There is something explicitly funny, if not implicitly fishy, in the way we Filipinos think.
An ABS-CBN reporter praised people falling in line in front of different COMELEC offices in Manila until the wee hours of the evening catching special registrations scheduled by the Commission without mentioning that these people were there because they procrastinated, ignoring the almost one year given to them to register to vote for May.
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Chiz Escudero, one of the front liners in this presidential election is brandishing change and non-traditional politicking, but his ads are flagrantly traditional showing him in the time-tested and trite politician’s handshake with sampaguita garlands on his neck and bodyguards that keep a safe distance between him and the affectation of the public. There was, however, no mention of his platform of government, only a very broad, undefined clamor for change which only he probably knows what type, made even murkier by his lengthy, monotonous, and overly empathic statements. Change what? Lemme ask.
Filipino congressmen, 20 or more of them in the Lower House, are going to Las Vegas to watch Manny Pacquiao’s fight against Miguel Cotto on November 15. This is despite criticisms from some people in their league and the public. Still these 20 or so gutless politicians are pursuing their plans, unmindful of the negative public opinion. After all, this so called ‘public opinion’ has long been dismissed as a vestige of the golden age of Philippine politics, unnecessary and purposeless; this concept has long lost is power to influence the actions of our politicians. And it will not matter now, on November 15, or any time soon.
Moreover, to most Filipino politicians, there’s no better political ad than being seen, even for a split-second, beside Pacquiao after he knocked Cotto unconscious.
ABS-CBN’s Parol (Christmas lantern) ni Bro was just lighted. Now, it must inspire a different kind of hope in somebody who is crestfallen after a tiring day at work, riding a non air-conditioned bus plying EDSA-Kamuning flyover, and to see from a distance this giant hybrid lantern supposedly meant to symbolize the infant Christ. Something which he knows is nothing but another commercial posing.
Noynoy Aquino’s poll ad, which started airing last week, is another talk-of-the-town. For the first time, I saw Noynoy Aquino confident about himself, so sure that he’ll have May 2010. He’s never been like this before. He was an under-accomplished son of two heroes, whose only bill made to a law is changing the status of an obscure street in Tarlac, his home province, to a national highway.
Unable to prove himself, he unsuccessfully attempted to embrace the shadows that are bigger than he is. Caught by circumstance, he reluctantly accepted the challenge to lead a wounded country, thinking that having heroes for both parents is enough to bring change. In the desperation of the Filipino people for change, they are willing to literally try anyone, even an untried son of heroes.
And being one of them, this blogger, a Filipino himself, writes these queer thoughts about topics whose subjects are these odd island people.
Going against the current 