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  1. Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Posts
    1,509
    #1
    any comments anyone?

    The FPJ Bomb in a Populist Lamp

    By Joel Rocamora
    February 9, 2004


    Rizal’s Simoun would be happy. Whether or
    not FPJ wins the presidency in May, he is a
    harbinger of disaster. FPJ is Simoun’s bomb
    hidden in a populist lamp. If he is disqualified
    by the Supreme Court, his supporters will attempt
    to bring down the government. If he loses in May
    and there is even the slightest doubt about his
    defeat, destabilization attempts will intensify.
    If he wins, destabilization will follow in the
    wake of an economic collapse and an orgy of
    revenge by displaced Marcos and Erap forces.

    Disaster can be averted only if enough of
    the forces for political and economic reform, -
    if those who mobilized for EDSA 1 and EDSA 2
    understand what is happening and mobilize to
    prevent an FPJ victory. FPJ has to be ‘defeated’
    before the May elections. This can be done only
    if the political meaning of the FPJ candidacy is
    exposed. FPJ can be ‘defeated’ before May 2004
    only if we can break the debilitating hesitations
    which have effectively tied our hands behind our
    backs.

    FPJ and the Populist Temptation

    Why have we hesitated to denounce the FPJ
    candidacy? One reason is that we perceive FPJ as
    a decent person and we do not want to attack him
    personally. Of course, it does not make sense to
    attack him personally. That would be unfair. And
    it would only endear him even more to his movie
    fans. But ‘Da King’ has now become ‘Da
    Candidate’. It is what FPJ represents as a
    candidate that has to be exposed. To do that we
    have to begin with ‘Da King’, with the cinematic
    myth which is FPJ’s main vehicle to the
    presidency.

    FPJ will win if people believe he will
    win. More than anything else that is the campaign
    line of the KNP. Sumama na kayo dahil seguradong
    panalo ang kandidato namin. Get on the bandwagon.
    Our candidate is a sure winner. This is based on
    nothing more than the assumption that FPJ’s movie
    popularity is automatically translatable to
    votes. But there is no evidence that this is true
    because FPJ has never run for anything. The only
    way to test this before the May election is to
    compare him to other movie personalities, most
    importantly his bosom buddy Erap.

    Because of the way Pilipino movies are
    made, the more popular actors get to shape their
    roles according to how they see themselves. Reel
    colonizes real. Joseph Estrada becomes Erap, FPJ
    ‘Da King’. Erap is the upper class man/boy who
    enjoys the company of kanto boys who love to
    drink, gamble, fool around with women. When Erap
    and his barkada see that oppression is too much,
    they say “Tama na, sobra na” and they fight.
    Erap fights together with his lower class
    friends. He becomes not just their leader. He is
    their intermediary, a bridge across the class
    divide.

    People equate FPJ and Erap. If Erap won
    elections because of his movie popularity, FPJ
    will also win. But FPJ’s movie persona is
    actually radically different from that of Erap.
    Erap is quintessentially ‘human’; flawed but
    willing to admit, even boast about his flaws. So
    it is easy for his fans to identify with him. The
    FPJ of his movies is radically different. The
    Aguila, the Panday is ‘supra-human’. He is a
    demigod, an archetype. He appears from out of
    nowhere, returns just as suddenly to god knows
    where . When he fights, he fights alone. People
    watch, but from hastily closed windows. I cannot
    imagine Erap agreeing to becoming a ‘savior’. FPJ
    was reportedly persuaded to run for president by
    politicians because they convinced him that he is
    the only one who can ‘save’ the country.

    FPJ’s movie popularity apparently can be
    converted to votes if the surveys are to be
    believed. The question is whether the demigod FPJ
    image can stand the rough and tumble of campaign
    politics. It appears that FPJ understands this
    problem. That’s why he has so far chosen not to
    say very much. Demigods do not have platforms.
    They come from heaven with tablets of stone. The
    platform issue can probably be papered over by
    his advisers once they are identified. Besides
    people do not pay attention to platforms in
    elections for the simple reason that voters know
    platforms are almost never followed .

    What could be damaging are issues which
    show the santo has feet of clay. FPJ movies have
    no ***. The non-issue of FPJ’s out-of-wedlock
    son, and reportedly two other daughters might be
    more damaging than his not knowing how the peso
    loses its value. Indian gods had lots of it, but
    can demigods in our Christian tradition have ***?
    Whether FPJ likes it or not, his personal life
    and habits will be trotted out for all to see.
    There is no such thing as a private, shy
    presidential candidate. Erap was not vulnerable
    to this kind of attack because he would just
    laugh them off. If FPJ gets obviously impatient,
    this will work against him.

    FPJ and His Handlers

    The FPJ camp would have us believe he is
    his own man. They are even circulating stories
    about his having chewed out Tito Sotto for making
    public statements without clearing it with him.
    This is the KNP’s response to FPJ’s gaping
    vulnerability: the company he keeps. The KNP’s
    Senate slate says it all. It is made up of
    recycled Marcos cronies from Enrile, to Maceda,
    to Tatad. An attempt to distance FPJ from Erap
    backfired when FPJ ended up getting Jinggoy
    Estrada on his Senate slate after all. Even Jamby
    Madrigal and Boots Anson Roa have Marcos and Erap
    in their past.

    Let’s say it like it is. An FPJ
    presidency would restore the people behind both
    Marcos and Estrada. Remember? These are the two
    presidents we kicked out in EDSA 1 and EDSA 2. In
    all of our history, these two presidents are the
    most corrupt. Marcos still holds the record for
    human rights violations. There is a chance that
    after 18 years there will be a judicial
    accounting for Marcos era crimes. Erap will
    likely be convicted of gross corruption. All this
    will be reversed if FPJ becomes president. What
    little we have achieved in our fight against
    human rights violations and corruption will be
    wiped out in an FPJ presidency.

    We hesitate to use FPJ’s lack of
    education and experience against him. We feel
    that doing so would somehow betray our rural and
    urban poor because they too do not have the
    education and experience. But they are not the
    ones running for president. They are not the ones
    who will have to preside over cabinet meetings to
    discuss monetary policy. It is obvious that FPJ
    does not understand even the basics of economic
    and other policies he will have to deal with as
    president. What will happen then is that the
    Marcos and Erap cronies who have decades of
    experience manipulating the government for their
    own ends will run rings around FPJ. An FPJ
    administration will be an Enrile-Maceda
    administration.

    There is yet another aspect to a possible
    FPJ victory that we should worry about. When it
    was already clear that Erap would win in 1998,
    business was willing to factor him into their
    business plans. This time it is already clear
    that an FPJ victory will result in a severe
    economic downturn. Media, the academe, and church
    groups will subject a new FPJ administration to
    immediate criticism. This will create conditions
    that will tempt groups who are just waiting for
    an excuse to seize power through extra
    constitutional means. How will a president who
    thinks of himself as a ‘savior’ react? ‘Saviors’
    make poor democrats. They are easily tempted by
    authoritarian solutions.

    Crisis and Reform

    There are groups on the Left who are
    negotiating coalitions, varieties of
    accommodation with the KNP. They use waiting for
    FPJ to tell them what his platform is as a cover
    for discreet negotiations. Other more well
    meaning individuals are helping to craft such a
    platform. But they all know that it is a rare
    politician who pays attention to platforms. The
    experience in the Erap administration does not
    exactly encourage thinking that progressives will
    be able to overcome the well honed skills of the
    Enriles and Macedas to secure reform.

    We are indeed deep in crisis. Our
    electoral system and form of government has lost
    its capacity to elect our leaders, to mobilize
    the requirements of governance and political
    reform in the coming years. I challenge those who
    support FPJ to explain how FPJ will lead us
    towards solutions to these severe problems.
    Whoever the real FPJ is, it is clear that he is
    being used by Marcos and Erap cronies to get back
    into power. Electing yet another movie actor,
    especially one without even the experience of his
    friend Erap, is not a solution. A President FPJ
    will push our crumbling political system over the
    brink.

    Whoever we support for president, I
    believe that we should work together to prevent
    the looming disaster of an FPJ presidency. We
    have worked to make Marcos and Erap accountable
    for human rights violations and for corruption.
    We need to continue this work by preventing an
    FPJ presidency. We have worked for economic and
    political reform. We can only have these reforms
    in a future without a President FPJ. Decisions on
    who to support can be a matter of personal and
    organizational decisions. But preventing an FPJ
    presidency is work we have to do for our country,
    and for our people.

  2. Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Posts
    400
    #2
    Notice how cheap looking FPJ's campaign posters are?
    I have this impression na mukhang walang pera masyado
    si FPJ para sa campaign...
    Galing ng strategy to keep FPJ in suspense about the decision
    regarding his citizenship. The more the issue drags on, the longer
    campaign financiers would adopt a wait-and-see attitude before
    they give any money to FPJ.
    But from the looks of it, mukhang disqualified nga talaga si FPJ.
    Kaya mukhang natuyuan ng pera this early on ang kampo ni FPJ.
    I see the hand of the CIA on this.
    Buti nga sa iyo, FPJ. Ang engot-engot mo kasi eh...

  3. Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Posts
    3,144
    #3
    right on the money TJMAXX..

    sinamahan pa ng statement ni Loren sa isang newspaper, which she later denied -- campaign funds are in short supply against what was expected

  4. Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Posts
    499
    #4
    ang problema konti lang sa masa nakabasa ng el filibusterismo ni rizal, tsk tsk. dapat talaga me kasamang IQ test yung voters registration

  5. #5
    Malungkot talaga nangyayari sa bansa natin pero na-a-alala ko yung isang taong nagsabi " We only get the leaders we deserve." Maybe, just maybe, if we all change for the better as a people we will also get the leaders that we truly deserve. My 2cents.

  6. Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Posts
    9,894
    #6
    i wholeheartedly agree with the Marcos/Erap, edsa 1/2 comments.

    why the f--- do we keep having these people powers, only to elect the same type of person later on?! it's the same people behind fpj as there were behind erap and marcos.

  7. FrankDrebin Guest
    #7
    Masakit mang tanggapin eh mukhang mananalo si FPJ. Marami kasing bobo sa Pinas.

    Sana may gumawa ng paraan.

    “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”
    -Edmund Burke

  8. Join Date
    Feb 2004
    Posts
    726
    #8
    Hindi lang Marcos /Erap ang nasa likod ng ni FPJ....Pati yung mga dati nating mga anti-Marcos na rin gaya ni PImentel, Binay, serge Osmena at dancing queen Oreta. Wala na yung sinasabi nilang prinsipyo.... pera-pera na talaga ang politics sa atin.........

    ANGAT PINOY na naman tayo nito........................ Tanga Pinoy pala!

The FPJ Bomb in a Populist Lamp