Comments on: Quo vadis, Philippines?

By: Manuel L. Quezon III » Political ostracism in Thailand

Manuel L. Quezon III » Political ostracism in Thailand — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 04:22:26 +0000

[...] Connie Veneracion debuts on Global Voices Online. The other regular Philippine observer there is Jose Manuel Tesoro who points to a discussion on rent control in Another Hundred Years Hence. [...]

By: joey

joey — Tue, 28 Mar 2006 06:52:48 +0000

I think that we are just fooling ourselves to think that to get PGMA out of the way will solve our problems.
It seem that we are leaving in a constanat denial about really facing our problems.
From the start of this problem I have always beleaved that it would serve the long term good of the country that PGMA “remains firm & holds her ground”.
I was convinced then & I’m always more convinced that the bottom line line was all about a “power grab”.
I have always taken the position that indeed we do have so many problems.However, the real question is. Are we just using “problems” as a ,means to an “agenda” or do we sincerly want to solve our problems?
Actually, it is almost close to impossible to get anything done in this country.Because there are so many interest masked as “false nationalissim” w/c makes every step of the way to reform extremly problematic.
It seems to me that anyone who would like to give this country some direction has to go beyound the “political noise”.
I think a “leader” must really lead the way & every step of the way fight-off all the “interest” that there are around.
It seems to me that there is something fundamentaly wrong w/ our concept of a “popular” democracy.How can democracy ever be popular when the right things to do are never popular.

By: bayi

bayi — Mon, 27 Mar 2006 13:04:44 +0000

Anyone who thinks that a mere change in leadership would be the immediate panacea to the country’s ills is merely deluding himself. Recent history has shown that every time a new leader is swept into power in a wave of popularity, as was Estrada who was voted in and Gloria Arroyo who was installed when Estrada was ousted, the people become hopeful and wait in expectation. When they realized that the waiting was in vain, that the positive changes were not taking place, it was already too late. The leaders were already deep into activities of questionable ethics and were doing all that they could to stay in power.

For every new President who completes his tenure and fails to accomplish anything substantially beneficial for the people, he is actually allowing the problems to snowball to more critical proportions, setting back the country’s progress.

One of the more critical problems facing the country now is that even if Gloria Arroyo were to step down willingly or if she is ousted, the country is not ready for a peaceful transition of power. Perhaps she should stay on *shudder* for the want of better leaders…*still shuddering*…