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Saturday, September 03, 2005
Carvajal: Start at the barangay level
By Orlando P. Carvajal
The shadowy opposition wanted to go the unconstitutional way because all they had against President Arroyo was an illegal wiretap that is inadmissible in court.
The people, however, preferred the lesser evil, PGMA, to the chaos they foresaw would surely ensue should she get ousted.
That makes of the recent walkout of the opposition a desperate attempt to let the unconstitutional people power overtake the constitutional impeachment proceeding. But it will not happen because the opposition's problem is worse than not having a charismatic leader. They have traditional politicians leading them by the nose.
Gloria is not the problem and the opposition is not the solution either. Our problem is we have greedy, power-hungry politicians who plot and scheme to divide the spoils of an otherwise rich Philippines while the rest of the country groans in poverty. If their concern is the people's welfare, they should drop everything and buckle down to solve the country's problem of poverty that marginalizes big chunks of the population.
But that will not happen either. The national scene is one big chaotic mess as only greed and power-lust can render it. We have to start with a bite-size piece of it. We can start to solve the country's problem of egotistic, self-serving, greedy and power-hungry politicians at the barangay level.
Filipinos who are for transforming Philippine politics should work, for instance, for the holding of the barangay elections so that we can start paying attention to who gets elected at this level.
Our national politicians are planning to postpone the barangay elections because they want their protégées, the current barangay officials, to incur a debt of gratitude for their extended stay in power. Which debt, of course, will be paid in kind when barangay officials help ensure their victory in the next national elections.
We cannot just write or march in protest about it. We have to do something, like mobilizing people who have kept their self-respect intact to work for, say, the election to barangay positions of decent folks and not of protégées of politicians.
Barug Sugbu, I must mention, strikes me as a decent bunch that can mobilize for clean government at the barangay level. In Cebu, we might consider working with them.
Let's forget the national and work local. The power comes from barangays that deliver the votes for our sick politicians at the top. Take away the barangay from them and they will no longer be in power to neglect and even abuse us.
The humongous mess at the top can overwhelm us into helplessness and inaction. The barangay is a bite-size piece of the problem that we can chew.
(September 3, 2005 issue)
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