The Philippines - Filipinos - tried to do everything by the book, they tried to do everything exactly as specified by the Constitution, they even rallied within parameters defined by that Constitution as far as the right to free speech and assembly are concerned. Joseph Estrada, on his part, did what he could legitimately do, which was, first of all, proclaim in public that he was all for the impeachment process but proceed, in private, to muster every resource available to block the impeachment reaching the trial stage.
Now the reason Estrada fell in the estimation of nearly anyone can be given short shrift: first of all, he alienated every important sector because of his bad habits and his gangster mentality. It is not true the businessmen and the elite were against him from the start. As has happened time and again in our history, the ruling class of this country loves a winner. They fall over themselves in proclaiming every new President the greatest in history. The businessmen that supposedly hated Estrada from the start were licking his boots until several things happened. First, Estrada wanted to give Marcos a heroes' burial. Then Estrada wanted the Constitution amended. Worst of all, under Estrada, the stock market suffered its biggest scandal. Then Estrada began to bully the media, and started using the internal revenue service to go after his opponents.
Hmmm... amending the constitution??? bully the media like what GMA did to tina panganiban perez and the probe team and use the MTRCB to impose censorship on live political interviews? using gov't money to go after GMA's opponents? Even considering the idea of allowing Marcos to be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani?
Sound familiar?
Yup.
only that it is worse under Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, because mas marami pa ang kasalanan niya like for instance... STEALING THE ELECTIONS! USING the PNP/AFP to intimidate and abduct witnesses or conduct illegal raids! and other stuff.
UPDATE: btw, ngayon ko lang nalaman na isang malaking kasalanan pala ang pag-amend ng constitution. MLQ3 used it as one of his justifications to remove erap.
So anyways, ano na ba ang position ni Quezon ngayon sa Constitutional Amendment? :D
UPDATE: MLQ3 comments
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2 comments:
definitely the little one is worse than erap
I've always been in favor of amendments only if there's a national consensus in favor of doing so, and not, for example, for some reasons being given (erap wanted to liberalize the economy and make things easier for the americans). today, they want constitutional change without their being a consensus, as I pointed out in a recent column -and definitely, if you go through my blog, i object to tying the president's political fate to ideas that deserve further discussion, like federalism, while making it all or nothing (parliamentarism, which i'm not keen on, and unicameralism which i definitely object to).
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