Controlled anarchy has taken over

The Philippines loves to make the claim that it is the showcase of democracy in Asia. The claim, however, is one big farce. Nowhere in the democratic world right now have the rights upon which all popular democracy is founded become so shaky and trod and spat upon.

In the Philippines at this very moment, the rights of even no less than the president, the highest official of the land, are not worth a worthless centavo. Her ability to protect her name, as a public servant and as a private citizen, has been blatantly snatched from her.

In the Philippines right now, any Juan, Cosme or Maria can stand up and point an accusing finger at the president and accuse her of anything under the sun and not be held accountable for his or her accusations.

On the contrary, these accusers ( some of them self-confessed law-breakers, some paraded before media with their heads covered in black hoods ) are being treated like heroes by political enemies of the president and are given protection by an archbishop.

And the saddest cut of all is that the Philippine media, which also loves to make the claim that it is the freest in Asia, does not seem to know any better. The Philippine press has prostituted itself by becoming a witting tool for the blatant debauchery of democracy.

In the pell-mell scramble for the killer headlines, the Philippine press has shown an alarming willingness and enthusiasm to ignore heretofore inviolable principles that are closely intertwined with its own and meant to safeguard the rights of everyone.

Not in the coverage of what these accusers had to say was there ever an instance when the Philippine press strove to countercheck an accusation to determine if, at the very least, there is a modicum of veracity in them.

This is not to say the president is incapable of having done what her accusers said she did. Perhaps the accusations are true. But true or not, it does not work to the interest of any self-respecting democracy to allow the manner in which these charges are now being made.

But who is to stop this carnage? The Roman Catholic Church in this predominantly Roman Catholic country has either allowed itself to play into the game plan of political opportunists or is itself, in fact, powerless to intervene.

If the president cannot even protect herself, then no ordinary citizen will, and all our pretensions of being the showcase of democracy in Asia are but illusions we create to deceive our own selves.

It has become increasingly clear that the Philippines is imploding. Its institutions are collapsing. We do not need open anarchy in the streets to prove our collapse as a nation. It is enough that controlled anarchy has taken over the corridors of power.

What a country the Philippines has become, when the very same demons that hounded us in our yesteryears have suddenly become the "angels of our salvation" today with the Filipinos not seeming to even notice the difference.

It is not the form of government that needs any tinkering, as even the president would have us believe. If there is anything wrong at all, it is with us Filipinos. It is not that we do not have any core values. It is just that we seem to always misuse them.

Indeed it is quite embarrassing that other people can see what is wrong with us but never us making the discovery ourselves. How right US charge d'affaires Joseph Mussomeli had been when he said that Filipinos being too loyal and too forgiving is proving to be their undoing.

Of course, the unusually blunt Mussomeli was being unusually kind. To be sure, he must have had a bag full of unflattering adjectives to describe Filipinos. But he may soon be leaving, just as are one out of every four Filipinos. So, as ever, parting words are always kind.