15 June 2005-10:20 PM
The past few weeks have not been really kind to Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. First came the allegations that her husband and son received kickbacks from Jueting operators. And while our honorable senators were getting warmed up investigating these charges, an even bigger issue came out. Audio recordings of conversations supposedly between President Arroyo and a COMELEC (Commission on Elections) commissioner came out. In it, President Arroryo, or someone who sounded like her, was giving instructions on how to rig the results of last year's presidential elections.
But here's the most interesting thing about the whole shebang. Nobody in our country seems to give a damn about it! Ordinarily, Filipinos everywhere would have been talking about nothing except these issues. But unlike the "Jueteng-Gate" scandal against Arroyo's predecessor, Joseph Estrada, people don't seem to have much interest in the present issues. People have (so far) ignored the usual calls from the usual suspects, opposition politicians and leftist activists, for the president's resignation. Maybe people have simply decided to let the politicians do their thing and just concentrate on building their own lives. Or, more likely I think, maybe Filipinos don't want to give President Arroyo the boot simply because they think the existing alternatives are much, much worse.