Who are evolving as fascists?

Sometime in December 1970, or about two years before Proclamation 1081 was signed by the late president Ferdinand Edralin Marcos placing the entire Philippines under martial law, there was a 10-day National Student Leaders Seminar held in Quezon City hosted by the student government of the University of the Philippines. The participants, who were bombarded with concepts of such several isms as capitalism, communism, fascism, and feudalism (among others I cannot now recall), came from all over the country. Many functions though dwelt on the political thoughts of Bertrand Russell. So, it was understandable that towards the end of the seminar, some but not all, of us participants were rather excited to be inducted as members of a group called Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation (BRPF). In all candidness, I did not fully comprehend the import of my membership then in the BRPF but really it was just a part of the vogue of our youthful times.

One topic in the seminar that I can remember discussed how fascism would evolve. The first according to Bertrand Russell would be to fascinate the fools and then muzzle the intelligent. Such a teaching seemed to rear its head recently. The framework which I learned from the seminar of half a century ago manifested in some devious physical terms. Without naming who the evolving fascists are in the grand national scheme of modern times, they, since late December 2023, began to fascinate the fools. Oh, there was a massive organization down to the sitio level bringing money and goods in supposed aid to the country’s underprivileged millions.

Let me be very clear. Our poor brothers are, like me, not fools. But, in my understanding, the emerging theoretical fascists treated us like fools. They thought that by dangling few hundred pesos before our faces and committing to bring to our doorsteps assorted supplies we needed for our daily existence, they could get our signatures affixed to an unexplained document. It appeared that we were so fascinated by the sudden burst of generosity coming from our leaders that we signed the paper presented to us without the petition it supposed to contain. Aha, we were indeed, the fools.

Soon after we affixed our signatures as appendices to an absent instrument, we came to know that we approved to amend our Constitution. Many of us grumbled. While some tumults sprang all over the land expressing disgust over the machination, we knew we had been had. Charter Change seemed to move quickly over turbulent environs. It was a good thing that the nation’s intelligentsia was there. While most of the nation’s downtrodden have been fooled to silence, the intelligent minds were unrelenting. To fight Charter Change, they locked arms and marched down the streets, generated the support of a million colleagues and bombarded social media platforms.

The other day, a Rappler online report quoting Pulse Asia Research, Inc., revealed that the “support for amending the 1987 Constitution has dropped significantly over the past year. From 41% of Filipino adults supporting charter change efforts in March 2023, there are now only 8% in favor of the move”. Rappler said that the survey results come on March 27, 2024, just a week after the House passed Resolution of Both Houses No. 7 --the proposal outlining changes to economic provisions in the Constitution-- after weeks of marathon hearings. In fact, 74% of Filipinos said that the Constitution “should not be amended now or any other time”, a significant increase from 31% in March 2023.

From what we have learned from Bertrand Russell, we might say that the modern fascists in our midst are not succeeding!