Groceries in lieu of classrooms: Handog ni Arroyo sa mga Pilipino

Happy na sana ang Pasko. Sino ba naman ang di matutuwa sa balita galing sa Malacanang: PGMA leads gift-giving rites at DepEd to some 2 million schoolchildren nationwide.

For years, marami ang kulang sa mga public schools: tens of thousands of teachers, a hundred thousand of classrooms, books and other school facilities. But reading on, eto ang bumulaga: Assisted by Education Secretary Jesli Lapus, the President distributed the red gift bags containing rice, groceries, educational toys, school supplies and reading materials at the Bulwagan of the Department of Education (DepEd) in Pasig City to some 600 public schoolchildren, including those from the Philippine School for the Blind, Philippine School for the Deaf, and Muslim communities.

Teka, teka, teka. Kala ko de-kalidad na edukasyon ang gawain ng DepEd. Ba't mukhang pang-DSWD na? Bakit groceries? Di ba puwede kahit additional na titser para di na 3 shift ang mga paaralan? Di ba puwede dagdag na classroom, para wala ng siksikan? O kaya sapat at me kalidad na aklat para me laman ang utak?

Wala namang problema sa pamimigay ng grocery. Pero ba't DepEd at di DSWD? Quoting Doy: Ganito na ba talaga ang country?

Anyway, Merry Christmas na lang po. Umasa na lang po tayo na sa panaginip, matutupad na ang pangarap ni Buknoy... na next year, me silya na sa classroom nila pra di na siya uupo sa sahig.

Senators on the move... err, movie

First, congratulations to Senators Bong Revilla and Jinggoy Estrada for their movies "Resiklo" and "Katas ng Saudi", respectively. And they are very active these days not in the halls of the Senate but in the televisions to promote their work.

But does this mean libre na tayo sa sinehan? Hmmmnn... And does this mean, the best na ang performance nila sa Senado?

Something is really amiss here. Revilla and Estrada are senators. I remember in our history class and I saw in a pirated DVD entitled "Rome" that eversince, senators are bound to help legislate laws, not to produce or act in movies. Are movies now the laws? It seems that my dictionary had been left behind.

Assuming that the term "laws" now refer to "movies", what are the social and economic significance of these "laws"? In the case of Revilla's "Resiklo", does his law means we "recycle" and create robots and make wars? Ganun ba yun? Or Estrada's Katas ng Saudi means we go for "drama"?

Kakalito naman. Can somebody help and tell in what dimension am I? As far as I know, movies are movies and laws are laws...

Broken Windows and Broken Doors

Marami ang nagtatanong via e-mail: Bakit nawala si Tikboy after the Manila Pen Seige? Nakasama rin ba siya sa mga hinuling journalists at media practitioners na parang baboy na tinalian at dinala sa slaughterhouse... este, sa Bicutan?

Sorry, hindi po. Medyo nagasgas lang pong masyado ang kanyang keyboard sa kasusulat.

Anyway, there is an interesting story which tries to link how the broken windows theory has further deteriorated the administration of Gloria Arroyo. The piece is entitled: From Broken Windows to a Broken Administration and can be accessed at www.politech.blogspot.com.

Kaya siguro mas lalong bumaba ang rating ng administrasyon dahil pinto na winawasak nila. Hmmnnn... :)

But kidding aside, the seige was a loose-loose situation for Malacanang. It bared how dissatisfied the people are against the sitting president. In streets, for example, many are cursing Senator Antonio Trillanes not because he has staged a putsch but because he easily surrendered thereby failing the expectations of an Arroyo government overthrown. Corroborating this is the fact that many civilians have expressed their willingness to participate (with a number who even participated already) despite the fact that the show was designed to be an all-military affair.

According to whispering spirits, the show was just to test the preparedness of the government. And the Manila Pen cast did really find out how the reaction was and would be. In a sense, the show was a success in itself-- revealing the weakness of the administration.

Third, the show also scored high against the administration. Even ordinary people -- whether streetboys or homebuddies -- are united in saying that the administration's response was an overkill. With 30 men to be crippled, the government used battalions of the PNP and the AFP -- ain't that an overkill? They even destroyed the doors of the Manila Pen, arrested and detained the media and imposed a martial law-like curfew.

With these brewing in the polity, the Arroyo administration should therefore step back and make a necessary introspection. Baka nga di nila nasasagot ang pangangailangan ng mga tao. Baka patchy palliatives lang ang ginagawa nila. Worse, baka nga kailangan na nilang mag-resign.