June 5, 2007. It was a Tuesday. A day after we visited Universal Studios, we drove to Las Vegas, Nevada. From Santa Monica and the Los Angeles area of Southern California, we were on the road for a couple of hours through the vast inland desert.

Halfway through, we dropped by an outlet store in what seemed like in the middle of nowhere in the town of Barstow. The place was semi-deserted, and it felt like there was a mild sand storm what with the strength of the wind that was blowing that time.

We arrived in Las Vegas a little before 8 in the evening. We checked in at Paris Hotel then walked outside for a bit. We went to have dinner with my mom’s friend who lived in Las Vegas. We ate at Todai, a Japanese buffet restaurant in Mile High below Planet Hollywood Hotel and Casino.

When I think of Vegas, I think of strippers and gambling and all that so I didn’t feel quite comfortable being with my parents in Vegas.

June 4, 2007. The plan was to spend the day at Universal Studios Hollywood. Before proceeding to the infamous theme park, we dropped by a Catholic church (because my parents felt guilty that we didn’t attend mass the previous day), then, we picked my godmother up in Los Angeles, where she’s working as a caregiver. I actually missed her. It made me feel a little bad that she had to leave the Philippines and work as a caregiver two years ago.

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June 3, 2007. This was a relatively lazy Sunday. We stayed home most of the morning. While my parents went to do the groceries for breakfast and lunch, my brother and I stayed and watched TV, amused of all those amazing HDTV features available at the apartment.

After having home-cooked lunch, we headed off to the commercial district of Sta. Monica for my parents’ shopping. While my parents were at Macy’s, I strolled down to the beach and took some photos. After quenching their commercial thirst, my family joined me at the beach a few blocks from the department store. We had some churros while strolling.

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June 2, 2007. So, from Paso Robles, we continued driving all the way to Santa Monica in Southern California where Auntie Lydia’s daughter (which makes her my third cousin) lives. It was quite embarrassing. There we were, crashing her and her husband’s apartment with tons of luggages, and we (except for my mom) have never met her before.

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Today, for the first time, I shall vote for public officials through the barangay elections. The barangay government is said to represent the national government in delivering many of its basic services. It serves to provide the presence of the government at the grassroots level. Mong Palatino writes in his blog, “While national politicians can afford to neglect the daily tribulations of the people, barangay officials attend to these mundane concerns. May rumble sa kanto. Nag-away ang mag-asawa. May snatcher sa palengke. Kailangang may mag-ayos ng trapik sa parada. May hindi nagbayad ng utang. May gulo sa hatian ng lupa…”

However, because of the inefficiency in the delivery of many government services, those like us who belong to the urban petty bourgeois, and the rest who can afford it, have come to dispose of much of our reliance on the barangay government. I honestly can’t think of how our barangay council has eased our family’s life. The barangay is there to cater to those who need it. It also serves as one of the many illusions that our democratic system of government works.

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October 18, 2007. I had a Mass Media Law exam scheduled the next day, but I decided to go ahead and join Ivan, Nino, and Gideon to Las Haciendas in Laurel, Batangas. The place is a large and budding real estate development on what is apparently a large estate by a prominent landowning family. It initially bothered me how the extent of its area covers much of the town of Laurel, even including public offices within its private control and how its development will displace hundreds of local families who have lived in the area for centuries. I will not claim to know much of the history and the exact details but it to me, it felt like it had the makings of a classic land ownership and feudal relationship issue dating from the Spanish period. Before I could raise the question to our hosts, however, we were told that the long-time peasant residents of the estate will indeed be displaced but will be offered socialized housing. Because we were hosted and toured for free, I will not be an ingrate and I’d rather say that that was fair enough for me, and I shall keep my reservations for now.

Anyway, Las Haciendas is a real estate development that claims to offer urban families and retirees a pampered ‘provincial life’, with their own farm lots and resorts where they can cultivate their own fruit trees and other such plants, and build their dream weekend getaway homes.

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June 2, 2007. After my family’s wine tasting spree, we drove to Paso Robles’ town proper. Paso Robles is another small quiet town in central California’s wine country. We had lunch at this quaint French restaurant, where I had a pricey plate of seasoned fish fillet.

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The controversy over the millions of pesos Malacanang apparently doled out to hundreds of local executives and congressmen is sickening. How brazen can they get? While our government’s social services sector is is suffering from insufficient budget allocations, here are the powers-that-be doling out millions of pesos as Christmas gifts. And they dare admit it to be a normal course of habit?

For years, I’ve resigned to the idea that the prevailing order is so entrenched and has successfully used our democratic system of government to their advantage that in order for the majority of our people to truly liberate themselves from poverty and oppression, we have to junk the system altogether and start with an alternative.

Friends who disagree with me always pin their hopes on our elections. Elections work, they say. As if we all don’t know that our elections is just a game the few powerful and wealthy play. Sure, it does work sometimes. Granted, there are cases like Ed Panlilio who was able to win the governorship in Pampanga, or Grace Padaca in Isabela, or even cases like Antonio Trillanes IV’s senatorial victory. And of course, there are the victories of progressive party list groups in the House of Representatives.

True, cases of Ed Panlilio and Grace Padaca are indeed inspiring. Perhaps, indeed one does not need to be wealthy or part of the ruling class or be their pawns to participate and win elections. But let us not be deceived, because Panlilio and Padaca are few and far between. Their victories are unsustainable. For every Panlilio or Padaca, there are hundreds of trapos who win and will continue to win their game called elections. For every Anakpawis or Bayan Muna, there are tens of other bogus trapo-fronts who dubiously get elected. And as these few disturb the prevailing rotten order, expect the ruling class to buy them, silence them, and if all else fail, eliminate them–the same way they’re eliminating those from the more radical side, in the streets, in picket lines, in peasant communities, and in the mountains.

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