A People's Curse Jose Ma. Montelibano Philippine Daily Inquirer
November 05, 2009
MANILA, Philippines -- The snap elections of 1986 were conducted because there was an emergency situation in the Philippines. The dictator was under extreme pressure from the United States, the very ally that had propped him up for so long. He knew the boiling point of the people was being reached and his once tight control of the military was fading fast. A crumbling economy was like noose tightening around his neck and something had to give. Marcos then offered the snap elections despite the anticipated stress on a transplanted kidney he never admitted he had.
Because of the martial law conditions at that time, campaigning against a dictator needed very brave and creative ways. While there were small political parties that had emerged to participate in occasional elections that the dictatorship had allowed but whose results reflected only what the dictator allowed, these parties were too small to make a difference in a hurriedly called presidential elections. Yet, the candidacy of Cory Aquino served as the trigger for pent-up frustrations to find expression and people rose above their fear to participate. Threats, actual violence and the treasury combined with hidden wealth were inflicted on the opposition but they failed to totally intimidate Filipinos like the first application of martial law fourteen years earlier.
Of course, cheating did happen. An administration that had ruled with impunity and was facing the prospects of losing control could not afford not to cheat. And when the cheating had happened, a farce of a congress blessed the dirty results by what it thought to be a legitimizing act. The people, however, refused to accept the manipulated victory of a sick dictator and rose in miraculous solidarity to launch protest actions. The rebellious among the military tried to hit the dictator from the inside but were unsuccessful, forcing their leaders to take a do-or-die stance in Camp Aguinaldo and Camp Crame.
The rest is history. A people subjugated and pacified by martial law, thousands of whom were killed or tortures, simply had too much and decided that freedom was worth dying for. People Power was born, a revolution toppled a dictatorship, and the light of day returned to Filipinos through peaceful but courageous action and lots of prayers. The EDSA revolution was no less a miracle performed by the people who chose to overcome their fears yet not indulge their anger and the vengeance in their hearts.
The story of the snap elections was about a people's campaign against the evil of martial law and dictatorship. The story of Edsa was about a people's victory over their own subservience to wrongdoers. The story of people power was about a people's collective miracle of peace over bloodshed.
That was twenty-three years ago, but it might as well be today.
The brave lady, the housewife without experience, has passed away. It would have pleased her no end if she had seen in her lifetime the irreversible trend towards peace and prosperity. Yet, she had to leave this world with the knowledge that all was not well, not well at all. And despite the cancer that was painfully attacking her body, Corazon Aquino lived the last year of her life in prayer and peaceful protest against the widespread corruption that she saw kept her people in clutches of evil.
Evil today is not as physical as it was during martial law. While the hundreds of families who have experienced the worst of physical evil through the deaths, torture or disappearances of their loved ones cannot claim their pain is less than the pain of martial law victims, the military and police today are not as feared as they once were because they have become more moral and legal as a whole. Indeed, evil today is less physical but more sophisticated, more cloaked in legal armor, but no less ugly and even more destructive to our collective soul.
From the streets where drugs proliferate and kotong persists, where poverty drives people not only to hunger but to crime as well, to the boardroom where the cost or consequence of doing business is pointed to by businessmen as the single most depressant for economic growth, where corruption is measured by the World Bank as taking away from the national budget at least thirty percent of the people's money, who then is in control - morals and ethics or wrongdoing and perdition?
The greatest evil in society is institutionalized bantay salakay, which is the vernacular for corruption. Corruption is not about mere dishonesty, it is about stealing and lying and cheating by the very people who are sworn to protect us. Corruption is about people in government clothed with authority using their positions and their authority to steal and lie and cheat the people.
When corruption is massive, poverty cannot be less massive. The evil in the spirit which makes foul our souls must manifest that evil in flesh, and poverty is its main trophy.
The Philippines is a world leader in corruption. Consequently, the Philippines is a world leader in poverty. To be a world leader in corruption as tracked and measured by international agencies whose expertise is to precisely track and measure corruption, massiveness of this evil can only happen by massive force or by massive guile. The existence of massive force today is debatable except to the victims of violence. Massive guile, however, exists when authorities in the executive, legislative and the judicial branches of government combine in collusion to steal, lie and cheat the people.
The corruption and poverty in our land is the people's curse. This curse is the monster that gives not only pain but shame as well. This curse is the primary evil that Filipinos must confront. All else is secondary.
In May 2010, another window for change is being offered by life. The window is called the national elections. In these elections, the choice of president is the most crucial of all choices and dictate how big or small the window of change will open for us. The president, by his character, by his personal value system, by the influence of his parents, and then by the quality of his appointments, begins the journey for change or the journey for more evil.
Today, we have a curse. Today, too, we have a choice. ***
