But first before I launch into my tirade, imagine how it feels like to be an active Marine in the military these days. First, you’re sent off to Basilan or Jolo to fight equally if not better equipped than you, with hardly the kind of support needed in case you get wounded or shot. Then, you get to watch the news aghast as Congressmen walk out of Malacanang with gift bags filled with P500,000.00 in cash bundles.
How would you feel? After seeing your comrades die in battle because the military lacks the funds to provide for them and after constantly risking your own life fully knowing you may be next, I’d probably riddle the tv with bullets right there.
But let’s not even talk about the Marines. How about the OFWs? The government heralds these as heroes, but let’s face it. They’re victims. Victims of a government that is so corrupt it has forsaken the country it’s supposed to work for, and so therefore these decide look for employment overseas instead. Calling them heroes is assuming that these people prefer to go abroad. That’s bullshit. Why in the world would you wanna leave your family? Why would you want to have your children raised parentless or your relatives never knowing who you are? Given a choice, of course you’d want to stay home.
How about the ordinary salary worker? The typical man on the street?
Yes I want change, yes I want to see someone take up the cudgels and call on the other icons that can stand as magnets to all those abused by the government. And yes, when I see it gaining ground, I wanna join too. I have lost my patience with our leadership and whatever else may come next it has come to a point where any alternative is better than this.
So the spirit is there, the support is there, and the anticipation for something, or someone to come up and do it is there as well.
The only problem is, the only thing we have is Trillanes.
Upon whose mere mention of the name a collective groan arises.
Of course it can be argued: the man’s heart and soul may be in the right place. He may have had the right intentions, or.. well, I can’t really think of anything else he has in the right.
By all accounts, this man has proven himself to be an idiot. He goes off ranting, raving and waving the flag of righteousness, but with no apparent plan, no follow – through that would ensure even moderate success.
Last night’s exercise was a joke. And what’s more, it gave the government a chance to prove it could quash such things, and how easy it did so. After last night all we have is a broken down hotel lobby (and a very nice one at that), loads of footage of journalists screaming for their rights, and … that’s it. Meanwhile the government is patting itself in the back for a job well done, and people are just as confused as ever, momentarily amused / entertained after which they go about filling up their VISA or immigrant applications to Canada, US, Australia, Japan, or anywhere else the fuck would accept us because Goddam it, even a ranking soldier and PMAer can’t rally enough brainpower to hold a coup that’d last longer than a few hours. Even the tv channels which had everyone glued to the sets for a few moments were back to regular programming by the evening, showing the usual teledramas.
The guy did more damage than good. Whoever else is going to mount the next one – and make no mistake, the government should never think that there won’t be a next one for as long as they’re handing out cash bundles, I sincerely hope we get someone smarter.