Tomorrow, we will witness the result of Former President Erap's plunder case. I think, if he wouldbe acquitted, GMA have to step down because it means, her presidency is null and void. If Erap would be found guilty, there would surely be mass protests. Well, actually either way there will be political and social unrest.

To be honest, I was part of the so-called "EDSA 2". I was there, as a young idealist school girl who thought that I deserved a better president--someone who does not display his being drunkard or playboy. I was there with my friends and two teachers. We were holding the banner of our school. We were only six from school and, yes, our 2 profs. We felt that our president should be a good example to us, the youth. Of course, all the rallies we joined were kept from our parents. We had to turn off our cell phones so nobody, especially our parents, could contact us and hear our screams: Erap Resign! One time, my dad who was in Europe at that time called my mom and said not to allow me to go to rallies because something worse might happen. But could any parents suppress the growing idealism of the youth? I wanted to make a stand and I wanted everyone to know where I belong.

However, there has never been a true political change--there has never been a real nationalist or patriot among the government officials. All of them just want to feed their own ego, to feed their own desire to power and money.

And I thought, the worse part would be civil war and violent rallies. But none of it happened. The WORST part was: I FELT, WE WERE JUST USED BY THE THEN VICE PRESIDENT, GMA, AND HER ALLIES TO FULFILL HER POLITICAL CAREER. I thought having a drunkard and playboy president (or having perjury and plunder cases) was bad enough but having a president who cheats deliberately (Hello Garci Scandal and recent local elections) and drains the money of my countrymen (the underground deals with big companies, like ZTE broadband) and who has several cases of human rights violation (forced disappearances) ...no words could express the kind of betrayal I felt for myself and my country.

Poverty is the worse kind of human rights violation, says Ghandi. And although, the statistics say that we've economic growth since the time of GMA because our money and the stocks market are going strong, the real economy which make up the 80% or so of our country, do not feel it. For one, we are an OFW economy, which means, our economy is based on the number of Filipinos working abroad. This means, that if dollar depreciates, then the money that the families of OFWs receive will have lesser value and harder to manage. Plus the fact that the strenghtening of Peso does not mean a stronger economy, it just means the value of dollar has plummeted in the world market. Second thing, what do we care about the stock market? How many Filipinos can afford to buy stocks? Most of them who could afford are foreigners, so what that does got to do with the mass and real economy? I've interviewed people who could no longer afford to eat even canned sardines. Yes, from canned sardines to noodles to dried fish to "knorr cubes!". Yes, knorr cubes!!! Some families just buy this piece of chicken cubes (6php/pc) which they make as a hot broth to go with their rice in lieu of viand. You call that growing economy?

Corruption is a major problem in my country especially now. Dishonesty and lack of conscience are spin-offs of that.

NB:
I'm not an economist like our President, I'm just a girl, expressing an opinion.