One of the house helpers left for her hometown this morning for a week long vacation. And she woke me up at around 8.00 a.m. to say she was going. I tried to go back to sleep but, a few minutes later, there was the sound of a tricycle. Our house helper’s ride. Then, high pitched voices. That was when I got up and opened the front door.
The house helper had boarded the tricycle, the other helper and the temp were there seeing her off, and Speedy was standing beside his pickup, growling with one hand on his hip. My goodness, I didn’t have any word to describe the look on his face. The tricycle driver just told him why he would have a nearly impossible time driving to work. A portion of Circumferential Road was closed to traffic because Gloria Arroyo was arriving to inaugurate the new Provincial Capitol of Rizal, a two minute drive from our subdivision. AS though closing the road to traffic was not enough security measure, a helicopter hovered over the the Provincial Capitol all the while that La Gloria was there.
Worse, the crowd that arrived for the event could not fit in along the portion of the road that had been closed to traffic — they had spilled over to peripheral roads including the one leading to our subdivision. It was a huge parking lot out there where there used to be a road. It was a mess. I was wondering how the school service would manage. Sam and Alex were on half-day schedule today until Friday and I worried if all the strange vehicles would be gone by the time they were due to arrive home.
And when they did arrive home, they were cringing at the streamers and banners they passed through, all declaring praise and gratefulness for La Gloria. Wow, so there was an entire circus for the occasion, paid crowds included.
Then, comes the part when we had to leave the house and drive down the hill. We passed right in front of the Provincial Capitol, drove a few meters and… guess what? The area was still crawling with soldiers. THREE TANKS, at the very least. She needed a hovering helicopter, a road closed to traffic, her personal security detail and three tanks of soldiers to inaugurate the Provincial Capitol? My goodness, she must feel so many people hate her.
By afternoon, the horror stories from acquaintances who had to to plow through all that came pouring in. Apparently, all cops were at the Capitol and there was no one to man the areas where traffic was rerouted. And the tricycles, like water weaving through any crack it passed, made it impossible for private vehicle owners to navigate the streets.
One neighbor, a bank manager, told us how it took her an hour to drive to work when she manages that stretch in less than half the time on ordinary days. In her frustration, she screamed at the cops and soldiers and berated them for not attending to the needs of the residents that their security measures have inconvenienced beyond words.
Speedy said what if today you were on your way to a chance of a lifetime and you didn’t get there because the preparations for the inaugural did not include some consideration for the public? Yeah, I said, like Samuel Jackson in Changing Lanes who lost custody of his child because a road incident made him late for the court hearing. I mean, okay, so they have to have those security measures because they feel a lot of people out there want to hurt Gloria Arroyo (and I can’t say that’s a wrong assessment), but, hell, the lives of the rest of us don’t stop just because she’s in town.
And then comes the last straw. When we drove back home, as we made a right turn to the road leading to our subdivision — the same road that served as a makeshift parking area for the Manila crowd that came with La Gloria — we had to weave through sharp edged ROCKS the size of two fists left in the middle of the road. Yes, rocks! Speedy says rocks used as wedges under car tires so the parked vehicles wouldn’t roll down the steep road. And the rocks were just left there. For the residents to clean up unless they want their tires blowing up if they ran the rocks over.
Sheesh, the Provincial Capitol was already operational before today — before the big show this morning. Employees from the old Pasig Kapitolyo had already moved to this new one weeks ago. And a Provincial Capitol is a Provincial Capitol with or without the inauguration. And an inauguration will still be an inauguration without or without the circus and all the attendant inconvenience.
The biggest irony, taxpayers’ money paid for all those inconveniences — the local cops who acted all morning like the city of Antipolo had shrunk and confined to the area around the Provincial Capitol, the helicopter hovering like a guardian angel (Lucifer was an angel, wasn’t he?), the tanks, the people chanting for La Gloria…
I really hate that woman. I don’t trust her nun commissioner pa lang siya ng Bureau of Immigration lalo na ngayon. For me she’s a publicity-hungry politician. Kumain lang ng galunggong naka-headline na. Sabagay, it’s not her fault if journalists are so babaw and find that eating galunggong with bare hand is worthy of a headline.
The place where I live now, government officials doesn’t have bodyguards even drivers. They mingle with people. They line up to buy their lunch. They don’t say “don’t you know who I am”. Politics here is not perfect but I wonder when scenarios I mentioned above would happen in the Philippines.
A helicopter???? Gawd! Ugh! I feel like gagging right now! OA to the highest level!
[deleted] talaga yan, kaya nga kahit anong beg niya na makabeso beso si obama o kaya daan ka naman ng pinas hillary, pls… di siya pansin, gamitin mo na lang pera ng bayan pambayad sa crowd mo…
Hi Danica, sorry had to delete the first word of your entry. Libelous. Anyway, we got your drift.
dapat pinaabot mo’to sa column mo para mas makarating sa mga kinauukulan. no further comment, nakakapagod mag-comment sa mga ganyang politiko at mga feeling taong achuchuchu!!!
Eh panis na ito by Tuesday. Couldn’t get enough info naman yesterday to make it to the deadline.
I hope the Inaugural went well and there’s a decent picture of her….LOL
You know, that’s the strange thing. 12 hours after the inaugural, I still couldn’t find reports in online newspapers and news sites.
Whuuut? What aas the point of the helicopter then? You’d think it’ would serve as La Gloria’s own paparazzi escort for overhead shots…. LOL.
Speedy says to make sure no one else can enter the air space. As in another helicopter with an assassination squad can come flying in? Something.
So, does this mean mas juicy news item ang pagkamatay ni Francis Magalona kesa sa kanya? Francis M is already on the net minutes after Eat Bulaga announced he passed away.
sorry for her “loyal” supporters, i don’t have any good word for her.
And residents of Rizal had to wake up early pa naman to make it to work(If Makati or Ortigas) on time. Were there notices before the traffic rerouting? Grabeng abala!
You know, that was what bugged me. I was out the day before, driving all over town running errands and SAW NO NOTICES ABOUT TRAFFIC REROUTING.
what do i hear?? ONLY in the phils?
i’m sorry for what you went through today,guys…
hehehe.. ur article reminded me of last year when La Gloria came to our industrial complex here in bulacan to check upon the warehouse where books from DepEd were placed before distribution in this province… DAYS Before her arrival,banners were put up;SOLDIERS were posted at the gates & inside the compound (as in, dito sa compound natutulog ung mga sundalo for a week); tinabunan pa ung isang bakanteng lupa para makalapag ang kanyang helicopter (yep, she came by heli); and,we, who came here to work everyday was subjected to strict inspection by the Soldiers…. to think, i didn’t even read about that in the news.. sana man lang may exposure kami, hehehehe…..
Ay naku brings back memories. Two years ago I was home with the family, nagpapamigay daw nang titulo nang lupa si Gloria. Grabe din ang military presence and yes, she came in a helicopter.
Ang kinaiinis ko (hanggang ngayon pagnaaalala ko), ang daming “thank you kay GMA” propaganda! Yes our house stood on government-owned land but like all those people waiting for the title, my parents and my sisters paid for that piece of paper with their sweat and blood.
Wala kaming dapat ipag-pasalamat kay Gloria dahil matagal nang bayad yung lupa na yun panahon pa ni Erap.
To make it seem like she was giving away the land for free was a farce. True those people needn’t go there and die in the heat, pero parang tinimawa nya yung mga tao.
Sarap batuhin.
Dadah kayo ng dadah pero wala naman kayong courage for change- Parliamentary form of government with a sectoral representation as its structure, Remember?
Saan na kaya tayo with the movement had we had the courage to advocate it back then, like what, two years ago?
Thus leading to an observation of a flaw we have as people, that we lack the ability to value the essence of Time.
Tom, ever heard of the defense mechanism called “projection”? Projecting on others the faults that you keep denying you possess? You’re a classic example.
Talaga? Like somehow suggesting that I am that vacillating messiah, give me a break! BTW, who authored that idea for change? Sino?
So, you’re saying that if anyone comes up with a GREAT IDEA, he should push it to everyone’s faces and insist they adopt it. Wow, how democratic. Has it ever occurred to you that people have a right to choose what ideas they want to adopt and that people have a right NOT to choose change — as they often do because CHANGE SCARES MOST PEOPLE? I am no messiah and neither should you act like one. No one has that right. I’ve done my job coming up with that idea and PUBLISHING it for all the world to see. While you just sit there and what? Agitate people into doing what YOU CAN’T? Wow.
Tom – point of issue is immediately lost in your condesceding tone. Anyway, why change a structure (a very costly proposal) when the nation can replace a person (the electorate did not choose the right one so far).
Why didn’t she just come in the helicopter and be done with it?