Eighty-four million stressed by GMA

DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
6/26/2006



What’s this drama of Gloria going to the hospital for a mere “diarrhea” - if that is what it really was. Some newspapers describe Gloria’s intestinal mishap as the result of a “killer work schedule”, but does that hold? Gloria has over two dozen department secretaries and literally hundreds of factotums to delegate to. She has financial leeway over billions of pesos that no Philippine occupant of Malacañang ever had before, a pressure off her shoulder thanks to her budget re-enactment. Gloria’s either a very poor manager or she’s greatly conflicted, and maybe both, stirring up her intestines.

“Acute Infectious Diarrhea” the St. Luke doctors diagnosed Gloira’s condition to be, but others are more descriptive. One text translates it to Gloria being “full of shit, another said “diarrhea of lies and constipation of truth”. Some doubt the veracity of the whole story, as our source in the diplomatic circuit said “It may all just be a ruse to cover up the fact a diplomatic faux pas of Gloria has caused her trip to Spain and Libya to be called off while ruffles were being straightened out. You see, Gloria made an ugly scene at the rites for Spain’s donation to PGH and her OIC bid simply won’t fly right now.

If Gloria’s PR people are trying to create sympathy with the “killer work schedule” spin they’re not succeeding. Three taxi drivers I rode with said , “Sana matuluyan na.” The reaction from the salesladies I asked at one bookstore and one mall was the same; but its not only the masa that’s not empathizing with Gloria as the businessmen and professionals I talked to had one and the same reaction. There simply is no sympathy for Gloria from the eighty-four million Filipino facing debilitating stress and exasperation with the hard life, anarchy and violence under Gloria’s rule.

The “killer work schedule” sob story doesn’t hold water (or sweat) as most Filipinos have “killer work schedule” without the benefit of the good life in Malacañang, all its perks, the golden parachute good to last until Gloria’s great-great grandchildren. The average Filipino family has to rise five in the morning, prepare for breakfast, work or school, brave the daily traffic for up to two hours in the morning and evening, and for starvation wages. Even businessmen, harassed by increasing costs of power, taxes, water, and dwindling consumer purchasing power, cannot have an iota of rest.

So, Gloria, save us the sob story. If there is a source of fatigue and stress for Gloria that’s believable it is the problems she created for herself – her isolation springing from the people’s hate for her that began when she mowed down scores of protesters at Edsa Tres, a murderous pattern of oppression that continues to this day with the murders and abductions of activists and journalists. The disgust and scorn of a nation reeling from the devastation of her economic and pro-oligarchy policies, her corruption, her association with the warlords like Chavit Singson - the list is endless.

After “Hello Garci”, the fertilizer scam, Impsa, President Estrada’s exposês of Gloria’s perfidy, Gloria’s is certainly endlessly stressed from the fact that at any moment more scandals about her power grab, her cheating (daya-rhea, one text goes), her corruption, can surface anytime. Gloria knows that these truths damning her will never cease and, therefore, the honorable people in our society will not rest until regime change is finally completed – like what Gen. Danny Lim, Cols. Querubin, De Leon and Segumalian, Bishops Labayen, Tobias and Iniguez, are clamoring for.

Gloria knows that she is bound to end up in jail while President Estrada is homeward bound. Gloria knows that her happy days will come to an end, and the tiger she is riding will devour her eventually. Her karma is her problem. That is what conflicts her, the source of stress the doctors would just too polite to say. If she expects the public to believe her “in charge” and “all fine” spiel on her third day in the hospital, her pictures showing her bloated face and overdone make-up tells the public that she is far from getting well at all.

Gloria’s is a life of a hounded fugitive, running away each day from her own bratty, confused and scared conscience which even exchanged the human lives for political consvenience – like making political capital out of capital punishment on Echegaray who must be haunting her from his grave now. Karma? One doctor texted us, “Bloody diarrhea is also seen in colonic tumors, diverticulitis or polyposis.” Why didn’t Mike Defensor in the first media advisory that first night of Gloria at the hospital answer the question of one media man regarding the polyp of Gloria?

The other side down under – Australia is destabilizing East Timor’s Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri (supported by Fretelin, the liberation force during Indonesia’s rule) who bargains tough against Australia’s grab of Timor Sea oil rights. Australia wants Fernando de Araujo, whose wife teaches political science at Melbourne University, backed by Australian-trained Col. Alfredo Reinado and a small armed rebel group. Australian TV interviewed a military group allegedly ordered by Alkatiri to hunt down Reinado, but would such a group seek publicity? Dili riots burning down Alkatiri’s home and government buildings may have been “planned attack”, UN mission chief says.