I remember the atmosphere at UP around the time of the infamous second evelope at Erap’s trial. Even the normally apathetic Engineering students were being woken out of their political stupor by outrage at the turn of events by the Estrada-friendly senators. Everywhere you go in UP, people would be asking you if you were coming to the big rally on EDSA.
Today? Today, the conversations are like this:
“Mag-gimik dapat kami bukas sa Makati eh… "
“May rally daw bukas ah?”
“Oo nga, bad trip nga eh”
That’s the biggest problem facing the power-hungry vultures looking for a quick way to oust Gloria. Right now, people just don’t care. At least not the people that matter, not the average middle-class joe too busy earning a living, yet not poor enough to be part of a hakot crowd. The current crisis has apparently not yet reached it’s breaking point, despite the calls from different sectors for Gloria’s head.
Why not impeachment, which is a legal avenue made available by the 1986 constitution specifically for such situations? The opposition argues that it is an administration trap, that her allies would merely squelch the investigation. This is madness. The administration would not dare do such a thing, as they know full well the trigger of Erap’s downfall was the second envelope fiasco, and any similar attempt at whitewash would be too much of a risk. One of the reasons why not many people aren’t too enthusiastic about extraconstitutional methods – they haven’t even tried the legal remedies yet. When those remedies fail, then maybe, just maybe, people might start caring about it.
You want to read more opinions? Try my brother Alvin. Or maybe his friend Rey, who seems to be a rather angry young man, yet somehow still comes off as more rational than some of the other participants in this debacle whoa re at least 30 years his senior.
See Also