GMA, Pnoy and the Street Boys

"What does profit a (wo)man if (s)he gains the whole world and loses her/his own soul?" 

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

The first quote is from the Sacred Book of the Christians while the second are words of wisdom from the Spanish philosopher George Santayana. These quotes are old but they have become more relevant today in the light of current events in the Philippines, specifically the filing of charges against the former President Gloria Arroyo (GMA)  and her subsequent arrest.

I am not going to discuss the legal technicalities involved here. I leave that to the experts.

My concern is the obvious lack of a sense of history on the part of many politicians and the lack of political maturity of the majority of Filipinos. Nobody is accusing GMA of stupidity. She has pedigree being a former president's daughter. She has a PhD diploma from the premier state university (UP) and a former classmate of US president George Bush. She became a professor of Economics, appointed as undersecretary of DTI, elected twice as senator and topped her second election, and finally elected as vice-president and eventually became president for ten long years. She is by all measures a brilliant woman married to a scion of a rich and landed family.

With all these accomplishments, where is she now? She is now a  pitiful, sick, and incarcerated person with no one to publicly express support for her except family and loyal employees. How much power and money can one have to be satisfied?

Could it be that she became what she is today to serve as a bad example? That we Filipinos never learn? This is something I would like to explore.

To be practical, she was arrested because the present president (PNoy) made it his priority to make everyone accountable. While his actions seemed to look admirable, not a few people suspect that he is doing all these more out  of revenge than  of a sense of justice.  Pa-pogi point is a local term for this, knowing fully well that GMA is very unpopular.

 Be that as it may, won't PNoy realize that he is in office for more than 500 days with very little accomplishment so far? What happen to his Public Private Partnership program? Until now not a single project under PPP was implemented. What about the CASH OUT program? Recently, newspapers brandish results of surveys showing more and more Filipinos going hungry. What about the misused COCO LEVY FUND? Can't PNoy do a passionate crusade to give justice to millions of coconut farmers who were deprived of their hard earned money? What about the victims of the Hacienda Luisita Massacre? Oh never mind all of these, PNoy still gets the highest approval rating in history, his supporters seem to say. It's politics as usual.

Dear fellow Filipinos, when can we learn from history? What lesson did we get from our experiences under the Spaniards, Americans, Japanese? What about lessons from Marcos? Erap?

Kailan magkakaroon ng bahay, pagkain at edukasyon ang mga kababayan kong Street Boys na nasa litrato?

Why Luneta Park?

Some of my visitors might wonder why I chose to name  this blog LUNETA PARK ONLINE. Initially, I decided on using titles based on my nickname JUN.  Junesis was my first choice but it is already being used by another blogger. I thought of the title Junagenda but the word agenda has a negative connotation like personal agenda or political agenda.

Then I thought of some names that would reflect all the things I like to write. I settled on the current name for the following reasons :

1. Luneta Park is the premier park in the Philippines. Any Filipino who have gone to at least grade 3 would have heard of the name. So there is name recall.
2. The park is strategically located within Manila, the capital of the Philippines. This blog site is first a Pinoy site and most of its contents will be about the country and its people.
3. It is a beautiful park frequented by majority of Metro Manila's population. Who would not like to be a blogger whose site is frequented by many visitors?
4.  As a park, it has ample spaces for rest and recreation. Hopefully, my visitors would find this site enjoyable and contribute to developing peace - both inner and outer. I want to cater to the needs of seekers, searchers, and dreamers.
5. The park is a showcase of the country's history and cultural heritage. This blog intends to showcase the same things.
6. Many major activities of national significance are held inside the park's premises. I intend to post events here.
7. There are many tall buildings near the park. I would like to relate the words 'tall' and 'buildings' to success in business which will be the aim and at the same time become the content of most pages of this blog.
8. Finally, inside the park is Kilometer Zero. This spot is the starting point of road distances in the Philippines. I would like to extend the distance to all corners of the earth where the Filipino diaspora can be found.

Zero has many implications so does the term 'starting point'.  At this stage in my life, it is as if I am starting from zero. From nothing, the world was created as claimed by some books.

Pero hindi naman lahat ng post dito ay puro seryosong usapan. Sa katunayan, katatapus lang ang isang palabas na circus sa Luneta. At kapag kayo'y namasyal doon, makakarinig kayo ng maraming halakhak. At syempre, marami ding picture-taking bukod pa sa nagpipiknik.

In short, ang maaasahan dito ay mga kaba-blog-gustuhan tulad ng history, culture, politics, photography, food, fashion, spirituality, jokes. In other words, anything goes. (Iyon naman pala.)

Kung may censored please do not run to the MTRCB.  Kung may plagiarism, kindly whisper it to me. Pero hopefully wala. Kung may kabastusan, okay lang iyon. Sabi naman nila beauty is in the eye of the reader.

But after everything is said and done, gusto ko may kita. Dito ako masaya kaya suportahan niyo ako! he he he. Iyon na iyon at salamat sa pagbisita.

P.S. Sana huwag masyadong i-focus sa writing style o sa technical aspect of writing. Hindi ito thesis. Sabi nga ng iba, "write to express, not to impress." But I would gladly welcome any notice of correction especially sa grammar or on erroneous facts.