The new generation currency, not perfect, but still very good

The recently released new generation currency was immediately showered with ridicule in the blogosphere. Expect PNoy bashers to pick this up and heap it upon the other perceived missteps of this clumsy administration. Such is the power of the blog, social networking sites and freedom of speech (and to nitpick).

White hair chronicles XXII - I remember people power 1

Tempus fugit! It's now more than a generation since the EDSA people power revolt but I still remember vividly those heady days.

In '85, Marcos was still so well entrenched despite the swelling sentiment against his regime that he confidently called a snap election when pressured by his American masters. I personally thought there was no way Cory could win, even without Marcos cheating. The people were still deathly afraid of him. In my office then, a government corporation, the staff was even scared to talk about the signature campaign for Cory to run. Young and fearless, I did what to my office mates was unthinkable. I signed the petition. The signature campaign caught momentum and since then I knew Marcos' end was near.

I became part of my office's hakot brigade in the Batasan canvassing. The session hall was divided between the pros and antis. The government hakots composed the pros. The antis sounded to have more fun compared to the nervous air in the pros side. They  boisterously cheered each time Bono Adaza noticed small defects on a canvass. They booed when the chairman just said 'asteriks'. I cheered and booed with them even if I was on the pros side. I wandered around the corridors to find a way to get to the antis. When I got to the other side, I proudly waved at my office mates. Their shock and disbelief is still etched on my mind.

On the second day of the EDSA uprising, I asked them who's coming with me to EDSA. Although still very wary, many dared and went with me. The atmosphere was still tense, anything could still happen. But I believed it was just a matter of days before Marcos goes. They couldn't kill us all, I told my friends. By the fourth day, I was at home when it was announced that Marcos had fled. I went outside and shouted at the top of my voice "wala na si Macoy, lumayas na!".  Ah, those were the days.

White Hair Chronicles VIII - Ganito kami noon, ganito pa rin ngayon?

This week marks the 37th year of imposition of martial law. I was a frail, skinny kid then in a public elementary school and this weekend I will be meeting again with some classmates from those days, some I have not seen in 35 years. They will find me still frail and skinny and still a kid at heart.

I remember waking up and being told that were no classes that day, September 23, 1972, a Friday I think. We were not allowed to go out and check with our schoolmates/ neighbors. The streets were deserted anyway. No one knew what was going on. There were bombings and rallies going on the past weeks. Talks were rife that classes will be suspended until the end of the schoolyear. We were initially overjoyed but got immediately terrified when told that we may have to repeat the grade when school reopens.

The TV channels were cut off. When Marcos appeared on-screen with his "I hereby declare" speech, people confirmed what was whispered in hush-hush tones. After which, only one channel operated and all it showed was Maribeth Bichara gyrating in skimpy clothes, alternating with Sahlee Quizon and Sonny Cortez singing something about sugar.

I'm sure my classmates can fill up my fading memories of how things were. These days we also have insurgency, bombings, journalists/activists missing/getting killed, corruption, military in the bureaucracy, poverty, efforts to change the charter, and more recently spying on the academe. Jun Cruz Reyes was my Filipino literature instructor in high school while Bien Lumbera was my professor in Pilipino 41 (an elective course - Critical Thinking) in college.

Alex Magno refuses to see the parallels between the situation then and now. But Winnie Monsod believes we are still haunted by Marcos' martial law, enumerating the problems that hound us up to this day.

While Alex Magno insists that dictatorship is impossible at this time, it is not dictatorship per se that bothers us. It is the damage being done to the institutions just to perpetuate oneself in power. It is to that that we say never again.

Ferdie + Meldy = Glorie?

Question: What do you get when you cross the political wiles of Ferdie with the extravagance of Meldy? Answer: Glorie!

As accusations of her extravagance abroad amidst the people's squalor at home continue to pour, the nation's dissatisfaction with Gloriffic hit rock bottom. Even Imeldific enjoys better press than Gloriffic, who showed that she is wily as Ferdie in employing Machiavellian tricks. Her bypassing of the proper procedures in the handing of the Marcosian National Artist awards to Carlo Caparas and Cecille Guidote smacks of divide and rule. The lavish dinners, accomodation, large entourage, and the planned (later cancelled) purchase of a Php1.2B jet remind us of Imeldific. With only 10 months left in her term and the bureaucratic delays, she won't have the chance to use it. Is it an indication of her plan to stay beyond 2010, or is the automatic SOP too much to let go?



The people do not trust her at all. The public delights in the mass media bloopers in reporting her death instead of Pres. Cory's. It makes me wonder - could all those bloopers be deliberate? So as to enjoy additional hits in the websites or increase in circulation, in the case of the Bulletin?

An circulating email containing the two photos below, asks who is more sincere? Another email says 92 million people (vs. 1) think the dog is more sincere.

A photo of her taking the Holy Communion is mocked. People clearly do not trust her. And she's all to blame.