Im sorry for being graphic. But thats how I feel right now... several days after I've learned what happened in Mendiola.
After being so quiet for so long, I finally had the courage to ask, if whats happening is still right? Because I feel that the administration have finally crossed the borders.
And you know what. I feel the hate, the anger which emanates from the edge of my fingers finally making its way towards my heart, my soul, my mind.
I swear, if I find some big rallies to attend to, I wont report for work just to attend that big rally.
I cannot simply close my eyes anymore to what I've been seeing in the news lately...
This morning, I was reading the editorial section of PDI. Somehow, what I read there struck a chord in my heart.
Now my anger is seething... GMA should really change her stand or else she would breed more disheartened folks like me.
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From INQ7.net
UNPOPULAR ANGER
PERHAPS, THE HARD-LINERS IN THE PALACE should take their fingers-already crooked with long-borne tension-off the panic button long enough to listen to Sen. Ralph Recto. After all, the grandson of Claro M. Recto-the late champion of civil liberties, after whom the main thoroughfare that leads to Mendiola Bridge is named-has been one of the staunchest allies of the President.
Among many other things, Recto championed the controversial expanded Value-Added Tax law, a potential career-ender, on behalf of Malacañang. It would be difficult for even the closest allies of President Macapagal Arroyo to question Recto's reliability as a member of the ruling coalition.
But after the violent (and totally unnecessary) dispersal of last week's prayer rally and religious procession near Malacañang, Recto issued a not-so-gentle reminder: "Hosing down demonstrators will not douse water on their passions. On the contrary, like water to plants, it is these acts that nurture more demonstrations."
Could it be that Recto, who was only a student during the martial law years, learned more from the country's tragic experiment with strong-arm tactics than the ex-generals, former journalists, veteran politicians, and retired schoolteachers who now run Malacañang?
"History has shown that water you use to disperse citizens has an uncanny way of returning as a tidal wave of unpopular anger," Recto also said. Perhaps he really meant "popular" anger, but we get the point. The question is, does the Palace get it?
Opposition Sen. Sergio Osmeña III was right to direct our attention to the inevitable photos and video footage-of the water cannons hitting ex-Vice President Teofisto Guingona, Sen. Jamby Madrigal, and three Roman Catholic bishops-that international media will carry. These "will shock foreigners and will drastically affect the investment and tourism image of our country."
But the real impact will be as Recto and another member of the Senate's so-called Wednesday Club, ex-human rights lawyer and administration maverick Sen. Joker Arroyo, suggest: It will help steel popular resolve against the President. "What happened will radicalize a number of people," Sen. Arroyo said.
"Radicalize" is derived from "root"-you know, the kind that needs water to thrive.
Unintended consequences
IF further proof were needed that the administration's hard line on street protests is counter-productive politics, consider the transformation of opposition Sen. Jamby Madrigal. Because she joined the prayer rally and religious procession near Malacañang last week, and was among those who were doused by a water
cannon, Madrigal has suddenly found herself on moral high ground.
Before last week's "wet" dispersal, Madrigal was merely a first-term senator with a lot of money, someone closely associated with deposed President Joseph Estrada and his brand of populist politics, someone elected to office because of the kind of vacuous celebrity-driven campaign (for which she had engaged the services of show business star Judy Ann Santos). Her public reputation had seesawed between petty vindictiveness (because of the stories about the way she allegedly treated former staff members once she assumed office) and pretentious nonsense (because of the sudden risible lectures she was wont to deliver during Senate hearings).
But Madrigal, who has no love lost for President Macapagal-Arroyo, decided last week to walk the talk. In the process, she got an unforgettable immersion in the parliament of the streets.
Even those in the opposition who thought her suspect, because of her old-money background and her lack of political experience, must now concede that she has new-found street crede so to speak.
Her immediate response to the "unbelievable" incident has been rather unpredictable: She said she will file a case alleging human rights abuse against the Arroyo administration before the UN Commission on Human Rights-exactly the kind of publicity the President needs like a hole in the head.
For lifting her clear out of the waters of merely partisan politics, Madrigal can thank Malacañang, its calibrated preemptive response policy, and the unforgiving law of unintended consequences.
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