The Bangus Ultimatum

• already in makati. waiting. #

I’ve always thought that an EDSA-style insurrection was a great hack. Gather a sufficient number of people (usually pissed), and there is art and politics and rage and religion, and with some luck, actual change. It can be beautifully executed, distributed intelligence and diverse agendas converging to achieve  shockingly fast political transitions, all with relatively no violence. I have heard my mom talk about Version 1.0, and I was there for Dos.

I’m not sure if I have it in me to go to another.

As beautiful and as enticing as it is, an “EDSA” (I think Makati is the place to be right now) is still a hack – a temporary solution. It is a well-placed application of mass and motion, like nudging a pinball machine with your hips. It’s sexy and exciting as hell, but like any hack, can have unexpected, unintended consequences. Case in point: today’s rally would probably be joined by Erap Estrada, recently convicted of plunder (later pardoned by GMA). Didn’t we already get rid of this sleazebag years ago? Aren’t we supposed to be raging about the kind of corruption that makes Erap free to join rallies? And don’t get me started with Joe “Moral Revolution”* De Venecia within the ranks of the protesters. I’m beginning to think we’ve arrived at the planet of the apes, where the apes ride on horseback and the humans are scurrying like vermin, and the whole world is upside down. Can we really build our futures on such paradoxes?

Maybe I’m just getting old, but  really, I’ve had enough of this shit. I want something more elegant, more lasting.

* Smirk

• attended conference on impunity and press freedom. lots of materials to process. #
• how does one get so behind his facebook invitations? #

• back in the office. 4 more hours of rem law review. starting to feel deflated #

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• writing a project proposal to study Legal Process Outsourcing #

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Alright. Let me just ease into this a bit.

I haven’t attended an NBN/ZTE related rally. Not a single mass for truth or accountability. And although I am not exactly a fan of this administration, I find myself unable to rely on non-secular institutions to solve our problems. Lord knows what happened the last time we had a “divinely-inspired” insurrection/coup d’etat.

It’s easy to tack this mess to character flaws – greedy politicians, or a president who is just plain evil. Or maybe we can look at the way our political code is written and executed. Clearly the provisions giving the president the power to enter into executive agreements was too easily exploited. Perhaps oversight powers of Congress for deals like this could have been more explicit.

This is a failure of secular institutions. This means that this is ultimately our responsibility as voters.

How dare I put this back on our laps, right? Did we really get to know our Congress Critters? Were we actually willing to stick our neck outs for clean, credible presidential elections? Are we actually determined to go out to the streets, for as many times that it would take until we get the leaders we deserve?

Tweaking blog settings. Hopefully, this post in my main blog will automatically be cross-posted to multiply and friendster. And then we are finally back in business.