Category: edsa

EDSA PORk

By Godofredo U. Stuart Jr. 

I have been to the last three Nazareno festivals,
true masa gatherings of the B, C, D, and E’s.
The grounds filled with the commerce of religion,
One grand stage where ministers of God
spewed sermons and dispensed blessings,
to countless devotees with their panatas.

This day was different.
A political rally, a gathering of the B.
Perhaps, a few of the burgis A’s, some C’s.
They filled up the Manila Hotel lobby,
dominant in white garb,
some with overnight accommodations,
assured of plush seats to empty bladders and colons from,
horrified by the idea of using Porta Potties.
Politicos and celebrities trickled in
Offering a side attraction . . . or distraction. . .
not to miss the opportunity,
ready with prepackaged messages for eventual sound bites.

Outside, a cloudy day, with only recurring light drizzles,
that disappointed the umbrella vendors.
Walked around through a seamless crowd.
A silent patch, heads bowed in prayer and mass.
Scattered stages with anti-pork placards and banners
drawing sectional audiences,
competing and outwitting each other
with anti-pork slogans and rhetoric.

It got old soon enough.
I went back to where I was parked, the Burgos side of the Park.
Sat on a sidewalk ledge
and watched the people stream in and out.
The B men and women in white,
a few in wheelchairs, some in canes.
Many in the autumn of their lives,
there to share in a desperate hope
that something will come out of this collective outrage.

The night before, over dinner, with a friend
we pondered on the incredible math on the pork barrel scam,
and wondered where it will go.
He said But no one will go to jail.
If stealing 50 million from the coffers of government
defines plunder,
how many are not guilty of plunder?
He said One or two
Surely no more than the fingers of one hand.

As the men and women in white walked by,
I watched the D and E in their daily commerce,
Happy for this event,
not for the possibilities of change or what it promises,
but for the opportunity it brings to eke out a living,
that will feed the next few days.
Selling umbrellas and ground mats,
probably praying for a downpour.
Masa fare of banana cues and small binalots.
Ttwo kids sharing on a plastic cup of something.
The man, with his allotted stretch of parking spaces,
sitting on the ground, eating, sharing with a daughter
a lump of plain white rice,
perhaps, white salt, and nothing else,
in a white styrofoam plate,
very much in keeping with the color motif of the day.
He caught me looking and said
Baka mayroon kang pagkain,
baka puwede mo nang iwanan sa amin pag alis mo.
I asked him about the rally,
he said Walang manyayari diyan.

The B have claimed this as middle class tax-paying outrage.
Where does it go from here?
Can the middle class sustain this outrage,
without the decibels from the lumpen proletariat,
the masa who have long resigned to the political corruption,
the ultimate beneficiaries of change?

The picnic is over.
In its wake, some possibilities for this middle class collective outrage.
Weeks before the picnic, a friend intimated:
This pork thing can be the next Edsa.
I am sure it brewed as much in countless conversations.

And suddenly, with the immediacy of media,
the drama of whistle blowers and exposés filled our days,
as easy and comprehensible pork barrel math
provided graphic numbers to the scope of political greed.
Suddenly, there was a clarion call.

The pork barrel became a pig,
to symbolize political gluttony and greed.

There are lines out of a Dylan song,
in case you’re too young to know,
or too old to have forgotten. . .

Come senators, congressmen. please heed the call
Don’t stand in the doorway, don’t block up the hall,
For he who gets hurt will be he who has stalled,
There’s a battle outside and it’s raging
It will soon shake your windows and rattle your walls,
For the times they are a-changing.

Change a few words, and you have an anthem.

This is a historic crossroad.
An opportunity that may not present itself again.
Suddenly, there is the possibility of change
that heretofore, we have given up on,
with our collective sigh of resignation. . .
Not in our lifetime.
It is here, and we must not waste it.

Indeed, perhaps, it is time to take it to Edsa,
before the clamor and outrage subsides.
For both sides, it will be a battle of political will and resolve,
How to sustain the outrage and what hands to wield
against an establishment that will do all to keep the status quo.

Edsa One had a face, Marcos.
Edsa Dos, Erap.
Edsa Tres, Arroyo.
For the next Edsa, it’s the Pig, for the congressmen and senators
who have been plundering since the birth of pork barrel.

Take it to Edsa.
Luneta is too convenient.
Edsa Por.
Edsa PORk.

fund-raising for EDSA Uno, Dos &Tres, the book…. (updated)

yes, i’m on fund-raising mode for this third book on EDSA.  an updated english version of Himagsikan sa EDSA–Walang Himala! (2000) that was based on Chronology of a Revolution 1986 (1996).  i wrap it up with a reading of Edsa Dos & Tres — how we could have done them better had we been more informed of and attuned to EDSA Uno’s 10-day template.  yes, 10 days.  my count starts with cory’s launch of the civil disobedience and crony-boycott campaign.

the title of the book is EDSA Uno, A Narrative and Analysis with Notes on Edsa Dos & Tres.  it has a foreword by ninotchka rosca, an afterword by patricio abinales, and blurbs by randy david, peque gallaga, and rene saguisag.  the book is being laid out by designer adam david.  the cover, inspired by stuartxchange.com‘s edsa graphics and executed by merv malonzo, is due for a final tweak.  am doing the index myself (now on day 3) to cut on costs.

so i can sell the book cheap, php 350 at most, so it gets into the hands of as many of the pinoy reading public as possible, i am publishing EDSA Uno independently of mainstream media, and asking kindred spirits for donations — no return-on-investment other than the satisfaction of helping spread the story of EDSA Uno.

i hope to raise some P250,000 at least to cover production costs — artists’ fees, printing costs (1000 copies), and book launch.  the proceeds, after give-aways to media and donors, to pay me a bit for the work.

donors will get a free copy and credits in the book’s acknowledgements and website.

*

katrina started emailing family and friends on our mailing list some two, three weeks ago.  maraming salamat kina nancy & dante amador (who kicked it off with a 10K check), lyca benitez-brown, randy david, tom umali, gary salcedo, leilani & art mapili, cielito corpuz, manuel buencamino, baboo mondonedo, sara and nicky santiago, gretchen and jun macabasco, exie abola, j. carlitos g. cruz, kenneth cobonpue, estela navarra, ipat and howie severino, godofredo stuart jr. and leila mariano, delan and jae robillos, gang badoy, and an anonymous one, whose donations add up so far to a stash of some 160, 000 php.

salamat salamat, you all, for the vote of confidence.  and to everyone else reading this, please please feel free to contribute to the cause and to spread the word.

all donations that come in before we go to press will be acknowledged in the book. late donations will be acknowledged on the website in-the-making.  and please please feel free to be generous.  in the happy event that we overshoot the target, we will simply have as many more copies printed, some for distribution to public school and university libraries.

i do hope that you decide to be part of this project.  we go to press around mid-july, and we launch the book on the 21st of August 2013, the 30th anniversary of Ninoy’s assassination.

email katrinastuartsantiago@gmail.com for donation details.

p.s.

thank you, too, for offers to buy advance copies at a discount.  i understand that this is the way some indie publishers go to raise funds for printing. unfortunately it would defeat the purpose of selling cheap, getting the book out to as wide a reading public as possible, and still getting paid some for the research, writing,  and production.

#EDSA27

great! that the Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office  is tweeting @PCDSPO my timeline of the four EDSA days.

remembering edsa dos

Parehong bongga at kamangha-mangha ang People Power I at People Power II. Biglang nagtipon ang daandaang-libong taongbayan sa EDSA and by their sheer presence ay tahimik na napa-step down from the seat of power ang isang presidente.

Pero totoo rin ba ang puna ng mga kritiko na bitin ang Edsa Two, na ito’y parang poor (kahit pa hightech) imitation kung ikokompara sa original o unang Edsa?

Natural, magkaiba ang drama ng Uno at Dos.  Read on

From pelikulang suspense to dambulahang MTV is a piece i wrote, comparing uno and dos, for eggie’s pinoy times soon after edsa dos.”  some time later, second thoughts: EDSA Dos, Tres, Kuwatro, Singko?  read, too, raul pangalangan’s EDSA 2 as a scripted event.