Gloria’s SONA: a super region here, an urban beltway there!

Now this is where my new cybercorridor goes

The president’s passionate excursion through a fantastical country of her own devising, cheered lustily by attendant gnomes, was irresistible. Lemme in there—it sounds terrific! It seems this country had some problems in the past (largely caused by defeatists like Teddy Boy Locsin) but now the trains will run to Cavite and the nation literally sits on top of the world:

We are a great people; honest students and cops; we’ve scaled Mt. Everest. (Everest team takes a bow)

We have dominated SEA games.
(athletes take a bow)

We have won international beauty titles.
(beauty queen smiles and waves)

And of course, punched our way to triumph in the boxing world!
(Pacquiao waves, crowd cheers)

We win everyday in every imaginable job. Together we must take on the challenge to build a new, competitive and peaceful nation and prevail!
(orgy of cheering, hooting -- Summary lifted from mlq’s funny account. )

Watching her deliver this stuff was even more bizarre than seeing it in black and white.

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Those you with long memories will remember that last year at the same forum the president castigated a political system that “after years of degeneration” had become “a hindrance to progress”. The system was in fact “strained to its final limit” and had to be jettisoned. But that was last year and that was another country.

In the intervening 12 months there has been a remarkable transformation. Now the “government is working, and working well”.

That may be news to some. It also raises the question: given that the government is working so wonderfully, why are the president and her allies dragging an unenthusiastic country into the choppy waters of constitutional change?

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The most surprising, some would say scandalous, aspect of the speech was the president’s endorsement of Major-General Jovito Palparan. This part of the Sona did at least enlighten listeners. The trail of blood left by General Palparan through Mindoro, Samar, and Tarlac is a matter of record. What has been debated is whether he is a rogue soldier who has simply overstepped the bounds of his authority, or whether his death squads are agents of state power. The president sorted out that argument for once and for all:

“In the 7th Division area of responsibility, Jovito Palparan has come to grips with the enemy,” Arroyo said. “He would not give up until the people are freed from the night of terror and arise to a new dawn of justice and freedom,” she added.

The president’s comments have been greeted with dismay by politicians on the left.

“Praising Palparan’s fascist campaign in Central Luzon is not only an insult to all victims of political killings and human rights violations,” Bayan Muna national deputy secretary general Robert de Castro said. “It was also an encouragement to Palparan and his likes to kill and abduct more activists.”
...

Gabriela Partylist Representative Liza Maza said extolling Palparan in the President’s address was the "height of callousness and vulgarity."
"She is condoning Palparan's approach. Her condemnation of political killings is hollow, vague and therefore, meaningless," she said.

Comments

[cvj]

I hope that SONA footage will one day be used at the Hague.

[Madame Chiang]

Cracking choice of picture and title!!!

[anna de brux]

Torn, cvj,

When the Filipino people finally decide to bring Gloria to justice for crimes against humanity or say, for violations of human rights, she and Palparan are candidates for a trial in The Hague.