the GFO

On my first day at my new station, I thought I could successfully pull off the just-blend-with-the-background act. I had it all planned. I was going to stay out of everyone’s way, keep to my little corner and be as quiet as someone who has laryngitis. I really believed that I could keep up the act for the duration of my temporary detail at what I fondly call GFO (Ground Floor Office).

The GFO is known as the Rumor Center of the entire company. If there was a rumor going on, chances are, someone from the GFO had started it or at least knew about it. And if for some strange reason they didn’t start it, they would make up for the lost chance by spreading it. Idle time produces idle minds and the people at the GFO had a lot of “Idle”. They never bothered to correct the impression and worse, each time a new boss would come along, they would make it a point to show off their fangs and claws. If the new boss shows lack of control, they would go on with their merry and still idle ways. If the new boss shows bigger fangs and claws, they would move away but be back with a vengeance with rumors about him/her unleashed like the plague. Because of this, only two kinds of Senior Executives were assigned at the GFO, those who were either pitied or disliked. Pitied because no one else was available to take on the job and the GFO could not be left without a boss lest it turn into a day-long lounge with free arts and crafts lessons, mah-jongg sessions and drinking sprees. Disliked because, well… everyone considered it to be the most insignificant office of all. If the new Executive was efficient, well and good, but if he/she wasn’t, it would still be alright because the company has learned to ignore the functions of the GFO rationalizing that others can do the job just as well and without the bureaucracy attached.

Employees describe the GFO as the holding area of malcontents, the breeding ground for future insubordinates, the training area for rumor-mongers and activists, the support group of A.W.O.L or M.I.A employees. Anyone who enters becomes corrupted and the only way to keep yourself sane is to steer clear of them as much as possible. Clichéd, but one must never lose sight of who he is.

Sadly, I should have known better.

my congressional representative ... not!

My Congressional Representative has ceased to represent me.

The impeachment proceedings has made me see the kind of representation my small municipality of San Juan really has. When I voted for Congressman Ronaldo B. Zamora, I knew that he was and continues to be an ally of former President Joseph “Erap” Estrada. I knew that his friendship with Erap was deeply rooted. However, when he said that his constituents were in favor of impeaching President Arroyo, I could not help but scream “EXCUSE ME?!?”

I have lived in the same place for almost 16 years and since reaching the age of 18, I have made it a point to cast my vote during each and every election. San Juan is Erap Country and even if he is under house arrest in Rizal, he continues to wield power through his bossom friend Zamora and his son, Mayor Jose Victor “JV” Ejercito. But what have they really done for San Juan?

I do not care if Zamora hates Arroyo to the core, if they want to oust her from Malacañang, if they want to bring Erap back into power. I do not care. But if you say on television that it is what your constituents want, please be damn sure that you have asked each and every one of us because I am one of your constituents and I certainly was never asked.

I may be one vote. I could be the only vote against impeaching Arroyo but I sure as hell want my vote counted. Congressman Zamora, you represent the entire municipality of San Juan. Not just the Ejercito-Estrada’s, not just the Erap fans and supporters, and certainly not just those who are on your side. It is incredibly ironic for you to say “Katotohanan Para Sa Bayan” when you have not bothered to first find out what the truth is in your municipality. Could you not have spared a million or so from your pork barrel to set up a desk outside the municipal hall where residents can go to cast their vote either for or against the impeachment twenty-four hours a day for, say, 3 days, whereby the votes could be tallied in a board also outside the hall? You had time to consult the people even before the impeachment proceedings actually took place, but you didn’t. So what makes you think you represent me?

people power?

I was ten years old when People Power happened. I remember asking my mother what was happening to the country. Now that I am thirty, I am still asking the same question.

At that time I remember being bombarded with words of hope for my future; that because of People Power, my generation would no longer have to endure the pains of martial law and instead enjoy the promise of a more peaceful and stable future. I remember hearing about how life under the leadership of the untainted Corazon Aquino are better because they have only the people’s interest at heart and that the problems besting the country during the Marcos regime would be a thing of the past. People Power is not about the Marcoses, Enrile, Ramos or Cory. It is about the nation’s citizens uniting to demand for a change in leadership without having to die. It is about bringing out the best in people at a time where identities have either been suppressed or oppressed. It is about working to rebuild a future. The Philippines could finally regain its place as Southeast Asia’s most progressive country. Twenty years later, we are still somewhere between surviving and hoping.

The sad truth is that those whom we considered as EDSA 1 “heroes” believe that they have right to interfere. That if their opinions are ignored or their suggestions, often masked as pieces of advice, are not followed, they can scream injustice or ineptitude. These people truly believe that only they know how to run this country. If so, then why are we still so poor? Seriously, Gloria alone could not have turned this country into such a sorry state. What have three Presidents prior to her done? If the Cory administration’s only claim to fame is the restoration of democracy, then she should have stepped down when the RAM boys held a coup because of the deplorable state of the military (this is ironic because it was the RAM boys who first separated itself from Marcos thereby putting her in power in the first place). If during the Ramos administration this country was supposed to be an emerging tiger, then why are we whimpering from the pain of having to pay the IPPs for electricity we don’t even use? If the Estrada administration was supposed to be para sa masa, then why didn’t our unemployment rate drop? Lahat sila may maling ginawa, kaya’t wala ni isa sa kanila ang may karapatang magmalinis.

More than anyone, it is the President who knows how difficult it is to deal with extremists. It is a balancing act of sorts. Yet now, we find them marching together in either Ayala or EDSA supposedly for a common cause. But is the cause truly common?

Ang nakalulungkot na katotohanan ay pakiramdam ng mga itinuring natin na mga bayani ng EDSA ay habangbuhay silang dapat makialam sa pamamalakad ng gobyerno. Na kapag hindi nasunod ang gusto nila o kapag hindi sila binigyan ng karampatang respeto o dignidad at the level they were expecting ay masama na ang kasalukuyang namumuno. Wala na bang ibang taong magaling maliban sa kanila? Sila lang ba ang nagmamahal sa bansa? Hindi ba nila napapansin na ang sumasama na lang sa mga marcha nila ay ang mga alipores din nila o di kaya ay mga bayaran lamang? Kung hindi naman, dapat ba’ng kaibiganin nila ang mga tinuturing mga pasista o komunista? Kung sabagay, kung wala nga naman ang mga bayaran ng mra maka-kanan at maka-kaliwa, magmumukhang kahiyahiya ang mga rally nila dahil walang pupunta. Mga naging Presidente din naman sila diba? Hindi ba’t ang mga grupo ding yan ang pilit na tinuligsa ng kani-knailang mga administrasyon? Ngayon, ano? Fraternizing with the enemy? Balimbing? Higit kanino man, alam nila kung gaano kahirap at kadelikado ang pagiging isang Presidente. Hindi porke tapos na ang termino nila ay makikisukob na sila sa kaaway.

What makes you think that you can still do today what you have done twenty years ago? Your glory days are over. The golden age has passed. Tama Na! Sobra Na! Manahimik Na!

The Filipino Crab

The Filipino Crab Mentality gets me all crabby! It’s incredibly funny yet annoyingly irritating when people decide that they know you better than you know yourself. It is one thing when people form first impressions or give their opinions about the person they think you are but it is an entirely different story when they gossip and spread baseless rumors about you as if it were fact. Your simple statement of “I got the job” immediately gets translated to “She slept with the boss” or “He bribed someone to get the job”. It makes you want to wring their necks and stuff the rest of their body in matchboxes.

What is it with these people? If they have nothing better to do with their time, it doesn’t give them license to talk about other people. Will it kill them if they stop talking? If they are unhappy with their lives, jealous of a co-employee or unproductive with their work, they are solely to blame. If they are unhappy, maybe they should find something that will make them happy – gossiping should naturally be out of the question. If they have been consumed by the big green monster, then they should find ways and means to improve their lot in life. Gossiping is not going to make them richer, more attractive, more popular, smarter or whatever it is they envy about another person. It only makes them greener – not a pretty sight by any human standard. If they feel that they are being underutilized then maybe they should take the initiative and prove that are an asset to the company. The problem is they complain when they are given work, and they complain even more when are not given any work precisely because they complain too much.

Gossip is a pastime better left to fishwives. A certain amount of decency and professionalism must prevail the minute one enters office premises. Gossipers are like gaggling geese. They have no direction and when someone does guide them, still they continue to gaggle. What a waste of energy! However, humans are supposed to be smarter than animals. We are supposed to know that making too much noise, as in complaining, is a useless exercise.