A ticket to anywhere

Where are we heading, we might ask ourselves. We ask ourselves this question again and again.

I know because I asked it before and I wonder again now – where are we heading, really?

We may ask it just as Hamlet did in a soliloquy, in the middle of EDSA’s monstrous traffic jam, staring at the sea of red lights ahead of us or when lying restless in borrowed rooms in the arms of the beloved. Or while standing naked in front of the mirror about to get dressed for the day ahead.

But there is no single answer. There can be many. Or there may be none.

It’s been over a year into Marcos 2.0 so we need to ask our government – where are we heading?

Here’s what we know so far.

Congress is divided over moves to change the Charter. The President’s sister and the President’s cousin have become each other’s thorns, muddling further the already dizzying family feud between the Dutertes and the Marcoses.

Senators, meanwhile, are either busy protecting their thrones amid the threat of a new charter or grandstanding in public at the expense of senior citizen bilyonaryos whose crime is inadvertently or allegedly dozing off.

Over at the House of Representatives, lawmakers seem like kids in a game of Simon Says, just doing what they’re told to do. Tell them to change the Charter and they will change it as fast as they can. Tell them to kill a network’s franchise and kill, they will. Even opposition lawmakers are careful and calculated in their actions, you can’t help but wonder where the statesmen are when we need them most.

Amid all the noise, President Marcos himself has broken his silence,  saying that proposed amendments to the Constitution will be limited to restrictive economic provisions.

But as moves in Congress go, last-minute insertions and sleight of hand changes happen all too often. We need to keep a close watch on this.

In the meantime, the real needs of Filipinos, especially those living in poverty, are ignored or, worse, have become something to joke about. Government social workers jested that those begging for alms in the filthy streets of Metro Manila earn even more than they do.

Some employers, usually dapper in bespoke suits and signature ties, meanwhile, are