My decade old political cartoon on Erap

It was 2000, my junior year in college. Months before EDSA II, I was asked by my Editor-in-chief to draw a cartoon summing up President "Erap" Estrada's government. Fuelled by the events that were happening then, I bought a Dong-A 0.5 gel pen, consumed it the whole night without sleep, to create this:

(Click to enlarge)

10 years later. Surveys showed Erap is ranking 2nd in the polls survey. I asked myself - have Filipinos really forgotten the past that soon - the jueteng issues, Jose Velarde accounts, Boracay mansions, plunder, pork barrel and worst education budget cut?

It is good to forgive. "To forgive is divine." But for an offense committed on a national scale, justice should be served to uphold the dignity of a nation, of its people.

Yes, I agree that we can pardon him in honor of his previous service. But to see him vying for another term and people giving him their approval, I cannot fathom how loose our memories have been.

In Japan, when a public official commits an offense or finds himself tangled in it, he honorably resigns and retreats from the public eye.

That is what we Filipinos deserve. We deserve honorable officials who will lead us, who will uphold our rights, who will show by example that public service is not an acting task or a joke.

Our nation is not a joke.
We are people of a great heritage and dignity.
We deserve better leaders.
We should fight for that, learn lessons of the past, and move on.