Divine Intervention

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

2 forwarded e-mails on philippine middle class sentiments

I got these from two friends who got these from other people, possibly their other friends. I just felt I should enshrine it here because I also share their sentiments as I am sure is being shared by countless others be they be in the Philippines or working abroad.

Subject: Open Letter to Our Leaders: Why We Are Not Out In The Streets
Dear Tita Cory, Senators, Congressmen, Businessmen,
Media people, Leftists, and all Bleeding Hearts Out There:

I am angry. And I know that there are many out there
who are angrier than I am for the same reason. And
that reason is simple. I am sick and tired of all you
guys claiming to speak for me and many Filipinos. I
feel like screaming every time you mouth words about
fighting for my freedom and my rights, when you
obviously are just thinking about yours. You tell me
that the essence of democracy is providing every
citizen the right to speak his or her mind and make
his or her own informed judgments, but you yourselves
do not respect my silence and the choices I and many
others have made. In other words, your concept of
democracy is limited to having your rights and your
freedoms respected, at the expense of ours.

I am utterly flabbergasted that you still do not get
it: we already responded to your calls, and our
response has been very clear - we chose not to heed
your calls to go to EDSA or to Fort Bonifacio not
because we do not love our country or our freedoms or
our rights, but precisely because we love our country
even more. Because quite frankly, we are prepared to
lose our freedoms and our rights just to move this
country forward. You may counter with your ideological
propaganda and give me all the dire warnings about the
evils of Martial Law, authoritarian rule, suppression
of freedom, etc., but quite frankly all we see is your
pathetic efforts to defend your right to continue
fulminating, filibustering, and sabotaging this
country until you wrestle power for yourselves. You
tell me that you are simply protecting my freedoms and
my rights, but who told you to do that? I assure you
that when I feel that my rights and my freedoms are at
a peril, I will stand up and fight for them myself. I
have done that in the past, and I will do it again
when I SEE THE NEED FOR IT, not when you tell me to do
it.

You tell us that GMA is not the right person to lead
this country because she has done immoral acts. As
someone who sees immorality being committed wantonly
in many ways every day and by everyone (yes, including
the ones you do), I may have become jaded. I may have
lowered my standards about what a leader should be.
Guess what, Tita Cory, you lowered it yourself. When I
accepted your incompetence and fought for you during
the many attempts against your government, I already
lowered the standards to ridiculous levels. Guess
what, Senators and Congressmen, you lowered it
yourselves when you ran for office and won and now
make fools of yourselves in the august halls of
congress.

But the simple truth that you try to obfuscate is
this: you have not been able to offer me any viable
alternative! On the other hand, GMA has bent over
backwards many times to accommodate you while
continuing to work hard despite all the obstacles and
the brickbats you have thrown her way. From where I
sit, she is the one who has been working really hard
to move this country forward while all of you have
been so busy with one and only one thing: to make sure
she does not succeed. So forgive me if I do not want
to join you in your moral pissing contest. Forgive me
if I have chosen to see things from another
perspective. You say she is the problem. I say, we are
- all of us is the problem; more to the point, I think
you are a bigger problem than she is. Taking her out
may solve part of the problem, but that leaves us with
a bigger problem: you. That is right, YOU!

While I felt outraged that she called a Comelec
official during the elections and that she may have
rigged the elections, I have since then taken the
higher moral ground and forgiven her. Yes my dear
bishops, I have done what you have told me to do since
I was a child, which you say is the Christian and
moral thing to do: forgive. Especially since she has
asked for forgiveness and has tried to make amends for
it. Erap certainly has not apologized and continues to
be defiant, continuing to insult us everyday with his
protestations - and he is part of your cause now! Cory
has not apologized for her incompetence but we have
forgiven her just the same because like GMA, she has
worked hard after all.

I know you do not think that GMA's apology was not
enough, or that she was insincere, or that that
apology should not be the end of it, but please spare
me the hypocrisy of telling me that you do so for the
sake of protecting the moral fibre of society. The
real reason is because you smell blood and wants to go
for the kill.

Well, I have news for you. I do not like her too. I
did not even vote for her. I voted for Raul Roco. But
as much as I do not like her, I do not like you even
more. I may not trust her, but you know what, I do not
trust you even more. You know why I do not trust you?
Because all you do is whine and sabotage this country.
You belittle every little progress we make,
conveniently forgetting that it is not just GMA who
has been working so hard to achieve them. Every single
day, we keep the faith burning in our hearts that this
country will finally pull itself out of the mess and
we work so hard to do that. Every little progress is
the result of our collective effort, we who toil hard
everyday in our jobs. Yet, you persist in one and only
thing: making GMA look bad in the eyes of the world
and making sure that this country continues to suffer
to prove your sorry point. In the process, you
continue to destroy what we painstakingly try to
build. So please do not be surprised that I do not
share your cause. Do not be surprised that we have
become contemptuous of your antics. You have moved
heaven and earth to destroy her credibility, you have
convened all kinds of fora and hearings and all you
have done is test our patience to the core. For all
your efforts, you have only succeeded in dragging us
further down. I say enough.

Don't get me wrong. I am not asking that we take
immorality lying down, or that we let the President
get away with anything illegal. But you have tried to
prove your accusations all these time and you have not
succeeded, so it is time to let things be. Besides,
you are doing something immoral as well if not utterly
unforgivable. The Magdalo soldiers are consorting with
the communists - the same people who have been trying
to kill democracy for years. Cory has been consorting
with Erap and the Marcoses.

So please wake up and take a reality check. In the
absence of true and genuine moral leadership, many of
us have decided to cast our lot with the President,
even if we do not like her. A flawed leader is better
than scheming power hungry fools who can not even
stand up for their convictions in the face of an
impending arrest.

Your coup attempts and the denials that you have
consequently made only underscore what we think is
true: you are spineless and unreliable people who only
want power but not the consequences and the sacrifices
that go with the quest. Your one and only defense is
to cry suppression when your ruse does not work. You
are nothing but BULLIES who taunt and provoke, but cry
oppression when taken to task for your cruelty. You
call for the rule of law and respect for authority,
but so brazenly display your defiance and disrespect
for the same things you claim to be fighting for.

I would have respected you if you took the
consequences of your actions like real heroes: calmly
and responsibly instead of kicking and screaming and
making all kinds of lame excuses. You say you are
willing to die for us, that you do all these things
for the country and the Filipino, but you are not even
willing to go to jail for us.

Come on, you really think we believe that you did not
want to bring down the government when THAT IS THE ONE
AND ONLY ONE THING THAT YOU HAVE BEEN DESPERATELY
TRYING TO DO in the last many months?

We love this country and we want peace and progress.
Many among us do not give a f*&k who sits at
Malacanang because we will work hard and do our share
to make things work. We the people will and can make
it work, if only you get out of the way and let us do
it. If you only do your jobs, the ones you are
supposed to be doing, things would be a lot simpler
and easier for all of us.

The events during the weekend only proved one thing.
You are more dangerous and a serious threat to this
country than GMA is. We have seen what you are capable
of doing - you are ready to burn this country and
reduce everything to ashes just to prove your point.
If there is something that we need protection from, IT
IS PROTECTION FROM YOU.

S. C. Austero

TAMA LAHAT ANG SINABI!!!!

Ako ay isang middle class Pinoy, isang officer sa
isang malaking
korporasyon at may asawa...dalawa anak. Di na
importante pangalan ko
kasi parepareho naman tayong mga
middle-class....trabaho 9-5, inom konti
tapos uwi sa pamilya, laruin si baby, itutor si
ate/kuya tapos tulog na,
pag wala na pera intay nalang ng sweldo.

Sa nangyayari ngayon sa ating bansa, lahat nalang ng
sector ay maingay
at naririnig, tayo lang mga middle-class, tax paying
at productive Pinoys
ang di naririnig. Subalit, buwis natin ang
nagpapaikot sa bansang ito.
Pag may mga gulo na nangyayari, tayo ang tinatamaan.
Kaya eto ang liham ko

sa lahat ng maiingay na sector na sana makagising sa
inyong bulag na
pag-iisip.

Sa Mga Politiko:

Diyos ko naman, sa dami na nang nakurakot ninyo di
na ba kayo
makuntento kelangan nyo pa ba manggulo.

Sa Administrasyon:

Hayan ayus na ha pinatawad na namin ang pandaraya
nyo sa eleksyon,
pruweba dito e di kami umaatend sa mga panawagan ng
people power, kaya
sana naman gantihan nyo kami ng magandang serbisyo
at magaling na pamumuno
at malaking bawas sa kurakot naman please para kahit
papano maramdaman
naman namin na may napupuntahan ang binabayad naming
buwis.

Saka Madam GMA, step down ka na pag parliamentary na
tayo sa 2007,
tignan mo, i-announce mo mag-step down ka kapag
parliamentary na tayo,
resounding YES yan sa plebiscite at tigil pa ang mga
coup at people power
laban sayo. Try mo lang.........

Sa Oposisyon:

Di nyo pa ba nakikita na dalawang klase lang ng tao
ang nakikinig sa
inyo....isa ay bayaran na mahihirap kungdi man ay
tangang mga excited
na reporter na parang naka-shabu lagi....mga praning
e at naghahallucinate.

Bago man lang kayo maglunsad ng kilos laban sa
administrasyon,
pumili muna kayo ng magiting at nararapat na
ipapalit sa liderato ngayon.
Hirap sa inyo paresign kayo ng paresign wala naman
kayo ipapalit na maayos.
Advise lang galing sa isang middle-class na syang
tunay na puwersa sa
likod ng lahat ng matagumpay na People Power,
magpakita muna kayo ng galing
bago nyo batuhin ang administrasyon. Wala na kaming
narinig sa inyo kundi
reklamo, e wala naman kayong ginagawa kundi
magreklamo....para kayong
batang lagi na lang naaagawan ng laruan.....GROW UP
naman...sa isip sa
salita at sa gawa.

Please lang gasgas na rin ang pagrarally nyo na
katabi nyo ay mga
bayaran na mahihirap, magtayo nalang kayo ng negosyo
at iempleyo ang mga
rallyista para maging productive silang mamamayan.
Sige nga, pag
nagrarally kayo yakapin nyo nga at halikan yang mga
kasama nyong
nagrarally!! Nung
People Power namin nagyayakapan kami lahat nuon.

Wala naman mangyayari sa mga rally nyo nakakatraffic
lang, kami pang
middle-class ang napeperwisyo. Di nyo kayang
paghintayin ng 3 araw ang
mga rallyista nyo kasi kelangan nyo pakainin at
swelduhan ang mga yan.
Kung gusto nyo tagumpay na People Power kami ang
isama nyo....pero pagod na
kami e, sori ha.

Sa Military:

Alam nyo lahat tayo may problema, pati US Army may
problema, 2,000 plus
na patay sa kanila sa Iraq na parang walang rason
naman, pero nakita nyo
ba sila nagreklamo? Wala diba kasi professional sila
na sundalo.....yan
dapat ang sundalo di nagtatanong sumusunod lang.
Kasi may mga bagay na di
kayang maintindihan ng indibidwal lamang, at ang mga
nakatataas lang ang
nakakaintindi ng kabuuan, kaya ito ang panuntunan ng
lahat ng military
ng lahat ng bansa. Pero parang military natin yata
ang pinaka-mareklamo.
Sabi nga sa Spiderman "with great power comes great
responsibility".....kaya
maging spiderman kayo lahat at protektahan ang
mamamayan. Sa totoo lang
natatakot kami kapag nagrereklamo kayo, kasi may
baril kayo at tangke, kami
wala.

Wala ako comment sa mga mahihirap, di naman kasi
sila maingay na kusa
e, may bayad ang ingay nila. Saka wala rin naman
silang email.

Kaya paano na tayong mga middle-class?? Eto hanggang
email nalang tayo
kaya ikalat nyo na ito at magdasal tayo na umabot
ito sa mga dapat makabasa
nito at makiliti naman ang kanilang mga konsyensya.

Signed,
Isang Middle-Class Pinoy na walang puknat na
binabawasan ang sweldo ng
Buwis!

September 2005 December 2005 January 2006 March 2006