Monday, May 19, 2008 Escudero: After Bora comes Gota By Edcer Escudero Wit or without
"WHAT'S happening to our country, General?
This was the question that the late Vice President Emmanuel Pelaez whispered weakly, but clearly, to Quezon City police chief General Tomas Karingal while he was being rushed to the hospital shortly after an assassin gunned him down inside his car. Karingal had no ready answer. The incident happened in the middle part of the Martial Law period (1972-80).
The now-classic query is still relevant today as assassination of politicians and government officials are common as street dancing festivals.
How do our present leader and anti-government groups respond to the Pelaez query? Let's listen to them:
* Opposition lawmakers: Out country is going to the dogs and it's all Gloria's fault.
* The Catholic bishops (CBCP): Our country is run by morally bankrupt leaders, and it is ready to collapse before the year 2010.
* Pro-Gloria politician: Our country is moving forward, and glorious days loom in the horizon.
As for me, this much I can say: Ours is a beautiful country with vast natural resources and where you can find the most desirable women in the world. Can anyone ask for more?
A lot of good as well as bad things are happening in our country. Here are some of the good ones:
- Gota beach one of several "pristine" beaches with "powdery white sand" in Caramoan town in Camarines Sur. Gota is Bicol's answer to Visayas' Boracay beach, a world-class resort ranked among the five best beaches in the world.
The French edition of the reality TV show "Survivor" was shot entirely for three months in Gota. The provincial government has earmarked P200 million for Gota's full development as a world-class tourist resort which will rival, if not surpass, Boracay.
- The passage by Congress of The Cheaper Medicine Act that will reduce prices of medicines by allowing "parallel importation of patented drugs".
- GSIS has launched low-interest housing loan program for active state workers payable in 20-30 years at only 6 percent annual interest.
- The Ahon Pamilyang Pilipino (APP) financial welfare subsidy program that will benefit 300,000 poor families in 20 of the poorest provinces in the country. Each family will receive P1,400 monthly to help send three children to school and pay for the family's health and nutrition needs. APP will run until 2012.
- The booming construction industry - high-rise condos, huge malls, European-style subdivisions, super-highways, nautical highways, Subic Freeport.
- The mushrooming call center industry. We are now ranked second to India in volume of business, but first in English proficiency and demeanor.
- The conviction of ex-president Joseph Estrada for plunder; nine Magdalo soldiers for coup d'etat in 2003. (Note: The same soldiers were granted conditional pardon by PGMA on May 13, 2008)
- The extension for another five years of Carp and a budget of P100 billion for its implementation.
Now, here are some bad happenings:
- Crises of varying degrees - rice crisis, energy crisis, food price crisis, moral crisis, credibility crisis (people telling lies with a straight face).
- Morons getting elected as congressmen and senators.
- Cheapening of the Holy Mass by holding protest rallies disguised as prayer-rallies for political purposed.
- Catholic nuns acting as security guards (without license) for a self-confessed corrupt former government official.
- Culture of disrespect - it is revolting to see university students in state institutions disrupting commencement program while the guest speaker is delivering an address. No less than the President of the Republic and a cabinet member were the objects of such despicable, highly disrespectful and uncivilized behavior.
- The bellicose posture of the Catholic Church vis-...-vis state policies and programs. The bishops, priests, nuns and lay leaders would be more useful acting as partners and cooperators in development, not as critics and faultfinders.
- A Catholic archbishop made a spectacle of himself by behaving like a defiant law-breaker while he posted a bail bond for libel charges. Oscar Cruz, a bitter Arroyo critic, reduced himself to the status of an unlettered sacristan by making fun of his situation. He told no one in particular to bring him rice if he lands in jail because the government has no rice. This religious charlatan exhibited extreme belligerence vowing to keep on talking against the Arroyo government. Funny, he sounded like Erap.
