We all know the story. The gist of the accusations against Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is that she cheated. The opposition and the leftists say that her conversations with Virgilio Garcillano weren’t a mere lapse of judgment as she claims, but rather proof that she ordered vote padding to ensure that she won by a million votes. Ergo, she must resign, for she has allegedly “stolen the presidency.”
From how I understand things, in a nutshell, what they’re saying is that Gloria wasn’t fairly elected by a clear majority of votes, so she must resign.
But do the majority of Filipinos agree with that line of thought?
With what’s happening in Manila, GMA’s supporters in Cebu are inviting her to transfer the seat of government there. On the other hand, Davao’s Rodrigo Duterte, Ilocos’s Chavit Singson, as well as other governors from the Bicol region, Visayas and Mindanao, have themselves threatened to secede or seek autonomy if GMA is ousted.
Think about it: all the protest actions against are held here in Manila, in contrast to 2001’s ouster of Joseph Estrada where similar albeit smaller protest actions were also held in provincial capitals.
Arguably, any coup or protest is supposed to be held in Manila where the seat of government is. But then again, Manila (or Metro Manila, rather) is only a small part of the country. Manila’s population of around 10 million is a mere 13% of the Philippine’s more or less 87 million people. Of those, a mere thousands are out in the streets demanding that the President resign.
The probinsyanos probably think that Manilans are going too far, and their leaders’ calls clearly express what they feel about the brouhaha happening in the National Capital Region. It is ironic that critics and pundits have been underscoring the elitism occuring within GMA’s government, without realizing that the citizens in the province consider the attitude taken by Manileños in arrogantly deciding the fate of the whole nation for themselves as elitist in itself. It is ironic that the bottomline of those calling for GMA’s resignation is the lack of fairness, whilst in pursuing their sentiment they are undermining the fairness of their actions vis-a-vis the voice of the majority of Filipinos.
Manila is NOT the Philippines. I hope everyone starts listening to what the people in the provinces have to say — they happen to be Filipinos too, if anyone cared to notice.
5 responses so far ↓
1 mitch // Jul 19, 2005 at 11:34 pm
oo nga, people are silent in the provinces. Baka dahil mahal pamasahe pag lumuwas. lol
seriously, Binay’s colors are already out in the open. Wawa naman mga taga-Makati na gustong magtrabaho ng maayos.
2 Trosp // Jul 25, 2005 at 3:43 am
Jon,
For the Filipino, fixer is a way of life. Actually, yung sinabi ng pinsan mo, in US and in Philippines,na tutoo nga kaya. But in Singapore, very fast. Why? Ang battle cry nila - nobody should monopolize the time. Ang Pinoy ba naman, pag nagtanong, lahat ng pwedeng itanong itatanong oblivious of the time. Bale wala rin kung maraming kasunod sa pilahan.
In Singapore, that will not happen. If your too inquisitive, they would request you to move to another line where they will explain whatever you anted to know.
3 Jon Limjap // Jul 25, 2005 at 9:42 am
But we’re not in Singapore are we?
There’s the need to figure out the reasons why it takes that long to do things. First and foremost is the system. I believe Singapore has a fully automated system (do they have a national ID system to boot?) to manage the whole process. Here, a big chunk of the process is manual, and having experienced some clerical work myself, I don’t think you can really blame the poorly paid government worker for not feeling like doing things robotically fast. It’s not an excuse, but the problem is not easily solved either. Second is population density. Several of Manila’s cities go to one LTO office for their licenses. A big bulk of them are jeepney and tricycle drivers. I don’t expect that bulk in Singapore. Third is education and maturity per se. That jeepney driver bunch is definitely less educated than the average Singaporean. In fact, being in Singapore means you’re a highly skilled worker (definitely educated) of some sort. That educational edge (i.e., being able to understand rules and instructions faster) contributes to the system being faster.
In the US, DMV lines are slow in densely populated areas because of the number of senior citizens applying for licenses. :p In New York however, the same problem with the jeepney drivers applies — this time to migrant cab drivers who can barely speak English.
4 Trosp // Jul 26, 2005 at 11:09 am
Huwag na tayong lumayo - ATM na lang. Lahat yata ng nakikita ko - inquiry muna ng balance (most of the time hihintayin pa ang printout) > withdraw the amont > count the money crefully infront of the machine. Simple 3 steps pero ang tagal.
5 Jon Limjap // Jul 26, 2005 at 12:32 pm
Funny you mentioned that. I used to do development for ATM machines. Ang palagi naming inaayos eh yung time bago kainin nung machine yung card. Yun kasing karaniwang tao, ang tagal tagal bago nila bunutin ang kanilang card.
As for the pagbibilang ng pera, that’s okay, they *should* do that and the bank encourages them to do that. Ang nakakapanghinayang eh yung Balance Inquiry. Nasasayang yung papel. Balance inquiry, gusto nakaprint pa eh meron naman sa screen. Tapos itatapon. Tapos pagkawithdraw magbalance inquiry ulit eh yung balance naman eh nakaprint dun sa receipt after the withdrawal. Tapos itatapon ulit. It’s for that reason that the banks now charge 1 peso for every ATM Balance Inquiry transaction with the exception of their own cardholders.
Haaay… education. That’s another problem to figure out.
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