Saturday, September 27, 2008 Elves and goblins By GH Arinday Jr. Sunfare
AS WE all know, the two-party system in this country has fled into the realm of myths and legends when the present Constitution drafted by the appointees of former President Corazon “Cory” Aquino tried to prove to the whole world that democracy could vibrantly evolve and grow in this part of Asia Pacific region.
The intention was noble, hoping that all stripes of ideologues would come together and diagnose the social cancer of the body politic but the result was wrack and ruin, a violent twist in the socio-political spheres.
Nescience about the multi-party system guised as intellectual endeavors among segments of society with similar preferences and ideas sprung out of the numerous political molehills like elves, gremlins, and goblins chattering in different decibels.
And lo and behold, came from nowhere the prophets, the self-proclaimed living saints, let alone the doomsayers and the conventional politicians from the dynastic towers, all constituting the dramatis personae like nonpareil found in fictive creations of Stephanie Meyer’s series of Phantasy. They are all vampires seeking the “bloody thoughts” of the electorates.
Actually, the present currency of ideas on how to wrest power must have the condiments of religious underpinnings. So it is not surprising at all that fundamental religionists are involved in ideological shifts taking rapidly in many places today, competing with the Third World offshoots of reinventing Leftists’ principles from the ashes of the Communism’s demise.
What we are witnessing today in the political spheres is a tale of political migration or the changing of lanes from moderate liberalism to moderate conservatism with the exception of the dyed-in-the-wool Leftists still befuddled by the Chinese experiment where private-ownership of property is allowed, limited though and regulated.
In our case, with the exception of the off-and-on war in Mindanao definitely influenced by the Wahhabism brand of Islam ferociously advanced by Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda to restore the grandeur of the puritanical sects of Islam founded by Muhammad ibn Abd-el-Wahhab (1763-92), our brand of politics appear nebulous save for the injection of religious virus in the system, hence, the aggressive assertions of some Christian sects to define the new type of politics.
The announcement of Bro. Mike Velarde of El Shaddai to run for the presidency by 2010 was not surprising at all. The trail has been blazed before by the supreme leader of the “Our Lord Jesus Movement” but the quest failed despite claims of millions of followers in the country.
The caveat of El Shaddai supremo is that if the controversial bill on reproduction health shall get congressional imprimatur, he shall seriously take up the challenge to run for the premier post of the land.
Politics, being one of the socio-cultural commodities, would have an added dimension in the sociological sense and become permanent as part of the people’s folk-soul (volkgeist).
By then, the wall separating the State and the Church shall be thinner given the abundance of new democratic norms and mechanism. If a priest defrocking himself and gets elected, and why not a lay minister with millions of die-hard supporters waving handkerchiefs every time they congregate at the Quirino grandstand?
But what struck me as another possibility among the prophets who would try his luck in the political grand lotto. I am referring to Bro. Ely Soriano of the “Dating Daan”, a splinter group from the powerful Iglesia Ni Kristo. He is profoundly articulate and could recite biblical verses from very astute memory. Probably, his faithful could encourage him to run for a Senate seat.
If these possibilities would be realized, Philippine politics would never be the same again.
Of course, these are speculations but in this county, everything is possible.
In the meantime, let us amuse ourselves with the Villar-Lacson battle for supremacy in the controversial double insertion of budget funds for the C-Road traversing Villar’s property.
