If GMA plans to decentralize government power to the "countryside that feeds it," then why is Monday's SONA holiday declared only in the big city?

Pundits lament the absence of the middle class in the past few weeks' political exercise, thinking nobody's left for they've gone abroad. Not all, actually. We're concentrated here down south, in industrial parks in the middle of cattle farms and at the foot of Makiling as far as Cebu. Recipients, or should I say, victims of Ramos' medium-term development plan that sought to industrialize the country by the new millenium, or so it seems. It is high time that presidents recognize our contribution to the economic center whom we expect to perform their policy-making functions on a broader spectrum. We feed you, you herd us was the previous setup that didn't work. The national center was well-fed and wanted more without giving sensible policies in return to develop the periphery to keep the cycle going. Sooner or later that milking will turn into bleeding. Thus the decentralization agenda is very much appreciated.

Engineers and techies mostly comprise these parks. And they love done deals and closures, even if there are strings attached, which certainly exist in the real world, where backup plans and safety nets come into the picture. The bottomline is, as long as the plan is solid and not designed to fail or serve only the few, then we'll go for it. These days are a lovely day to raise high our emotions but we have to go back to the drawing board and plan, plan, plan. Get ready then execute (pun not intended), get feedback and do more planning and go through the cycle one more time.

We may want GMA to resign but what should come after that? Nature abhors a vacuum. We don't live the sachet lifestyle and go from one day to the next. Some of us have shouted our lungs out at Ayala (it is expected of union members to oppose every administration and wow, are they willing to bed with the Estradas and the Marcoses) but in the end we want it clear. There is an existing constitutional successor and we are responsible for putting him there in the first place, a spare tire that has to be equally competent to the president when the latter is unable to dispense her governance. The reason why most of us took time off to the streets during Edsa Dos was because we knew that an apparently competent successor, an economics professor at that, is clearly on the way (the failure came later).

Nature prefers to go the path of least resistance, but the path is not necessarily a straight one. Who wouldn't love to topple a president perceived to turn the people's will to her favor para matapos na? Gravity, a path of least resistance, dictates bodies to fall down but it is an end in itself. Somewhere we must come around to the national goal though the goal itself is subject to different interpretations. Is it the left, right, or where the middle wants it to be--everywhere?

In the end, there is an existing adage in the engineering world that when the problem keeps coming back and the customer is raising hell over the same complaint and we have moved heaven and earth and it amounted to nothing, maybe there is something wrong with the structure or the very product itself. We have transitioned from dictatorship to democracy, deposed two presidents, but we're still the sick man of Asia. Do we really need to pin the blame on who we put into power everytime? Leave all the responsibility after we have given them the mandate (or apparently so at this time)? Make the presidency our whipping boy and remove one everytime we see it fit when we can't even stop at the red light? Lament the death of the movie industry because of piracy and not on quality acting? Pressure then blame ourselves for being a poor copy of Mother America?

The Filipino's greatest critic is himself. Too bad he turned it into his worst enemy.

This entry was posted by sky, on Wednesday, July 27, 2005. You can leave your response.