Politics ‘off’ the people

Justice Sec. Raul Gonzalez and PNP Dir. Gen. Arturo Lomibao still don’t get it. The bungles they committed in the name of state of emergency only riled people all the more against a government they purport to defend. Presidential legal counsel Ed Nachura had taken pains to assure that Gloria Arroyo’s Proclamation 1017 was nothing more than a statement of facts that gave her no extra powers. But he was swiftly belied when Gonzalez and Lomibao’s cops broke up rallies, hauled in a congressman and a retired general without charges, and raided newspaper offices with no court order. Student councils nationwide thus chorused angry notes of protest. Lawyers’ groups took the breaches of civil liberties to the Supreme Court and United Nations. The press circled wagons around a small Opposition publication. Once-neutral folk murmured about a return of martial law.

Yet Gonzalez and Lomibao couldn’t restrain themselves. A weeklong taste of utter power under "1017" seemingly had incited blood thirst. Gonzalez, while disclosing an impending arrest of seven newsmen despite "1017’s" lifting, went on to warn papers in his hometown against criticizing him. Lomibao too threatened to arrest five Leftist legislators the moment they leave the sanctuary of Congress – on 21-year-old charges of rebellion.

The duo does not see fit to explain their actions. This, in spite of the Constitution’s provision (State Policies, Art. II, Sec. 24) recognizing the vital role of communication and information in national life. With Malacañang aides, they merely claimed a coup d’état had been foiled but that its extent was yet vague. With that Lomibao’s plainclothesmen nabbed rally leaders, and Gonzalez listed 50 wanted communist leaders. Only belatedly did the secretive AFP declassify documents about a Left-Right conspiracy with the Opposition to topple Arroyo with arms. Yet even that was hard sell. The documents allegedly were between seven communists and six militarists, and named several Opposition allies. But the Leftist congressmen, retired general, rally leaders, and publisher and two columnists already in or threatened with jail were never mentioned. Gonzalez’s men supposedly are still investigating, based on narratives of 14 AFP officers who had spurned coup recruiters. That only highlights all the more how ill prepared he was to legally combat a security threat, and how over-eager Lomibao was to raid and arrest sans proper judicial warrants. Asked by newsmen about who authorized the arrests, Lomibao pointed to the Cabinet cluster on security – a virtual admission of the illegality of it all since no Cabinet member has power to detain. And yet Gonzalez boasts this early about winning the Supreme Court and UN cases.

What saved the day for Arroyo – through no feat of Gonzalez or Lomibao – was public refusal to be conned into another "people power". The President’s popularity rating, at -30 percent owing to doubts about her election win, is the lowest ever for anyone who sat after Ferdinand Marcos. Yet people hear no sane alternatives from the bizarre alliance of Opposition figures that want Arroyo ousted. Cory Aquino, who came to office on the wave of People Power-1, had helped bring down Joseph Estrada via People Power-2. Estrada had tried to regain office with People Power-3. Aquino along with one-time coup plotters against her, and Estrada along with business and religious leaders who deposed him for plunder, have combined for a People Power-4 that can’t take off the ground. For, like Gonzalez and Lomibao, they do not explain their motive but only shout their objective. As veteran Manila watcher Seth Mydans analyzed: "Real issues are drowned out by political gossip and street rallies, word play often substitutes for policy." The impression that strange bedfellows of the Opposition exude is of power lust. Since they’ve had their time but failed to lift the people from injustice and poverty, the conclusion is to shun this latest power game of oligarchs.

And so, Filipinos witness today a deadlock between the political players. Perhaps the only recourse for them in such stalemate is in Charter change. By a long shot but only if they actively join in debates, they can force their leaders to reform the economy, and protect such reforms with apt electoral and political systems. If leaders refuse to explain their actions and merely think that people blindly will accept, Filipinos can holler that they’re no fools to be taken for a ride. That there’s a Left-Right conspiracy to bring down the government is enough threat to impress the urgency of Charter change – unless, of course, the oligarchs want to risk civil war.

For Filipinos to win reforms via peaceful revision of the Constitution, they must demand sacrifice from their leaders. This business of No-El (no elections in 2007, plus term extensions till 2010) should be reversed into term cuts for all officials – for a speedy fresh start. It’s a last chance. Polls show more and more Filipinos believing the country is hopeless, so they might as well emigrate the first chance they get.

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