Repudiated

The administration proposal to postpone the ARMM elections has been roundly repudiated by the people in the region. The sooner the Palace admits defeat here, the better off we all will be in preparing for the polls set by law for next August.

The idea to postpone the elections to synchronize with the 2013 general elections and replace the regional officials with Palace appointed OICs in the interim came almost entirely on a whim. It was immediately rejected by the leading voices in the autonomous region.

As an afterthought, President Aquino II tasked his officials with getting the pulse of the people to be affected by the postponement. The House Committees on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms and on Muslim affairs have, over the last few days, held public hearings in the cities of Cotabato, Marawi and Zamboanga.

In those hearings, Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo reiterated President Aquino’s argument that postponement will enable the administration to undertake “reforms” that will safeguard the process from fraud and check the corruption that marred the regional government. Justice Secretary Leila de Lima argued that the postponement will not require amendment to the Organic Act, relying instead on the President’s power to appoint local officials provided for by the Revised Administrative Code of 1987.

Neither Cabinet Secretary appeared to have duly impressed participants in the public consultations. They were arguing from the standpoint of central government, downplaying the dimensions of popular will, regional autonomy and the spirit of the Organic Act.

Sulu Rep. Tupay Loong, chairman of the House Committee on Muslim Affairs, explained why he did not support the bill proposing postponement of elections. With flair and passion appreciated by the crowd, he declared that no one must dictate upon the Moro people and force them to give up their right to freely elect the people who will represent them.

The Regional Legislative Assembly, through Speaker Ronnie Sinsuat, presented the officials from Manila a unanimously adopted resolution strongly opposing the postponement of regional elections. The resolution argued that postponement was both unconstitutional and undemocratic.

ARMM Executive Secretary Naguib Sinarimbo reminded the Palace officials that democracy and autonomy are the two most important legacies of President Corazon Aquino. Both legacies are being violated by the proposed postponement of polls. He asked that the regional government be given the chance to freely transform itself rather than be dictated upon by the Palace.

ARMM Department of Education official Hamid Ladjakahal condemned the proposed postponement, pursued through some Mindanao congressmen allied with the Palace, as a move that fosters divisiveness among Muslim Filipinos. As such, it was condemnable.

Amira Lidasan, representing a non-government organization called Healing Democracy, pointedly asked administration officials why the regional government was being singled out for corruption when it was simply a microcosm of the national state of affairs. There was a hint there of Muslim Filipinos being treated as second-class citizens.

The consultations clearly demonstrate that there is deep-rooted resistance to the idea of postponement in the affected constituency. If the Palace forces its way on this matter, that resistance will harden and reignite old fears of discrimination among the Moro peoples.

Any further move to force postponement of the elections will run into a thicket of legal issues as well as political opposition. President Aquino II risks antagonizing Muslim Filipinos even more.

He should now simply back away from this one and add it to the growing archive of badly conceived proposals of this young administration.

Social fabric

The world is duly impressed with the way the Japanese people have responded to the calamity that befell their proud nation. No quake nor tsunami nor threats of leaked radiation could tear the strong social fabric that binds Japanese society.

More than any other nation, Japan is best prepared for natural disasters. It maintained a strong civil defense capacity, educated its people properly on how to deal with disasters and enforced the strictest building codes to minimize the impact of natural hazards.

Yet no amount of preparation will have sufficed to deal with the terrible quake that hit the main island of Honshu last week. No one could have anticipated the power of the tsunami unleashed by that quake and its effect on the layers of protective systems installed in Japan’s nuclear power plants.

Notwithstanding the despair and the destruction, the Japanese people have demonstrated both calm and discipline at a level no other society could match. There has been no report whatsoever of looting in the tsunami devastated areas. Communities spontaneously organized with the victims themselves leading the effort to help themselves.

In the evening of the quake, with transport systems down, millions in Tokyo had to walk home. Foreigners were amazed that the trudging masses stopped at intersections when the pedestrian traffic signals turned red — even if there was no traffic on the roads. The civic culture in Japan is simply awesome.

Japan, nevertheless, needs all the help the world can offer.

When calamities struck other nations in the past, Japan was always most generous in delivering assistance. As it copes with the staggering human costs of this great calamity, the world must respond with as much generosity.

Calamities of this magnitude remind us that the world is a single community and that nations can depend on others in times of crying need. That is reassuring especially for those countries like Japan — and us — prone to the overwhelming forces of nature.

The Philippines has a sparse record in assisting other countries in dire times. Perhaps this time our government can do more, especially for a friend so generous to us for decades.