drama politica

just a few hours ago, the siege at the manila pen ended, thank goodness, rather peacefully.

i was glued to the tv set for a couple of hours as al-jazeera news channel gave blow by blow account of the event. good thing veronica pedrosa was at the anchor today from their kl base. at least she gave more credibility to the coverage as opposed to seing the report from some foreign anchors.

first thing i said to myself was 'oh this is good, forex will surely pick-up' thinking about the continually plummeting exchange rate between dollar vs peso that so unfairly lessens the power of my hard-earned green buck. what a pity huh. short of rejoicing from a serious political situation for personal gain.

but hey, i guess i'm not the only one who thought of that. i bet you did too. in fact some of us would've probably prayed for something like this to happen. not only to get better exchange rate but also to punish gloria for ignoring the plea of ofw's for help on this particular dilemma.

but then again, the drama ended too quickly and with less action than what we probably were hoping for. no casualties. just some yadda-yadda from trillanes and his group, fishing for sympathy and support from the filipino people, then surrendered peacefully when they realized that they cannot turn ayala avenue to another edsa 1, 2 or 3. otherwise it could really be something.

why didn't they generate the support they needed? trillanes was there, reprising his oakwood 2003 role once again but where are his supporters? where's the 11 million voters who put him in the senate despite being locked up in one of the military bases in manila? they should have rallied and trooped to the posh hotel, camped it out with him and made his demand for gloria to step down. better yet, fill the stretch of ayala and makati avenues, putting an end to the already overused legacy of the edsa revolution and creating a new one - ayala 1. at least that's original.

but as marga ortigas, jazeera's manila correspondent put it, this recent outing by trillanes may not sit well with his supporters. business sector was not so happy with what he did - interrupting the day's proceedings right in the middle of the financial district which means losing millions of dollars in thousands of business transactions within the cordoned perimeter. even the original rebel soldier gringo distanced himself from the situation and instead attended budget hearing which, according to him, is more important.

i called up my mom and she, as well as everybody back home who are watching the same event, were sympathetic to trillanes and were cursing gloria. but maybe they were just like the rest of the 11 million fans of trillanes who chose to stay on the sidelines and simply watch their hero risk his life one more time to bring gloria down. just watch him from tv and do nothing to participate.

my take on it is that filipino people are already on the verge of frustration, resigned to the fact that despite the many edsa revolutions, the country is still on a downward spiral. and they chose not to march to ayala because they've grown tired of taking their cause to the streets. of course there are sporadic rallies and protests here and there but these are minor movements. i'm talking about the real, massive action of edsa revolution proportions that must have already lost it's appeal.

i missed edsa 1 but i made sure i didn't miss it the second time around. i even dragged some of my friends to join the cause, convincing them that people power, an authentically pinoy phenomenon, will make our future better. and our lives will be better if we kick erap out and install gloria. boy was i wrong. maybe that is the reason why i seem to have lost my inclination for mass actions like this.

i hope my impression is not true. and i hope that i'm the only one having this detached, nonchalant attitude. or else, those abusive, corrupt and heartless people in power will have a field day for the rest of their lives.

but, alarmingly, it looks like most of the filipino people are already sharing what i feel. as marga said, our people loves tv or movie drama. a simple statement that i translated into something more serious - we are a nation fixated to the formulaic drama of the entertainment industry, and that fixation has removed us from the harsh realities of the current social, economic and political situation.

and yes, according to her, what trillanes did was exactly just that - drama.