I can understand why some people are so bent on castigating the Dutertes. What beats me is what happened to “Never again,” the meme we got so heavily invested in. We have not only tossed it but we have also put a Marcos back in the seat of power. And now it seems that some of us are working their butts off to keep the Marcos dynasty in power for much longer than they deserve.
Yet, the Marcoses have committed more crimes against Filipinos than the Dutertes. You can disagree with that, but the fact remains that the two dynasties are one of a kind. Like all dynasties, they are the antitheses of democracy. Hence, it makes no sense for Filipinos to go for one or the other.
But what bothers me most is the emotional partisan response to a recent Supreme Court (SC) decision declaring the impeachment of Sara Duterte unconstitutional. Ronald Llamas of Akbayan, an otherwise respectable political analyst, is asking people to “raise hell” against the SC’s decision. House Speaker Romualdez, whose flight of fancy crashed to earth with the SC decision, even went to the extent of threatening to impeach the SC.
It’s quite alright to ask for clarification or to appeal for reconsideration, but to raise hell against the SC or to threaten to impeach the SC is just too emotional and too partisan to amount to anything good for the country. To prevent our democracy from crumbling, shouldn’t we be raising hell instead against those who threaten to dislodge the SC from its sacred space at the cornerstone of democracy and the rule of law?
A close scrutiny of all government institutions finds all of them sorely lacking in performance and riddled with corruption. They are all perpetually on self-serving mode. That leaves the SC as sort of the proverbial last man standing. But if the hell people raise against it brings the institution crashing down, tears the constitution to pieces and makes rubble of the rule of law, how can the country now survive the tug-of-war between dynasties.
Our democracy will not survive if people just ride on the bandwagon of a political dynasty they find suitable for their personal goals. The two basic reforms needed for this country to clearly turn a corner are both anathema to any and all political dynasties. Like these will never implement the constitutional ban against them. Nor will they reform our money-denominated election system that allows them to exclusively get into seats of power.
Only a genuine party of the people can work for those basic reforms. The path to equitable progress of this country lies in the formation of a true opposition of service-oriented newcomers from the middle class. Historically, radical and even revolutionary turnarounds of nations have been led by the educated middle class.
As I write, however, we are each going our own emotional and partisan way towards surviving our chaotic reality. I cannot stress it more, that genuine reform must rotate around hard facts. Partisan emotion must not define our present much less our future reality.