...Sidewalk vendors, and forgotten pieces...

Secretary Neri was supposed to be the guy everyone's talking about right now, not my uncle... We would've been drinking and playing tong its last weekend if these things never happened to him... We would've still been convincing Uncle Jun to buy pizza for everyone, would've still be making fun of his claims about buying this and that, and we would've still been making fun at his receding hairline (for clarity: though he claims he is a "probinsyanong intsik", it doesn't mean that he's rat-poor... this particular "probinsyanong intsik" made a decent living long before this whole mess. and he'd normally make bold and crazy predictions like "ilan bang ganyang kotse gusto nyong bilhin ko, lima?" na papatulan naman namin, until we get to a point where we're already convincing him to buy pizza to which he'd reply: "ilan ba kasya sa tin, tatlong yellow cab? tawag na kayo!". Finally, to this day, though he's where he is, we still make fun of that hairline of his whenever we get the chance.. "Buti na rin ikaw un nandyan, parating maliwanag pag mei camera sa mei ulo mo eh") ...

Secretary Neri started off good, until that "executive privilege" part... until then, it seemed that he wanted change, and then he suddenly made a u-turn... as it seems, he's now one of the people making up fairy tales to cover up for the president... he's having what i call "selective amnesia"... you know what's stupid? with all this mess, the palace still actually believes that Neri would be able to help them... Neri is just someone in the middle now. He can fill in the blanks, but the palace can't make him give new answers, not because the guy has integrity, but rather because he has said enough to give the palace headaches when he went to the senate last time. don't get me wrong, his trip to the senate was palace-sanctioned, so they thought that was gonna be it.. and for a while, it was... But one can't hide the truth forever, and here comes the mess that my uncle is in right now, just because he wants to say it to the public even just before the government or Abalos silences him permanently. And again, they might have succeeded, had it not been for the media who were on their case...

Anyway, my point is, Abalos is a palace lapdog. He made a booboo when he asked for too much as his "last hurrah" as a government official. Joey is a spoiled brat who didn't get what he wants, so he spills the beans. Neri is the clueless government official whose signature is essential for the project to be approved. My uncle believes so much in his abilities that he'd extend his help to some friend even if it is outside his field in the government. FG is just the pig he is, but make no mistake about it, he thought about his wife's political allies, which is why he lets Abalos dominate him, so that they can be assured of some seats come election time for senators. When Neri spoke, it was against Abalos, the lapdog. Now, as my uncle is speaking the things he knows, the government is trying its best to shift the attention to ruining my uncle's credibility, so that people would forget that it was Abalos who started all this mess... By defending too much the president, people are somewhat forgetting that Abalos is the guy who asked for too much, and now it seems the president is at greater fault because she was the one who approved the project and went to China to witness its signing. Now, to cover up for the president, they try to use Neri to put a smudge on the credibility of my uncle.

Mahaba. Nahirapan ako. Main point is: even if it started as if Neri abhors Abalos for asking too much, he is now seemingly defending him by claiming now that he has no essential part in the ZTE contract. Palace officials are using him now to destroy credibility, and Abalos seems to be lost in the background. Palace can't turn their backs on Abalos, which is why they're trying to make him a forgotten piece in this mess, and focusing the discussion instead to the accusations against the palace and the pig.

*******************************
I was watching the news and saw the MMDA decimate the products of the sidewalk vendors. You know what, I don't like them either. They do cause traffic on the streets, and sometimes they even cause traffic for people passing by. And I do like Bayani Fernando, because he's done great things for Marikina, and now its such a beautiful city (his wife is continuing the work, one of the few dynasties I could appreciate). I'm not personally from Marikina, but as an outsider who visits Marikina once in a while, I think they did a good job out there.

But what's happening now, I think, is wrong. Those people are trying to make a living. They may cause trouble at some point, but at least they're not grabbing cellphones or wallets or anything. If you say that one thing is wrong, then propose something right. Bayani destroys sidewalk vendors, traffic might be solved. But what about those people? What happens to them? What does he want them to do? Is he going to give them decent jobs? Is he going to provide for the families of those people?

I understand not everybody can make a decent living. Everyone has a role to play in society. These people's role was to provide us with cheap specialties that they bring closer to you so that you won't have to go to groceries or supermarkets. They are part of everyday life, and that's what they can offer society, because they didn't have the opportunities that some of us enjoy/ed. If by asking them to leave the sidewalks, Bayani offers them instead a place to sell their stuff, then this is a good thing. But by destroying their stuff and telling them to don't do that anymore, what does he want them to do then?

I don't know. I know you've got to have authority in order to enforce laws, but I just hope that he would have a heart in him. Even Machiavelli understands that one must be both feared and loved by the people, and that one of the two is not enough to be an effective Prince.

To Mr. Fernando: Propose solutions to a better life. Don't degrade these people further by saying that this way of living is not decent.