The right thing

Earlier on I-Witness, Sandra Aguinaldo delved into the controversies of the 1898 Philippine revolution that involved Emilio Aguinaldo and Andres Bonifacio. The timing was quite peculiar, since I remember Ambeth Ocampo writing a piece about the Tejeros convention, the infamous election where the quarrel between Aguinaldo's and Bonifacio's factions in the Katipunan came to a head. Ocampo contended that dagdag-bawas indeed took place during the elections in Tejeros, and tonight the big headline involved the President addressing an issue related to alleged cheating during the last elections.

Like I previously wrote, I hate what's happening to the country right now.

I hate the President's insincere apology. I've heard more convincing lines from showbiz couples.

I hate the minions of Marcos and Erap buzzing around trying to regain their lost power.

I hate the hypocrites in "Civil Society" and in the Left for their continued willingness to compromise their principles to achieve their selfish goals.

More than that, I hate what it's all doing to me. I've always cared about my country, and I've always hated all those people, the pundits, the bloggers, the columnists, people who were cared more about being right about what would happen next, who cared more about looking smart, instead of making a stand for what is actually the right thing. I hate that this whole thing is turning me into them, because it's so hard to care right now,and it's so easy to take the easy way out.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the world, MLQ3 abandons his polite, if not clinical prose in his reaction, and despite his efforts at diplomacy, comes off really pissed. I think he's a much, much more brilliant writer when he's making a stand.

The present time called for a presidential statement demonstrating frankness and courage. The country got no such thing. Having been so carefully-worded upon the advice of her lawyers, the statement, in my opinion, was characterized by neither frankness nor courage. There was no nobility in this statement; there was craftiness, and cunning. This is not what the country deserved to see.

De Quiros writes about desperate measures, pointing out that while we are virtually powerless to make the President step down either through resignation or impeachment, we could still make the government feel the pain through a tax boycott.

I've asked before why we should pay taxes when Arroyo had just used our taxes to campaign (the Pagcor and PCSO ads are ironclad proof of it), when she cannot even protect journalists from being murdered (which shows our taxes do not return in terms of basic services), when she has turned the country into the second most corrupt country in Asia (which proves taxes satisfy private avarice rather than public need). That was well before Archbishop Oscar Cruz brought witnesses to show her husband and son were the godfathers of jueteng and Sammy Ong brought out The Tape to show she was the godmother of cheating.

That isn't legal and moral ground for a tax boycott?

- posted by jaemark @ 6/28/2005 01:52:00 AM