A Disaster

The weekend of the Ondoy onslaught, we were getting ready for a flash flood. Our present house is at the lowest point of the road. Although we have a sewer drain in front of our house (actually there are four sewer drains near our house), the water starts to rise after hours of nonstop rain. That’s because the sewer overflows. The house we’ve been living in has a history of being flooded every time the rains pour incessantly. Almost always, the cause of the flooding is a typhoon.
Of course, we thought we were the only ones affected, because this sort of thing happens here every year, and always during the rainy season. We first got word of what was happening outside when my father informed us by SMS that the South Luzon Expressway was also flooded. We later learned (none of us had gone out until my father arrived home) that the National Road in Muntinlupa had been inundated as well, and that people living near Laguna de Bay (yep, the big, claw-shaped lake) had been evacuated, because the lake swelled with rainwater. And that what actually fell on Manila that Saturday (in six hours) was one month’s worth of rain. Manila recorded 330 mm of rainfall that day. Of course I have no pictures of that. What was stunning was the raging Marikina River which I saw on CNN’s fleeting coverage of this disaster. Of course, there was the ‘community spirit’ of the Filipinos.
Now let’s track back to Le Cirque and those outrageous costs of the Office of the President. We knew that the Office of the President tapped into the Disaster Emergency Fund. Also, the NYC 35,000-dollar gourmand affairs of the President have exceeded, by 25,000 dollars, the amount pledged by China to help us.

If a government cannot help its own people during a crisis, it is not a legitimate government.

Let’s see Satan, or Gary Olivar, stop this fact. Gary dear was the one who spoke out on behalf of GMA and the Office of the President. He asked why we are making ourselves busy obsessing over the trips of the President and the expenditures of her Office. As if these were trifling matters.

If a government cannot help its own people during a crisis, it is not a legitimate government.

Muntinlupa City is a very prosperous city, but only God knows if its disaster coordination council ever even wanted to come to our rescue. Not only us, but those in Bayanan and in the squatter’s area beside the creek near our plaza. In Bayanan, the flooding was reported to be above-waist levels. “Hindi rin daw sila makaalis sa City Hall (They said they can’t even get out of City Hall),” I overheard my mother saying after she called the DCC. Gosh.

I hope that the death toll doesn’t rise further, and that everyone can get back to normal life in a few days from now. As of now, we are still trying to dry our clothes and furniture, and looking for the elusive sun that will not only dry but will also disinfect and deodorize. Yep, before there was Clorox, there was the sun.

I also hope that this latest event will have the people up in (verbal) arms against this present government, and convict it for sedition. It is the present government that is guilty of sedition, because it, as a whole, mutinied from the will of the people.

If a government cannot help its own people during a crisis, it is not a legitimate government.

Cowards

Romulo Neri: He will take his and Voldemort's secret to the grave.

We have heard Romulo Neri, who is apparently (for those who are familiar with Harry Potter) GMA’s Severus Snape, say that he will take his testimony to the grave.
Perhaps he is thinking that this storm over Manila (Cebu has emphatically rejected any prosecution of Voldemort, adding that it would ‘secede’ from the rest of the country if Voldemort were impeached) is going to end soon and he would be left unscathed in Valhalla.
Ha ha.
I seriously doubt, however, if Filipinos would be able to mount a protest against all forms of corruption.
Not because the people leading this nascent movement (Noynoy, Mar, Among Ed, Grace Padaca, Ma’am Rodriguez, and other Juan and Juana dela Cruzes) are hypocritical, which they are not.
Not because there is no single opposition leader. I would doubt even more seriously if the one candidate able to stand up to GMA is Erap, whom we ousted to ‘protest against’ corruption.
Not even because of the bishops, which for three straight years have been silent regarding their position on GMA and maybe expect all of us to do so.
Not even because the Queen City has said it would fight for GMA and her ‘anti-Imperial Manila’ stance. Yes, verily, her appreciation for non-Tagalog ethnic groups is felt only in Pampanga, where she speaks Kapampangan in speeches and visits Lubao, Minalin, Macabebe, Masantol and other towns of that congressional district. But Cebu and her leaders have been honeyed by her, so they stand on national issues regarding her as if they wanted her reign to never end.
I will, however, speak about that city of one-sided opinions in another place. Let’s get to the point.

Filipinos are, by nature, cowards. They want to live comfortable lives. I am a Filipino, so I know.
Filipinos are, by nature, cowards: the Filipino man’s typical day is wake up, get ready for work, go to work, work (or just pretend to), then break, then work again, then get home, shower, and then hang out with the guys drinking beer and singing 1950s or 1960s songs till their wives get them or they’re drunk and they shoot one another in the a*s. But hey, some men don’t work. They just sit in front of their houses and drink all day and night long. Germany may have a strong tradition of beer drinking, but hey, the Philippines has a strong tradition of beer drinking and boredom. The Germans have many things to show even if they are certified fun-lovers: the Philippines, almost nada.
The Filipino woman’s typical day is heavier: she gets up, prepares breakfast, then cleans up, then prepares for work, then goes to work, then works (or pretends to), then takes a break (bathroom and beauty break definitely included – they sort of deserve it), then works some more, then goes home and prepares food for her children, and then cleans up again. Of course, that’s if you’re a working mother.
If you are a housewife (and you somehow believe in pseudo-Judeo-Christian ‘designs’ for the missus) you just prepare and clean up. Some of them – no, most of them – have turned dissolute and, in a cross between ‘Gossip Girl’ and ‘Desperate Housewives’, are gossiping about and/or plotting against their neighbors.
Or, if they are really nuts, house-hop and get busy with the neighbor, violating the Ninth Commandment and yielding sons and daughters which are illegits and have to be raised by the girl’s family. But no, it’s not exactly the girl’s fault. Let’s just say Filipinos love seducing and in secret, regardless of the civil status of whatever you’re seducing.

You think Filipinos would risk losing their typical day? Let’s put it to the polls and lemme know what you think.

Filipinos are, by nature, cowards, but when they are angered or their eyes are opened, they rise to the challenge. That’s good news and bad news.
Good news because they are not altogether pathetic, like Joey in ‘Friends’. They see their lives as pockmarked by destiny, and if anything tries to spoil their destiny, they will be much angrier than the one who threw a shoe at George W. Bush.
Bad news because they continually (and always) need someone to stand up for them before they will stand up for themselves. Sometimes, like the Jews in the time of Jesus, they will even be against those who stand up for their interests because then they will lose their beer, their women, their nightclubs, theri gossips, their privileges.

I speak for all Filipinos, myself included.
We are, indeed, an indolent folk by nature. But we can be prosperous, principled, and culturally powerful – if we wanted to. Look at Cris Comerford. The Pixnoys. Lea Salonga. Tony Tan Caktiong of Jolibee. Cecile Licad. And definitely not least: Cory and Ninoy. They are our heroes today.

But it’s hard to see that fact, what with Romulo Neri and his despicable secret-keeping.
Old Jose Rizal, our evermore First Hero, first defined ‘Filipino’ for us, but we actually defeated his proposition that ‘Filipino’ is good and noble. Not just the rich. Not just the poor. ALL OF US – myself included!

But we can make good. We must, or we will die cowards and unable to have done something, even just a little, for the country. And violate our national anthem, whose last couplet says something about giving our lives to the country.