Monday 8 September 2008

The Declaration of Independence Centennial

Such an inopportune year to hold our Centennial Celebration
While a multi-ringed circus performs for the Nation,
With politicians galore acting like inane clowns
Around the islands and provinces, in the cities and towns.
Cajoling and threatening, and bribing, for selection
As the favoured candidates in the forth-coming election.
On our simplistic lives they cause such intrusions,
These Masters of Self-Magnification and Delusions;
Most fuelled by Ego, or Greed, or Liquor or Drugs,
With myriad solutions for our socio-economic bugs;
Long-founded on a Legacy of Graft and Hypocrisy,
And all to Perpetuate their Self-Serving Kleptocracy.

Yea, the Liars and the Thieves, and the Certifiably Insane,
Running for high Public Offices all over again,
Peddling Power and Influence, with Great Favours to Sell,
All worthy candidates for Dantes’ Nine Circles of Hell;
Promising reforms that will never bear true:
To the Detriment of the Many, and Benefit of the Few.

Where now “PHILIPPINES 2000”, our Bridgehead to Heaven ?,
( It ran out of steam in June, Nineteen-Ninety-Seven ).
More Scent than Substance, Ningas Kogon strikes again !,
If El Nino wasn’t enough – a Tag-Ulan without RAIN !
With logging and strip-mining, kaingin farming, and all,
Nature’s been gang-raped, her back’s to the wall;
The Greed of Buwayas has brought our land to its knees.
( Do these Tarantados still think Wood grows on Trees? ).
The environment’s now devastated to a permanent effect,
The Bio-system’s dying : another Victim of Neglect.

A Church of Unqualified Arrogance admonishes us to pray,
( But prayer doesn’t feed children at the end of the day.)
While friars meddle in the Matters of Politics and State,
And change the Alay sa Dios to dollars at Prime Rate.
Our priests go off philandering and imbibe on cheap gin,
Why, even our Esteemed Prelate has the given name of “SIN” !
Their Detractors are Foul Heretics, and stabbed squarely in the back
By the Propagandist Jesuits : the Vaticans’ “Men in Black”.
So now we’re all addicted to the hope that “Jesus Saves”,
And discern this dubious truth as we lie fretful in our graves,
An enigmatic fact gnawing eternal at our rests :
That Jesus might just Save, but only the Vatican Invests.

Our Judicial System is a farce, and a dismal disgrace,
Moving at a linear speed less than a snails’ pace,
Besmirched in Corruption, by Incompetence and Fools,
Only the Passing of Silver seems to hone our Justices’ Tools;
For, in the Layman’s Eyes, through Sunshine and Stormy Gales,
It still hasn’t put the Marcos Gang in their Rightful Jails.
Aye, “Justice for All “ might be the Sweetest of Songs,
But not when Human Rights are surpassed by Human Wrongs.

So, mired in the political squabbles that are truly perennial,
We celebrate our Declaration of Independence Centennial;
Though, in fact, it was all a Yankee Neo-Colonial fix,
Independence wasn’t attained until Nineteen-Forty-Six.

A full century ago the Colonial Spanish were for certain kicked out,
( But unfortunately left their friars, of this point is no doubt );
Then arrived our Liberators - the Americans - “Hey Joe !”,
Who, until the Japanese invaded, showed little inclination to go.
But no sooner was Dai Nippon defeated, scorched, and burned,
The Yanks kept their Solemn Promise, and the whole shebang Returned!

In answer to our protests, one fine Nineteen-Forty-Six day,
America declared “You’re now Independent”, but still didn’t go away,
Until Divine Providence, ( or the Bases Agreement Extension Pact ),
Blessed us with Pinatubo’s eruption, and their eviction became a fact.

Now we can wallow in quagmires of our own designs,
With the Legislators’ hands out in the Pork Barrel lines,
Repaying Political Debts to all Oligarchs and Cronies,
Who provided for their campaigns by selling off lame polo ponies.

But the Peso has now plummeted to the value of confetti,
And my lunch allowance won’t even buy McDs’ vomitous spaghetti;
Our “Economic Tiger” facade has fallen foul and flat,
And more resembles a toothless, de-clawed Cheshire Cat;
Thanks to our Legislators, those Insatiable Piranhas,
We’re still a Banana Republic : with a deficit of Bananas!
Such an enigmatic dilemma to fight adverse financial tides
When our primary exports are Housemaids and Mail Order Brides.
Yet what would our politics be without Guns and Gold and Goons,
And Dynastic Spoiled Brats, born clutching Silver Spoons,
Canvassing for Public Office from their air-con’ Mercedes;
( How much Material Wealth can one take down to Hades? ).
But poor Mang Pinoy is so easily led and fooled,
And now by his own Peers is Misgoverned and Misruled ;
The past Colonial Yoke we have Fought and Overthrown
To be Robbed and to be Cheated : by our Very Own .
Manuel Quezon got his Sacred Wish, ( Ay Naku, Madre Dios ),
A Philippines run by Filipinos – Like Hell ! In Total Chaos !

So, at last, we are FREE, but harbour still some suspicions,
When informed of this fact by our Manipulative Politicians,
Who deny a Foreign Tyrant still rules our Precious Nation;
The ubiquitous I. M. F. : our Curse, ( and our Salvation. )

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