A timeline: Allegations of Jueteng pay-offs hound the president and family. Massive graft and corruption in government stalls economic growth. Church leaders and civil society threaten to oust the president. Cabinet members resign. Seeking political survival, the president proposes charter change. The president and family are implicated in charges of graft by witnesses. Impeachment complaints are filed in congress. Jueteng is proposed to be given a legalized makeover and a new name. The coveted SBMA chairmanship is lusted for. Malacanang influences members of the House to kill off impeachment. Moro-moro occurs in Congress. Left without a venue for justice, the people take to the streets.

Although the above statements sound very familiar, they are not from today’s broadsheets. They are not even headlines of the past months since the explosion of the Jueteng-gate and Garci-Tapes scandals. They were the headlines during the previous administration, circa 1999 to 2001.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Is there really such a thing as change in this country? Or are we mere captive audiences to a sarswela that has no end? For what else do you call the same, awful comedy that keeps playing over and over again? The names and faces of the thespians may have changed, but it’s the same script, the same feature, the same unholy tragedy. The actors continue to play their parts with gusto, never mindful that the audience they are playing for, that is the Filipino people is slowly withering away with neglect. Our politicians have been so busy in theatrics and selling their souls that they have failed in everything they were elected to do.

Meanwhile, this administration, which once professed to be as different as light and day with the one it overthrew, is now employing the very same strategies, the very same desperate attempts to stay in power. It had once assumed a holier than thou façade of being heads and shoulders higher in moral standing than the one of Erap, and yet today it is embroiled in allegations much worse than its predecessor.

“A political problem requires a political solution... It pains me to say that the only solution is resignation.”

No, these words are not of some Opposition senator or young minority congressman. These words were uttered by none other than Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in year 2000, two months before she assumed office.

What is good for the goose, is good for the gander. In speaking about a president that was elected with the biggest margin in history, by a president whose mandate is still being questioned to this day, it is but a simple matter for GMA to take her own advice.

Instead, in this ironic and historical reversal of roles, Gloria and the people who once called for the disregarding of the rule of law are the very ones who are now hiding behind it. The ones who once upon a time took to EDSA, now discourage people from street protests and say impeachment is the way to go. The same ones who once said morality is more important than quantity, are the very ones who now say “it’s a numbers game.”

In a land where “truth” is a matter of perspective, and “justice” is for sale to the highest bidder, how can we expect anything but more of the same lines, the same promises and the same lies told over and over again, only by different people? This is the song that never ends, for it just goes on and on, my friend.

As a Filipino, I cannot help but feel that we are stuck in that same eternal refrain. A nightmarish case of déjà vu, from which there is no escape, no reprieve nor intermission. It is Groundhog Day here everyday. Each night we sleep uncertain of what tomorrow will bring, and each morn we wake with more politics and lesser governance. We have changed governments and yet nothing else has changed, the constant being that the plight of the Filipino people keep going from bad to worse.

Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it, they say. Case in point. Jueteng brought down the last one. This one today is not only accused of also being a Jueteng beneficiary, but is moreover, accused of stealing the presidency. Seemingly unable or unwilling to destroy a vice that makes Pedro poorer, she resorts to the same tactic of her predecessor: renaming Jueteng and legalizing it. Erap once proposed that Jueteng be called Bingo Two Ball. Gloria today proposes it be called Bingo Combo or some other moronic name of the same numbers game. They should both review their Shakespeare. A rose by any other name … is still Jueteng.

So here we are again unfortunately, in a world unnervingly similar if not worse than where we were five years ago. I would say that we were back to square one, except, I don’t even think we’re in the board game anymore. While the rest of the Asean nations have advanced into economic hubs to welcome the second wave of the Asian boom sweeping the world, we have been left behind in our evolution. The Philippines is a monkey among men. We used to compare ourselves with nations like Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, using them as yardsticks for growth. Nowadays, it shames us to be placed side by side in any context with our sister countries, because compared to theirs, ours is an ugly country, heavily and forever scarred by corruption and covered in the nauseating stench of politics.

They say the people are tired, that is why there are no more substantial street protests or massive revolts along that infamous stretch of highway. They say the people are sick of waiting for justice, that they have stopped fighting and surrendered into letting politicians have their way.

I think it is much worse than mere moral fatigue. It is moral defeatism at its darkest. I think the Filipinos’ apathy today is because they have lost all hope. Hope that change can, or will ever occur. Hope that the morrow will bring a better day. Hope that in the changing of the guard, the Filipino people held captive will not be used and abused by the new guards.

The opposite of love is not hate. It is indifference. In this country, as much as patriotism is concerned, it is not so much a case of “I don’t love you anymore,” as much as a case of “I don’t care anymore.” Visit any internet forum to gauge the pulse of the educated middle class (the ones who helped bring GMA to power), and you will find that the reason they are keeping quiet now is that they are afraid that any action on their part will only bring about a leader similar to or if possible, even worse than Gloria.

Change? A caterpillar changing into a butterfly is a beautiful metamorphosis. A caterpillar that emerges out of a cocoon still a caterpillar, is nothing but a worm.

In the end, since we cannot expect the landscape of our government to change, or this horrible Never Ending Story to ever reach its climax, then we should stop hoping for it. Instead, we should put hope in things that still have hope. Ourselves. As the good book advocates, be in the world, but not of the world. It is possible to live among lepers and not become a leper yourself. Stop waiting for the light at the end of the tunnel and instead be the light in the darkness. Stop pinning your hopes on a government that will be honest, hard-working and corruption-free to rescue us, such an administration will never make it to Malacanang. They will always be defeated by the guile, the corrupt, the inept and the more evil of the evils.

For such is life in this country, where, the more things change, the more they stay the same.