by H.Juego
Philippines
Fear stinks the most when you hide it all the more. In Gloria's case, one cannot feign fear by seeking refuge among armed military men, mistaking it for a more courageous act when it spews fumes of an abominable stench. At the height of the Makati Interfaith Rally, Gloria and some of her cabinet officials flocked to Camp Crame in what seemed to be a desperate attempt to secure the loyalty of General Esperon and Police Chief Razon. At the most, it's a politically immature move, if not the retarded type. At the very least, Gloria's bandwagon has become more like a bunch of defenseless juveniles imploring the aid of a force they knew could topple them down quite easily and mercilessly with a single blow. And this has become Gloria's strategy, quite apart from fruitfully rewarding the governors and mayors who grovel before her like a wandering money dispenser.
Hours before the Makati protest, the police barricaded J. P. Laurel street, the path that leads to Malacañang, with walls of container vans. Both Sec. Eduardo Ermita and the PNP claim that it was a 'normal' procedure, nothing to panic about. Time and again, Gloria's minions have never failed to amuse us in no small way with their genius excuses. Its amount of brilliancy is truly stupefying. Hauling in container vans and stacking them onto the street that leads to Malacañang really does sound normal. I even reckon it's a universal standard. One can just begin to imagine what Malacañang could have done when its trembling knees are already shaking the grounds of the earth.
I fear that some politicians' humor, too, have grown inversely proportional to the size of their brains. In my earlier post, I quoted former Senator Tito Sotto's statement regarding the Senate hearings on the ZTE-NBN anomaly. “Take it to court. The Senate is not a court. Why is it accepting verbal testimony from witnesses without documentary evidence? What they are saying is hearsay, which is not admissible in court,” the Eat Bulaga phenom said. Unfortunately, Sotto is pinning the tail on the donkey's head which is equally amusing and could easily pass as the joke of the century. True, hearsay is not admissible in courts. One asks why the Senate is accepting hearsay. An extremely wild guess: because the Senate is not a court? For the sake of one's integrity, I think it would be better for one to just exile oneself in a noontime show rather than stabbing a democratic institution one once fiddled around.
I also reckon that, indeed, hell hath no fury than a woman scorn. The wife of former House Speaker Jose de Venecia, Gina de Venecia, appears to be hammered at the heart with Gloria's comment that Gina is "just a housewife". It's one of those rare cases where shared hatred forges an alliance, or even friendship if you will. Which makes the case of Cory and Erap rubbing elbows at the Makati protest not an exception. Even more so, now that the ties between Gloria and Gina are splintered into bits, it's a no-brainer to see Gina and her husband fiddling with the Estrada's. But the fun part of it is when you see the enemies busy themselves destroying one another. Hell hath no fury than women scorn, and what a sight it will be for the democracy to behold.
In case you haven't noticed, it seems that the PNP and the military figureheads have been passionate at heeding Gloria's call for securing her illegitimate reign at all costs. For some blind reasons, these figureheads have been defending a regime's pulpit that hovers just above Jose Pidal, the fertilizer scam, Hello Garci, and now the ZTE-NBN anomaly. For some stranger reasons, the armed forces also staged a "unity walk" from EDSA to Camp Crame, reminiscent of the earlier "unity walk" by Gloria and her cabinet officials back at the Palace. So one doesn't really have to be a wicked Einstein to determine who among the Palace cohorts and a nation bleeding the spirits of democracy is the biggest fool of all.
Fear stinks the most when fools hide it all the more.