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Show must go on! (Tuloy ang ligaya!) [PJI editorial 8 September 2005]

Show must go on!

THOSE clutch of full-page ads that saw print in several broadsheets before the House of Reps went on vote the other day must have cost a lot of money. It was earnest money to convince us chaos could erupt if Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is ousted.

Some pockets must have erupted and there flowed cash—that we know.

Money talks and it’s the dough talking through those ads. In that truism we are convinced.

The buck stopped there. We wish that some of those bucks went our way, too, we really could use some—these aren’t exactly easy times and we’re looking with grim expressions at the prospects of the expanded value added tax causing some more expansion of our expenditures while adding nothing of value into our lives.

The people’s reps need not have wasted precious spittle and man-hours to explain their stand. We can understand any lapse of judgment. We can comprehend how sorry they are at turning up (after a record-setting session) a set of numbers we can’t even ply at lotto or jueteng—158-51 is an atrocity we dare not divine for secret significance.

We didn’t exactly enjoy the show—too few clowns were there and they didn’t do too many pratfalls or farted through their mouths to keep us in stitches, even cause a teeny-weeny dent on our collective attention deficit disorder.

There was too scant dramatic pomp and splendor for a 250-member cast that couldn’t even entertain the electorate that sent ‘em there.

There were no memorable sound bites, quotable quote, or moving elegiac saying that befits a necrological rite.

The show is uninspired low comedy.

That is so pathetic. We are sorry for them.

Or maybe we had some lapse in judgment. Lapses in judgment can be a contagion and can become an epidemic of gargantuan proportions. What we saw must have been hideously heinous. Horror!

These days, let those grammar school children take a crack at antonyms—they’ll tell you the opposite of Progress is Congress.

And off their mouths they’ll spout hearsay heresy—the Rep. title tabbed to lawmakers spell out as “Reptile.”
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Tuloy ang ligaya!

BUMUYANGYANG na buong pahina sa ilang pahayagan bago nagbolahan, este, botohan sa House of Reps kamakalawa ang kakatwang patalastas na tiyak na ginastusan nang malaki. Malaking pera tiyak para mapaayon ang mambabasa na sasambulat ang gulo kapag natanggal sa trono si Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Tiyak na sumambulat ang kung ilang bulsa at dumanak ang pera—iyon ang tiyak.

Nangungusap ang pera at tahasang pera ang nangusap sa pamamagitan ng mga naturang patalastas. Sa ganoon kami umaayon.

Sa mga pahinang iyon pumatak ang pera. Sana naman ay pumatak din sa amin, kami man ay nangangailangan—hindi naman maginhawa ang panahong ito at nanlulumo na kaming nakatanaw sa pagdating ng expanded value added tax na lilikha ng paglaki ng gastos pero wala namang idadagdag na value o halaga sa ating pamumuhay.

Hindi na sana nagsayang ng mahal na laway at oras ang ating mga kawatan, este, kinatawan para linawin ang kanilang paninindigan. Nauunawa namin ang anumang lapse of judgment o sablay na pasya. Gagap namin na ikinalulungkot nila ang pagsulpot (pagkahaba-haba man ng session, sa sementeryo din ang tuloy) ng mga numerong hindi maitataya sa lotto o jueteng—158-51 na hindi talaga mauungkat ang katuturan.

Hindi kami nasiyahan sa palabas—kokonti lang ang payaso’t ni hindi nagtumbahan o umutot sa bunganga para sumakit ang tiyan namin sa katatawa o magulantang kahit paano sa aming paghihikab.

Katiting din sa drama at anumang kagila-gilalas para sa 250-kataong Kamara na ni hindi makaaliw sa mga bobotanteng nagluklok sa kanila.

Walang maningning na mga pangungusap o makahalukay-dibdib na kataga na angkop para sa burol.

Walang latoy na komedya ang naipamalas.

Nakakaawa naman. Nalulungkot kami para sa kanila.

Baka naman sumablay din ang aming pasya. Nakakahawa ang sablay na pasya, nagiging epidemya. Baka ang napanood ay karima-rimarim na kasuklam-suklam. Nakakakilabot!

Sa panahong ito, mainam pang ungkatin ang mga paslit na nag-aaral ukol sa kabaligtaran ng mga kataga—sasabihin nilang ang kabaligtaran ng Progreso ay Kongreso.

At bubukal sa kanilang mga bibig ang kanilang naririnig sa paligid—ang katuturan ng titulong Rep. sa mambabatas ay Reptile.

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