foolish juan

Moron 1: Pare, bakit wala kaming pagkain? Ano ba nman yan. Di kayo sumusunod sa usapan. Gutom na kami..(galit at gutom)
Moron 2: Pre, hndi nyo yata naiintindihan. pag300 may ksamang packed lunch. pag 350 wala. (inis at pagod)

I was inside the van with my window half open. Red, black and white banners were hung on the fences screaming the whims of the Filipino people: OUSTER OF PGMA. People wearing white and red shirts scattered themselves in the outskirts of the Congress. Policemen were busy screening every Juan who enters the area, ready to fight back when something untoward occurs. Vehicles without HOR stickers were screened as well. The noise was deafening. There was an atmosphere of fury, hunger and utter selfishness.

The dialogue above was from a scene that I witnessed while we were entering the House of Representatives sometime last year. Even years before I heard that, I already had an idea how our political system works, in its real light that is. But it never occured to me that they could get as careless as that.
It doesn't take a Nobel Prize winner to conclude that we're all victims of deceit in the country that we call ours. These people that we see on television shouting for change, carrying demeaning caricatures of politicians that they want to unseat, crying for passing of bills, angry for low wages, impatient for implementation of cheaper medicines act and showing sympathy for the seemingly underdogs who are under crossfire, are, like many of us, employees. Yes, they are employess except that they are not being paid to submit reports, to inject antibiotics, to answer calls, to take orders, to mix cement and sand, to design buildings nor to teach 4th graders. They receive 300-450 pesos a day to wear graphic shirts with harsh words attacking the president, the vice president, a senator or a solon or to convey support for whistle blowers or heroes they call their own or corrupt officials that undergo investigation. Easy money, huh?!! Disappointing.

When I was still young and ignorant, a teacher in high school told us that these people are heroes because they're willing to stand under the scorching heat of the sun in order for their voices to be heard. Being the naive that I was, I believed what my teacher had said and sympathized for these people, the people who want change.
I wondered how'd they live if all they do is just stand there and shout and throw stones and fight the policemen.They're willing to go home unpaid and bruised just so they could tap the government to listen to what they want. Their love for the country must be really great for them to sacricfice that much. That was then, when the "VOICE OF THE PEOPLE" was till genuine.
But now? To me,these activists, they're heroes no more. Everyone's using everyone. It's simple arithmetic. Big men pay them to shout for his own desires. The paid men in return would rather shout and be foolish than stay hungry. And the others? Well, they just watch and listen.
We're hopeless.

* This does not refer to all the Juans who shout in the streets. I spare those who really want change, not just easy money.