MEComposing

Education matters. Or intelligence. Or the strength of your err... connections. Or one's tenacity.

Erap was not a smart President. Some would even say he was a bumbling idiot who spent his Presidency days gambling and womanizing with fellow gamblers and womanizers. Yes, he was not exactly the most competent President to have been elected and his biggest flaw was that he was living in sin.

Our current President was well-educated and is well-connected. I guess one can say she also had a good career to be deemed competent. But whispers of corruption has been her career's twin, in the person of her husband. And now, push has come to shove so she sold out her cronies and is currently using some Executive Right (that experts say is no longer acknowledged) to keep quiet.

But she is intelligent. They say she (or her term) was massively corrupt in the past years in preparation for her stepping down in the 2010 elections, and that these remaining years will be spent on cover-ups and tidying up. Unfotunately, she had to be greedy one last time... with the ZTE deal.

As a fellow woman, she does not make me proud. As a woman, the only very womanly thing she's really done is to establish walls of exaggerated security around her. She's scared, for sure, so she keeps sending troops wherever in the merest hint of a rally.

But now, the people are finally awake... and there's real people power in the streets. Even different Churches have come together.

It was so easy to oust Erap because he was a puppet by so many people in power with vested interests. But I don't think it would be that easy to oust GMA, who willfully worked to be in power. After all, she has paid her dues well in the military (Marcos was only deposed when the military changed loyalties, right? But that's not to undermine the REAL People Power displayed then).

nd I cannot help but feel disappointment for my fellowmen, who were offended by Erap's womanizing and gambling but not by GMA's corruption. At least, it wasn't the people's money that made Erap richer. No one is forced to gamble anyway. But a lot of people are forced to pay taxes. And a lot of government projects didn't bring any good to the intended, and only made a few pockets heavier.

I admit to much ambivalence and detachment from this whole circus. But I am hoping, at least, that whatever happens will be another step towards the brighter future we Filipinos are all dreaming of.