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Smokescreen

Something happened while the nation slept. Overnight, by the sleight of some powerful, evil magic, an onerous bill was signed into law by the presidential hand. It was as though the surreptitious move would pass unnoticed by a people who tirelessly used all avenues to register their protest to the expanded Value Added Tax. Or, Malacañang knew exactly how the nation would react.

And the nation woke up to screaming headlines of yet another sensational, national announcement. A daily event, a long standing, common economic activity that has been everyman’s coping mechanism took center stage. As if directed by some unseen manipulators, JUETENG exposé in bold upper case snatched the scene and the nation was expected to react with awe, shock, anger and disbelief. What was common knowledge that the powers that be were the beneficiaries of the poor man’s illegal numbers game became an issue that warranted senate hearings and congressional investigation and another game of accusation, counter-accusation between the administration and its political opponents. In teen parlance, BIG DEAL!

One could even say there seemed to be an orchestrated move to bury the issue of protest against the e-VAT, the measly P20 wage increase that was a far cry from the P120 across-the-board hike the workers have demanded for, the oil price increase, the anti-terrorism bill that still hangs ominously like that dreaded sword, graft and corruption in high places, the plunder case against Erap and cohorts, and so on and so forth. It was as if mentioning these REAL issues in lower cases in the inside pages could obliterate it from the public mind. And so were a host of other more crucial issues laid out into forgetting. This administration actually believes that feeding the public with diversionary news will make the problems go away. Imagine a child demanding for something she really wants and the wily adult says “Ay! Look at the flowers o, how nice, and the butterflies too! O, stop crying na a…”

You cannot divert a people’s attention clamoring for change. Buried in inside pages their issues may be, this does not mean the issues will not be bannered in street marches and people’s actions.

Alright, let them fight over jueteng. The people’s other issues are still waiting to be tackled and we must not allow this government to just walk away from these. We must not wait in vain. #

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