This National ID scheme is a terrible idea

I think this National ID scheme (via Executive Order) is a terrible idea, especially if we have a paranoid and vindictive administration that considers the media, the CBCP, and the political opposition as "enemies of the state."

In his statements to the press yesterday, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita let the cat out of the bag -- that indeed the military has been conducting surveillance not only on sectoral groups critical of the government but also on media groups such as the NUJP and the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism.

Ermita's disclosure, as well as his justification for the military's act of spying on these groups and considering them as "enemies of the state" in its internal briefing documents, is significant because it brings this issue all the way to his boss, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. In other words, "Knowing the Enemy," the PowerPoint presentation the military has been using as a briefing material, is not just the product of some over-active imagination in the military's intelligence service – it is, in fact, policy.

Damn! If the Arroyo admin has no qualms about screwing the privacy rights of journalists, the CBCP, and the political opposition, what more kung ordinary citizen ka lang who at isa ka ring kritiko ng adminstration ni Pandak?

Kung kaya ni Rey Berroya, Victor Corpus, Wycoco, Nani Perez, at Matillano na abusohin ang kanilang kapangyarihan at siraan ang isang senador na katulad ni Ping Lacson -- paano na kung isang ordinaryong citizen ka lang? Paano ka pa makakapalag kung ginawa rin nila sa iyo ito?

The problem with this National ID scheme is that it makes it easier and "legal" for bad guys like Berroya and Wycoco to surveille, track down, and harass their political enemies, members of the critical media and ordinary people who disagree with this corrupt admin -- with little or no restrictions.

I mean, kung si Ramos nga eh hindi niya maipasa itong "National ID" scheme na ito dahil malaking invasion of privacy at mabilis abusohin -- why should we pass it now kung alam nating corrupt at maduming maglaro itong si GMA?

Related:
Read the PDI spin
Dan Mariano's Subverting the Media