The Impossible Scream

SOUND AND FURY There seemed to be no end in protest 

EVEN THE PRESIDENT HIMSELF, NO matter how venerable his ascension to the ranks might have been, is not exempted in the list. And certainly not immune to any forms of protest, let alone the lingering Hacienda Luisita debacle can steal a scene from his presidency, as has been the perennial gripe of those whose outlook remains suspect to his administration. He too, despite having been given the keys to the kingdom immediately after his mother died, underwent an early surgery to recuperate the nasty cut brought about by a damaging hostage drama just weeks after taking his oath of office. And, to make matters worse, even the Catholic congregation, who has had a consecrated influence on his family, especially his mom, has joined in the caveat of condemning his support of the Reproductive Health Bill, no matter how venerable his ascension to the ranks might have been.

Somehow this is just a piece of confirmation. It would be fatal not to think of this government as susceptible to the insidious remarks bantering in the streets, one that may have been given a diplomatic thrust from the opposition themselves. But then again we do not have to wait long enough to know that any confirmation against the grain is moot and academic, particularly in a government that takes its flight from a soaring vision of matrimony and martyrdom. A vision so precipitous to criticism even cigarette smoking seemed a significant item in the news. Needless to say, PNoy's administration is no different from the rest of the pack, and those who tried to criticize it are only too willing to acknowledge that his is much more worse, no matter how venerable his ascension to the ranks might have been.

Granting that those whose sensibilities are easily annoyed with political chicanery, any attempts of containing a problematic system of government, which was acutely exposed during the Rolando Mendoza incident, is a potent flame for anything seditious, many of which this early are expressed in derogatory tongues. And for a government that is still working its way through the morass of its former ascendancy, it should not come as a shock to the sympathizers that in less than a year PNoy's act is already battered to a pulp contrary to its imposing play months before taking the helm, no matter how venerable his ascension to the ranks might have been.

The necessity, however, of accommodating some of these issues is a welcome respite away from the formalities of a detached legal complaint. In fact, this is a misnomer, to volley a gathering of a few disgruntled cliques as necessary evil since much of the vicissitudes involved in this complaint springs from the very vigilance of the people, the other end of the trade. It will probably take some time before the Aquino administration could actually patch some of its differences from the opposition, the minorities, or even from the Left, unless PNoy might want to put to rest some, if not all, of their grievances before they germinate into something unbecoming to his office, no matter how venerable his ascension to the ranks might have been.

For years, the peace process between the government and the CPP-NPA-NDF, ironically, has its strained roots after that peaceful revolution when PNoy was probably learning the ropes of his mom's naive diplomacy towards the opposition. Many of the provisions under duress in those talks are under arrest now that he is taking the reins, and with some new complications arising every now and then. If that Morong 43 isn't so sensitive an issue in his administration as far as its immediate resolution is concerned, it could not have been given a blurry picture in the public, particularly in the media, as a burgeoning impediment that this government is already playing safe in concurrence to the issue's previous reception. Which explains why, during Arroyo's term, as a matter of precedence, the government, through the efforts of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace Process (OPAPP), tried meticulously to reward former rebels who place their bets again in the government by compensating them with both cash and confidence and to appease somehow the breakdown of these talks, just to keep the process at bay. And with this alleged illegal abduction of health workers suspected of being members of the Maoist group, any decision pertaining to this standoff will probably make or unmake Noynoy, no matter how venerable his ascension to the ranks might have been.

And so there is no stopping the criticisms and condemnations for just a little while. Although some of the negativity emanating from the opposition are purely political in nature, most of it are only waiting for their dues. Somehow we just can't reason with finality that these protests are merely exercises in futility. If indeed there is a pattern provoking most of these protesters in lobbying against the administration, or if it becomes too nauseating to even hear a verbal slur towards the president of the country, that the implementation used, not only in our political staple but also in our cultural trappings, are in danger of dissolving itself from its desired effect, enabling these problems to resurface again and again, like a rising phoenix waiting desperately for its wings. And PNoy, despite being torn between the "Laban" that he tries to initiate and the laban that the opposition tries to instigate, could only bring in an intense speculation if and when the imminent bull hits the fan, no matter how venerable his ascension to the ranks might have been.

PROTEST MOVEMENT Gripes going green

UNLESS A RESOLUTION IS IN the works, these relentless screaming to the status quo will remain a necessary position to the depressed and the disenfranchised. Like the stammering of the purported financial budget of these state colleges where even students are forced to postulate the parameters of such an act as its mother board, the education sector, no less, is already maximizing its potential to gain interest by minimizing its ability to give the poor, the pedestrian, the proletariat, the possibility of educating the populace at a reasonable price. It is now slowly, and in steady pace, gaining a reputation of being convoluted as more and more students are taking aim at the steps and strings of this academic pruning. And the condition that the president himself, if he attempts to return the favor given to him by that young trailing cloud of voters allegedly responsible for his victory in the last presidential elections, can actually lend a resolution to it by channeling some of their screams perhaps, even for the time being, from the disappointments of his recent policies, no matter how venerable his ascension to the ranks might have been.

Even the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has had its share of disappointments with the government, initially establishing a ceasefire among its combatants but always falling short of negotiations on the table. Some of their members are even taking the initiative of consolidating other cause-oriented groups, as exercised by the meetings of the Mindanaons for Mindanao, as an alternative to the Mindanao situation and as a seminal option for its development. And yet the measures being given to such minorities as MILF are still within the bounds of a limited discussion, that there aren't any real alternatives whereby this particular group can actually participate in the formation of its policies other than being a pain in the neck, so to speak, to the foreigners and to the business community as well. Along with allegedly providing medical attention to the ailing Ka Roger of the Communist Party, PNoys supposed extensive aid is expected to provide the same kind of services to the political pilgrimage of our Muslim brothers so as to remain consistent in accommodating the diversity and the demands of his constituents, no matter how venerable his ascension to the ranks might have been.

But these issues are mere feeders that shape the criticisms hounding the earlier part of PNoy's term, although pronounced quite glaringly whenever an association of angry protesters are seen and heard across Mendiola and in the House perhaps. It may sound annoying at times that a lot of these protests are bordering surreptitiously on some personal jitters arguing against the indulgences of our contemporary politics. It takes on a whirling mutation from unresolved issues of the past that have been left to wander in the dark until such time when it is exposed again in the light of some new investigation almost identical to the problem undone. And because the buck stops usually on PNoy's end, his actions can actually be used at the moment much better than what we could deduce from his attitude about it, no matter how venerable his ascension to the ranks might have been.

So we are seeing the same innuendos, the same insults, the same indictments just as we have seen before. We are still confronted with a stack of recycled recessions, a vertigo of unfinished businesses, that have been set aside for the past nine years only to be defrosted again for our own perusal and reminder. We are, again, seeing that type of arrogance, such as in the Supreme Court's alleged attempt to squash the Truth Commission and maintain Arroyo's safety from any litigation. We are, again, seeing that type of injustice, such as in the Ampatuan's extensive influence in delaying almost every aspect of their case and remaining immune to any threats of arraignment. We are, again, seeing that type of nonchalance, such as in the clandestine treatment of media killings, unemployment, oil deregulation, garbage disposal and other innumerable seas of dirty laundries waiting to be washed. These are just a few of the cracks that triggered a landslide of protests to and from the administration, depending on the complexity and compunction of the issue, and all with Noynoy having the opportunity to save it from its impending descent, no matter how venerable his ascension to the ranks might have been.

These protests, on the contrary, have enabled us to reinvent ourselves from a mere democratic form of state, and these criticisms, these shared recriminations in public have eskewed some of our traditional concepts of changing the system. Like a malfunctioning recorder, or a suspicious harridan lurking behind the door, these intense screaming will keep on raising the air so long as any political constipation or some lousy implementation of policies continue to impress a sustained dissatisfaction from the people. And most of these accusations tend to lean unfairly against Noynoy, even after claiming a teasing analogy of "Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap", without him possibly weighing the other side of the issue by having to keep up with that kind of obstinacy, no matter how venerable his ascension to the ranks might have been.

No matter how venerable his ascension to the ranks might have been, PNoy's government, as has been the case of his predecessors, can only hope for a constructive relationship as far as his dealings with the opposition and detractors are concerned. To think of something else is to court a prolonged disappointment in between, even before an understanding or a peace process could actually begin, and the thought that our own system of government is induced either by a deliberate will of undermining even a group of insignificant individuals assembling themselves for a protest, or treating these same people as nothing short of unleashing righteous indignation, but lacking the power thereof.