Events and Opinion Mapping (April)

Photo Courtesy of sxc.hu

Goodbye ZTE, hello Rice Shortage.

It was a few months ago when the circus in the Senate began. The interesting act? To directly link President GMA to the anomalous ZTE deal. Every Senator has his own portion, unique trick, and interesting questions. None, however, succeeded. The show has been proven to be short-lived, not much different from the Hello Garci Scandal, Fertilizer Scam, Jueteng Issue, Extra Judicial Killings, and tons of other accusations. All were oppositions’ hopes to bring down the GMA Administration. Too bad, political hopes are not meant to come true.

But what will happen now? After the 9-6 vote of the Supreme Court to uphold Neri’s right to invoke Executive Privilege, what will become of the ZTE Show? Senate Blue Ribbon Chair, Alan Cayetano, even has this to say while pulling the stage curtain down: There is no enough evidence to directly link President GMA to ZTE Scandal. So? What now? Aside from the waning popularity of Lozada, of course.

It’s not hard to tell. The stomach of Juan dela Cruz begins to grumble. The resources to fill it up commence a journey of scarcity towards crises, impending to reach a complete shortage.

This is like a déjà vu. GMA was previously in the hot seat for “Hello! Garci, I’d like to commit a lapse in judgment, how about if I do it to Mindanao votes.” (Sorry, what does lapse in judgment mean again?) Then, Kris Aquino began to bleed profusely; she’s breaking up with Joey Marquez. That certainly was more interesting, so the people trashed Garci and watched Krissy.

GMA survived.

When I was young and didn’t want to eat the food my mom prepared — perhaps because I was too busy playing — she would usually scare me and say in an emphatic, clear — really scary voice, “Your tummy will hurt. The large intestine will eat your small intestine until you die.” It was effective. I’d eat out of fear, not of the intestines grinding one another, but of my mom. Surely, if I wouldn’t fear her, or at least pretend to, the next scene would no longer be an appalling persuasive confrontation, but a strong-and-tough-rod-on-my-ass action.

I think all Filipino moms taught the same lesson to their children. Not the one about hitting the child if he doesn’t want to eat, but the one about the large intestine devouring the small ones in the absence of food. This is why Juans started to leave their seat before the TV screen (showing Senate inquiry) and began to fall in a long line to buy a kilo of NFA Rice.

I can see it, the Palace by the river is beginning to rejoice subconsciously: “Alas! My people, you’re hungry? Leave the Senate, here’s an 18-Peso per kilo of rice. Dig a grave deeper than six feet, bury the ZTE dead, and I’ll feed you.”

Obviously, Filipinos can live longer without knowing what would happen to the Senate investigation, which hadn’t shown a tiny shed of hope and ability that it could successfully bring down GMA from power. So, people opted to a question of far greater interest: How can Filipino families survive without rice? This shifting of issues is much more like changing the channel from Hello! Garci Show to The Kris Aquino Bares All buzz news.

Alas! GMA has survived, again — saved by the bell that clangs Rice Shortage.

The next tough question is: In these coming months, where are we going to get our staple food? Can we survive? Where’s Janina San Miguel? Can she answer this for us?