More rants.

The open letter is still spreading around. I got a number of emails thanking me or asking for permission to spread the email around. Yes, please. Spread it around. Spread it to all. You can even sign it if you want.

There is a part of me that says I should shut up today about this whole political rigmarole and move on to other issues (like Rustom Padilla's impending coming out tonight in Pinoy Big Brother). But the nutcases in Congress are still at it, and our concerned friends in media are still giving them a pulpit to fontificate on. So I will continue to rant.

Here are common scenes that I find ridiculous:

There is a rally. Any rally. All rallies in fact. There is a standoff as a phalanx of police men with shields and batons face off with the protesters who taunt them and scream all kinds of provocative propaganda slogans. There is a negotiation. In the end, the protesters agree to disperse. They go through the motions of dispersing, but actually, they just regroup two blocks away. Another standoff. Another negotiation. The protesters agree again to disperse...but this time, they continue to chant slogans and wave their flags. In other words, they are not actually dispersing, they are going through with their rally, with a slight difference: they are moving backwards to regroup one block away. The police arrests the leaders. And the leaders kick and scream "curtailment of freedom," "asan na ang ating mga karapatan?" "wala na ba tayong karapatan magsalita?" All the while, he is allowed to shout all he wants and the media actually takes footages of his ranting and screaming.

The protester is protesting suppression of his freedom of speech while screaming his guts out and spewing vitriol and making condemnations against the President and everyone else on public television! Ladies and gentlemen, the protester is protesting what he is enjoying to the hilt! O di ba tarantado!

Thus, we have UP students walking out of their classes to protest the curtailment of civil rights (such as the right to walk out of their classrooms in protest). Huh? Didn't they just do exactly that?

We have media people frothing in their mouths about how press freedom is being suppressed. Yes, they can rant and scream all they want about it and they do with such recklessness. So what threat are they talking about?

Imee Marcos holding on to the metal bars at the gates of Fort Bonifacio (sana totoong prison bars na lang yun) talking about the evils of dictatorship and authoritarianism. Eh lintek na babaeng ito, wala na tatalo sa pagiging diktador ng tatay mo, di ba pati nga si Tommy Manotoc napabalita na pinakidnap ng tatay mo!?!

Comments

jef said…
If media will play their rightful role, I believe this debacle will stop. Tama na ang pag focus sa mga iyan. Sayang ang kuryente at bandwidth.
5:11 PM
Anonymous said…
hi bong! did you catch imee on tv patrol last night where she called gma a second rate, trying hard copycat of her dad? i didn't know whether i should laugh at her or what. so she's admitting that her dad is a dictator? is that something to be proud of? hay, this people, i just wish they would all shut up. we have enough problems trying to make ends meet, they're just making things worse for our country.
10:33 AM
Bong C. Austero said…
Jef,
tama ka jan! they actually cover rallies with only 10 people! I don't watch the news anymore.

Tin,
That woman has no shame whatsoever. All she does is make soundbytes - but when push comes to shove, she actually backs out. During the impeachment vote at the congress she was a no-show. Babaeng pinocchio kaya lalong humahaba ang baba.
11:25 AM
Anonymous said…
isn't it just the funniest and creepiest thing when you see jinggoy, imee, cory, kris, noynoy, satur, ping, etta, fr.robert, the hyatt 10, et al in one frame??? it's like ano to, peace on earth?? kaloka.

btw, i reposted your letter...hope you don't mind :) i agree one hundred percent.
9:39 PM
Anonymous said…
"Thus, we have UP students walking out of their classes to protest the curtailment of civil rights (such as the right to walk out of their classrooms in protest). Huh? Didn't they just do exactly that?"

Being a student in UP, I find it really, really annoying having imbeciles outside my classroom screaming "WALK-OUT SA KLASE! MGA PROPESOR PALABASIN ANG INYONG MGA ESTUDYANTE!" Cretins waving red flags break into the classroom and wouldn't go away, even though the prof is already obviously annoyed and started to use irony and sarcasm to drive them away.

Nakanam(bleep)!

Hay naku, kung gusto mong mag-rally at di pumasok, bahala ka. Pero diba sabi nyo "Education is a RIGHT?" So bakit biglang dapat lumabas kami ng classroom? Hindi ako pumasok sa college para mag-rally.

Take note, I find it offensive when someone asks me to join a rally in Ayala or Welcome rotonda (happens VERY often in UP). My dad works in Makati and I pass by Welcome quite often. Now if you don't have any lives, you should at least have the decency to respect the lives of those who do.

1017? Idiots singing/cheerleading in Quezon Hall and Palma Hall.

May mga (bleep) pa ngang nag noise-barrage sa harap ng dorm namin ng ALAS NWEBE I-MEDYA NG GABI (sumama daw kami sa may Oblation)! Biro mo yun! So wala naring karapatan ang iskolar ng bayan na matulog?! At anong katarantaduhan yang midnight rally niyo, palagay niyo ba may magagawa kayo? (bleep)ang mga pasikat/papansin/paimportanteng mga yun!

Oo nga pala, wala akong kelangang ikatakot dahil halos walang dahilan na ako maaresto. Randy David giving me a '5' on my classcard would be a lot more threatening. Good thing he isn't my Sociology prof.

P.S. Remember folks, at any given rally, there are at least twice as many UP Engineering freshmen than there are UP ralliysts. They're waaaaaaaaaay too few to be considered a majority. Pambansang mobilisasayon (aptly shortened by these same idiots to "mob") niyo pwet ko.
1:59 PM
Anonymous said…
Hahaha, Carlos, you are so funny! And I'm old enough to be your Mom! I thought UP Diliman is solid? Well, anyway, the thin crowd whenever you people are covered by the media is so very telling. We,here at UP Los Banos, aren't making "kagat" the same way we did at EDSA 2, maybe we are a more realistic or smarter group here in LB? Ilan ba talaga kabarkada dyan ni Randy David? Napipika na kami dito sa kanya, alam nyo ba. Ini-intellectualize to death lahat, nakakasawa na! Sa totoo lang ang gusto nya talaga for prez is FPJ kasi masa ang dating, LIKE HIM (pakibaba kilay ko). Ayaw natin sa bobo di ba, kaya di nanalo si FPJ dito sa LB ewan lang namin sa Diliman. Hahaha, joke ata yon.
Anyway, Bong, more power to you and to our silent (not anymore, thanks to you!) middle class majority.
Mommy Jo
4:59 PM
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