Moral Force and Revolution

Since the Arroyo government has shown that it would do anything – lie, cheat, bribe, harass, and kill – to pursue its naked self-interest, only a strong moral force and revolution would be able to make it answer for its crimes, reverse the continuous deterioration of the country’s system of governance, and save the nation from sinking deeper into the depths of infamy and amorality.

BY BENJIE OLIVEROS
ANALYSIS

Chief Justice Reynato Puno’s call for a moral force to save the nation has generated a lot of reactions. It even motivated certain sectors to start a movement to push for his presidency. The honorable Chief Justice, who is the perhaps the only remaining credible high official in the Arroyo government, expressed what majority of the Filipino people has been thinking of all along. In November 2007, Archbishop Angel Lagdameo, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, called for a moral revolution. Malacañang reacted strongly against it. Earlier, former House Speaker Jose de Venecia also called for a moral revolution, albeit with lesser effect because he was then with the Arroyo government and he also has a lot to account for.

The impunity in corruption pervading up to the highest level of government, the debasement of all institutions of governance including the wanton use of the justice system for political ends, and the abhorrent impunity in the commission of human rights violations specifically extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances have shown how warped the morals of the Arroyo government is. This has created an amoral situation where lies are passed off as the truth; self-serving interests are misrepresented as for the common good; and human rights, including the right to life, are trampled upon purportedly in the name of ‘democracy’. Wrongdoings are made to appear as right.

The Arroyo government has sunk the morals of the nation so low that it would take more than the next election to salvage the system of governance from the depths of infamy it is currently in. If the Filipino people would not be able to hold the Arroyo government accountable for its crimes, it would have the temerity to engage in wide-scale cheating to either perpetuate itself in power or to influence the results of the 2010 elections. Impunity would persist. Worse, even if a change of government results from the 2010 elections, the culture of impunity that the Arroyo government perpetrated would embolden the next administration to do the same.

Since the Arroyo government has shown that it would do anything – lie, cheat, bribe, harass, and kill – to pursue its naked self-interest, only a strong moral force and revolution would be able to make it answer for its crimes, reverse the continuous deterioration of the country’s system of governance, and save the nation from sinking deeper into the depths of infamy and amorality. It does not matter who becomes the catalyst of this moral force; what matters is that this moral force materializes in the collective action of the Filipino people, especially that of the basic masses and all democratic sectors in Philippine society. Only then can the nation be saved.(Bulatlat.com)