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Banana Republic - version Philippines
May. 3rd, 2005 11:55 amIncreasingly, I've been thinking democracy doesn't work.
I want to believe in it since I like all everything it stands for a government ruled by the people for the people. I believe in equality and freedom but seeing it in practice, Philippine style just makes me cringe and despair.
99.5% of Filipinos believe that the government is corrupt from the Metro Aide up to the President and its a perception that can be traced to Marcos, the dictator. Before Marcos the Philippines was second only to Japan and Hong Kong was considered backwards, years later the positions are reversed.
Years after the first EDSA revolution the Philippines is mired in debt, and a rift between the rich and the poor bigger than the Grand Canyon. Philippine politics doesn't even have an ideology, there's the administration and there's the opposition. The opposition at this time is Pro-Erap and FPJ, one was a corrupt actor President ousted from office, the other is a deceased actor who ran for office and lost. Their only goal seems to be give as much a hard time to the Gloria administration as possible.
The issue in contention is the upcoming VAT bill which will increase the current 10% VAT rate to 12%. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo believe the VAT increase is necessary, it's hard but that's what the Philippines need to reduce the debt we incurred since Marcos' time. I believe her.
Of course it's going to be hard but we do need that bitter pill.
A lot of people have been protesting the bill, from stupid reasons (just because Erap says its bad), to reasonable ones (the money might go to the corrupt officials). The opposition of course, side with the Masa (poor), afraid if they did push for the bill they won't get voted back. It's prompted a lot of stupid moves from the Senate with their proposal to remove the exemption from the Electric and oil companies, with a no-pass through provision, which would prevent said companies from passing the costs to the clients.
As for GMA herself, there's a lot of controversy surrounding her second term, stemming from the Senate's decision not to open the ballots for recount. As far as I'm concerned, I voted for her, and I'd vote for her again, even without the whole FPJ running for President debacle.
There are a lot of allegations against her, mostly due to her husband Mike Arroyo, who people claim is really corrupt. I don't what to think with that. All I can see is a capable woman who's saddled with a crumbling economy, compounded by squabbling senators and congressmen who couldn't not even for patriotism's sake get their acts together.
She's frequently derided because of her outbursts of temper, her expectations for the future. From the broadsheets to the streets all you can hear are complaints and rumblings about a coup or a *fourth* EDSA, not thinking the least that none of these things can help and could only make things so much worse.
It never occurs to them administration, opposition and the masa that they could topple as many governments they want but if the people themselve don't change and don't work for a change *nothing* will happen.
I love the Philippines, but the people in it could do a lot of work.
I want to believe in it since I like all everything it stands for a government ruled by the people for the people. I believe in equality and freedom but seeing it in practice, Philippine style just makes me cringe and despair.
99.5% of Filipinos believe that the government is corrupt from the Metro Aide up to the President and its a perception that can be traced to Marcos, the dictator. Before Marcos the Philippines was second only to Japan and Hong Kong was considered backwards, years later the positions are reversed.
Years after the first EDSA revolution the Philippines is mired in debt, and a rift between the rich and the poor bigger than the Grand Canyon. Philippine politics doesn't even have an ideology, there's the administration and there's the opposition. The opposition at this time is Pro-Erap and FPJ, one was a corrupt actor President ousted from office, the other is a deceased actor who ran for office and lost. Their only goal seems to be give as much a hard time to the Gloria administration as possible.
The issue in contention is the upcoming VAT bill which will increase the current 10% VAT rate to 12%. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo believe the VAT increase is necessary, it's hard but that's what the Philippines need to reduce the debt we incurred since Marcos' time. I believe her.
Of course it's going to be hard but we do need that bitter pill.
A lot of people have been protesting the bill, from stupid reasons (just because Erap says its bad), to reasonable ones (the money might go to the corrupt officials). The opposition of course, side with the Masa (poor), afraid if they did push for the bill they won't get voted back. It's prompted a lot of stupid moves from the Senate with their proposal to remove the exemption from the Electric and oil companies, with a no-pass through provision, which would prevent said companies from passing the costs to the clients.
As for GMA herself, there's a lot of controversy surrounding her second term, stemming from the Senate's decision not to open the ballots for recount. As far as I'm concerned, I voted for her, and I'd vote for her again, even without the whole FPJ running for President debacle.
There are a lot of allegations against her, mostly due to her husband Mike Arroyo, who people claim is really corrupt. I don't what to think with that. All I can see is a capable woman who's saddled with a crumbling economy, compounded by squabbling senators and congressmen who couldn't not even for patriotism's sake get their acts together.
She's frequently derided because of her outbursts of temper, her expectations for the future. From the broadsheets to the streets all you can hear are complaints and rumblings about a coup or a *fourth* EDSA, not thinking the least that none of these things can help and could only make things so much worse.
It never occurs to them administration, opposition and the masa that they could topple as many governments they want but if the people themselve don't change and don't work for a change *nothing* will happen.
I love the Philippines, but the people in it could do a lot of work.
