Since he became Mr. Palengke up until he stepped down to be PNoy’s running mate instead of LP’s Presidential Standard Bearer, I have supported Mar Roxas. To me, he is the logical choice to run the country. He came from a decent political family where all his relatives have served the country well without a hint of doubt to their integrity. He has worked diligently under the administrations who assigned him government posts and he has delivered what he’s supposed to do.
I know he is not perfect. There are times when he bungled up. Every time his PR team would come up with some cheesy campaign that will make him a laughing stock in social media I will cringe internally. I agree with them that the gimmicks are cheap but I disagree with the purported notion that Mar is not a viable choice for leadership.
When he was running for President during the 2010 Presidential Race, I was all out to support him. But when LP decided suddenly to switch to PNoy as their standard bearer, my heart went out to Mar when he decided to step down. I cannot forget what he said that day:
“Ito na ang pinakamabigat na desisyon sa buhay ko. Maniwala man kayo o hindi, ginagawa ko ito para sa bayan, para sa inyo. I do this for unity in support of change. And if that means that somebody must make the sacrifice, it must be me. Ako na,”
Mar Roxas, Aug. 1, 2009, Club Filipino
Now, we come full circle. After 6 successful years where Noynoy Aquino has successfully started the fight against corruption and began the positive change in our country, he is now announcing his successor. And this time, it is Mar.
Whereas in 2010, Mar began campaigning early, this 2016 he announced his Presidential ambitions last. He worked patiently, diligently and quietly with every responsibility assigned to him. Most of them even put him into bad light with the public who cannot comprehend how hard a position he holds. But he moved on, never once complaining.
This article summarizes beautifully why Mar Roxas is a game-changer; why he is the most rational choice for President after PNoy.
Grace Poe is a nice candidate. She’s a breath of fresh air since she’s not from a traditional political family. However, her experiences and capability to run the country is something debatable. Presidency is not just any ordinary position as I can see now. It involves a lot of other factors and winning it is certainly not as simple as it may seem.
Duterte is a popular choice because of his notorious reforms in Davao City but running a local unit is different from running a national unit. Besides, it would take more than social media to win the elections.
Who else? I totally agree with anyone who says Binay should not be President. Anyone who acts the way he does is someone who doesn’t deserve our vote. His pre-campaigns and his recent antics clearly smells of someone who is up to no good once he assumes office. Someone who tries really hard to secure his victory – to the extent of even leaving his Cabinet pose – is someone I will never trust in a million lifetimes.
Mar Roxas is the logical and most viable option we have. I hope Filipinos will start thinking rationally and strategically. Other candidates may be good but they need to have political allies, enough connections here and abroad, enough resources, and enough experience to be able to implement the changes that our country needs.
Roxas may have had his blunders but at the end of the day, he’s still the best option we got.
I am not ashamed to campaign for him for I believe in what he can do. And I believe we have no better alternative.
With Mar Roxas. Taken circa 2009 during the launch of GRF 50th Anniversary.
For the past 3 days already, I have been stuck in my condotel due to the heavy rains and flooded streets in Metro Manila. Although technically, the private corporations have not suspended work and I can easily go to the office to report, my co-workers who come from farther parts of the Metropolis are either stranded or worst, flooded, and hence can’t come to work. So rather than coming to the office to report to an empty space, it will be better to simply stay inside as advised by government agencies.
But being stuck inside in this weather, miles away from home, although comfortably dry and well-provisioned, is anything but fun. It does get boring after a day and a half of virtually doing nothing, just sitting in front of the computer. Soon, movie marathons become passe and staring at Facebook status and Twitter feeds become mind numbing. Reading online articles lose their appeal and I would want nothing more than to simply go out there and be part of the action.
Of course, I can be a volunteer but on second thought, I’d rather stay inside and keep dry. After all, despite everything being familiar, I am still on foreign grounds.
Metro Manila, in the past, didn’t get flooded this bad. I recall that it was my hometown in Bicol which was regularly afflicted with stormy weathers and the constant recipient of donated relief goods. But now, it seems the tides have changed and areas which didn’t use to be affected are now severely affected. So the question, begging to be answered, is why?
I found this information post in Facebook which summarizes the answer to that question – WHY?
It’s the rainy season once again and we face the yearly problem of flooding in Metro Manila. I keep getting calls from broadcast media asking for interviews about the problem, its historical origins and urban redevelopment solutions. Giving these interviews I feel like a broken record enumerating the reasons for floods in the metropolis, so I figure it would be good just to list them once and for all. This list may not contain all the reasons but these, in my opinion, are the major ones:
1. It floods because it rains. The rains and the typhoons that bring them have increased in magnitude. Yes, it’s Climate Change. To deny this is futile. It’s here now and makes all historical flood levels well, history. The paths of typhoons have also become unpredictable (not that we have enough weather men to predict them—many of our good ones have left for better-paying jobs overseas). Typhoons now cross parts of the archipelago that did not use to have them regularly and so people are caught unprepared. Despite these changes in patterns, Metro Manila still gets dumped with rain, especially since its total area, and population in this area, is equivalent or larger than most provinces and many regions in the country. 2. It floods because of population and urbanization. Metro Manila has a population of 12 million and counting. Urbanization, specifically urban sprawl is a manifestation of all these millions living together and needing houses, buildings, roads, parking lots and infrastructure. All these cover ground that used to be open and which used to be able to absorb much of the storm water that fell on the metropolis. In our lifetimes we’ve seen fringes of the metropolis gobbled up and transformed from cogon and rice fields to thousands of subdivisions, hundreds of shops and malls, hectares of paved-over parking lots, dozens of business districts. All this hard covering serves to channel all the storm water much faster into an already inadequate drainage system designed decades ago when the reality was much more open land and much less rain. The open ground before served to mitigate the volume of rain that flowed into these drains, esteros and our rivers. We also had more plant cover and trees in the metropolis to help sop up all this water. Our previously open parks are now covered too with all manner of government buildings or basketball courts and parking lots.
Photo Credit: Paulo Alcazaren
3. It floods because the rain comes down from denuded uplands. Metro Manila floods come from elevated surrounding regions, all the way up to the Sierra Madres. There, we have lost almost all of our original forest cover from illegal logging. All this forest cover lost makes millions of hectares of upland a bald watershed that flows freely into the metropolis. This situation is repeated around almost all major urban areas in the country. The source is upstream and this is where solutions should start, although it is among the longest-term solutions. We need to recover our forest cover to reduce the amount of rain that floods our low-level metropolis. 4. Metro Manila is not only low but it is sinking. Ground water extraction due to deep wells is causing major areas of the metropolis to sink. The north section of CAMANAVA and the southern cities from Pasay onwards have sunk from a foot to over a meter and this has made those areas more vulnerable to floods and storm surges. Scientists have pointed to the fact that this flattening has increased the reach of storm surges from the seaside to as much as twenty kilometers inland. So we get it from both ends in a perfect storm—from the mountains and from the sea. The ground is also sinking due to the weight of all that concrete, buildings and infrastructure mentioned in reason no. 2 above. 5. It floods because we have less drainage than before. Reports have it that we have lost almost half of our metropolitan esteros and canals. We used to have over forty kilometers of them and now we only have about twenty. Many have been lost to development, disappearing without a trace (now it regularly floods where they used to be of course). 6. It floods because many of those esteros, canals and waterways of our metropolis we have left are chock-full of informal settlers. Because there are no alternatives for low-income mass housing, desperate people settle in desperate areas. These settlements have little by way of solid waste management and sewers. All these go to the waterways, filling many of them so solid that dogs can cross over them. And we wonder why it floods. Many of these drainage ways and easements were identified in the several master plans made for Manila and Quezon City. Planners over half a century ago had allocated as much as 50 meters of space on either side of these but greed set in and these easements disappeared and what little was left are now our favelas teeming with millions. 7. It floods because the main flood control system started in the 70s was never completed. The Manggahan floodway was only one half of the picture. It was meant to channel floodwater into Laguna de Bai. The lake was meant only as a holding area and the excess water was to have been flushed from there to Manila Bay via the Paranaque spillway. That spillway was never built. To build it now would cause trillions and urban sprawl has seen its path covered with more millions of people and thousands of structures. 8. It floods because what little left of our drains and flood control infrastructure is ill-maintained. Reaching many of them is a problem because of informal settlements. Overlapping jurisdictions of local and national agencies conspire to dissipate responsibility and funding for this vital task of ensuring our drains are unclogged and free. It’s just like homeowners not cleaning their gutters of debris before a rainy season. When the typhoons come the gutters overflow.
9. It floods because urban development is un-planned and unfettered. Mega-developments that see clusters of 30-40 story towers on retail podiums surrounded by hectares of parking cause havoc in districts planned with drainage infrastructure meant for low-density development. Because there is a lack of planning context (actually a lack of any planning at all) all drainage, road and traffic infrastructure is useless to carry the additional load—that’s why most flooded areas are also traffic-clogged.
10. The final reason it floods in this short list (and there are many other reasons) is politics. Metro Manila is made up of 16 cities and one town (Pateros). Floods do not respect political boundaries and will flow from one city to the next yet we continue to address flooding (as well as all other urban problems) within the confines of individual LGUs. It does not make sense. Politics also conspires to keep informal settlers where they are because they represent votes. The overlapping jurisdictions is also exacerbated by another layer—that of national government and yet a third layer on top of these, that of the MMDA. The ultimate fourth layer of discord is the fact that the source of floods is beyond the political jurisdiction of Metro Manila and in the hands of the provinces around it. Any sustainable solution to flooding must be at this regional context and the assumption that, within the metropolis, governance is rationalized to address this one big problem as one effort, not the uncoordinated effort of seventeen government units, the MMDA and national agencies. Politics has divided and conquered us …and it is also drowning us in yearly and constant floods.
Feedback is welcome. Please email the writer at paulo.alcazaren@gmail.com.
Given the above reasons, what is the best way to solve this flooding problem in Metro Manila? I say, we begin providing solutions for the 10th reason above. LGUs, not just in Metro Manila but also in the adjoining regions should come together as one and share the responsibility of addressing the solutions for the other reasons provided. If you look at it, it is never too late to start solving today’s problems for a brighter tomorrow. All it takes is the discipline and the drive to actually do something about all this.
Have a safe and dry week everyone!
Related articles
Floods Cover More Than Half of Manila (theepochtimes.com)
Relentless rain shuts down Metro Manila (rappler.com)
Up until today I was somehow undecided whether I will vote for Noynoy or not. I knew Mar Roxas endorsed him, and I believe in Mar’s decisions and principles, yet I was somehow skeptical of Noynoy. I agreed with the critics notions that he is still unprepared and incapable of the presidency and he is merely riding on to his parent’s fame and the recent surge of the Cory magic. I agreed with the critics that he lacks experience as evidenced by his mediocre performance as congressman and as senator. I agreed with critics that shrewd advisers will take advantage of him and he may end up another Erap – dependent on his advisers’ greedy and self-serving advices. I agreed with them, now I disagree.
After reading several, I admit not quite a lot, people’s opinions on Noynoy’s bid for presidency; I must say that I have already decided which side I’m on. Before I was on the gray side, but I knew there’s only black and white in this race we’re in. There are only 2 sides of the coin – there’s nothing in between. Times are different now, I can feel that and as responsible voters and citizens of the country longing for change, we need to make a clear-cut stand on the matters and issues at hand. I have decided to take my stand.
I will vote for Noynoy and support him in the upcoming presidential race. I agree with a lot of points in De Quiros’ recent article about Noynoy, Yes, he can. Indeed what our country needs is not a leader that will act like a CEO of a company – serving only the needs of the stockbrokers and not of its employees; having a lot of skills and impressive accomplishments but questionable in integrity and moral standing. What our country needs is someone we can be confident of to rally behind to – a president we can support instead of rebut; a president we would be comfortable to trust with our resources and not fear that he or she would take it to his or her personal advantage. I agree that what the country needs is someone who can clean up the mess that has been accumulated over the past years – the mess that has made us apathetic and disillusioned about the country that we now live in. I agree that the elections this coming 2010 is not a regular and peaceful one. First there is the new automated system which I believe will raise a lot of complications since I don’t think it has been prepared adequately. Second, unlike other Presidential election periods, this election does not entirely guarantee a peaceful transition – not with talks of GMA wanting cha-cha and possibly not relinquishing her power in a docile and quiet manner. And with Erap seeking a re-election, what can we really expect?
I can’t help but take pity at Noynoy Aquino. He has been thrown into the brightest spotlight in the land today – a spotlight of which I don’t think he is completely ready for. I can imagine the pressure he is in right now – an outspoken presidential candidate has given up his post for him and thousands of Filipino people are urging him to run for the highest position in the country.
If before he had some desire to be president, he must have been shocked that such a desire would materialize so early and catch him completely unprepared. No wonder he needed the weekend to think and pray it over.
Aquino
I personally don’t think he is fully capable of running the country. Yet he has all the elements, reminiscent of the past, going for him. We have been under a President whom everyone believes has overextended her term, much like Pres. Marcos did. We are under an administration that have seen more deaths – army attacks, extra-judicial killings – somewhat similar to the salvage days of the Martial Law era. We are under an administration that claims economic prosperity which no one can really feel – GDP and GNP increases but the price of basic commodities remains expensive and more Pinoys go hungry everyday.
And now we have been presented with a choice for honest governance. Yes, he seems to lack experience but didn’t Cory also lacked experience when she assumed the position?
Yet times are also slightly different now than before. During the 1980’s there were just two options – Marcos or Aquino. Now we also have Villar, Lacson, Binay, Escudero, De Castro, Panlilio even Estrada plus who knows who else. Wouldn’t it be all simpler if we would be left with just two options – a pro-administration and one against the administration. As I can see it, most of the candidates basically fight for the same reforms and causes. I believe that based on the basic premises of their platforms, we can categorize them into just two categories which would make our decisions much easier.
I hope Noynoy gets the Divine guidance he needs. May the Lord speak to him about what the country really needs and what he really ought to do. And may the Lord speak, not only to him, but to the other presidential hopefuls as well. And may they have the nerve enough to listen to Him.
With the upcoming 2010 elections, some questions sprang to mind. This is after all my first Presidential elections, my first time to vote in the national elections. And since I care deeply about how the country ultimately turns out, I want to make my vote count.
And so I ask, who should I vote for?
There are several who have already cited their unwavering intent for the post and who have in fact made some attempt at infomercials. Still I remain undecided as to who to vote for. Even the one I said I will support – Mar Roxas – still doesn’t seem right. To me, he appears to still be lacking something.
Then again, a nagging question comes to mind. With all these presidential hopefuls, the country’s vote will no doubt be divided amongst all of them. What if some presidential hopeful, who I believe is really wrong for the position, suddenly garnered majority of the votes? Then the runner-up is also someone who I am not convinced of but is a more probable president than the currently winning candidate, will I then pull out my vote from the person who I believe can lead the country but appears hopeless to win to support the lesser evil runner up? Should I then practice strategic voting?
Politics. A much better topic for the mind to engage on than the hapless questions of love and what should be not. 😀
When I first read that a certain Pac Yu will be running in the 2010 elections, I thought someone was throwing a really bad joke. But then it was no joke that Pac Yu, in real life Gabe Mercado, will be contending for the Philippine Presidency. Of course, he hopes no one will really vote for him, but then he swears he will be present in all Presidential debates and the sorts, not just to throw satirical comedy to the proceedings but to also poke thought-provoking questions to the serious presidential aspirants. Pac Yu is the bet of Pagbabago! a group of people who strongly oppose the administrative government and who even hopes to still oust GMA before the 2010 elections.
Pagbabago
What?! Oust GMA? With less than a year in office, they still want to oust the current president? And then what? Have Noli De Castro ascend into power? Isn’t that incredulous? You want to oust the standard bearer of the administration, who is GMA, only to be replaced by the administration’s presidential bet, who is Noli. Isn’t that absurd? I sometimes wonder if Pinoys really have the capacity to learn from the mistakes of the past. Hasn’t the impeachment of Erap taught us anything? Will we forever resort to ousting leaders who we claim were voted by the ideals of democracy?
Vice-President Noli De Castro
Vox populi, vox Dei. Yet a minority will always push that vox populi is not vox Dei and as such is not authoritative. There would always be people who would claim that the election results were cheated and the current president is unfit to be in office. But when you ask them who they would want to replace the current president, and if the one who is qualified to replace him or her is worthy, they would suddenly clam up and then in an effort to redeem themselves would speak of all other reforms that you’re not really sure would be feasible or not. No wonder I gave up listening to UP forums with OUST GMA themes.
Oust GMA Rallies
I have always believed that the solution will be a total reform of the government – one that would also force the citizens to reform their views and thoughts of politics. Right now politics has been akin to showbizness – it is a circus of artists and greedy individuals pretending to be public servants. The few who are sincere in their oath of public duty are drowned in this farce we call a democratic government.
Unless the government type changes, unless the manner and type of leadership changes, then we can expect our elections to be simply charades invented for the entertainment of the jaded Pinoy and where comical characters like Pac Yu are always welcome to make their bid and appearance. Nothing is really accomplished and we simply have to go through the motions of it all – a façade for a deteriorating government.
How desperate can our custom officials be to become millionaires, I cannot entirely fathom. How stupid they can get in their bid to corrupt public funds, I cannot entirely imagine.
Their latest stint was the breach of the UN world pact forged in 1950 wherein it was agreed upon that reading and cultural materials would be exempted from import duties. The Bureau of Customs (BOC) is now imposing fees on any shipments of imported books or other cultural materials. Indeed this is alarming and this may well account for the fact that the number of imported books out in the market are limited. And we can feel this deficit in the fact that popular books like the Twilight saga are so hard to obtain.
I applaud (sarcastic) the official or officials who conceived of this idea of imposing fees to imported books, he or she or they haven’t failed to identify a marketable oppurtunity and cash in on it. I pity the book retailers who have to pay exhorbitant fees – both legal and under the table – just to get their shipment of imported books released to them.
Of course such circumstances have its positive and negative effects, as all circumstances are. Stemming the tide of imported books in the market brings to attention local books and boosts the local publishing industry. However, there seems to be more negative consequences than positive ones. For one, this further encourages the proliferations of pirated book copies in the forms of e-books and printed e-books. Of course, I admit that I also have my own collection of e-books. But I still prefer collecting the hard copies of the books over their poorly-typed electronic versions.
Perhaps the most important downside is the fact that all this efforts at imposing fees on imported books for the sake of earning some additional personal dough, makes readers and would-be readers less enthusiastic to read printed literature. All this selfish attempt to increase personal wealth devoids the current and future generation the opputunity to enrich their minds and cultural experiences.
In an age wherein old-fashioned reading has to compete with cyber technology, what the BOC did is indeed an insult to the intellectual priviledges of the Filipino people.
How desperate can our custom officials be to become millionaires, I cannot entirely fathom. How stupid they can get in their bid to corrupt public funds, I cannot entirely imagine.
Their latest stint was the breach of the UN world pact forged in 1950 wherein it was agreed upon that reading and cultural materials would be exempted from import duties. The Bureau of Customs (BOC) is now imposing fees on any shipments of imported books or other cultural materials. Indeed this is alarming and this may well account for the fact that the number of imported books out in the market are limited. And we can feel this deficit in the fact that popular books like the Twilight saga are so hard to obtain.
I applaud (sarcastic) the official or officials who conceived of this idea of imposing fees to imported books, he or she or they haven’t failed to identify a marketable opportunity and cash in on it. I pity the book retailers who have to pay exorbitant fees – both legal and under the table – just to get their shipment of imported books released to them.
Of course such circumstances have its positive and negative effects, as all circumstances are. Stemming the tide of imported books in the market brings to attention local books and boosts the local publishing industry. However, there seems to be more negative consequences than positive ones. For one, this further encourages the proliferation of pirated book copies in the forms of e-books and printed e-books. Of course, I admit that I also have my own collection of e-books. But I still prefer collecting the hard copies of the books over their poorly-typed electronic versions.
Perhaps the most important downside is the fact that all this efforts at imposing fees on imported books for the sake of earning some additional personal dough, makes readers and would-be readers less enthusiastic to read printed literature. All this selfish attempts to increase personal wealth devoid the current and future generation the opportunity to enrich their minds and cultural experiences.
In an age wherein old-fashioned reading has to compete with cyber technology, what the BOC did is indeed an insult to the intellectual privileges of the Filipino people.
Sometimes I wonder if there is a nobler reason why I chose to work in Bicol despite having been educated in Manila. A lot of people who’ve learned I studied in UP would ask me why I went back to Bicol to work. Their faces are lined with disbelief at what they think is a waste of education and opportunities on my part.
I would usually answer this people the most basic reason why I left Manila – I am sick and tired of living there. I have no intentions of facing the Manila rush hour traffic, of cramming myself in the sardine-pack railways just to get to work or of subjecting myself to the daily air and noise pollution of the Metro. For me the laid-back life of the province – the apparent ease of travel and the pristine atmosphere – outweighs far more the several thousand pesos difference in salary of an urban and rural job. This is my initial and heard of answer.
Naga City Public Market (source: www.naga.gov.ph)
My unheard of answer is one which might be bordering into the mean side. Most people who feign indignation at my by-passing opportunities of a Manila job are people who had never experienced life in Manila. To them, success equates living and working in the nation’s capital. They think highly of those who have been to Manila – those who’ve studied and worked there. Yet they themselves have had no experience of the hardships and turmoils behind the apparent prestige. They have no idea what it entails to work and reside in Manila. They have no idea that in order to get to work in time, one has to wake up really early in order to be travelling two hours before the supposed shift starts – and that travel involves several transfers of modes of transportation, committed in an atmosphere of exagerrated noise and stiffling smog. Exagerrated? Manila yuppies living far from their workplaces would agree with me. Why not live near the workplace, you may ask. Compare the rate of living spaces near your work location, say Makati, and a little bit farther, say UP Diliman, and you’d rather risk the commute than let all your hard earned salary go to your landlady. But then we all have our own priorities.
So in short, I do not want to face any of those circumstances when I have a much more appealing alternative here in the province. My workplace, admittedly is two towns and a city away from where I live, and sometimes I do have to ride four modes of transportation just to get there but then I am not exposed to excessive noise and stiffling smog. And thanks to our shuttle, the transportation is made so much more easier. Also travelling to work amidst a highway bordered with rice fields makes the full splendor of the star-filled skies a treat to the eyes – something I know I would never be able to witness if I live and work in Manila.
Plaza Rizal
I’ve come to realize all this things way back when I made the seemingly abrupt decision to uproot my urban life in exchange for a rural one. Today, I came across an article that also brought to mind another reason I have considered, though not so seriously, as to why I decided to spend the first years of my yuppie life in Bicol.
That article is Ms. Carmen N. Pedrosa’s Sunday column in the Philippine Star (publised May 24, 2009) entitled Bicolanos ask: What now for greater autonomy? In it she confirmed what I’ve known since high school, that my hometown belongs to the poorest regions in the country. According to the article, 5M or more than 60% of the population barely manage a sustainable lifestyle. What I learned new though was the reason why.
I thought before that Bicol was poor because most of its work force goes out of the province and work in other more prestigious regions. Of course I cannot blame them because the work opportunities then in Bicol were really scarce. Economy was at a standstill and there seems to be no improvement or growth for any of the establishments in the area. Investors also seemed hard to get by. I believe I was already in middle elementary years when Jollibee opened and it was a long time after that before McDonalds opened. I’m 22 so you do the math when those fast food chains, which are said to be the indicators of development, came to Naga.
The First McDonald's in Naga
Yet Ms. Pedrosa’s article said that Bicol is indeed rich in resources, and by that standard alone, is a wealthy province. It afterall, powers the Luzon grid with electricity from the Tiwi and Bacon-Manito geothermal plants. Lamentable though is the fact that Bicolanos are charged some of the highest rates for electricity. Apparently the geothermal plants in Bicol feeds first the other parts of Luzon before servicing its local constituents and by that time, exorbitant rates are being charged already. Apparently, the public officials (here we go again) are not doing enough for the people they have vowed to serve.
Ms. Pedrosa and company went to Bicol to talk about Charter change to the constituents of Sorsogon. They were proposing the autonomy of Bicol. Based on what I understood, Bicol, under a changed constitution, can become an autonomous region, much like ARMM and CAR. Why the need for autonomy, I do not quite understand. Foreign to me still is the idea of federalism. I do know that federalism and autonomy somehow goes hand in hand but I am still at a lost how a federal region or state would indeed function. And again, the question of why? Yet amidst all this talk about federalism and autonomy, they realized that their group had to really hear out the sentiments of the people who were experiencing the poverty first-hand. The people who have more rights to demand what is it the region needs to alleviate poverty.
And I guess amidst all the replies they heard, the most poignat one came from the lady who prepared their food for them. This lady claimed that the best thing to do in the upcoming elections would be to boycott it, since she reasoned that why would she go through all the charade of elections when nothing really happens – we just go through the motions of the elections. We just change the faces in power but nothing really changes anywhere. I guess she has a point although admittedly I must say it is a bit flawed.
Indeed it is true that with the country’s history in bad politics and political reforms, the tendency to get jaded with elections and promise of national reformation is quite rampant. I mean we cannot really blame anyone but the officials who year in year out makes us hope in their empty promises. But then we must still realize that the capacity to change this nation still lies in our hands. If we would all stop believing that the country has a potencial to rise above its current state of despair, then in the end the losers will be just ourselves and our future generation. I say “our” so we could own this coming generation since they would consist our kids and grandkids.
As pathetic as the situation must be, we must still do our best to change it, in whatever ways we can. No matter if we sometimes doubt if the little things we do indeed has any impact to our country. These little things like simply following a NO LITTERING or NO PARKING sign, or crossing the street in the designated place, or waiting for a ride in the apportioned area – seemingly insignificant laws that everyone seems to be breaking without any penalty – if we do them even when no one seems to notice or we become the odd man out, would still carry a significant impact that may be at this point in time is still far fetched from the range of our consciousness.
I remember a favorite quote that runs like this:
When I was young I wanted to change the world.
As I grew older, I realized the world was too large to change so I decided to change my country.
When I got a little bit older, I realized it was hard to change my country so I decided to change my tow
When I grew older still, I realized I cannot change my town so I decided to change my family.
When I got older still I realized that I wasn’t able to change my family.
As I lay in my deathbed, I realized, if I had changed myself first, then I might have been able to change my family, then perhaps my town, then my country and eventually the world.
Bottomline is: change starts from within. If we want something to happen in our country, if we want the trapos to change their approach to public service, wouldn’t it be worhwhile if we examine our own backyard first? If we check our selves first and ascertain for sure that we are in no way similar to this trapos – albeit in a different plane and context.
So that before we poke at the speck in someone else’s eye, we first verify that there is no speck in our eye as well.
And by the way, I just want to mention that I am really proud of all the developments of Naga as a city, and Cam. Sur as a province. In the small time frame since the first Jollibee had been erected in the city of Naga up to the present time, Naga has become a top-rate city and Camarines Sur a favorite destination for tourists and investors a like. Kudos to ALL who made this possible – from the highest official to the humbles aide!
This was my reaction when I learned that Erap is seriously considering running for presidency in the 2010 elections. He even has the nerve to refer to the study made by several political experts that he wouldn’t be breaching any constitutional law by running for presidency in the year 2010.
His arguments for him being qualified to run are in fact valid since according to Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III the constitutional provision against reelection of a president applies only to a sitting or incumbent president – and since Erap is neither, then he has all the green signals to run in 2010. After all, he hasn’t finished his last presidency term and he seems to have unfinished plans for the country, right?
Yet this would only materialize if the opposition wouldn’t unite under one candidate. Erap stresses over the fact that the votes of the Filipino people would be divided over the various presidential hopefuls of the opposition. They are no other than Ping Lacson, Manny Villar, Mar Roxas, Loren Legarda, Chiz Escudero and Jejomar Binay. He is worried that the same 2004 scenario, wherein FPJ and Lacson, two oppositional candidates who fought over the presidential slot were both “cheated” of their respective votes. He maintains that cheating against the opposition would be easy if they will field a lot of presidentiable candidates in the upcoming elections.
Well, we still have July or August to find out for certain if Erap will indeed run for presidency.
***Source: The Philippine Star News Page4 May 24, 2009***
Erap’s headache over the numerous presidential aspirants of the oppositon brings to mind my opinions and views on the party system of the Philippines. The election scene of the country is obviously party-oriented and not reform oriented. I am no greaat fan of the US but I must admit that I admire their approach to democracy and elections – that is in the sense that they only have 2 parties – Democratic and Republican, the major difference being in the reforms and beliefs of the said parties. And when a voter votes, he or she considers not the politician per se but the party he is in and the reform or advocacy of that party he is part of.
In the Philippines, there is no control as to the number of parties participating in the elections. Every election year, we hear of parties being made with some fading into oblivion in the next election year. This has happened so many times that we have ceased to really concern ourselves with the party and instead managed to look at the candidate himself thus making our election process personality-based instead of reform-based. If we closely looked at the nature of these political parties, we would see that most of them have basically similar reforms albeit worded differently.
So why then are there numerous presidentiables who would simply establish their own parties if their previous party had the unfortunate slip in decision to make them the presidential bet? Does it not make us think that they are now merely running for their own personal gain and not for the reforms that they claim to be their motivations for serving the public?
I know that our country is unique and I do not have any intention of it being patterned entirely upon US election scenarios, much as I admire those scenarios. It’s just that I hope our public servants would stop and think for a while and would really be sincere in what they want to accomplish for the country. I believe it would serve the voters more if we would be able to wisely decide who to vote for, not on the merits of the candidates personality, but on the merits of the reform his party advocates.
Another thing, it is easier to vote or select when one only has two options than when one is given a multitude of choices, right?
What is public service? What does it mean to be a public servant? And what would qualify one to be in such a position?
Reading an article in today’s Sunday paper, one would think that a major qualification to be a public servant is to be rich. Or maybe to be rich is one of the benefits of being a public servant. Doesn’t that sound a bit askew to the concept of public service? Not that I am discriminating against fortune and public office. It’s just that today’s article was really an eye opener for me. I guess I’ve known that most public officials in the high throngs of bureaucracy are rich but I had no idea that they were this rich.
The article I’m referring to is Delon Porcalla’s front page entry about the number of millionaires in Congress featured in The Philippine’s Star Sunday Edition (May 24, 2009). He said that only 4 of the 238 House members are non-millionaires. Imagine! That means that some of the country’s richest citizens are in the House of Representatives. Now, I have nothing against them being rich. I know that for one to have the machineries to run in the elections, one needs the money – and a large amount at that – to do so.
Yet what I am wondering about is how some representatives get to increase their net worth by millions while they are on office. Like Rep. Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo (Pampanga), whose net worth of P96.7M in 2007 rose to P99.2M in 2008 – a staggering P2.5M increase! Another example is Rep. Diosdado “Dato” Arroyo (Cam. Sur) whose net worth of P83.7M in 2007 rose to P89M in 2008 – a more staggering increase of P5.3M! Now how could they be increasing their worth by that amount? Perhaps they have businesses and other legitimate income sources just like the richest representative, billionaire Cynthia Villar (Las Piñas) whose source of income is her real-estate lands in various locations in Parañaque and Las Piñas. But one cannot help but wonder how these officials really get all their staggering wealth.
Again I have nothing against their wealth, but I also cannot help but wonder what would happen to society, particularly their constituents if they could somehow shower their wealth to the less priviledged members of their respective districts. I do not mean for them to simply spoonfeed their money to these impoverised residents, rather I believe they can create employment oppurtunities for these people – with the aid of their “hard-earned” wealth – and improve lives other than their own.
I even wonder where they really spend such enourmous amounts of money. On luxury cars and impressive mansions, perhaps. Or maybe on grand vacations and royal treatments at various high-end establishments. In short – on an engrande or high maintenance life style. Wouldn’t we all profit more if our public servants were just like us – simple common folk who would desire for nothing more than the improvement of the common public’s life?
Wouldn’t it be a better service if our public officials can just content themselves with a simple car model, a modest house and a comfortable lifestyle while serving the general public? Again I have nothing against mansions, luxury cars and high maintenance living. Believe me, I’ve also dreamed of such luxuries in life and I’ve also longed for them. Given the chance, I would live such a life. But if I were a public official, I wouldn’t dare lead such a lifestyle while I am in public office when I can see the people I vowed to serve surviving on less than a P100 per day while my P100 is not even enough for a cup of coffee. I will not dare live such a lifestyle if I can see the kid of my constituent going to school in tattered slippers while I go to work in the latest and most expensive SUV model.
Point is: I have promised this people a better lifestyle. They look up to me to improve their conditions. Does it help them any that they can see me getting richer, enjoying a pompous lifestyle while they experience poverty day-in day-out without seemingly experiencing the economic revival that I had promised when I assumed office?
They already have the wealthy showbiz personalities of our country as their source of escape into the world of the rich and famous. Must I join the ranks of those showbiz personnas? No wonder our political scene had resembled the entertainment industry. Politicians have ceased to be public servants but had become entertainers whose grand lifestyles serve as a fantasy world of escape for impoverished citizens. But unlike the showbiz stars, these officials had candidly asked for the votes of the masses and had embarked on their gullibility to bring about their own selfish whims.
Pardon my gripe about the riches of these public servants. I myself had dreamed of serving as a public official. I knew that I would need to get rich – immensely – if I wanted to pay for the rigors of the election process and if I wanted people to really know me. But I had never dreamed of using my wealth to improve just my own way of living. I had dreamt of using my wealth to improve society by providing jobs, giving out scholarships and improving communities. I had actually considered using my own wealth to finance most public projects by donating my money to rehabilitation of barangay health centers or local community schools.
I know it is a very socialistic and utopian idea – to wish for a society wherein no one is that rich and no one is that poor. Wherein everyone would be middle class because the rich share what they have with the poor. And I know this is how communistic or socialistic governments operate. And I do not really wish for such a type of society because of all the horrors and flaws I’ve heard about it.
But wouldn’t it be grand if we would still retain our diplomacy yet also have a socialistic/communistic society in terms of resources.
I haven’t taken up any PolSci course in my entire college years and my knowledge of such political systems is very limited. And I know that I might be speaking opinions on things I do not really know about.
But the bottomline is: I wish our public servants wouldn’t gloat their riches when they are well aware that they have impoverished constituents who had voted them in office in the hope that it will be them who would experience, even just a small fraction of increase – just a few hundred pesos perhaps, in their net worth before the year is over. That is if they are not head deep in debt already.
Up until today I was somehow undecided whether I will vote for Noynoy or not. I knew Mar Roxas endorsed him, and I believe in Mar’s decisions and principles, yet I was somehow skeptical of Noynoy. I agreed with the critics notions that he is still unprepared and incapable of the presidency and he is merely riding on to his parent’s fame and the recent surge of the Cory magic. I agreed with the critics that he lacks experience as evidenced by his mediocre performance as congressman and as senator. I agreed with critics that shrewd advisers will take advantage of him and he may end up another Erap – dependent on his advisers’ greedy and self-serving advices. I agreed with them, now I disagree.
