Inutile.

This inutile regime of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo have cut off themselves from reality. They have effectively numbed themselves from the real situation happening in the kitchen, in the living rooms, in the bedrooms of all Filipinos.

And now, this regime is offering loans to poor families, the loans coming from the VAT that has been mining billions of pesos from our shallow pockets.

And even then, loans are STILL loans -- they are meant to be paid, meant to be returned to the very regime that offered help.

And she even has the gall to say that these ready billions came from the well to do! Oh my, does she know that VAT covers almost everything? VAT covers a can of sardines. VAT covers a packet of instant noodles. VAT covers a small, plastic tube of cooking oil. VAT covers a teaspoon of salt. And who consumes a can of sardines, a packet of instant noodles, a small tube of cooking oil, a teaspoon of salt? The well to do? Ask any Elizalde, Ayala, Araneta, Tantoco, Prieto, or Arroyo if lately they have eaten a can of sardines.

I have this theory. This regime, elected out of sheer dishonesty, will cling to power just as they did in "endearing" themselves to the military.

Almost all Cabinet members are former members of either the armed forces or of the national police. Our true, bemedalled military officers are languishing in jails, imprisoned for speaking their minds out.

This regime has also "endeared" themselves to local chieftains, err, local government officials by doling out millions of pesos in paper bags and IRA funds.

And now, this regime is taking the opportunity, taking this very golden opportunity, of "endearing" themselves to the "poorest of the poor" by doling out cash, doling out loans, doling out gifts in the midst of a world financial crisis.

Who stands to lose if we were to scrap the VAT on oil and basic goods?

Who else?

Are we really too tired to wage a revolution against these nincompoops calling themselves "our" leaders?

Have we succumbed to apathy, to turn a blind eye to this scandal-wracked government?

Questions and more questions. It is up to us as a nation to answer these questions.

Unfunny

We can’t seem to find a way to fight off this menace that imposes its unfounded authority on us.

Why is it? To what unseen, unexplained, unbelievable sickness have we succumbed?

The violence this election season is so mind-boggling. The COMELEC, the armed forces and the police seems to have no power whatsoever to stop those unseen, trigger-happy hands. God help us in condemning those fools (the powers-that-be, and their gun-wielding idiots) to the abysmal depths of Hell.

This country is definitely, and unbelievably, sickening. For what can we be proud of as a people? People Power? That was ages ago. Manny Pacquiao? Yeah, as if boxing with lotsa advertisements weren’t enough for him.

We as a people should be proud if we have our pride in the first place. However, we have no pride as I speak, considering the unfaltering count of killings that take place around the country, from the rural streets to the urban jungles. We have an unelected president who has surrounded herself with retired generals posing as civilian Cabinet secretaries. We have honorable, bemedalled soldiers languishing behind bars. We have dishonorable former government officials running for elective posts. We have a former president, morally ascendant over all her predecessors, being wiretapped for unknown reasons.

This country is no longer funny. We have all these paradoxes, and they are not at all funny.