Skip to main content

Iba ang mundo ni Arroyo

ni Ellen Tordesillas
www.ellentordesillas.com
Abante

Tinanong ko ang isang dating cabinet member ni Gloria Arroyo kung ano ang atmosphere kapag nasa loob ka ng Malacañang.

Gusto ko kasing intindihin kung bakit ang mga pinagsasabi ni Gloria Arroyo ay malayo sa nakikita at naramdaman ng taumbayan. Hindi ko alam kung siya ba ay nasa alapaap o talagang sobra siyang sinungaling.

Sabi ng dating opisyal kapag nasa loob ka ng Malacañang, lalo pa sa lugfar ni Arroyo, madali ka mawala sa realidad. “Ang mga taong kausap mo ay sasaibhin sa iyo ang akala nila gusto mong malaman kahit na hindi yun ang katotohanan,” sabi niya. Lalo kay Arroyo na mataray. Mahirap magsabi ng “bad news” at baka ikaw pa ang matarayan. .

Sa kalaunan, sabi niya, “ang mundo na mabubuo sa isip mo ay ang ikinukwento sa yo at hindi ang mundo sa labas ng bakod ng Malacañang.”

Kaya katulad sa kanyang SONA, nakakamangha kung saan-san niya kinukuha ang kanyang mga datos para sabihin na mas kokonti ang walang trabaho at mas malakas ang kita ng mga jeepney driver. Alam naman ng lahat na dumarami ang walang trabaho at halos wala nang maiuwi ang mga driver sa kanilang kita dahil sa mahal ng gasolina.

Ang lakas pa ng loob niya magpasalamat sa mamamayan sa VAT na siyang nagpapahirap sa lahat.

Sabi nga ng isang kakilala ko, kung tumagal-tagal pa ang Sona ni Arroyo, baka nabasag na ang kanyang TV sa galit niya sa mga kasinungalingan na kanyang naririnig.

Nagtataka ang Malacañang kung bakit sa halip na magpapasalamat ang mga tao sa ipinahayag ni Arroyo na pagbaba ng presyo ng text sa 50 sentimos, ay marami pa ang naiinis.

Sabi ng mga negosyante, paki-alam sa m,ga pribadong negosyo ang ginawa ni Arroyo na pinilit ang mga telecom companies katulad ng Globe at Smart na magbaba ng presyo. Pakiki-alam yan sa pribadong negosyo at labag sa Constitution sabi nila. Dagdag pa nila, ayaw ng mga foreign investors ang ganung palakad.

Marami naman sa ordinaryong mamamayan ang naiinis dahil para silang naloko ni Arroyo. Sabi ng isa, “pumalakpak pa ako ng sinabi niyang 50 sentimos na lamang ang text mula Globe papuntang Smart. Akala ko naman totoo. Tatlong buwang promo lang pala yun ng Globe at Smart. “

Oo nga naman. Ang pagkasabi niya ay parang permanente nang 50 sentimos ng text. Kung promo lang pala yun ng Globe at Smart, bakit isinama pa sa Sona?

Sabi ni Commissioner Sarmiento, hindi raw nila sinabi kay Arroyo na promo lang ang 50 sentimos. Kaya pala. Nasa ibang mundo nga siya.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Five Poems by Danton Remoto

In the Graveyard Danton Remoto The walls round the graveyard Are ancient and cracked. The moss is too thick they look dark. The paint on my grandfather’s tomb Has the color of bone. Two yellow candles we lighted, Then we uttered our prayers. On my left, somebody’s skull Stares back at me: a black Nothingness in the eyes. The graveyard smells of dust Finer than the pore of one’s skin— Dust mixed with milk gone sour. We are about to depart When a black cat darts Across our path, quickly, With a rat still quivering In its mouth. * Immigration Border Crossing (From Sadao, Thailand to Bukit Changloon, Malaysia) Danton Remoto On their faces that betray No emotion You can read the unspoken Questions: Are you really A Filipino? Why is your skin Not the color of padi ? Your eyes, Why are they slanted Like the ones Who eat babi ? And your palms, Why are there no callouses Layered like th...
Post a Comment
Read more

A mansion of many languages

BY DANTON REMOTO, abs-sbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak | 10/16/2008 1:00 AM REMOTE CONTROL In 1977, my mentor, the National Artist for Literature and Theater Rolando S. Tinio, said: “It is too simple-minded to suppose that enthusiasm for Filipino as lingua franca and national language of the country necessarily involves the elimination of English usage or training for it in schools. Proficiency in English provides us with all the advantages that champions of English say it does – access to the vast fund of culture expressed in it, mobility in various spheres of the international scene, especially those dominated by the English-speaking Americans, participation in a quality of modern life of which some features may be assimilated by us with great advantage. Linguistic nationalism does not imply cultural chauvinism. Nobody wants to go back to the mountains. The essential Filipino is not the center of an onion one gets at by peeling off layer after layer of vegetable skin. One’s experience with onio...
1 comment
Read more

Taboan: Philippine Writers' Festival 2009

By John Iremil E. Teodoro, Contributor The Daily Tribune 02/26/2009 A happy and historical gathering of wordsmiths with phallocentric and Manila-centric overtones *** This is from my friend, the excellent poet and critic John Iremil Teodoro, who writes from the magical island of Panay. I wish I have his energy, his passion and his time to write. Writing needs necessary leisure. But this budding, bading politician has shifted his directions. On this day alone, I have to attend not one, not two, but three political meetings. And there goes that new poem out of the window. Sigh. *** According to Ricardo de Ungria, a poet of the first magnitude and the director of Taboan: The Philippine International Writers Festival 2009, “the original idea was for a simple get together of writers from all over the country who have been recipients, directly or indirectly, of grants and awards from the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA). What happened last Feb. 11 to 13 was far from being ...
2 comments
Read more