Our Love of Democracy

We celebrate 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution every year to commemorate our recovery of democracy from the Martial Law imposed by the late President Marcos in the 21th day of September 1972. We often reminisce how our countrymen gather together in EDSA to protest and to remove dictator from the office. Every year local TV channels are airing a documentary programs that tells the success of the what we so-called peaceful revolution. Almost 41 years ago today, the spirit of democratic ideals and our love for democracy is still life a wild-fire that burning our heart. They say it was a successful political reformation and rehabilitation, but is it? Yes, the succeeding administration changes all officials but it doesn’t last long. Today, same old names can be seen our government and those who was rid during the Cory Administration successfully back into action.

The 1986 EDSA PPR is not really a successful paradigm shift, but the Martial Law is. When Marcos announced to the public the Proclamation No. 1081, the whole Philippine Archipelago was under Martial Law. Few weeks later, the new draft of the constitution that contains almost everything that the late president wanted including the right to legislate for the duration of the emergency, that emergency lasted long enough to become the New Society. The newly implemented constitution was amended to enable the president to continue issuing presidential decrees that intended to reform the Philippine Society. It was known as the “Bagong Lipunan” movement that aimed to modernize the Philippines.

The Catholic Church and the US Government is silent during that time. That was the church way of disclaiming any participation and association to its members that joins in growing number of protesters. The US government seems to be in favor to the Martial Law due to its silence.

It was during the Martial Law, series of major changes in our foreign policies was implemented. Greater liberalization of foreign investments was made and implemented that would let foreign investors to establish their business inside the country easily. After the expiration of Laurel-Langley agreement, the supreme court ordered the turn-over of American nationals own lands to the Filipinos as part of the reforming the Philippine society.

In short, Martial Law was born in a society that was thought to be resistant to authoritarianism. Martial Law made a great impact to us that strengthen our love of democracy. We may be a victim of the abuses that have been done during that what we called dark years of our country, but it serves as a bridge to have a true meaning of paradigm shift, that was not really happened after EDSA revolution, that was simply disregarded as we became paranoid to protect our democracy.

We always think that authoritarianism was bad and abusive but we forgetting the simple truth that democracy may not be felt by the majority of the people living in poverty line as it in favors to the well-off citizens and the few elites who ran the economy.

Martial Law is now part of history, as well as what we so-called Peaceful Revolution” the 1986 People Power.  Both have a great contribution to our history but were the People Power really succeeds to get its primary goals in resetting our Political System? 

Irrational in Politics

Media is one of the biggest factors why there are many irrational in our politics. In decades, media people always talked about Imelda Marcos, how she dressed, and how elegant she was during the time of the Marcos Era and the late president Cory Aquino especially when the 1st EDSA Revolution celebration is near. Documentaries about the Marcoses and the Aquinos often aired on televisions. We can see the influence of the two in our society there are what we called Imeldific and the color of Yellow that symbolizes unity, courage and democracy. These two people have what we called “Appeal or Charm” which we could not deny that they give great contribution and influence to the people.

Our politics, nowadays, is exhausted of charismatic leaders. We have presidents, senators down to the lowest government position that loved by the people. Erap Estrada for example, an actor, college drop-out was elected as the president of our country and should have won again in the 2010 presidential election if Cory Aquino did not died that resulted to the candidacy of her son Noynoy Aquino. We already known Erap, how he run the government and how he handles issues in our country. Despite of this, still 9,487,837 (according to 2010 election results) people wanted Erap be back in the office. It only means that Erap magic is not dead, magic in the sense that his charismatic appeal to the people is still strong.

As an educated person we don’t only consider the charismatic side of any political candidate. We often demand public debates and political platforms for every candidate in order to ensure that we can choose the right person that we will elect. But we should put in our mind that almost people living in poverty line is much bigger than us. They don’t care about the credentials and the political capability of the person to lead but they usually look into a good looking, charming and already known people they also tend to choose people based on a certain characteristics that respond to their own unrecognized desires. That is the reason why there are many politicians in the country came from the showbiz industry like Erap, and the Revilla clan. The candidates used this charm to win the seat of the office.

In politics, it is not enough to be bright or intelligent, it is also important to have the right faces, faces in terms of personal appeal to others. It is also the reason why the candidates often get celebrities to campaign them for the election, they using the charm or the appeal of the artist to gain popularity. We can’t take away irrational in politics, but we can get along with it and learn how to deal with it so we can still choose a good leader that will serve to their fellowmen seriously and wholehearted.

Why We Elect Bad Leaders

We always get mad and some do a rally whenever a government official both local and national commits mistakes. Their lack of good governance is the first thing we pinpoint every time we complain. The question is who are the one responsible why that official is in the office? Why we keep electing bad leaders? We are the one who elected them to be our leader. It is because our attention easily shifts easily. We easily forget what bad things they have done to our society. We just elect them without considering his/her political maturity and credentials as well as their moral background. We elect leaders who are popular and come from a prominent family and not who is right and credible to be on those positions. We elect people who come from the world of show business, an actor, singer comedian or whatever it is that does not have a background in leading.

Every election period, we encounter the same people running for the same seat. We encounter same surnames on the posters that are posted on the streets. The most popular is the political gimmicks of the politicians that wanted to gather sure votes on the Election Day.

Poverty and lack of education is the key of every politician’s success. They do everything in order pleased people. Many are engaging in vote buying and false promises that the ordinary poor will bite on the ploy.
We can see, our politics is celebrity-oriented, from the from barangay captain to the president. In Bacoor, one family is almost controlling the city. They are from the most prominent family in the country and a family of celebrities. They already build a dynasty, a political dynasty that must be destroyed. I am not against to them, but on the mere fact that their family is almost controlling our city is not good to hear. The mayor did many good things especially on the development of our municipality especially during the process of being a city during his term and I commend him on that.

I believe that there are many aspiring leaders in our society that was not given any chances to lead. Every election is just the battle of the power and popularity. We forget to set criteria in selecting a new leader, a leader that will surely do his responsibility for the betterment of our country and to be committed to give quality service.

This election, let’s try to think seriously and decide who is the right people to put in the position.

It's About Charter Change

Charter change commonly known as cha-cha is an issue that can be traced back since 1998 during the last few months of Pres. Ramos in office.  This is not an issue of amendment of the constitution and what the law in the country allows but the morality behind the real motives why the president wanted to have this cha-cha.

According to the people who are against cha-cha, it is just a move of the outgoing president to prolong their power just like what Marcos did especially when he tried to have a permanent dictatorship over the country.  And according to the church leaders during the time of Ramos that it is just a part of the ploy to keep him in office when his term expires.

The political perspective argues that the constitutions must express the will of the people. As a democratic country, the people have the right to amend the constitution in accordance to the law. By this the amendment of the constitution should be for the benefit of all and not for a specific person.

The question is what is the rationale of the government to decide to amend the constitution? Yes, there are many social issues that our country is facing right now. Charter change may be helpful in solving this issue but the truth lays on the good governance of f our leaders. San Marino, a country inside Italy has the oldest constitution still in effect until now, dated back 1600. Their constitution is very old but why they did not even tried to change it? The reason might be they have a good leaders and law abiding citizens. They just upgrading and adding some provisions to their constitution but the total revision of it as a whole is not been put in their mind.

They say that cha-cha is needed by the Filipinos, is it? It is no matter what constitution we have if the leaders of our country don’t even respect it and protect it, it is nothing. The main idea is that we Filipino must protect value and follow our constitution as well our country with all our heart and our entire straight that good given to us.

Remoralizing the Goverment

The graft or corruption didn’t exist before. Public officers are expected to get money and enrich their wealth from the taxes of the people and do not give the needs of his followers. It was not illegal. There was no graft in the conventional society that was ruled by customs. We can review our history that there are no public officers that was put into jail because he uses the money of the people for their personal stuffs. But it is always immoral.

In modern times, way back at the start of heating of the fire of nationalism, democracy and other ideology, morality took over legality. Most immoral acts (depends on the culture) was illegalized. That was the time when graft became illegal.

In the Philippines, many issues regarding with the dishonesty of the public official to their fellowmen can be read and hear in the public media. Series of exposé has been published in the news papers and been aired on TV and radio. One of the hit news about this is the cases of our former presidents namely, the late Ferdinand Marcos, Erap Estrada, and Congw. Glora Aroyo. Though Erap case is different, I may say that it also degrades the dignity of us, Filipino as a Nation. Marcos and Aroyo, both are excellent presidents of our country tried to rebuild our nation. They both have brilliant programs that supposedly   lift our state from the ashes of poverty, but it all went wrong. Funds that were lend from the other countries and other international funding organizations were misused and suspiciously lost. Overpricing of materials and ghost projects have been reported and exposed to the people. Though these presidents somehow does not involved in such issues, the mere fact that it happens under their administration, as the head of state, it reflects how they are serving the country.

Due to this issue, the government is very serious fighting this kind of corruption in all public offices. Laws was passed the “REPUBLIC ACT No. 3019 also known as ANTI-GRAFT AND CORRUPT PRACTICES ACT of 1960”  that will punish and imprison all public officials that will commit such action. Two former presidents were put in jail after the court proved that they’ve stolen money from the government’s funds.

According to the report of ABS-CBNnews.com in 2009, The Philippines ranked 139th among 180 countries included in the index, up from its previous 141st ranking in 2008. The nation scored 2.4 in the TI index, compared to 2.3 in 2008, which ranked it equal to Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Baltic state of Belarus.

The current administration is very serious in cleansing the government and uplifting the country’s dignity that is almost 10 feet off the ground due to corruption. People became conscious to the action of their leaders, and the people themselves are the one who do the report whenever they saw or know any anomalies in the government.

It is the time for us to reshape our future. We should change ourselves for the betterment of the succeeding generation.