The Philippines is DEAD

My officemates took some foreign visitors out on a walking tour of Intramuros two weeks ago. My officemate found Carlos Celdran's blog by bloghopping. I mention that, because, well, just now I also ran into Carlos Celdran's blog. Was searching for some info about Nicotina on Roxas Blvd near DFA. Well, I found the info about Nicotina. I found the walking tour information as well. And I found something else too.

Celdran supports GMA. As he writes in his Sept 21 post, "President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ain't so bad." As a comment to the pathetic opposition rally at Makati last Sept 21, he writes, "such is the state of a country that often mistakes sedition for democracy."

As a backgrounder, GMA cheated in the elections. Loud and clear. No doubt about that. Though she did evade an impeachment and still holds on to power today, even her supporters think she cheated. Celdran writes in his Sept 18 post (which is also a reply to another article): "Point of everything here is that many of us don’t CARE if she CHEATED. To feign moral indignation for what she did in a country where practically everyone cheats - in one way or another - is just hypocrisy. And I think were all waking up to that now."

So yes, even her supporters acknowledge she cheated. So if we all know she cheated, if we all know she abuses her power and position to gain even more power, why are we still supporting her? Why is she still there, sitting in Malacanang, mocking us all? Staunch anti-GMA columnist Conrado de Quiros writes in his Sept 22 column:

"But the biggest sector Ms Arroyo has corrupted is the public itself. The biggest thing Ms Arroyo has corrupted is the minds of the Filipinos themselves. It shows itself in the willingness of an entire people to accept a lie. No, in the willingness of an entire people to live a lie. Everybody agrees that Ms Arroyo did not win the elections. Yes, everybody, including the congressmen who voted to kill the impeachment, including the justice secretary who is determined to foment injustice and the national security adviser who is determined to sabotage this country, and including the cockroaches that infest my neighborhood. But not everybody wants to do anything about it. "Sige na lang," let's move on, say the bishops."

So, there, we all agree that GMA cheated. And we also all agree that there really is no viable alternative after GMA. Even the anti-GMA forces, united as they are in wanting GMA out, are definitely not agreeing on what to do if she does get ousted. Hold elections, some say. Install Noli, some say. Anyone but Noli, others say. See, everyone's confused, running around like headless chickens. How can you expect to muster public support with the lack of viable and acceptable alternatives?

So what we're doing is, we're just living with the lesser evil. Presuming of course, that we are wise enough to discern what is really evil from what is not.

Is this all there is to it? Settling for the lesser evil? To paraphrase a movie title, is this as good as it gets? Maybe this is just one of my dire moods. But I think with a people this hopeless and divided, this country is dead. There is no leader who can help us rise out from our hellhole. If we are willing to live with the what we think of as the lesser evil, so be it. We can't even agree on what is the lesser evil. Let us all wither and die in our little shanty, at least we have our gin and beer to keep us company while we lament our forsaken lives. We have 5-peso karaoke machines so we can sing "My Way" and stab each other to death.

I do hope someday someone proves me wrong.

P.S. - I am sick. Excuse me.