i played this game before, and was involved in one of it’s first ever tournaments in the Philippines. i used to have a pile of cards (which are now all useless in tournaments because of their regulations which involve you getting the latest expansion to have a competition ready deck. anyway…)

so when i saw this test on a forum, i decided to give it a go.

Take the Magic: The Gathering ‘What Color Are You?’ Quiz.

things must’ve changed quite a bit since then. i used to be a green-red player. hehehe

So the government puts down another threat, this time from Senator Trillanes, Brigadier General Danny Lim, and the Magdalo gang, who holds the Manila Peninsula. (what is it with Trillanes and luxury hotels? You might wanna see my friend’s post for more ideas for the belligerent senator’s next few junkets)

It got a little hairy, lots of shooting, and they drove their Simba APCs into the lobby of the Penn. (I saw a soldier stop for a moment to take a picture of his unit’s APC demolish the Penn’s entranceway. He could be a blogger, I dunno. hahaha) The government came out in full force, bringing in Marines and the SAF (Special Action Force, the local equivalent of a SWAT team) operatives, including a battle hardened group of them from Basilan. I hope the Peninsula’s insurance policy covers “assault by government troops in an effort to put down armed resistance”. There was high drama as the sycophants took to the airwaves to lend their support to the administration, government officials asking for calm, and media people all the while happily hyping up the entire thing.

What I’m finding extremely hilarious from the coverage of this event is that the newscasters are placing waaay too much credit for today’s resolution of the situation to tear gas. It’s standard operating procedure for those who want to take control of a situation without too much loss of life. And the media anchors have been going on and on about how tear gas cowed the defiant bunch in the hotel. No mention about the systematic and efficient way the siege was carried out. It was the tear gas folks. Nothing more than the teargas.

All in all, it was a media event. The networks had a field day with all of this. The rest of us just have to live with the after-effects.

Oh well.

they say you go through stages when you process a tragedy.

for me… i can’t feel anything. i’m numb. my brain is struggling to make sense of the whys and wherefores, all the while coming up with a host of scenarios as to why and how the incident actually happened.

at around 13:20, an explosion rips through the Glorietta mall in Makati City. those who are familiar with the area will know it as the area facing the park square 2 vehicle parking structure, in that part of the mall with lots of children’s wear shops and toy stores.

at first, people were saying LPG (liquid petroleum gas) tank explosion, possibly to downplay the news, but most likely to come with the most “normal” explanation for the event. then other news came in. news reports with the word bomb in them. tech savvy eyewitnesses post photos to their blogs… it was definitely not LPG from the looks of it. no… not this sort of damage. not when you see shrapnel holes all over the place. then names start coming in… names of the people who died from the blast. slowly the scene becomes all the more chillingly real.

i don’t know why people would do this.  to innocent people even. i don’t know.

those who are familiar with this blogger will appreciate his report of the incident.

right now though, i just need to get some air.

another moment in the political history of the Philippines has passed. the Philippines anti-graft court, Sandiganbayan, has charged former Philippines president Joseph Estrada with plunder. this carries the penalty of life imprisonment (because death sentences have been suspended here) and allegedly serves to validate the entire EDSA 2 movement to oust him from office. or so the story goes.

of course, the former President’s legal team has some options available to it, and the presiding justices have allowed Mr. Estrada to return to house arrest in his vacation house outside the city.

the government has made an official statement, which sounded to me like “well now that that’s done, let’s all not get upset because we have all of this stuff we still need to do.” more of the usual crap this government likes to say as their less-than-stellar record is increasingly being noticed by more people.

i feel a little empty. this decision lacked the immediacy and relevance it would’ve had were it given a few years ago. it’s just so typical of the current government to delay things so as to dull their impact on the people.

of course, if the government was above-board about everything, then it could afford to be more straightforward with the people.

ah, c’est la vie. but this story is far from over. this is merely the first gambit in the continuing game that is politics in this country. may we all survive it.

ps: notice that i haven’t mentioned the word ‘justice’ in all of this. despite the proclamations of the government lawyers. i see no justice in this.