Careful What to Wish For

With so much noise about corruption in the executive branch, many people now wish for PGMA to resign. Still more would like to see PGMA go, even by force of people power if she would not resign.

I am sure people power alone will not make the President resign. From past examples, we can conclude that a President may be forced to go only when he/she does not anymore have the support of the chain of command of the military. Erap ran when Angelo Reyes and the rest of the military jumped shipped. Marcos went away when his General Ver is not anymore obeyed by anyone.

Is this really what we wish for? Do we really like to go through that process, again, and again? And, do we really like the military establishment be the ultimate judge as to who should or should not go?

Imagine the scenario after PGMA is forced out. Should we let Noli De Castro be President? Shouldn’t he go, too? Or, let us say that Noli became President, does it mean that we succeeded in killing corruption? And in case we got Noli to go too, should Senate President Villar be our President, or Speaker Nograles, or Chief Justice Puno? Do we really want to overhaul the whole government, when surely the same brand of politics will eventually run it?

We have been through this path too much already, and we are not nearer our dream of having a better country. In fact this time, it is really like we are wishing to jump from the pan into the fire. Just look at the people who are waiting in to grab whatever is left of our country, the communists, the jihadists, and worst, the political opportunists.

“But it is the right and only thing to do”, some may argue. “PGMA is corrupt and should resign! We cannot let a President go away with what is wrong. This has got to stop. It is our moral obligation to act!

Oh yeah? Tell me, what have we done to rid our country of corruption? Have you and I not paid that policeman to get away with our petty violation? Have you and I not turned that blind eye to that small time public official who won the elections only by cheating? Haven’t you and I turned that same blind eye to that doctor who wouldn’t issue you a receipt? Have you and I not bought that pirated DVD or that fake shirt from greenhills?

And now that we think that the President is robbing us in a grand scale (we do not even have enough proof that could stand in court), we want our country to turn upside down, hell break loose, come what may?

It is so easy for anyone to be self-righteous when surely one have food to eat tomorrow, not thinking that even the smallest economic step-back we take has deadly consequence to the most vulnerable – the poor. No I am not referring to that Erap type of masa who wait for dole-outs from their favorite politicians, but the really poor who may die tonight from hunger. They are there, old people and children alike, under that bridge which we do not even notice. They could be just a few meters away from Ayala Blvd. for all we know.