A carrot not a stick

The troubles of over 100 million Filipinos pale in comparison to the troubles of the government over one man that it (government) spends much of its resources to rid itself of this same, one man who has little or no impact to the economic freedom Filipinos aspire for.

Since the day Aquino assumed office, his eyes are fixed upon what he touted as the adversaries of the state to give credence to his acts of justice against them. The moment he was sworn to office, he told of the importance of the stick than to offer a carrot on every empty table of an impoverished Filipino family.

True to his agenda, the stick signatures his present leadership. The symbol that represents his business as a president: To run after its enemies. I sometimes entertain the possibility that Aquino must have planned and intended to pursue the idea of a "government by the stick" to appease the popular passion of many Filipinos for soap operas. If you come to think of it, soaps never lose their appeal, in fact, soaps have become a refuge for many to while their troubles away. 

And here, Aquino portrays himself as the hero who avenges the erstwhile villain, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and her hydras being the root of our heartaches and shattered dreams. And the drama unfolds every day, providing Filipinos a mega doze of reality shows that depict the bold and dauntless quest of Aquino against the contrabidos and contrabidas, the complex twist and turns at every scene and the interplay and play of words of the characters involved.

Really, behind all these drama is that "If he cannot put food on the table, at least he can keep people from thinking about food all the time." so goes my editor-in-chief. We are made to believe that our present ills cannot be cured until every one Aquino suspects to be his enemies are either removed from office or languish in jail.

Aquino should constantly remind himself that he was not elected to office to fix the troubles of the few but to address the interest of the overwhelming majority who placed their hopes in his hands, not on his stick. There is nothing wrong to put to justice those who had wronged the Filipinos. But that is not the only kind of justice that the Filipinos have truly sought to happen in this country. Filipinos seek for economic justice -- the justice that has long been denied of them many, many presidents ago.      

They can put former president Arroyo and his kin to jail or have Corona removed by impeachment or political pressure. They do not amount to anything except to the satisfaction of those who have followed the drama. That it has already come to its conclusion. That, at last, the villains have finally paid the price for their undoing.

But at the end of the day, Mang Pandoy will have to seek his own justice. To find the answers all by himself, alone, why he and his family have to endure the great injustice of being at the doldrums of joblessness and poverty.

Indeed, the stick does not after all stand for anything except as an accessory to the heroic antics this administration is trying to render itself in the public eye. 

Oh, spare us the stick. We only need a carrot.

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