Credibility
Credibility
Updated 10:11pm (Mla time) Oct 25, 2004
By Conrado de Quiros
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A12 of the October 26, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
A RALLY by the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP, the Farmers Movement of the Philippines) was dispersed last week at Welcome Rotunda in Quezon City. The marchers had just come from the Department of Agriculture where they camped out for a couple of nights. After a dialogue with agriculture department officials, they marched to Malacañang to send their lamentations to their President. Or since they knew that was going to fall on deaf ears, to assail the walls of the Palace with their shouts.
It was not clear who provoked whom, the riot police or the marchers, but the rally was scuttled. The marchers claimed it was violent, the police claimed they applied only the right amount of force. The latter were not in a good mood. One of their own, station commander Manolo Martinez, had just been gunned down a few days before by people they suspected to be the marchers' friends.
The marchers, on the other hand, did not particularly mind defying the authorities. It wasn't just that they were known to provoke routinely to press their point, it was that they had a pressing point to press. That point was hunger, the one that is already gripping many parts of the country today, and the one that is bound to ravage the whole of it tomorrow, with the exception of the subdivisions of Makati City, which are so food-secure that its residents' biggest headache is how to lose weight.
It is not clear who provoked whom at Welcome Rotunda for the rally to be dispersed. But that is not important. What is important is that it reminds us of a grim reality, which is the setting in which the scandal rocking government today -- yes, government and not just the Armed Forces -- is taking place. The disappearance of public monies is happening alongside the disappearance of food. The skimming of the fat of the land by a privileged few is happening while the teeming many go hungry. That is a combustible mix.
I did say in a previous column that what was worrisome about the growing problem of food scarcity, or plain famine, was that it was happening alongside displays of profligacy by government. That profligacy wasn't just to be seen in lifestyle, though the First Couple flouted their own strident injunctions for government officials to scrimp and save by bringing their entire family and friends, with the nannies too, along to see China. They would justify that later by saying they used their own money for it, which gave whole new meanings to living within one's means. Their means are truly awesome. More than that, the penchant for wastefulness was to be seen in President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's defense of the other Garcia, Government Service Insurance System boss Winston, who was the object too of corruption charges, and her appointment of Ramon Revilla to the Public Estates Authority. If she had decided to advertise her obliviousness to the plight of her country, or the cries of her people, she could not have done a better job.
When I wrote that column, pointing to the dangers of a situation where want coincided with excess, where a president threw cake to the hungry a la Marie Antoinette, the Carlos Garcia exposé hadn't happened yet. What had happened was that a few months earlier President Arroyo filled every kilometer of road from here to kingdom come with posters of herself, using public funds held by government gaming firm Pagcor and the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.
Aquilino Pimentel speculates that the exposé on Garcia's ill-gotten wealth, which is just the tip of the iceberg, the submerged part being the wealth that went to his superiors, was leaked by the CIA after President Arroyo fell from grace with George Bush. Well, I've heard the same speculation over the last few weeks, in light particularly of the Garcia exposé taking place alongside the Heritage Foundation's assessment of Ms Arroyo as the weakest leader in Asia. Maybe it's coincidence, maybe George W's government is doing a number on her. But whether one or the other, it was just an exposé waiting to happen. It was merely a tossup which one was going to be exposed first, the military or the civilian bureaucracy. Winston was pointing in the direction of the civilian before Carlos swerved it in the direction of the military.
But whether one or the other, whether it's the military or the civilian bureaucracy that finds itself in the firing line, all of government reaps the bitter harvest with all this. It is not merely because President Arroyo is Garcia's commander in chief, or indeed because the pillage happened during the pit of President Arroyo's "war against terror," though the last bears repeating again and again. It is also that the Arroyo regime has absolutely no credibility to prosecute the defenders.
Nothing dramatizes that more than that Ignacio Arroyo, First Gentleman Mike Arroyo's expendable brother (at least he was the one left holding the bag labeled "Jose Pidal" that his “kuya” [elder brother] dropped on his lap while fleeing the wrath of God) is one of those making life hell for Garcia in the House. I wonder what he said when Garcia refused to answer his questions on the ground that he, Garcia, had a "right to silence." I wonder if the other congressmen could remember enough to howl in delight at the spectacle of the monumental farce.
President Arroyo would have Garcia court-martialed? The rest of the country would have her impeached. Every act of pillage her minions commit can only remind the world of the acts of pillage she and her husband have committed. How is Garcia's raid of the Armed Forces budget to earn a lease on life any different from President Arroyo's raid of the national treasury to earn a lease on power? How is Garcia's ownership of various monies and properties under various names any different from Jose Pidal's ownership of various monies and properties under various names, not least the pseudonym Mike Arroyo? Credibility is not their strongest suit.
Meanwhile, the rabble is marching down the streets, the growling in their mouths drowned only by the growling in their stomachs.
Updated 10:11pm (Mla time) Oct 25, 2004
By Conrado de Quiros
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A12 of the October 26, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
A RALLY by the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP, the Farmers Movement of the Philippines) was dispersed last week at Welcome Rotunda in Quezon City. The marchers had just come from the Department of Agriculture where they camped out for a couple of nights. After a dialogue with agriculture department officials, they marched to Malacañang to send their lamentations to their President. Or since they knew that was going to fall on deaf ears, to assail the walls of the Palace with their shouts.
It was not clear who provoked whom, the riot police or the marchers, but the rally was scuttled. The marchers claimed it was violent, the police claimed they applied only the right amount of force. The latter were not in a good mood. One of their own, station commander Manolo Martinez, had just been gunned down a few days before by people they suspected to be the marchers' friends.
The marchers, on the other hand, did not particularly mind defying the authorities. It wasn't just that they were known to provoke routinely to press their point, it was that they had a pressing point to press. That point was hunger, the one that is already gripping many parts of the country today, and the one that is bound to ravage the whole of it tomorrow, with the exception of the subdivisions of Makati City, which are so food-secure that its residents' biggest headache is how to lose weight.
It is not clear who provoked whom at Welcome Rotunda for the rally to be dispersed. But that is not important. What is important is that it reminds us of a grim reality, which is the setting in which the scandal rocking government today -- yes, government and not just the Armed Forces -- is taking place. The disappearance of public monies is happening alongside the disappearance of food. The skimming of the fat of the land by a privileged few is happening while the teeming many go hungry. That is a combustible mix.
I did say in a previous column that what was worrisome about the growing problem of food scarcity, or plain famine, was that it was happening alongside displays of profligacy by government. That profligacy wasn't just to be seen in lifestyle, though the First Couple flouted their own strident injunctions for government officials to scrimp and save by bringing their entire family and friends, with the nannies too, along to see China. They would justify that later by saying they used their own money for it, which gave whole new meanings to living within one's means. Their means are truly awesome. More than that, the penchant for wastefulness was to be seen in President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's defense of the other Garcia, Government Service Insurance System boss Winston, who was the object too of corruption charges, and her appointment of Ramon Revilla to the Public Estates Authority. If she had decided to advertise her obliviousness to the plight of her country, or the cries of her people, she could not have done a better job.
When I wrote that column, pointing to the dangers of a situation where want coincided with excess, where a president threw cake to the hungry a la Marie Antoinette, the Carlos Garcia exposé hadn't happened yet. What had happened was that a few months earlier President Arroyo filled every kilometer of road from here to kingdom come with posters of herself, using public funds held by government gaming firm Pagcor and the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.
Aquilino Pimentel speculates that the exposé on Garcia's ill-gotten wealth, which is just the tip of the iceberg, the submerged part being the wealth that went to his superiors, was leaked by the CIA after President Arroyo fell from grace with George Bush. Well, I've heard the same speculation over the last few weeks, in light particularly of the Garcia exposé taking place alongside the Heritage Foundation's assessment of Ms Arroyo as the weakest leader in Asia. Maybe it's coincidence, maybe George W's government is doing a number on her. But whether one or the other, it was just an exposé waiting to happen. It was merely a tossup which one was going to be exposed first, the military or the civilian bureaucracy. Winston was pointing in the direction of the civilian before Carlos swerved it in the direction of the military.
But whether one or the other, whether it's the military or the civilian bureaucracy that finds itself in the firing line, all of government reaps the bitter harvest with all this. It is not merely because President Arroyo is Garcia's commander in chief, or indeed because the pillage happened during the pit of President Arroyo's "war against terror," though the last bears repeating again and again. It is also that the Arroyo regime has absolutely no credibility to prosecute the defenders.
Nothing dramatizes that more than that Ignacio Arroyo, First Gentleman Mike Arroyo's expendable brother (at least he was the one left holding the bag labeled "Jose Pidal" that his “kuya” [elder brother] dropped on his lap while fleeing the wrath of God) is one of those making life hell for Garcia in the House. I wonder what he said when Garcia refused to answer his questions on the ground that he, Garcia, had a "right to silence." I wonder if the other congressmen could remember enough to howl in delight at the spectacle of the monumental farce.
President Arroyo would have Garcia court-martialed? The rest of the country would have her impeached. Every act of pillage her minions commit can only remind the world of the acts of pillage she and her husband have committed. How is Garcia's raid of the Armed Forces budget to earn a lease on life any different from President Arroyo's raid of the national treasury to earn a lease on power? How is Garcia's ownership of various monies and properties under various names any different from Jose Pidal's ownership of various monies and properties under various names, not least the pseudonym Mike Arroyo? Credibility is not their strongest suit.
Meanwhile, the rabble is marching down the streets, the growling in their mouths drowned only by the growling in their stomachs.
posted by Dante at 7:59 PM
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