EDSA lost

nakakalungkot ang hatol kay erap – enough to make a grown man cry, ika nga ni fr. bernas. so harsh, as though the sandiganbayan were making up for the bigger fish that get off scot free.and so deadly, as though erap were the most wicked of all, when really, the only thing he has over marcos is that mas marami siyang querida and lovechildren. otherwise, he wasn’t even in the palace long enough to do serious plunder a la marcos, or, who knows, gma.

even sadder is how EDSA has been corrupted and demeaned by self-serving politicians, manipulated generals, holier-than-thou bishops, sensationalist media, greedy globalists, gloating leftists and, let’s not forget, bible-reading magistrates OMG — a whole cast of characters that had no place in EDSA ’86 but who wanted to show off that they could do an edsa kuno too, two, wow, ang galing.

i wonder when and if we’ll ever get closure on this one.we have a real problem with endings.with marcos we were happy enough that he left the country, punishment na rin yon, di ba.with erap i was just surprised when he continued to insist that he hadn’t resigned the presidency, he was innocent of any wrongdoing, and preferred to face the courts rather than go into exile. e yun pala he isn’t that innocent, he was just naïve and ill-advised.

so really, next time, it shouldn’t end until we get a resignation – nothing creative or “constructive” please, but a real one, duly witnessed and notarized.then we give the ousted one a choice: exile with limited immunity, or we take him/her to a special court and convict him/her a la erap.who knows.if erap’s options had been as clearcut in 2001, he might have happily flown the coop and spared us all, and himself, such a sorry mess.

free erap

i’m praying the sandiganbayan acquits erap. this will freak out the pro-arroyo world of course, because it will open up the question of whether erap has the right to be reinstated as president and finish his six-year term (since gma has already completed her sixth, and that’s all the law allows). for sure mabubulabog ang stock market at babagsak ang piso. not good for the “booming” economy, no way, even if good for the OFWs and their families.

but of course just as many, if not more, are praying that the sandiganbayan convicts erap, never mind fears of an edsa tres revisited, they think the police and the military can handle that. some even consider such fears exaggerated, and wishfully think that all we’ll hear are small and tired whimpers of protest.

as for hints of a presidential pardon (obviously to appease the edsa tres masa) in case of a conviction, erap says no thanks, he’s innocent, accepting a pardon would be an admission of guilt, he’d rather appeal his case to the supreme court, okay lang na ikulong siya sa muntinlupa meanwhile. naku. i bet he’ll change his tune if / when the supreme court affirms a conviction.

if it were up to me, should he be found guilty of plunder and perjury, i’d sentence him to the 6 years and 5 months or so that he has already served. in my book he has been punished and humiliated enough. if at all, napaka-smalltime plunderer and perjurer niya compared to marcos and his cronies. besides, knowing now what we know about gma and the generals and the davide supreme court, and given now the many sins of the arroyo administration, from pidal to garci to zte, sino naman ang may karapatan, who has any kind of moral ascendancy to judge erap guiltier than others? the church? the military? but they were part of edsa dos, as were the leftists, the NGOs, and big business. big mistake.

what if, instead of calling for erap’s ouster when we went to edsa, we called instead for davide to order the prosecutors back and proceed with the impeachment trial — sure, erap might have been acquitted, but gma wouldn’t have had to cheat in 2004. or what if we called instead for gloria arroyo to accept erap’s invitation to a council that would oversee the economy. or what if we called instead for both erap and gloria to make way for a snap election, as both senators enrile and roco preferred? we had all sorts of options but we were adolescently fixated on doing an edsa a la 1986 when the real challenge is to do better than, or to improve on, the original.

sacred cow, divaga

ang totoo niyan, Manila Standard Today is one of two broadsheets the newsboy delivers daily. it was Today i used to get, alongwith PDI, mostly for the counterpoints of teddy boy locsin, luis teodoro, and alejandro lichauco. also, i liked maureen dowd’s whitehouse-bashing column ‘free fire’ ba yon, linda black’s on-a-10-scale daily horoscopes , and once in a while jessica zafra’s ‘twisted’.

when Today merged with Manila Standard, naging pro-administration ang editorial slant, so nabago lahat ng kolumnista, and i kept meaning to drop it except that the new astrologer was okay naman, keeps track of planetary movements too. all right din si tony abaya, who loves to hate communists but otherwise talks economic sense. then nag-join pa da sikat bloggers connie veneracion and bong austero, puwede na rin, good to know wazzup in the web. but ‘divalicious‘? i didn’t even know it was there. i may have cast an eye on a first paragraph some time or other but gone on at once to something else, cos ni hindi siya nag-register, i suppose because i’m just not into fashionistas, how boring the brand- and name-dropping, would rather read the horoscope anytime — btw, i don’t read just my sunsign, i also read my moonsign and ascendant sign, which together and apart give me a good idea of the temper of the day and the different forces at play.

but back to MST. isa pang star attraction to me has been da infamous vic agustin, whom Inquirer needn’t have fired, not after he had the gumption to guest with rc constantino on ANC and offer rc a bottle of mineral water — thought balloon: sige na, bawian mo ako, please lang — but rc refused to do him the favor, so he twisted the cap off, raised the bottle over his head, and poured the water on himself, sabay gasp for breath. what a scene that was. great television. curiously enough, this same vic agustin is not just pala a columnist but also the chair of MST’s board of editors. and write niya sa ‘cocktales’ nung aug. 31:

“despite our private, aching desires as journalists to explain the malu fernandez affair, the Manila Standard Today adheres to a certain set of protocols that prevent us from publicly discussing personnel issues.”

ano siya? sacred cow? curiouser and curiouser. what about malu antoinette can’t they tell us that would explain why they can’t / won’t accept her resignation? perhaps that she has rich and powerful backers? stockholders? advertisers? politicians? maybe the i.s.a.f.p.? the c.i.a.? mwahaha. if i know, enjoy lang sila sa publicity, never mind the issues.

before i forget

as in, before the serious onset of senior moments… and because my geek son out in holland offers me the space on a cyberplate kumbaga, salamat, joel … and so that people will stop asking why i’m not blogging yet … and because saturn has just moved into my sunsign virgo so it’s the perfect time for new beginnings (whatever your zodiac sign, actually)… here i go bato bato sa langit …