Open

I tried to open my mind to the issues that both videos posted by the same person presented.  But argh, everything was screaming propaganda.  Both of the videos don't educate, they confuse. They don't enlighten, they muddle.  In fact, I think I wasted twenty something minutes of my life trying to make sense of it all.

Hacienda Luisita and the Cojuangcos
Hacienda Luisita is about 6500 hectares contrary to what the videos posted.  It was larger before some parts of the Haciendas were hacked up and given to farmers.  6500 hectares is very wide.  Correct me if I'm wrong but that would be about from zero point in Iloilo to about halfway going to Roxas City and square it.  Imagine if you own that much arable land, how much wealth and affluence that would bring.  All claims by the poster that the Conjuanco's matriarch seized lands from farmers to make the Hacienda that sizable is highly suspect.  The Hacienda did not belong to the Conjuangcos then although they already own other lands outside of the Hacienda.  The Hacienda was awarded by the late Ramon Magsaysay during the Huk rebellion to the Conjuancos fearing that if the extremely rich Lopezes got hold of the Hacienda, their political and financial influence will rise to epic proportions.  The Cojuangcos made a sizable profit out of the Hacienda and if you read the history books, the farmers of the land were actually very happy and contented.  They were subject to way better working conditions, health benefits, educational benefits for the children and even burial benefits.  The Hacienda earned a lot but the owners and the heads (which at that time Ninoy was) shared everything to the farmers and everyone was happy.

When Martial Law came, Ninoy was arrested and Marcos wanted the Hacienda divided to farmers, inciting rebellion, to pressure the Conjuangcos to force Ninoy's mouth shut.  Ninoy refused to budge, he got imprisoned, eventually killed and the rest is history.

The Marcoses
The Marcoses are the epitome of greed and corruption.  True, if you ask people who lived then which quality of life was better, then or now, they would say then.  They would say prices were modest, food was plentiful gas was cheap.  True, culture and arts peaked and new specialty hospitals were built.  True, 2 pesos were equal to a dollar.  Let me remind you then how the Marcoses caused the sinking of this country.  You really wanna know why? They borrowed so f*king much from foreign lenders to give the illusion that the economy was well while indiscriminately enriching themselves and their cronies .  Under his tyranny, the Philippines' debt in dollars rose more than a 1000 percent, something that you and I are paying for now and our children's children will be paying for later.  Half of our GDP goes to debt servicing if you should know.  That explains why within 10 years after his rule, the Philippine peso became Mickey Mouse money 1$=25Php.  Ramos' term ended with many more white elephant projects and borrowing. Hello, Erap as president 1$=45php and rising.  20 years after his rule, 1$=56 Php. Now tell me what happened there? Hello, Philippines welcome to the third world.

The Marcos campaign against oligarchy was largely a front for his, his wife and cronies' own desires to control corporations and launder  money under their names thereby instilling a new oligarchy--their own.  Lucio Tan and Danding Conjuanco allied themselves with Marcos that is why both of them are one of the richest Filipinos now.  That explains why the Hacienda was left unblemished during the regime.  During that time, the demons Marcos and his wife have already embezzled hundreds of millions from our coffers into US and Swiss banks in forms of gold bullion, cash and jewelry.  No one spoke against them.  Those who did were found murdered, killed in broad daylight, arrested for no reason or simply winked out of existence.  That the videos posted above claim that worse human rights abuses happened during the elder Aquino's term as president, is  a grossly overblown figment of schizophrenic delusions.  That Ninoy Aquino was the primary choice of Marcos to be his eventual replacement is a dream.  The primary choice of Marcos to be his replacement is: NOBODY.  He didn't want to be replaced after all.  He and Imelda even wanted to turn this country like what North Korea is now, blind love and loyalty to the leaders.  He silenced all media, took over TV, radio and newsprint so that only good news will be read by people.  Never mind that crimes committed by the military and high ranking civilians go unresolved everyday.  So long as they have their dough, everything's fine.  ABS-CBN was taken from the Lopezes (restored by Cory to its rightful owners when she was in power) which explains why until now refer to Marcos as a dictator and not a president. It is mostly, 'the dictator Marcos' not 'former president Marcos'.  The Philippine Daily Inquirer was founded just before Marcos' collapse and was pivotal to Cory's campaign as while Marcos' tried to censure everything, the Inquirer highlighted Cory's campaign for the presidency.  The PDI is always criticized for being anti-Marcos but personally, I think the PDI is anti-corrupt in general which was why Erap fumed mad when he was targeted by Inquirer lashing out and pulling every string to have ads by major corporations pulled out of the newsprint. Therefore, the poster's thought that The Inquirer and ABSCBN choose to intentionally demonize the Marcoses and canonize Ninoy and Cory to change an entire nation's perspective is rather flawed.  The Marcoses are placed into a bad light particularly because they did some crazy shit. You cannot just expect a country you did so bad to just forgive that easily, although with BongBong Marcos' win I am starting to doubt that.

Cory Cojuangco-Aquino, Kris Aquino
Corazon Aquino, reluctant housewife of martyred  Ninoy Aquino became president by virtue of People Power.  Calling the more than 2 million people at EDSA a mere 2% of the Philippine population and not a democratic exercise by the poster is one of the stupidest remarks ever. 2 million people in rebellion against a very powerful autocratic government is no modest feat; to succeed in doing so almost bloodlessly at that is at par with the miraculous.  Cory became president, a weak almost powerless figurehead leading a bankrupt nation with empty coffers  and sky high debts.  The result was many protests from all sides of society, farmers, workers and the military, most of them incited by Marcos cronies who want their power back.  She survived many coup attempts and controversies.  For what it's worth, Cory was but symbolic, a tangible model for the adage, 'Good guys finish last'.  I still believe that she was naive, easily swayed, always seeing the good in everyone.  It tarnished her legacy in a way when she sided with Abalos in the NBN-ZTE deal which Abalos brokered for GMA.  She still believed Abalos was innocent not realizing that Abalos the saint when he was still under her presidency had turned to Abalos the betrayer.  Cory I still believe is a Conjuangco who isn't greedy and ambitious like her cousins.  She is pious, benevolent and lived to and for her God.  She died I would liek to think, still hoping for the best in her country, a vision she shares with Ninoy.

The poster should not have commented about Kris Aquino.  She is being shown on TV not because of her roots.  She is seen on TV regularly because she sells.  It's a simple corporate move, she sells so she's on TV.  Nevermind that, like the Kardashians, nothing of importance comes out from her regular fill of verbal diarrhea, Kris knows how to sell and so producers like her.  Simple as that.

I will no longer write about Ninoy and incumbent president Noynoy as this entry is taking too long. Let me leave you with something:

The Conjuangcos and the Conjuangco-Aquinos are not one and the same.  The former are controversial, somehow of questionable repute while the latter try to exemplify how Filipinos should live under Ninoy's vision (of course Kris regularly does something stupid to undermine this). But if other people would want to paint them as something from the dark side of the moon, let them be.  In psychology, if there is doubt between what you see and what you hear, you would believe what you see.  I am seeing now things that people at EDSA saw.  It was true love of country and in my own little way, even just through this amateurish blog entry, I am showing you how.

Moron

I am always in awe of people who pass their moronity off with grand gestures and seemingly intelligent speeches.  Many of them are usually people who are distinct, powerful and popular.  Here in the Philippines, we have an abundance of politicians who are obviously morons with lots and lots of money to bribe the ignorant poor to vote for them.  Some are just plain dumb and take every opportunity to grandstand for media exposure.  This is very true of former Senator Jamby Madrigal and eternally oppositionist Senator Alan Peter Cayetano.  Others would rather keep their mouths shut particularly because they have nothing of essence to say or do.  They sit there in their chambers oblivious to what is going on around them just because they most likely don't even know the difference between a law and a bill and have no business at all in the first place to be sitting there.  Hello Senator Lito Lapid and Bong Revilla.  Hello Congressman Manny Pacquiao. 

Recently, another self-important lawmaker of questionable IQ emerged and is trending worldwide for trying to stop a trend worldwide.  Essentially, he wants to stop this:

You can read an article regarding the matter here:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/offbeat/story/2011/09/20/filipino-anti-planking-bill.html

Representative Winston Castelo has lost his marbles.  He wants CHED to be like a guidance center telling the students they could not do this, they could not do that.  Planking is a stupid exercise that is meant for plain harmless fun.  The bill itself is restricted only to students in universities and colleges who will do planking as a form of protest.  Planking has almost always been used by militant groups holding protests in the streets virtually to try and stop traffic so that motorists and pedestrians will be forced to listen to their plights until the police will come to drive them out.  Mr Castelo wants to make an impact because he feels so strongly about the matter he drafted a new bill to permanently cement his demented state of mind in the lower house:

http://sowhatsnews.wordpress.com/2011/09/30/after-anti-planking-lawmaker-proposes-anti-angry-birds-bill/

So he goes inside a mall, gets irritated by the fad and with sunlight from heaven washing his face, he has an epiphany.  A realization so grand and great his heart could not contain.  I will make an anti-angry birds bill. Yes, I will make an anti-angry birds bill! Which, if approved into law, means people like this could get jail:

It's no wonder why common sense is hardly common nowadays. I feel sorry for the people of Quezon City, they have a donkey to represent them. Apparently, he is the Grinch of anything that is a popular temporal craze.  With a lot of things going on in this country, with reforms that need to be in place, a lawmaker opts to make bills that are a reflection of himself: a moron.

Hero

I have read an article from a blog a couple of weeks ago which in a way annoyed me.  Here it is:

http://definitelyfilipino.com/blog/2011/08/23/pinoys-who-think-ninoy-aquino-would-have-made-the-country-better-are-fooling-themselves/

Ninoy Aquino was assassinated a year before I was born.  I haven't heard of the guy except that he was the husband of Cory Aquino, one of the world's most iconic women of the 20th century.  I also knew he's the guy on the five hundred peso bill and considered the martyr who brought down the despot Ferdinand Marcos' regime.  Ninoy Aquino is considered a national hero and is revered by those who fight for justice and freedom.

True, we will never know if he would've become the greatest President everybody thought or wished he could've been.  Perhaps his stay in Congress was lackluster having passed very few laws.  Arguably though, few bills passed by the opposition during those times were approved by both House and Senate which lapped  from Marcos' hands and the country's coffers.  Ninoy was a very outspoken critic who fearlessly spoke of what the hoi polio are afraid to say, fearing summary execution or baseless and unjust persecution.  He was jailed, exiled and eventually assassinated to keep the people from rising against the despot.  The opposite happened and the rest, as the cliche goes, is history.

It always saddens me when you get people so cynical of how they view the world, it pulls you down into a vacuum of hopelessness.  I, too, sometimes grow tired of hoping, hoping for the best, hoping for change, hoping to see my country rise and be recognized as one of the promised lands of the 21st century.  The writer wrote well and quite passionately but passion alone leaves a lot more wanting.  He said Heroes are the Opium of the Pinoy, rephrasing Mao Zedong's famous line: religion is the opium of the people.  It is sad that he tried to downplay Ninoy's contribution to the restoration of democracy in our country.  It is infuriating that he considers people who believed in Ninoy nincompoops.  Ninoy, he said, has never built anything and people are just too dependent on hero-worship that they would just be swept by the grandeur of what one man did instead of moving themselves to elevate the country from the muck we are in.  True, in almost all aspects involving our motherland we are in the crapper and true, we need to get a hold of reality, see what's really goin' on so we can move forward.  Articles like this, however beautifully written, do not motivate they demoralize and instead of opening people's minds to the spirit of volunteerism, change and hope, you further deaden them.

Believe what you want to believe.  But I know that everyday, everybody hurts.  Some hurt more than others but everybody hurts nonetheless.  Some would take refuge in prayer, in charity, drugs, alcohol, sex, work and many more.  And whatever way that would help my people's pain go away is not something I shutdown.  I will not take away from someone whatever it is that helps him get through the pain of everyday, so long as what he's doing is right.  If, my friends, for one day every year, people will look towards Ninoy's picture and beam with hope and pride, it is not their fault and it is not naivety.  Rather, it is commendable, a sure sign that my people haven't lost their will, that my people have a spirit unbroken despite all odds.  And when one day all of us think that way, there will no longer be "regular Filipinos", we will all be heroes.