like many said, if
you want to be in an interesting chat about politics (and on almost anything
under the sun but mostly politics), hop on a taxi and engage in a friendly conversation
with the driver. some said that taxi drivers are the true pulse of the nation. arguments
(especially if the gentleman has entirely different views compared with yours),
intelligent banter, a little bit of friendly tease and of course the pinoy way
of personal and one-on-one heckling – all these will make for an out of the
ordinary commuting. i commute daily, used to be via regular taxis, until the shared economy finally got me into
the bandwagon of these 3rd platform babies or in my ICT industry analyst lingo,
early disruptors. these days, most of my daily trips to and from the office are
divided between uber and grab. i must say that the conversations are not that colourful
anymore since most grab and uber drivers are not that into politics, may be on
the quiet side, or are too busy waze-ing their way in a colossal maze called
metro manila.
on my way to my
satur-date with the emmanuel charismatic community this afternoon, i got into a
regular taxi and this manong driver immediately talked about jinggoy estrada's freedom
from incarceration. he continued to say that in the first 15 months of this
current administration, all he saw were crooked and high profile individuals getting
pardoned, acquitted of any wrongdoings, reprieved from facing the full tune of
the law, getting undeserved amnesty and one even being allowed to be buried in
the libingan ng mga bayani with full military honors. he of course was talking
about gloria macapagal-arroyo, sandra cam, janet napoles, drug and gambling
lords and of course, the dictator ferdinand marcos. all these happen while
innately good servant-leaders like vice president leni robredo, ombudsman
conchita carpio-morales, chief justice ma. lourdes sereno, senator risa
hontiveros, judy taguiwalo, gina lopez (isn't it a wonder why dutertards and
pdut's allies for the most part attack leaders who are women??), get whacked by
fake news mongerers, figuratively dismembered by powerful individuals who want
to remove them from office or dismissed by duterte's allies who certainly want
to protect their own interests and push their own selfish agenda.
all these in manong's
own words show "a sad and sorry state of the country, far from what seemed
to be exciting and promising because of the sweeping changes duterte championed
during the campaign in order to win the elections". this manong driver did
not hesitate to say that for the most part of the last 18 months or so, he was
a fervent ka-DDS and would gamely slot in convos to defend duterte from anyone
who has different ideas about the sitting president. but with how the last 15
months have transpired and with the recent developments, his strong belief on
duterte is slowly starting to wane. he now doubts whether duterte will be that
"best-ever president" as it's now becoming clear… his
"idol" is not delivering.
he said that he has
yet to see what pdut has pledged to do. all he heard were duterte's resolve to clobber
anyone who tries to disagree and criticize his moves. what he has so far seen
were duterte's moves to pay his powerful financiers back, his end of the
political barter, in order to recompense the immense capital outlay these twisted
individuals/families have invested in and provided for him. manong driver also
said that it is now becoming apparent that pdut has no firm grip on reality and
is using his tough demeanor to worm his way out of his many wide-of-the-mark
pronouncements and actions. and to make matters worse, it's starting to dawn on
this ka-DDS that duterte has no clear vision for the country, except his myopic
war on drugs, his denial that his war on drugs are actually anti-poor and his even
bigger crusade against his critics. it is now becoming evident to this ka-DDS
that duterte is no different from the traditional politicians the filipinos loathe.
he's as what the term says, trapo… conventional politico bent on nothing but to
protect himself first and foremost, his so-called allies and will continue to
do so since they do not have genuine and sincere concern for the country and
its people.
with talks on duterte
contemplating a martial law declaration and the aforementioned missteps by this
administration, i could not help but to ask manong, "are you now regretting
voting for duterte?" i can sense that the rabid ka-DDS in him wanted to
kick me off the car as if i'm antonio trillanes but to my pleasant surprise, he
said that he's at that 50-50 point. he still believes that he voted for the
right candidate among the 5 presidentiables. but at the same time, it's
becoming hard to swallow the fact that his candidate is slowly becoming a
disappointment because of his several facepalm moves, keeping inept, bungling
and unclean individuals like vitaliano aguirre, salvador panelo, mocha uson in
his midst and having no clear accomplishments yet after 1 full year in power.
no gloating on my
part though. what i'm glad is the truth that there are some reasonable
ka-DDSes, those who look beyond the absent partylines and not mockingly brand
those who voice different opinions as dilawan. these are the individuals who
are gradually able to become conscious of duterte's erroneous steps and are not
afraid to point these out. these are the persons who realize that fanatical
belief of one person is a dangerous thing and believing that duterte is a heaven-sent saviour is 100% false. i hope that there are more of the likes of manong
driver – those who slowly understand that politics, power, administration,
governance are not about a single person… that it is about the good of the
country and all pinoys.
our short but worthy
of note convo ended on a good note – both of us are still full of hope for the
country… that the philippines is a great nation and the filipinos may have a
lot of things to work on but once we finally get our groove on, we can grow and
prosper together.
salamat, manong and god
bless the philippines.
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