LONDON — I watched the David Bryne musical “Here Lies Love” at the National Theater last night. It was in preparation for a forum in which my daughter and I would conduct on Friday night.
From the point of view of innovative music and its capacity to include audience participation, the musical was excellent. But Bryne missed the beat on historical background. He was working more on clichés about how Filipinos have failed governance. “It was orientalist and thought-free” Veronica said after the show.
We know that and say it about ourselves but on stage in the context of a musical on Imelda it trivialized Filipinos and their culture. The message that came to me was we get the leaders we deserve which is not exactly true either. But we must do more to gain the respect of the world.
The musical freely used text and parts from “The Untold Story of Imelda Marcos.” It did bring out its theme that she was driven to acquire wealth because of poverty as a young girl in General Solano in San Miguel and Tacloban but laid equal blame to Filipino naivete.
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There was no way to go but to take hold of the body politic through people power in Edsa. That was 1986. Today it is time for Edsa all over again but this time with the use of people power through modern technology — crowdsourcing. It is time to gather all the forces necessary to stop the misgovernment and incompetence of, ironically, the Aquino government under President Benigno Simeon III that took over and followed the trail of graft and evils of the Marcos regime.
It is time to break the circle of impunity. We cannot continue with a system that nurtures graft and incompetence.
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Jose Alejandrino, Bayanko member and adviser, relentlessly reminds Filipinos that the election of Jojo Binay will be disastrous for the country. He will be another Marcos and his election would be a regression, when what we need are radical reforms through a new Constitution for a new country.
Otherwise we are doomed to be a country laughed at and ridiculed as it was in the “Here Lies Love.” It would mean that the Philippines would not have learned the lessons of the depravity of the Marcos regime.
Alejandrino says that Binay is a clever politician and will not hesitate to use deceit and skullduggery for his ends.
“He will not appear before the Senate to answer the charges of corruption against him. Instead he will take his case directly to the people. He has a solid following of 25 percent from the bakya crowd who out of ignorance are prepared to believe him.
“This is Jojo’s last gambit. If he succeeds in convincing the people of his innocence, he will win the 2016 presidency and the LP will break up. If he fails, it will be the end of his presidential bid.”
This is his analysis:
“Jojo’s failure will add several points to Mar Roxas but not enough to make Mar win the presidency. It could raise Mar from his current 13 percent in the opinion polls to 25 percent at the most in my estimation. This will mean a dead heat between Jojo and Mar each with 25 percent of the votes. That will leave 50 percent undecided.
“This is where the entry of a third force could be decisive. This is where Bayanko could make a difference if its following in the social media advances from half a million to several million by 2016. This is why we must insist Bayanko remains above politics and continues to source men and women of honesty and integrity to run the country regardless of their political affiliation. Once it has attained a critical mass of followers, Bayanko will be able to dictate its own agenda of political reform to do away with the present rotten system.”
A rainbow coalition of church and spiritual leaders of different denominations, cause-oriented groups, professionals, students, and workers is what Bayanko must strive for. From its growing membership, it seems to be attaining its goal. Such a coalition is what I like to refer to as God’s forces. With God on our side, how can we not win?” he asks of his countrymen in his appeal for widespread support for the group.
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The Lipa declaration was published in Impact Magazine, a publication of the CBCP Communications Development Foundation, Inc. The article was written by Charles Avila of the National Transformation Council.
The Lipa declaration highlights moral leaders’ demand that Aquino resign.
“Therefore, faithful to the objective moral law and to the universally honored constitutional principle that sovereignty resides in the people and all government authority emanates from them, we declare that President Benigno Simeon Aquino III has lost the moral right to lead the nation, and has become a danger to the Philippine democratic and republican state and to the peace, freedom, security and moral and spiritual well-being of the Filipino people….
We further declare that we have lost all trust and confidence in President Benigno Simeon Aquino III, and we call upon him to immediately relinquish his position.”
We had heard it up and down this beleaguered archipelago. Our moral leaders were about to make a pronouncement on the current political situation, as they did back in 1986 (Edsa I), then in 2001(Edsa II), and of a different kind in 2005.
In 1986 and 2001, as a result of their moral pronouncement, regime change became a moral necessity.”