Hello, Garci?

First She Said "Hello, Garci?"

First she said "Hello, Garci?" and then there was The Tape. She was gifted with a distinctively "her" voice, so she decided not to speak about it for several days. Maybe she thought that if she spoke again, people would recognize the voice in the wiretapped tape to be really hers.

Those silent days seemed strange. She did not say anything about The Tape as if she didn't know about it or even watched the news. Even the kids on the streets knew about that certain Garci thing. I mean, it's all over the country, in fact, it was even all over Asia. Everyday, before "The Simpsons", Star News Asia headlines the Philippines about her. And so there were Garci, and Bunye, and Gonzales, and Vidol, and Concepcion. Then there were Fidel, and Cory, and the CBCP. There was even Kris Aquino.

First she said "Hello, Garci?" but she never hunted Garci to disprove that hers was the voice in The Tape. First she said "Hello, Garci?" and then there were "Hello, Garci?" ringtones, songs and dance steps. Radio stations played "Hello, Garci?" teasers in between segments. Major networks and newspapers nationwide headlined "Hello, Garci?" Everyone knew about it. I'm sure you've heard co-commuters answered their phones with "Hello, Garci?" I'm sure you've heard teenagers exclaimed "Hello, Garci?" in sarcasm instead of the usual "Hello, Okay ka lang?!"

"Hello, Garci?" "Hello, Garci?" "Hello, Garci?"
"Hello, Garci?" "Hello, Garci?" "Hello, Garci?" "Hello, Garci?"
"Hello, Garci?" "Hello, Garci?" "Hello, Garci?" "Hello, Garci?""Hello, Garci?"

First she said "Hello, Garci?" and two weeks after, she said "I am sorry." And we were sorry too.
Lastly She Said "Hello, Garci?"


She supported the US government as far as she thought was right. But a lot of things turned up wrong. "Laban nga natin sa sarili nating Bayan, hindi natin maipanalo, nakilaban pa tayo sa ibang bansa."

She supported and funded the military instead of the education sector and other basic social services. There was VAT but she was not contented, there must be an E-VAT. More journalists were killed during her term than Fidel, Cory and Erap's terms combined. Let's not start comparing her term to Marcos' term. We will take forever, especially if we will compare her to Marcos. Marcos had the decency to declare Martial Law.

Honestly, I don't read the papers so much now like before. I don't have the time to watch the news. But I definitely experienced the transportation fare hiking steep. Sometime like only a year ago, my 5-peso coin was enough to take me from Quezon Avenue-EDSA to UP, until it wasn't. Then suddenly one day, the fare that I always paid the jeepney driver was 2 pesos short. I never availed the Student Fare before. This was the very first time that I felt the need to avail it, but too late, I have already graduated college. On the brighter side of it, buti nga grumaduate pa ako, sa hirap ng buhay.

I don't wonder why different groups call for her ouster, some for her resignation, and some for her impeachment. Bottom line is that it's not only the opposition that would want her out of the presidency, may it be through constitutional, or extra-constitutional, even unconstitutional means. She's done a lot of things to annoy these groups. And she's definitely done a lot of things to antagonize the people.

I know that nobody can be perfect. She cannot possibly light all highways, restore all cultural buildings, clean all bays and rivers. She cannot possibly trap all thieves, gamblers, drug lords, illegal loggers. She cannot possibly give every man a job, every woman a shelter, every kid an education, every family a dish on the table. I know nobody can do or has done those things before. But nobody has thought of the EVAT before. Or funding the military real big time. And though others before her time have family-incorporated government corruption already, or neglected civil liberty rights, nobody has done it as good (or bad) and blatant as she did this time. She might be forgetting that we learn from experience and that the people will not be fooled again. Okay, I might be repeating myself. Or just repeating what you might have probably heard and known before. You see, she wasn't able to do a lot of right things and maybe, just maybe, we can forgive that. But she's done an awful lot of bad things.

And lastly, she said "Hello, Garci?"


11 July 2005 | 11:44 PM