‘You have the people agitated and the crooks stumbling over one another trying to cover their tracks while they watch news coverage of Indonesia and Nepal.’
IT’S been a long time since I joined a rally. But I noticed that my UP Law contemporary Dean Tony La Vina posted a call for a Sept. 21 gathering at the Luneta and I didn’t have second thoughts about joining.
In my UP High 79 chat group, we started discussing attending and then one of us, the distinguished former Secretary of Health Dr Paulyn Ubial, asked “Luneta ba or Edsa Shrine?”, to which JJ Soriano, another esteemed classmate, clarified that the Church-organized Edsa Shrine rally was set for 2 p.m .while the one at the Luneta was set for 9 a.m. So one can actually attend both.
But I said, “Pass ako sa church rally. Baka masunog pa ako.”
So yes, I am definitely going to the Luneta on the morning of Sunday next.
In 2005, I brought some friends to the Edsa Shrine. We brought candles and held them, lit, and began walking around the Shrine. If I remember right, it was early evening. There were about seven of us, including the late Lilibeth Nacion, my co-anchor at radio station DWWW 774 kHz. Why were we there? This was the height of the Hello Garci scandal and we thought, well, why don’t we go just on our own. Our little excursion did not last because we were shooed away by uniformed PNP personnel who refused to accept our reasoning that we were there to pray.
Was I that obvious as a non-churchgoer?
Also around that time, we again gathered at the foot of the Ninoy statue on Ayala Ave. Mayor Jejomar Binay kindly granted me a permit. And we lit 32 candles for each of the congressmen who voted to impeach GMA. Notably included among those 32 were now Senators Alan Cayetano, Francis Escudero, Imee Marcos and Joel Villanueva!
Since we had a permit from the good mayor of Makati, we were allowed to stay at the foot of the statue, undisturbed, until we voluntarily dispersed. There were just 12 or 13 of us anyway, including Leah Navarro.
Oh, I also remember marching to the Luneta at the height of the PDAF scandal. At that time, I coined the slogan “PGH Deserves Additional Funding” to represent what I think PDAF funds should be used for.
So it’s been that long, I guess. Over the last years, we all know that there have been as many things that have turned worse as there are those that have turned for the better. And among the former, it should now be clear to anyone but ‘yung “nagbubulag-bulagan” that corruption has become far more widespread and far more consciously part of our psyche. It’s been raised to an art form by politicians and bureaucrats, the former “protected” by their unending hold on power, the latter by their long tenure and Civil Service eligibility. With billions at stake, it was so easy to get tempted – no matter how pious you were – and devise a scheme that could operate behind the curtains, so daylight could not illuminate the (black) magic happening.
Those in the hallowed halls of Congress knew and know of these things. The general public could only suspect. But with billions at their disposal, who would dare stand up to the crooks? Billions that could be used for PR campaigns (you can buy interviews, remember?), payoffs, or even maybe putting a contract over a critic’s head.
But God works in mysterious ways, as does greed. And days of rainfall tied to flooding and a pre-election lifestyle interview that was meant to be “inspiring,” followed by a daring Presidential press conference that blew the lid off the can of worms and voila! You have the people agitated and the crooks stumbling over one another trying to cover their tracks while they watch news coverage of Indonesia and Nepal.
In the 1990s, Enrique Zobel once told me, “Do the politicians think the army will save them from the hungry masses when the army is composed of men from the masses?” Those words seem so apt these days, and yes, unless something is done and soon, the anger boiling inside (me included) will see some form of outlet.
So I’ll be at Luneta on the 21st. I hope to see classmates from UP elementary, high school, college and even law school. Old colleagues from Coca-Cola. Other friends I have made along the way. Anyone and everyone who knows that nothing will change unless we demand it. And let that demand flood the halls of power in such torrent that nothing of the old order is left standing
I call this Sunday the Kilos Kontra Kurakot. Di na natin ito pwede “ipasa-Diyos”.
Enough is enough.
