On a completely different note, but still about getting screwed, we posted up a story about how ten deaf folks who were made to disembark off a Cebu Pacific flight to Boracay. Rom has a bit of a rejoinder, while commenter UP n grad points out that the Philippines does not have an accessibility-rights law (we don't?).

Do visit Filipino Deaf from the Eyes of a Hearing Person's post Deaf Persons Not allowed to board Cebu Pacific for the full story, and his reply to a flight attendant from another airline entitled Are deaf people considered as flight risk?.

If anything, my favorite Jude Cross had a valuable comment: "You can tell the character of a society by the way it treats the least of its citizens."

Heck, since each of us is a part of this society, the way we treat each other and the way we let others treat us will tell us what sort of society we're part of.

At the end of the day, if you let yourself be screwed, you WILL be screwed. We'll have a society of slaves and masters -- a society not what of is right but of what one can get away with, a society where justice is a buzzword and not a principle we live by.

WTF.

***
So, will we allow ourselves to be paralyzed by powerlessness? Are we to accept that we are powerless?

Sad if we do.

Let's not. 'Nuff said.

Oh, for the sake of those interested, Senator Francis Escudero will be fielding questions from the public tomorrow morning, 10 AM - 12 noon at the Sta. Ana Room of Malcolm Hall, while Senator Aquilino Pimentel, jr will be discussing federalism at the NCPAG, also from 10 AM to 12 noon, both events at the University of the Philippines - Diliman.

Go and feed your mind... never mind if there will be some crap involved, fertilizer is good for growth.

Nyahahaha.



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