Post-Post-Reactives
Three years ago I posted a little jig about the next presidentiable being "required" to condemn the sins of the then-President Mrs. Arroyo. It was the activist political party Akbayan back then, under Rep. Riza Hontiveros, urging the then-hugely-popular priest-turned-presidentiable Mr. Ed Panlilio to condemn Mrs. Arroyo and her regime for her crimes.
Fast forward to the present day, we still have Akbayan doing what they always do, again with Riza Hontiveros an important figure in the party. Ed Panlilio, despite his goodness and utter lack of corruption, still doesn't have sufficient political clout to prevent the old politicians stopping him cold. And oddly enough, of all the presidentiables that one, what the people elected was the playboy bachelor president whose term as lawmaker produced a grand total of zero laws. Well, his mom was one of the most well-loved political figures, what with her death figuring so much in the lives of everybody...but the really politically smart one is his dad, who became an impromptu martyr when some dude shot him.
No one expected that presidentiable, now our current president, to be any good. He never really seemed smart - or interested even - in being president. Yet he won; his family was a good family, politically inclined. His parents fought the dictator Marcos, his mother was strong enough to fend off numerous coup attempts against her, his father, one of the greatest catalysts for finally ousting Marcos. And now, two years or so in their son's term, he's doing fine. P-Noy, despite being seen as mediocre, a touch incompetent, a bit too stupid to go corrupt; he managed to steer the Philippines through whatever troubles we have face head-on with minimal interference. Indeed, many people get the impression that he has extended the concept of the Invisible Hand [P-Noy's an economist, after all] to just about everything in running his whole country.
But that may not be so. While he may seem hands-off in various issues concerning the country [even if he was in the very position to act, and instead chose not to], I think the Riza Hontiveros of three years back would like him, even love him.
This is because P-Noy is rather relentless, even obsessive, in punishing the leftover officials of his predecessor. Wielding his massive political potential like a heavy rapier, P-Noy has managed to not only condemn Mrs. Arroyo, he has even begun to punish her slowly, indirectly, doing what the Akbayan had always wanted the next president to do.
However, ironically, the Akbayan hates him. Akbayan always hated whoever the current president would be, but this time now that the current president is doing exactly, no, more than what they have asked for, shouldn't they be happy? P-Noy has already put aside many other matters being a president just to focus on peeling away the government officials Mrs. Arroyo had positioned for her own political survival, but for the Akyaban it's not enough. They want the VFA repealed, they want massive agrarian reforms; they want and demand so much. Punishing Arroyo for her sins? Just toppings. I pity the president, somehow, really. But for the Akbayan, it's never enough, never enough jobs nor education. It's just not enough.
It never is. But at least we aren't hurtling all the way down Somewhere down the Road... to Perdition. Ahahahaha.
Fast forward to the present day, we still have Akbayan doing what they always do, again with Riza Hontiveros an important figure in the party. Ed Panlilio, despite his goodness and utter lack of corruption, still doesn't have sufficient political clout to prevent the old politicians stopping him cold. And oddly enough, of all the presidentiables that one, what the people elected was the playboy bachelor president whose term as lawmaker produced a grand total of zero laws. Well, his mom was one of the most well-loved political figures, what with her death figuring so much in the lives of everybody...but the really politically smart one is his dad, who became an impromptu martyr when some dude shot him.
No one expected that presidentiable, now our current president, to be any good. He never really seemed smart - or interested even - in being president. Yet he won; his family was a good family, politically inclined. His parents fought the dictator Marcos, his mother was strong enough to fend off numerous coup attempts against her, his father, one of the greatest catalysts for finally ousting Marcos. And now, two years or so in their son's term, he's doing fine. P-Noy, despite being seen as mediocre, a touch incompetent, a bit too stupid to go corrupt; he managed to steer the Philippines through whatever troubles we have face head-on with minimal interference. Indeed, many people get the impression that he has extended the concept of the Invisible Hand [P-Noy's an economist, after all] to just about everything in running his whole country.
But that may not be so. While he may seem hands-off in various issues concerning the country [even if he was in the very position to act, and instead chose not to], I think the Riza Hontiveros of three years back would like him, even love him.
This is because P-Noy is rather relentless, even obsessive, in punishing the leftover officials of his predecessor. Wielding his massive political potential like a heavy rapier, P-Noy has managed to not only condemn Mrs. Arroyo, he has even begun to punish her slowly, indirectly, doing what the Akbayan had always wanted the next president to do.
However, ironically, the Akbayan hates him. Akbayan always hated whoever the current president would be, but this time now that the current president is doing exactly, no, more than what they have asked for, shouldn't they be happy? P-Noy has already put aside many other matters being a president just to focus on peeling away the government officials Mrs. Arroyo had positioned for her own political survival, but for the Akyaban it's not enough. They want the VFA repealed, they want massive agrarian reforms; they want and demand so much. Punishing Arroyo for her sins? Just toppings. I pity the president, somehow, really. But for the Akbayan, it's never enough, never enough jobs nor education. It's just not enough.
It never is. But at least we aren't hurtling all the way down Somewhere down the Road... to Perdition. Ahahahaha.