PEOPLE POWER or POWER PLAY?

Jump to Comments

The 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution freed us from a dictator. The 2nd People Power put pressure on Erap to resign. And after that chaos; back to square one.

When the 2nd People Power (PP) was in place, I was still preoccupied with my college crush that I didn’t give a damn on what’s happening in the political arena of this country. At that time, current events were mainly used as bonus points in quizzes and long exams for my Social Science II (SocsciII) class. To me, things like that were boring. 

Then came Machiavelli’s The Prince.

My SocsciII Prof would read excerpts from the book and ask us if we disagreed or not. He never explained anything, elaborated on any of the discourses because they were plain and easy to understand. The thing that interested me was that the book presented precise ways of maintaining, gaining and expanding power. Too interested in fact that I bought a copy for myself and thus launched my habit of rummaging through my sister’s Philo, Socsci, Polsci and Anthropology books from when she was a B.A. Philo from UPD.

Virtu. Fortuna. Necessita. The three essentials for a prince to govern lies in his ability to redirect others to his own advantage, to manipulate resources and to have the opportunity to access power. In our current situation, PGMA has these three in her sleeves and it sustains her in her seat. To be honest, I do not understand how she does it or why she has them but one thing’s for sure: she’s got great connections. And her dogs? I do not know whether to call them suckers or idiots or her equals for greed.

The nobility. It is said through The Prince that there is much difficulty if power is aquired by the help of the nobility than through the people. For the nobility will see you as their equal but the masses or the people will see you as their leader. Thus, it is harder to please the nobles. In our politics, we see hordes of these nobles stalking around the edges of controversies; preying on the weak, the disillusioned and people like them. In our term, we call them trapos a.k.a. the scheming, old and flawed politician. They use every bit of opportunity to pimp their personal agendas and would always want a second go at any Senate (or higher) position.

Reward and Punishment. The Prince should reward his people little by little for they will enjoy and appreciate the benefits better this way. However, he should impose punishment for those who violate his laws. For a prince is better feared than loved by his subjects: 

love is held by a chain of obligation which, men being selfish, is broken whenever it serves their purpose but fear is maintained by a dread of punishment which never fails. 

The DOJ disburses punishment but do tell me why I sense a lack of understanding for the word ‘justice’ from their secretary? This fear we have for PGMA is not about us breaking her rules or the Constitution: it’s about fearing for our lives and liberty when we anger her. We make PGMA fuming mad when we catch her doing something ‘magical’ and expose it to the public because by her standards, that’s called black propaganda. As the president, she can never be held accountable for any corruption, extrajudicial killing or anomaly charges because I think she envisions her rule as a mandate from heaven. Technically speaking, a mandate from Garcy would be more appropriate. She thinks she’s pure and innocent but really, why so many impeachment, cheating and corruption charges under her belt?

Calls for PGMA to resign is even louder now than it was a year ago. The ZTE-NBN Deal is probably the biggest controversy her administration has faced since the Hello Garcy Scandal back in 2004 and it will probably haunt her term ceaselessly. Heck, I think it will overshadow her term in history books. She’ll be branded illegitimate and corrupt; yan ang woman empowerment! Shucks.

Could all of these cases against her be mere products of the active imaginations of her enemies? No. We’ve seen the Hello Garcy trial on t.v., the Fertilizer Scam, the Bedol ‘magic’ in Maguindanao etc but what happened to these cases? They’re either dismissed or those charged were let go because of lack of material evidence. The witnesses ended up in jail for testifying. And they call this justice. That’s why I am not surprised people are now putting Lozada on a pedestal. They see defiance in his act, of strength and quite possibly, the glimpse of hope that finally, through his testimony along with Joey De Venecia (and hhmmm…Romy Neri?), this nation could rid itself of PGMA and all the negativity her administration has brought with them.

Now about Lozada. Let us not be carried away and call him names. Let us reserve the title of ‘hero’ for someone more deserving. Yes, what he’s doing is commendable and inspiring, but please it does not absolve him from his past mistakes. He allowed ‘moderation of greed’, he confirmed that it was indeed his voice on the Youtube viral video (him and Joey talking as pigs) and he did some anomalies when he was president of PhilForest. If he really is for the truth, let him own his mistakes and, to be truly fair, let himself be subjected to court. I know it’s all black propaganda coming from the government but the only way to beat the Palace at their own game is if Lozada will come out a genuine and credible witness, without any skeletons in his closet for the administration to use. The Palace’s only way around things is to ruin the credibility of Lozada instead of disproving his claims because they know they’re at the losing end. 

This is how unpopular, or rather hated, PGMA is. We tend to believe the opposition, her enemies in general, because we do not trust her. Hell, I don’t even like her. Technically speaking, without hard evidence to prove Lozada’s (and Joey’s) claims, he’s testimony is as good as nothing. But why do we still believe him? Why is it that we have the tenacity to take his word against the bigwigs of this country? I think it’s because we are tired of lies and being taken as fools. I’ve had enough of all of these intrigues, money anomalies and cheatings etc that come as frequent as once or twice a month. The strength of the peso could not hide the dirt this government has. How dare PGMA claim that the country’s economy is surging when her government is morally bankrupted? Is it enough to have a booming economy while the entire morality of the country is in ruins? 

Then Hobbes came to mind:

What is the basis of being sovereign? The government should have the consent of the people.

Then Rosseau came to mind:

Implement the will of society (direct democracy).

But what do we want? Do we want Edsa People Power 3?

We are divided, obviously. Some see People Power as the only way out of this one but some don’t. I personally do not agree with staging another People Power because I am paranoid that the trapos would only use it as a platform for themselves. Or that maybe the wannabe presidentiables for the 2010 Elections might want to get some attention and plug their candidacy early on. It maybe unfair to think this way but really, the political culture of our country has been reduced to casting doubts and being selfish. I am afraid that People Power will only be used as a tool by those in power, by those who want power and by those who want even more power. It may leave us no space for a taste of true democracy yet again. And surely, I would not want Noli de Castro to replace PGMA. That would be the worst kind of deja vu.

To all of us who want the truth, who are tired of cover-ups and being taken aside, let us reexamine the steps by which we would want to solve this problem. The spirit of People Power should not only mean marching down the streets and calling for PGMA to resign; it should mean total change from the way we think, our political culture and maturity as a nation. Yes, PGMA’s resignation would help if not totally solve this problem but let us address it in a proper place. Though I have doubts on the SC to forward impeachment cases against PGMA, there is still faith and hope left within me to trust our government. I may have doubts and fears but in the end, I still would like to believe that we are not born evil.  

25 Comments

Filed under 14th Congress, 2010 elections, AFP, DOJ, Deped Cyber Ed, Erap, First Gentleman, GO, JDV, National Broadband Network, Noli de Castro, TU, ZTE Corp, ben abalos, edsa people power, extrajudicial killings, garci, impeachment complaint, joey de venecia III, jun lozada, lintang bedol, moderate greed, mumblings, pgma, pinoy jedi knight, pinoy stuff, politica et.al, raul gonzales, rodolfo lozada, romy neri