Open Letter to Our Leaders: Why We Are Not Out In The Streets

[niky]

Seems like GMA used PP 1017 conveniently to do some shrewd strategic house-cleaning. Just look at the political landscape now. I don't buy the story of common cause among such a disparate group of oppositionists much like no one bought into the alliance between Hitler and Stalin during the early part of WW2.

Yan nga yung masakit... she's using the unrest in the military as an excuse to attack all of her opponents.... "strategic alliance between elements of the left, the right, the opposition and even some of the clergy..." ...she missed "elements of the Liberal Party, breakaway elements of Lakas, and the like."

And people aren't worried about that? Sige nga, file formal cases against your opponents, but don't hide behind semantics to perform a "witch hunt".

As time goes on and the investigations go deeper, I guess we'll uncover the truth. But by then, the rift between GMA and everyone else will have gotten just that little bit deeper.

[empy]

I don't buy the story of common cause among such a disparate group of oppositionists much like no one bought into the alliance between Hitler and Stalin during the early part of WW2.

nice analogy. how oddly appropriate :evillaugh

[oldblue]

late this evening, I heard Saguisag being interviewed. sabi niya: "Bakit naman daw inaresto, eh naglalakad lang naman?" it's comments like this that make me puke. then he continues about how 1017 is more dangerous daw than proclamation 1081 (martial law) wtf! he even called the entire PNP "pulis patola"

and he was a former Senator who got a lot of votes during the Cory regime for having a motto: "ako'y mahirap na abugado at senador lamang" or something like that ...

I'd wish nahuli sya ni Marcos noon martial law (which he claims to be) and ginawang entertainment yun pag-torture sa kanya before dinner time.

[Flagg]

late this evening, I heard Saguisag being interviewed. sabi niya: "Bakit naman daw inaresto, eh naglalakad lang naman?" it's comments like this that make me puke. then he continues about how 1017 is more dangerous daw than proclamation 1081 (martial law) wtf! he even called the entire PNP "pulis patola"

Dapat mag-show nalang sya kasma mga ka-lahi niya like in Library or Club Mwah.

[nugundam93]

those party list peeps hiding under congress' skirt are cowards.

walk what you talk.

[Rav_5]

gingamit lang ng mga partylist ang mga buwis natin para mag demosntrate sa kalsada! Nakakaabala sila sa sa kalye! Taga UST ako kaya lagi ko ito nakikita, nakakabulabog sila ng klase pag nag sisigawan sila sa Espana.

Dapat magakaroon na rin ng Disiplina ang mga tao sa bansa natin. Sana wala na ring mag papagamit sa mga TRAPO! Buti pa singapore na mas maliit pa sa Maynila ay umasesnso dahil kay Lee Kwan Yew. haaaayyyyy.....

[mazdamazda]

IMO.

instead of wasting their time / energy / money in protesting in the streets... why don't they just volunteer in the hundreds of NGOs that badly need help?

[morrissey_05]

any president who doesn't think twice about trampling on our basic rights, doesn't deserve to be president. and any edict, decree or proclamation that suppresses our basic rights has no place in a supposedly democratic society such as ours.

to those who think PP 1017 was right, i have two words: warrantless arrest. eto pa, four words naman: freedom of the press!

if you think this doesn't sound too much like Makoy's Martial Law, i say to you: you didn't live through the Martial Law years.

[van_wilder]

to those who think PP 1017 was right, i have two words: warrantless arrest. eto pa, four words naman: freedom of the press!

freedom was only given to those who deserve it... although we are second to iraq in most press people killed, we are the most irresponsible press in asia too... the press always claim that the people need to know the truth, but the question is are they delivering the REAL TRUTH and the story behind the story? are they showing the two sides or just a biased story? how about half-truths that mislead people? our press is popularly known for that...

in the end you get what you pay for...

dont expect that life is perfect and easy... who told you that life is easy anyway? before you ask for the perfect life, make sure you deserve it and ready to pay the consequences or price of it... if we live this life its because its of our actions and decision...

1017 wouldnt have been declared in the first place if there is no national threat in the country... many people think that wala naman talaga... pero phisix would show na there is talaga... i lost a lot that day... pero anong magagawa ko? eh mga kababayan ko yan... much as i hate what they are doing, i cant do anything but work harder to compensate what they are doing to this country...

kaasar lang kasi yun mga nagrereklamo puro salita... they have to prove themselves muna before i take them seriously... honestly, i dont care what they say... but i do care about them... the mere fact that im working harder and harder everyday to give other people jobs and just shut my mouth and sometimes forget about myself is enough to show that i care about them... its just that its so frustrating na kahit anong gawin mo, kahit tulungan mo sila ng tulungan... hindi sila nagbabago kasi ayaw nila tulungan sarili nila... their rallies wont bring them anywhere... bakit maipapakain ba nila sa pamilya nila yun?

[niky]

i could not blame you... but that is selfish... when we are born in this world we are nothing... we dont have anything but when we were given the gift of life... we started to think na freedom is a RIGHT... but in fact this is just a PRIVELEGE... although freewill is a right... freedom is just privelege we must give up whenver we become a threat for the greater good of the society...

Ah... but our constitution grants us the right to free speech and free assembly. They also give us the right to due process. If those rights are detrimental to progress, why don't we remove them?

Because we can't. For better or for worse, it's in our Constitution, which is held sacred and inviolable. If people feel the need to protest, it is their right. If we want to call them fools and idiots, as I feel like doing most of the time, it is also our right. It is only through this public dialogue of clashing ideas that we achieve public consensus.

"EDSA IV" was a triumph of that right, in a way. People chose not to speak. By not joining the protest, people said "We're not with you."... that is part of the freedoms we are granted.

But to say we have to give up those freedoms for the "greater good"? Who determines what is for the greater good of the country? Is it only one person who determines the greater good? Are the rest of us merely imbeciles, and not worth hearing?

The economy is robust and is determined by more than just internal factors. Despite local politics, the millions in remittances we get from OFWs have kept the peso afloat. Actually, it's because of politics that many left in the first place.

Ah... politics... we despise it... but only because the current bickering is to get rid of the "economic saviour" whom politics installed not so long ago. In the absence of Gloria, who's to say that the economy would enter freefall? Obviously, Gloria does... but why should it, if her successor follows her previous directives?

Who's to say that it's really her running the ship? That her policies are all correct and beyond reproach? She does, but who else?

Former Secretary Roilo Golex, once part of Gloria's cabinet, made a telling remark once. That there is no President in memory who's had more Cabinet members resign from her inner circle. If she's so right, why can't her people agree with her? Where's the cohesiveness of her so-called economic team?

Why are there defections from her camp, even now? By now, you'd expect all who are left to be loyalists and hardliners, wouldn't you? I guess everyone, left, right, center, media, church, etcetera... is a "destabilizing influence contrawise to the economic progress of our nation." Doesn't that seem a bit odd to you?

The freedoms above are indeed a privelege. A privelege born of being a citizen of this country, and subscribing to the Constitutuion upon which our government is based. Arroyo's power is also a privelege, based on that same Constitution. They go hand in hand and she must respect that.

Whichever way you cut it, 1017 was a cleverly worded attempt to circumvent the Constitution. And it worked. It was so clever, that most people don't understand that it did. And that's the saddest part... that we can be so blinded by our yearning for "progress" of any sort, that we can't see that.

Let her enjoy her days of power. But don't let her abuse those powers to further her own ambitions.

[davy88]

yes, every citizen is granted his/her freedom but JUST AS LONG AS IT DOESN'T TRAMPLE ON OTHERS BASIC RIGHTS AND FREEDOM. How many students have missed their class because of the traffic it causes on the streets? How many schedules and appointments were ruined because of it? Don't we have the basic right to roam freely on the roads without being harassed by these?

You are claiming that she cheated and we should follow the law, precisely, we should follow the law! Impeachment is the only course and if she has the majority to block it then we should all respect it because it is the law! Might as well give up our democracy if you don't want to follow it, don't whine on the streets!

GMA might have walked the thin line on basic rights, but hasn't a lot of people used it effectively? Look at BF when he implemented the wet rag scheme, anak ng teteng babasain lang mga NAGJAJAYWALK tapos tititrahin sya ng isang katutak ng trampling on basic rights!

[niky]

Dude, I think I know better than you how those rallies hurt our commuting and work scheds... I lived with them for many years as a UP student. I even had tear gas thrown at me on my way to an exam during one of ERAP's SONAs. I'm as irritated by it as you, but I'm not chortling with glee that all this is happening.

Our constitution grants the right to public assembly. And these were approved rallies, with permits, that GMA wanted closed down. Yes, it inconveniences people, but if its a legal rally, live with it. If its an illegal one, sure, use water cannons on unarmed kids... those are the rules of engagement.

They were within their rights to protest. Gloria overstepped her bounds declaring all permits null and void, as that is not within her mandate.

Actually, she doesn't have the majority to block impeachment, like Erap did (and we cried foul over that, didn't we?). That's something she lost over the Garci tapes, as people jumped ship in protest. She used a legal fiat to avoid impeachment, by filing a pathetically weak case against herself. Brilliant, but I don't think it'll work again.

I'm not whining in the streets over it, but who am I to deny others the right to whine? You're assuming that all of the protesters are of the hakot-hakot and leftist-communist "let's make gulo just for the hell of it" variety. What about those who have legitimate gripes and want to express it?

Whining in the streets is a guaranteed right by law. It's a ridiculous thing, really, for a whole city to be held hostage by rallies and strikes, but that's life. If it's wrong, then the law should be changed... changed but not ignored by the government.

And she claims that rallies hurt our economy. The only market downturn in the entire "EDSA" week was when the SONA was declared and the rallies violently dispersed. Three prior days of anemic rallies didn't have much effect.

As for the wet rag. It was an amusing trick, but by law, an enforcer cannot be jury, judge and executioner all by himself. In legalese, he cannot sentence a jaywalker to a punishment like that all by himself. Now if BF had all jaywalkers rounded up, put on trial, and dumped in a drum of water on the spot by an official judge, well, then there's no problem with that.

It sucks, doesn't it? But would you rather we followed the Chinese model? Where our very words over the internet would be enough to land us in jail? Sure, there's economic progress in China... just ask all the Party members who are raking it in. But would you prefer to live in a place like that?

1017 attacked GMA's opponents both on the streets and in the media. So, if you can't shout anti-GMA slogans in the streets... you're not allowed to print them, either? There's the assumption there that anything anti-GMA is unpatriotic... isn't that a bit of a reach? Inciting sedition is one thing, but you'd have to prove that being critical of a politician and the job she's doing is seditious. You'd have to prove that politician=state... and no one can claim that.

I'd rather suffer the indignity of having to spend an extra hour on the road every now and then, than not be able to call out BS when I see BS happening without landing in jail. I dislike the opposition and the left as much as anyone else, but I have a right to call out a foul when I see one. And I saw one last week.

[laklak]

Our constitution grants the right to public assembly. And these were approved rallies, with permits, that GMA wanted closed down. Yes, it inconveniences people, but if its a legal rally, live with it. If its an illegal one, sure, use water cannons on unarmed kids... those are the rules of engagement.

I think we are all clear about this fundamental right, but last time I checked the constitution does not give us the right to destroy a sitting government using extra- legal means.

Some people say, "bakit nung EDSA DOS" thats exactly what the problem is with this country. Its just like when we are caught beating the red light, magtuturo tayo ng iba sabay tanong "bakit yun di mo hinuli?" It does not mean If we do something wrong once, we can do it again. Im was in favor of EDSA 2, but in hindsight I wish that, sana natapos na lang yung impeachment trial, eh di sana ngayon tapos na ang term ni erap at may bago na tayong "legit" president.

I'm not whining in the streets over it, but who am I to deny others the right to whine? You're assuming that all of the protesters are of the hakot-hakot and leftist-communist "let's make gulo just for the hell of it" variety. What about those who have legitimate gripes and want to express it?

Whining in the streets is a guaranteed right by law. It's a ridiculous thing, really, for a whole city to be held hostage by rallies and strikes, but that's life. If it's wrong, then the law should be changed... changed but not ignored by the government.

The more we should be careful who we are attening rallies with. Its quite ironic since I was from DLSU. When the furor over the Garci tapes exploded last july 8 (or thereabouts) Bro Armin was adamant in his demand for GMA's resignation. But the school advises against DLSU students from attending anti goverment rallies. This is was due to the composition of the rally's crowd. I dont remember this prohibition during the impeachment rallies.

1017 attacked GMA's opponents both on the streets and in the media. So, if you can't shout anti-GMA slogans in the streets... you're not allowed to print them, either? There's the assumption there that anything anti-GMA is unpatriotic... isn't that a bit of a reach? Inciting sedition is one thing, but you'd have to prove that being critical of a politician and the job she's doing is seditious. You'd have to prove that politician=state... and no one can claim that.

I'd rather suffer the indignity of having to spend an extra hour on the road every now and then, than not be able to call out BS when I see BS happening without landing in jail. I dislike the opposition and the left as much as anyone else, but I have a right to call out a foul when I see one. And I saw one last week.

I dont think expressing ones opinions and deliberately printing something erroneous fall into the same category in the gov't's alleged media crackdown. I was cringing in my seat while watching abs-cbn's Marines drama last sunday, when Ina Reformina announced on nationwide TV, albeit unconfirmed, that a contigent of Scout Rangers and a marine battalion was marching towards metro manila to aid their beleaguered comrades. The least they could have done is to verify first before reporting, just as normal professional journalists do. The same can be said with these other broadsheets and tabloids.

Also, if anti government opinions are banned why is it until now ANC is still on the air? Majority of their invited "opinion givers" are anti government. Ive got a lot of gripes against this news channel, one is they invite unprepared guests who blabbers about nothing substantial, most of the time basing their opinions on "hearsay" information coming from the program presenters themselves...

Anyway.. im no GMA supporter. Im a PILIPINAS supporter. I only wish that this country could live up to its potential. But Im starting to lose hope.

[niky]

There's a danger in this kind of thinking, by the way... saying that the law is not enough... let's just get the job done, bahala na kung sinong ma-agrabyado...

It's the kind of thinking that has the US at odds with the international community right now... over holding prisoners in Guantanamo without charge or evidence, using torture on the off-chance that they might know something useful... over invading Iraq on incomplete evidence of WMDs (which later proved inaccurate). In the course of this, they prosecute a war that would supposedly eliminate terror, but ends up creating a hot spot and rallying point for more new terrorists.

It's the kind of thinking that goes: "I know I'm right, consequences be damned." that allows leaders to bend laws, break treaties and do whatever they want with complete moral conviction. And events of recent times have exposed the fallacy of such thinking.

What if you're wrong? If we say the end justifies the means, what then happens when the end result isn't what we thought it would be? How do we justify that?

[davy88]

If you remove all the hakot crowd and communist from the rallies, then we wouldn't be bothered by it since konti lang naman magrarally na and GMA wouldn't bother with them also.

I'm not saying we move into the Chinese model (although if you look, it took them only a few years to zoom in to where they are now, people's lives there are improving considerably whereas satin madami parin gutom) but the situation is really getting ridiculous.

yes, a few days of rally won't hurt the economy but constant rallies do. Destabilization is the key word here and a lot of investors are really looking elswhere everytime they see constant politicking in the streets. Imagine how many jobs could have been generated and mouths fed if these investments pushed thru.

[Flagg]

Hmm... is it not possible to sue these media guys for libel or slander? Maybe that's what GMA should do, anyway, kanya yung courts.

[oldblue]

Hmm... is it not possible to sue these media guys for libel or slander? Maybe that's what GMA should do, anyway, kanya yung courts.

how can we effectively sue something that is by nature characterized by a lot of twisting of the truth and lies? kumbaga kung prostitute is the oldest profession, slander is the oldest form of power. in world history, kings, heroes, champions, leaders fell when they became victims of slanderous statements.

the only way to beat these media-mongerers, dont believe anything that they broadcast or print. if you believe them, it's like saying nabentahan ka nila ng insurance ng walang kahirap-hirap

they are not allies as some people believe. imagine mo nasa giyera ka, and you got shot, fell and tried very hard to reach your rifle in the process. Then the one who shot you is closing in to finish you off. You have this media guy beside you televising you from the point where you got shot to where you fell to the ground.

ano sa tingin mo? aabot ba niya baril mo? i-televise ka pa nyan hanggang katapusan mo. news-worthy eh.

[Flagg]

imagine mo nasa giyera ka, and you got shot, fell and tried very hard to reach your rifle in the process. Then the one who shot you is closing in to finish you off. You have this media guy beside you televising you from the point where you got shot to where you fell to the ground.

ano sa tingin mo? aabot ba niya baril mo? i-televise ka pa nyan hanggang katapusan mo. news-worthy eh.

Hiram mo camera nya tapos sigaw ka "Press!!! Non-combatant!!!"

[van_wilder]

the rallies are becoming the new means of blackmailing the president... if your wish is not granted... go to the streets and rally till she resigns or she gives in to your interests... oh God...

i would not lose hope in this country... during hopeless times, we have to re-invent hope... when everyone thinks we'll fall apart... that is the time when we should stand-up and make a statement... i dunno with the rest of the country... but i'll never give up on this country... even it is self-destructing... even na sinasaktan nila ang mga kapwa pilipino... even nababaliwala ginagawa dahil sa mga paninira nila... one day, we'll all get there... its just a matter of time...

[morrissey_05]

the rallies are becoming the new means of blackmailing the president... if your wish is not granted... go to the streets and rally till she resigns or she gives in to your interests... oh God...

i would not lose hope in this country... during hopeless times, we have to re-invent hope... when everyone thinks we'll fall apart... that is the time when we should stand-up and make a statement... i dunno with the rest of the country... but i'll never give up on this country... even it is self-destructing... even na sinasaktan nila ang mga kapwa pilipino... even nababaliwala ginagawa dahil sa mga paninira nila... one day, we'll all get there... its just a matter of time...

dude, i like your optimism. i really do, because i feel the same way.

but i don't think its fair to say just because ppl are going out in the streets, blackmail na yun, and the President should step down. to me, its not as simple as that. she can choose to stay in the Palace, and i think she is doing just that because she learned so much from EDSA 1 and EDSA 2, smart girl that she is.

protesting is a basic fundamental right enshrined in the Constitution. aint nothing can take that away. if you dont agree with them, live with it. that's their right eh. give it to them na lang, in the same way they give you your right to...something else hehehe.