The rule of President Rodrigo Duterte will end in a couple of days. It will soon be the turn of Ferdinand Marcos Jr. (Bongbong) to rule for the next six years. What this means is that right wing rule in the country will be extended for years to come.
What I am saying is that liberal democracy will continue to take a back seat after it did when Mar Roxas lost in the 2016 elections. As it is now, many of the things done by the last liberal democratic president to rule the country, the late Noynoy Aquino, have already been undone by the Duterte government. The undoing will continue under Marcos, another president with a right-wing viewpoint.
There are already talks about the return of the Reserved Officer Training Corps in college, and the undoing of the K to 12 program. Instead of moving forward, we seem to be moving backward. I heard Sen. Imee Marcos talk about her father’s Masagana grains program. How many more Marcos Sr.-era programs will the second generation Marcoses unearth?
It looks like the Ninoy Aquino International Airport will be renamed into one that will not carry the Ninoy Aquino name. Meaning that the rehabilitation of the Marcos name will continue. That is the price liberal democrats will pay for allowing a Marcos to become president.
The right-wing thinking may just be dominant for now. But the last elections showed that more and more believers in liberal democracy are coming out of the woodwork, especially from the middle class. Respect for people’s rights is pushing right-wingers back. At least Marcos Jr. speaks less roughly than Duterte. Some portions of his fine upbringing are at least showing this early.
And I hope the energy of the pink movement will not weaken. A continuing education on the liberal democratic viewpoint needs to be advanced. The battle against, say, historical revisionism should continue. And having a non-government organization or a foundation as base will be a masterstroke. Besides, the volunteerism the last campaign created should be directed at helping people. The “community pantry” concept should be instituted.
The practice of politicians keeping a low profile after they lose in an election should change. It’s not only during the campaign period that they should show that they are willing to serve the people. They can strip themselves of politics, but they can still serve. That may be too much to ask of them, but it proves that their claim of being willing to serve the public is not fake.
Right-wingers may be dominant in government, but that does not mean their thinking should be allowed to dominate or fester in our society. Representative democracy, weakened by a president with an authoritarian bent, should continue to be strengthened. Respect for people’s rights should continually be pushed.
The ideals of liberal democracy should slowly but surely dominate again.