Carnivale

President Arroyo and Gonzalez and their enemies from the party lists won’t pay
the immediate price for such bloodthirsty posturing. It is the people who will.
Provinces plagued by insurgency will continue to bleed, and their residents will
continue to seek refuge elsewhere. No rehabilitation, much less improvement of
local economies or infrastructure can take place. This serves the purposes of a
government that prefers a state of conflict to peace, which might turn people’s
minds to the harsh realities of our national life. It serves the interests of
insurgents who would stubbornly fight, even if it means reducing the mountains
and then the plains to ashes.

- PDI, May 17 2006, Opinions Section

Like what I've said in one of my entries a thousand years ago, If I become the President of this country, my first order of business would be to sue for peace with these rebels who are fighting for a just cause; take them out of the terrorist watchlist; and last but not the least, give them official recognition that they are representing an ideology which would benefit the entire nation, if not a group of people.

In this country where the order of the day is to greet poverty and politics early in the morning, the last thing most of us wanted to hear is this Justice Secretary taunting the government's "enemies," namely the Batasan Five to come out of the open and contradict the government even more. For someone as old and supposedly "experienced" like him, he should be opening the doors for peace and compromise rather than conflict and more chaos. As the saying goes, too much words breeds confusion. In his case, too much words makes the government - or his department more a-la karnabal sa baranggay - a cheap freak show for the enjoyment of the masses.

If there is one thing this country needs right now in order to attain a sense of order, I guess one good suggestion is to take that clownish secretary out of the government and into a mental institution. His words and reactions damage his boss more than the other issues and scandals put together.

He has turned a well-respected and honorable department into something which is a joke nowadays - especially since all they konw is to proclaim statements which they cannot stand up to afterwards.

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Isn't it funny that now that a Filipino has finally reached the peak of the highest mountain in the world, here we are more than half of the population under the clutches of extreme poverty? Yes it is a historical moment. Something which should be celebrated (and commecialized) by every sector of the society.

As expected, the organizers claim that it is a victory of the entire Filipino people. Some feat which everyone "would be" affected in any other way. If it is a victory as they say, I wonder, when would the victory towards peace with the insurgents ever be realized in this forsaken and direction-less country?

When would the folks from the provinces resume their simple rustic lives knowing that military offensives and counter insurgency activities is just a stuff of legends older people used to say?