"Men, it's been a long war, it's been a tough war. You all fought bravely, proudly for your country. Our special group, we found in one another a bond, that exists only in combat, among brothers. We've shared foxholes, we've held each other in dire moments. We've seen death and suffered together. I'm proud to have served each and everyone of you. You deserve long and happy lives in peace."
Welcome to the real world - a line thrown around far too many times particularly during college graduation ceremonies. In these hyped up and glamorous rituals, filled with moving speeches and glitters of silver and gold, young adults say their goodbyes to the warm embrace of college life. Not that my college life was trouble-free, it was actually far from that. I, in fact, used to question this notion of the real world outside the University. Because, as far as I was concerned back then, the headaches, stress, and heart palpitations I suffered due to the never ending exams, midterm papers, final essays, graded recitations, report presentations and the tons and tons of reading assignments, were all too real to be considered fake. But a few years inside the “real world” made me understand the difference. The nuances between campus life and working life became very apparent as its fine distinctions turned solid and more pronounced.
When you were in college, all you had to do was study as hard as you can, get high grades, and you knew you were on the right track. After graduation, you get employed, and then you ask yourself, is this a job worth keeping? You ask more, will this work give me the financial security that I had when I was living under the comfort of my parents’ weekly allowance? You ask deeper, do I have a clear career path ahead of me? And after that, you ask again and then you answer. Yet no amount of thinking and no length of time wasted on pondering would deliver an answer that would satisfy you and make your mind stop thinking. That is when you suddenly feel the pressures of life and the hardship of real decision making. And that is why I have come to the conclusion, that you are not yet an adult until you earn your own money and pay for, at least, your gas and your wireless internet connection. As such, with all the real life pressure on your shoulder, your perspectives change. Then you have come to understand the meaning of that line, welcome to the real world.
About a week ago, I had a conversation with a good friend of mine over a cup of coffee in our favorite coffee shop; we were talking about how things have changed since we were young. We realized that the dreams we have as children have been resized, reassessed, while some have completely faded away. When we were kids, we wanted to become astronauts, to explore the heavens and the stars and discover a galaxy far, far away. We dreamt of being revolutionary soldiers to defeat the enemies of light and fight for freedom to liberate people from the bondage of slavery and poverty. Some of my friends found priesthood as a very attractive option in order to save souls and spread the good news of the lord. I still remember the day, probably a decade ago, when I told a priest that I will leave a mark in this world. I will leave a name when I die.
During my junior year in the university, I became part of a group who sat down in a coffee shop to discuss and debate about the ills of the Philippine society. The discussion slowly became focused on starting a political party. We analyzed it to its smallest detail. We discussed its guiding principles and its ideology. We argued about its strategies and goals, its mission and vision, and the message that would differentiate it from all the other political parties, or at least from those who claim to be one, in this country. We even conversed about how we can purge the society of all its negative forces and create a new order where democracy shall be considered consolidated and where economic development shall be shared by all. We discussed all possible issues in developing The Philippines and how we were all going to be in the forefront of this movement.
A week ago, while we were enjoying our coffee, we discussed and debated about opening up a taxi business. We analyzed it to its smallest detail. We discussed how car maintenance would be the biggest problem. We argued about what kind of automobile would be best suited to be used as a taxi. We even conversed about the franchise fees, the return of investment, and how to pick a good driver from a long list of applicants. We discussed all possible issues in starting a taxi business and how we can earn money from this venture.
We still talk about politics and society, with the same intensity and passion. We still debate as if we were in Batasan Pambansa. We are still very much aware of current events and issues. But today, we have more to think about than just politics. We think about our careers and our lives, ten, fifteen, twenty years down the road. We analyze how every action we take can affect the realization of our short, mid, and long term goals.
So, what do we make out of this? Are we nothing but victims of the physical and material world? Have we lost our dreams and become too apathetic to even care? Have we become too selfish and too self centered? Have we lost all sense of citizenship that we should hide our heads in the sand for the persons that we have become?
I think not. I think this is simply the natural tendency of the mind to veer away from childhood fantasies and concentrate all energy and effort towards developing one’s self, clearly understanding that to be able to help others one must first and foremost help himself. I think this is simply our minds telling us to grow up and get real.
I have nothing against dreams and dreaming big. But dreams are just ideas floating without form and substance. It is up to us to nurture these dreams until they are actually realized, because dreams, precisely, exist to be achieved. However, one must always bear in mind that the achievement of these dreams is a function of one’s ability to see reality, as clearly as possible. One must not only know where he wants to go, but where he is currently located, what type of path he is supposed to take, what kind of steps he must make and the possible consequences of each and every move he makes. One must understand all possible factors, one must see through all possible angles, and to actually achieve something, one must be open to fine-tune and adjust his goals and dreams.
It is true that we cannot be afraid of reality, but we also cannot ignore the obstacles it places in our paths and our inability as humans, even for a brief moment, to overcome them.
Without the clearness and openness of mind, one will be stuck in perpetuity in a futile quest no different from trying to place the seven seas on the palm of his hands.
Until today, I still dream of leaving a name, but it no longer involves exploring the heavens. If I ever achieve anything in this life, it would be because I decided to live in the real world. If I ever get to leave a name, it would be because I carefully and prudently chose my battles.
We are all being made witness to an amazing spectacle – though this isn't the first time that blindness and hypocrisy were seen holding hands – it is, nevertheless, an amazing sight.
Two forces have come together. Each of these forces already poses so much danger to any society on their own; so, just imagine what they can achieve together.
On one side of this alliance are the Misguided Idealists. These people never outgrew the Martial Law Era. They believe that the only way to express patriotism and love for country is by screaming their lungs out on the streets while holding a placard with a defaced picture of the President.These misguided idealists have arrogance running through their veins as they believe that they hold the monopoly of righteousness. Whatever they do, they do because it is in the best interest of the nation. Well, since when did spray-painting a U-turn sign in commonwealth, with bold black letters that read “OUST GMA,” become part of the nation’s interest.
They have so much hate against the government to a point that they are allergic to rules. Their ideas push them to believe that the Government and the people occupying it are perpetually bound to oppress the poor and enrich themselves. They have this eternal call for change yet they don’t change – or better yet, they don’t want to change. These people waste resources, time and energy by burning effigies after effigies. They believe that only through noise, disorder and confusion can a new society be born - descending slowly and graciously from the heavens, like the New Jerusalem, with angels singing in the background – a new Philippines is born. Yes, that’s how blinded they are.
In their minds, they are catalysts of change. In reality, they are plain and simple anarchists. They really should start looking for jobs to be more productive.
On the other side of this alliance are the politically motivated personalities – hypocrites to the bone. They are using scandals and controversies to become more popular with their end-goal of getting to the highest political position possible. And they have been quite successful. Last year, we saw young congressmen rise to the senate not based on merit but based oncontroversies they have so destructively stirred.
They are populists because it’s the only way they can climb the political ladder. They can’t enact strategic legislations, which can provide long-term benefits, such as and among others, develop the transportation system, increase exports, and assist businesses – because all these entail short-term sacrifices, which could involve them losing their positions of power, a risk they are unwilling to take. All they do is complain, and they complain with a fiery passion to make the people believe in the fantasies they sell them. They are polemicists – they criticize without presenting solutions and alternatives. They are those who speak only of words that are pleasing to the ears of the masses. When they face political dilemmas, their decision will be based on where the political wind blows and not on what is right and just. They are slick-talkers, if you’re not careful enough any one of them can easily deceive you.
This is a dangerous alliance. As it seeks to plunge this society into chaos, they want our society to lose any semblance of stability, in order to create a new order. A new order, even they, themselves, have no idea on how it will function, let alone, remain stable.
But I am not afraid.
They cannot achieve anything unless we let ourselves be used by these political clowns for their own blind and selfish goals. They can make as much noise as they want but they need many more warm bodies to join their ranks in order for them to succeed in destabilizing our society. I have already accounted for the many curious, naïve, gullible and politically immature of our countrymen who are neither misguided idealists nor hypocrites but will take part in this exhibition of clowns and they still won’t make the cut.
I can hear the noise, but I still can’t feel the heat.
After today's protest rally, the crowds would fizzle out, the streets would be left empty and dirty, and the leaders of this carnival would be eating a fancy dinner while most of the gullible people they drew in would be walking home. After today, we have again successfully sent a clear and strong message to the whole world that while countries across the globe are taking measures to strengthen their exports, develop their industries, attract new investors and ensure their competitiveness in a fast changing-globalized world, we are busy playing on the streets of our financial district.
I, having taken this unpopular stand, therefore ask:
Why do we have to change the government when we are all part of the problem? Imagine how much could have been achieved if all the wasted time, resources and energy were utilized to enact good legislations, build more houses, establish more schools, help small and medium enterprises, and construct more roads.
Why do we waste time, resources and energy in asking the President to change or to change the President when we can, in our own little ways, enact this change? When will we realize that we have better things to do? When will we understand that a regime change, right here and right now, will not solve anything?
At this day and age, genuine reform and revolution no longer necessitate dramatic street episodes from the Martial Law Era.Today, our society’s transformation depends on small, quiet, and often undocumented steps towards political and economic stability.
I refuse to be made a party in this political circus of blind and selfish clowns.
Heroes/heels FIRST PERSON By Alex Magno Thursday, December 20, 2007
In the intensely partisan political discourse we have to endure day in and day out, it is easy to lose our collective capacity to distinguish heroes from heels.
Recall how much of our media nearly snowed under the fact that a rebellion happened, no matter how clumsily this one was planned and executed, as reporters carped about being bound and hauled off for processing. The process of talking away the crime by means of overly emphatic assertions of rights and entitlements obviously continues.
When the police officers responsible for crushing a stupid rebellion without bloodshed were duly awarded for the achievement, the cabal of clowns who backed the stunt at the Peninsula continued the carping. They complained about the awards being given, smeared the reputations of the police officers and, subsequently filed charges of illegal detention against the police.
It seems that, by lawyerly dissertation (read: the legalistic twisting of facts), our reality is being turned inside out, upside down and twisted to extreme disproportion. The lines of the authoritative and the anarchic, the democratic and the tyrannical, the constitutionalists and the plain rascals are blurred.
Let us look at the facts.
On November 29, a group whose sanity ought to be seriously questioned, seized the Peninsula Hotel. About 20 of this group were armed with assault rifles. They called on the people to rise up against the duly-constituted government. They laid out a plan for a transitional government: which is, in blunter terms, a junta.
Forty years ago, a group called Lapiang Malaya, generally in the same state of mental health as this one, marched down Taft Avenue towards MalacañangPalace armed with machetes and talismans. On Taft Avenue, they were blocked by the constabulary. When they continued marching, the troopers opened fire.
The leader of that group was clearly in an unhealthy state of mind. But he was convicted, nevertheless, and spent the rest of his life at the penitentiary.
At that time, the lines of republican authority and civic obligation were more clearly drawn. No one sued the troopers for murder. They did what had to be done to ensure public safety.
Today the lines are not as clearly evident — or at least they are being obscured by the ceaseless yakking of the clowns who helped pull the Peninsula stunt. The yakking is being duly covered by sections of the media rather than collectively denounced as hazards to our democracy.
Awards were given to NCRPO chief Geary Barias, CIDG director Asher Dolina, SAF chief Leocadio Santiago and SPD director Luizo Ticman because they successfully suppressed a funny rebellion without loss of life. The highly charged situation, while the hotel was in the possession of renegades, could have quickly resulted in a bloody mess if the right tactics were not properly executed.
Lawyers JV Bautista and Argee Guevarra are caught on television footage aiding and abetting the renegade soldiers. They boasted loudly about standing their ground and dying for their cause, although no one really understood what that cause was.Butwhen teargas was fired into the hotel, they lost their bombast and quickly surrendered.
They were detained and charged with the capital offense of rebellion. But the trial court decided to release them, although they had not offered insanity as defense.
Now these gentlemen as trying to drag the police officer to court for detaining them. On the television station that panders to them, they are now telling us it is the police that damaged the hotel when the renegades were assaulted. They want all of us to forget why the hotel was assaulted in the first place.
Let the lines be very clear. Our republican democracy was challenged on November 29 by a cabal of clowns who wanted to install an undemocratic regime that rules through the barrel of the gun. The police responded as effective instruments of public order.
By quashing that rebellion, they defended the democratic order. By quashing that rebellion without loss of life, they do indeed deserve to be properly honored.
The traitors to the Republic are those who now, in their pathetic cowardice, hide behind the Bill of Rights and taint the police as antidemocratic antiheroes. Their treachery ought not to be covered by the freedom of speech.
Some media people are really experts in over-sensationalizing things.
"At that point, it made me remember from Holocaust movies, where Jews are being lined up in concentration camps." - Ellen Tordesillas, Malaya newspaper columnist, In her opening statement during the senate hearing on Media Arrests.
The Holocaust? Some kind of imagination you got there huh.
Doesn't anybody ever know how to follow rules round here? When will we ever learn how to responsibly use the freedom that democracy bestows upon us all. Defiance of a duly constituted democratic government, its laws and institutions, is not heroic. It is arrogance and stupidity blended together.
And
Ye, Alex Magno writes the best articles.
Trivialized FIRST PERSON By Alex Magno Thursday, December 6, 2007
Nowhere else in the world does this happen: soldiers under trial for mutiny walk out of the court; with a band of armed supporters take over a hotel to use it as a bastion for a provisional government; call upon the people to rise up and overthrow the duly-constituted authority… and then claim that the entire exercise was covered by the rights to free speech and peaceable assembly.
That might seem absolutely ridiculous. But that is exactly the line of defense taken by the lawyers of Antonio Trillanes and his cabal of clowns.
If this line of defense is upheld, it will be like declaring an open season for every moron, every thrill-seeker and every mentally disjointed character to declare a revolutionary government whenever he feels like it, taking the long odds that hordes of other idiots might rally around his makeshift stronghold until a new regime comes to life.
It is as if Trillanes and his cabal of clowns intentionally wanted to drain the idea of political upheavals of the elements of solemnity and heroism that were once essential. It used to be that when people mounted a revolution, they were prepared to die for an idea. At the Peninsula Hotel last week, a cabal of clueless clowns mounted a revolution without an idea.
It was, they would now want us to believe, nothing more than a disastrous stunt aiming for nothing more than grabbing media attention. Now they are using that as their legal defense.
No one elevates cluelessness to such high art as Teofisto Guingona.
He marched with Trillanes down Makati Avenue as the latter called on baffled pedestrians to join his revolution, like a street hawker trying to peddle some piece of junk. He sat beside Trillanes and Danny Lim as they called on the people to rise up and support their leadership. He remained with the duo as they barricaded themselves — mostly with media people — to resist police efforts to recover the hotel.
Now Guingona wants us to believe he had no idea what was happening, that he was merely an innocent bystander caught up in the swirl of events. That is exactly his legal defense against charges of rebellion.
Given his advanced age, that might be believable. But given his recent political stunts, that claim can only be swallowed with a mountain of salt.
This guy has demonstrated extreme proclivity towards ridiculous political stunts. He has associated with the shrillest political characters in his sharp descent from statesman to stuntman.
Most of those shrill characters were at the hotel with him through that day of national disgrace. Does Guingona want us to believe that the presence at the Peninsula of such characters as Bishop Labayen, Francisco Nemenzo, Herman Tiu Laurel, Argee Guevarra, JV Bautista, and (just to complete the cast) that man with the atrocious wig was merely coincidental? Does he think we will buy the proposition that their presence there was just an unhappy coincidence?
Guingona must have such low regard for our intelligence as a people that he does not at all squirm as he insults us so blatantly with his flimsiest of alibis. The least he could do is to maintain his stance as a ranting old man ready to die for any obscene cause.
The Peninsula incident, as I said in the previous column, prostituted the notion of a people’s uprising. But the fact that this incident is such an indecent caricature of armed rebellion does not make it any less of a crime.
Nowhere in the law books does it say that total lack of class and complete ineptitude constitutes mitigating factors for a crime. A clumsy burglar who poses before surveillance cameras during the conduct of a burglary is no less guilty.
The Peninsula incident disgraces not only those responsible for pulling this irresponsible stunt. It disgraces the whole nation. It is a morbid assault on our people’s understanding of institutions and republican processes that reinforces the global suspicion that we are an unsteady people easily swayed by tin soldiers, two-cent demagogues and madmen of every sort, swinging wooden swords atop malnourished donkeys.
Thursday was a sad day for the Republic. A cabal of clowns, by what they did that day, demonstrated the very low esteem they held for our people’s commitment to proper democratic behavior and civic discipline. As a consequence, we have been restored to our usual standing as the world’s laughing stock.
Yet, in the aftermath, there now appears to be an effort to trivialize what happened. The trivialization has turned contagious.
It began when journalists at the hotel, shortly after that crude facsimile of a rebellion was crushed, complained about the way they were treated. The next day, driven by an egotistical sense of their place in the national scheme of things, the journalists had made themselves the story — thereby allowing the insane rebellion to melt into the background.
One broadcast network lost all sense of civic duty as it refused to hand over copies of raw footage of the event simply because they were “commanded” to do so. Civic duty requires every citizen, when they are in possession of potential evidence to a crime committed, to voluntarily cooperate with the authorities without having to be asked.
And then there is the Senate, this once grand and now misshapen institution of our once responsible democracy. Guided much more by factional than national interest, the senators refuse to discipline one of their own that 11 million Filipinos mistakenly elected to his seat.
After the day of national disgrace, the noisiest demagogues now want the police investigated with greater urgency than the perpetrators of what used to be a serious political crime. The tragedy inflicted by a small bunch of rascals becomes more profound by the day.
Finally, somebody from the media with COMMON SENSE!
A thin fine line COMMONSENSE By Marichu A. Villanueva Monday, December 3, 2007
There has been a lot of hue and cry over the herding and the handcuffing of members of media by the police after the peaceful end (thank God for that) of the six-hour siege at The Manila Peninsula last Thursday. And while new rebellion cases are now rolling into action against all the mutinous “Magdalo” rebel soldiers and the rest of the characters in this latest failed coup attempt in our country, a different court room battle will soon unfold between members of the Philippine media and the Philippine National Police (PNP).
Many media members came from the ABS-CBN TV news crew who were handcuffed, herded and taken to Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan, Taguig along with the “Magdalo” militants. This happened, police explained, because these media people refused to heed the repeated warning for them to get out of harm’s way before government forces strike back to retake The Pen. ABS-CBN threatened to file a complaint before the courts against the PNP for the destruction of their very expensive TV video cameras and alleged manhandling of their TV news crew.
For a media-friendly government official like PNP Director-General Avelino “Sonny” Razon, it has been obviously a very difficult decision to hammer down on his press friends. But for the media-savvy Gen. Razon, he declared his every intention to meet head-on any complaint from the media, citing there is such a thing in the law as “obstruction of justice,” among other charges.
I don’t think we journalists should be treated as if we’re above the law. Nobody in the first place, should get special treatment just because he or she happens to be influential like my colleagues in media. It’s our own lookout if we insist as a working press to push the envelope, sorry for the pun. It has nothing to do with the so-called “envelopmental journalism,” as this infamous digs to members of unscrupulous media who make monkey business out of our profession. The Philippine press, like the PNP, have been generalized unfairly for the sins, abuses and mistakes of a few bad eggs in our ranks.
The Philippine media and the PNP are again at loggerheads after this latest caper by “Magdalo” leader, former Navy Lt. Senior Grade Antonio Trillanes IV, now Senator of the Republic. It is sad to note that some of my colleagues in the press were played anew by the “Magdalo” rebel leaders. We, in media, have our roles to play and it’s our own lookout if we allow ourselves, wittingly or unwittingly, to be used by any party in a conflict situation like the siege at The Pen.
But in crisis situation like the hotel siege at The Pen, we cannot fault the policemen if they rounded up members of media even if they were bearing or showing their Press ID cards. I hate to say this but there are many unscrupulous individuals we call in our industry as “how-shiao” or people who use and flaunt their oversized PRESS ID cards to get free lunch or to barge and eat during press conferences. Obviously, the media would have been used as human shield also if push came to shove during The Pen siege.
As Gen. Razon put it, there should be no quibbling when public safety and national security are at stake. That is why police lines are always set up to prevent people like media from crossing and getting into the way of their operations to settle the situation with the least collateral damage to lives and properties. The PNP chief has again showed his stuff of leadership in resolving situation without delay and dilly-dallying.
If the PNP follow and observe their own set of rules of engagement, the Philippine media should also stick to our own rules of coverage. In situations like The Pen attack, we can do our job as journalists without compromising the integrity of our profession and our own safety so that we can deliver the news to the public with clear conscience and objectivity. Gen. Razon rightly cited that the ‘scoop” mentality of members of media always get the better disposition of some of our colleagues in the press.
I can empathize with my counterparts on being driven by the need to out-scoop each other and get “exclusive” stories for our respective media outfits. That’s friendly competition and ego-tripping for some. But what bothered me were the reports that certain media personalities were allegedly privy to the “conspiracy” of Trillanes et.al. before they dramatized their walkout during their rebellion trial at the Makati regional trial court and marched to Ayala Avenue all the way to The Pen.
One disturbing report was alleged hotel records that showed certain media personalities booked themselves at The Pen the day before the siege, apparently after being tipped off by their contacts from the Trillanes camp. So the camping at The Pen by the “Magdalo” rebels were no spur of the moment thing. This finding bolstered the earlier assessment of our police authorities that it was not a spontaneous but a planned scenario that Trillanes and his camp would like to trigger a situation ala-EDSA People Power.
Then, there were other witnesses who claimed that certain media personalities even aided the escape of “Magdalo” militant leader, Marine Captain Nicanor Faeldon who is touted to be a master of women’s disguises.
The members of the media are naturally almost always into the thick of action. A damn good journalist worth his or her salt, however, knows the time when he or she must take a step backward to let events unfold on their own. This is the thin fine line that we journalists must find on our own best judgment. It is only then that we can do our coverage of the news with genuine objectivity as an observer and chronicler of peoples, places and events.
Being a field reporter myself for so many years before, I only know too well, there are limits on how we can cover the news. If the cat has nine lives, as one idiom says, there are many ways of killing the cat, so to speak. Journalism 101 tells us when a dog bites a man, it is not news. When a man bites a dog, that’s the news! That’s why the Philippine media is now in the news and not the one doing the news.
