The ‘Ruling Crass’
| DIE HARD III |
 |
| Herman Tiu Laurel |
I can understand why the Santiago couple should be celebrating, and not just for staying married all these years as officially stated. Both have been through tragic trials that one wonders if the successes they are celebrating are indeed such great things in light of certain tragic events. The death of their youngest son by the barrel of a gun is still haunted by ugly rumors. It never helped that the case was closed after the waiver of the requisite legal and forensic requirements, just like many other unsolved celebrity deaths in this country. Then there is the case of the young secretary who was hurried off to the US after an alleged scandal in the private Quezon City offices of the couple, which reportedly cost a certain amount and a US visa for the dropping of charges.
Jun Santiago has been scandal-ridden for his alleged activities in the Bureau of Customs and in his favorite cockpits, as well as for a certain black Mercedes Benz believed to be sequestered.
Miriam Santiago, on the other hand, aside from her explosive temper and verbiage, is infamous for her promise to “jump headfirst from a helicopter in Luneta if Estrada gets removed from power,” which she later recanted by saying, “I lied,” followed with laughter. She also gets into verbal jousts with just about everyone, including an even feistier lady, Madame Dionisia Pacquiao, over the RH bill controversy. She has written books which have never made any mark in intellectual circles, such as her book Christianity vs Corruption, which is long on motherhood statements but completely devoid of political-economic analyses — a trademark of her vituperations on her every pet issue.
The Santiagos of Matino St. really have climbed the ladder of social status and opulence in this society which, if the Bureau of Internal Revenue really takes its “lifestyle checks” seriously, find little firm ground to stand on.
The Santiagos have done very well while their supposed constituencies have gotten poorer and poorer. But this isn’t any different from what other politicians, most of whom were invited to the celebration, have notched up as a record: Getting rich as the nation sinks deeper into poverty; blabbering endlessly in their respective legislative halls and passing oppressive laws such as the Electric Power Industry R(d)eform Act (Epira), eVAT, as well as onerous Build-Operate-Transfer measures; then hobnob with the oligarchs for whom they pass these to legalize their plunder; and then party even more while the middle classes and the masses, who suffer deepening penury, watch with stupefaction.
There’s also the picture of this oligarch congratulating the couple, grinning and smiling.
The whole caboodle of the “ruling personalities” at the wedding bash clearly has no shortage of such ironies.
There they were all together there — economic and political oligarchs alike. Even Gloria Arroyo, was rubbing elbows with her ilk and reveling in the splendor as a member of the ruling class.
Yet, all of them are mere unproductive “rentiers,” part of a “Ruling Crass” that use power and position to amass all they can, possessing only such values as greed, narcissism, and more greed. They haven’t even for a minute thought about where all the wealth they wallow in come from.
Mahatma Gandhi once said, “There will never be enough of any one’s greed. There will always be enough for everyone’s needs.” If this country continues to nosedive into poverty, it is simply because this “Ruling Crass” prevails. Witnessing such a gathering of the greedy, anti-social, insensitive, pathological, hedonistically rich and infamous members of the socio-economic parasite class without expressing disgust might be mistaken for vicarious enjoyment, if not open endorsement. Thanks to those who voiced their disdain for this display of ultimate social phoniness. There is hope after all.
(Tune in to Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m., and Sulo ng Pilipino, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 6 to 7 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Tuesday, 8 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8, on “Crushing 24 million coconut farmers’ dependents”; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com and http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives) .
(Reprinted with permission from Mr. Herman Tiu-Laurel)
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110624com6.html
0 comments
Post a Comment