Benjie Oliveros | The Call for Change, Toward 2010 and Beyond

By BENJIE OLIVEROS
Analysis
(Bulatlat.com)

Last year, then US President George W. Bush’s anointed successor was resoundingly defeated by Barack Obama, who campaigned under the banner of change. Change was the rallying call of Americans who campaigned and voted for Obama because that is exactly what America needed. America, in 2008, was reeling from the initial impact of the financial and economic crisis that is still gripping the world up to now. It was enmeshed in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, wars that it should not have been involved in in the first place. As a result, Bush suffered from a long-running low satisfaction rating. And John McCain, Republican candidate who ran against Obama, carried the weight of Bush’s unpopularity and flawed policies. The victory of Obama is an expression of the American people’s desire for change, as well as a vote of disgust for the Bush administration and what it represented.

Next year, it is Bush’s closest ally (read: puppet), Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who would be judged. Already, analysts are saying that an Arroyo “anointment” is a kiss of death. And this early, the call for change are already reverberating not only in the election campaigns of the opposition but also in the movements and alliances that are sprouting. The most recently launched movement calling for change is the Moral Force Movement headed by Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato Puno. In his keynote speech, Puno called for change within one’s self, for the people not to vote for those who bribe, cheat, or lie, and for the people to get involved through volunteering for the National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) and the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting.

The calls for change are also reflective in the campaigns of those seeking the presidency. There are three candidates who come from different religious sects who have declared their intention or inclination to seek the presidency, namely Bro. Eddie Villanueva of the Jesus Is Lord Movement, Mike Velarde of El Shaddai, and Fr. Ed Panlilio, who is currently governor of Pampanga. Each of them is representing himself as the best person to lead a moral renewal. This many spiritual leaders vying for the presidency is unprecedented and is a testimony to the moral bankruptcy of the current administration.

There are also probable candidates who project themselves as being reform-oriented such as Isabela Governor Grace Padaca and Nicky Perlas of the Center for Development Alternatives, a nongovernmental organization. That the clamor for reforms is being felt and shared by most Filipinos gives candidates who project themselves as being reform-oriented a certain degree of advantage.

Sen. Noynoy Aquino, who recently joined the fray, is attempting to replicate the feat accomplished by her mother, the late Cory Aquino who, by being projected as the exact opposite of Marcos, was propelled to the presidency by the Filipino people who are extremely disgusted with the Marcos dictatorship. Aquino, the son, is now being projected as the exact opposite of the highly unpopular Arroyo. The 1985 snap elections was described then as a battle between good (democracy) as represented by Cory Aquino and evil (a dictatorship) as represented by Marcos. The upcoming 2010 election is again being described as a battle between good, as represented by Aquino, and evil, as represented by Arroyo. Aquino is even going to a retreat, as his mother had done in the past, before announcing that he would run for president, which is quite anti-climactic as he and his party, the Liberal Party, have practically declared his candidacy after Sen. Mar Roxas announced that he would slide down to clear the way for Aquino.

Sen. Chiz Escudero has been maximizing his being the youngest candidate for president to project an image of youthful dynamism and desire for change. Sen. Manny Villar and former president Joseph Estrada have been projecting themselves as champions of the poor and the distressed who have long been abandoned and scorned by the Arroyo administration.

Even the two major media networks, ABS-CBN and GMA 7, have been riding on the crest of the people’s call for change, with their responsible voting and “bantay-boto” campaigns, with the bonus of course of boosting their ratings.

However, the problem is all these seem to culminate in the 2010 elections. The Filipino people have elected 10 presidents since July 1946, when the US supposedly granted the country’s independence. (The 10 includes Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo whose victory in the 2004 elections is still under question.) And yet, with the exception of Cory Aquino who presided over the country’s transition from the Marcos dictatorship, presidential elections never resulted in a substantial change in the Filipino people’s lives. In fact, aside from the restoration of the Filipino people’s formal democratic rights, there was no substantial change for the better in the people’s living conditions, in general, and the poverty situation, in particular, even under the Aquino administration.

Likewise, direct political action by the Filipino people in two people power uprisings enabled us to oust two presidents. But it did not effect a change for the better because the Filipino people stopped at ousting the president. It is even more difficult, or impossible, to effect change if people would merely rely on elections, where guns, goons and gold still have a considerable influence, and the people merely cast their votes, without any assurance that it would be counted.

The progressive group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan or Bayan has been pilloried by Malacañang for its unrelenting protest actions directed at the Arroyo administration and its policies. The Arroyo administration has been dismissing Bayan’s protest actions by saying that it had criticized all previous administrations, making it sound that it is such a bad thing to do. But, in fact, it is what all Filipinos should do: to criticize, denounce, and act against all anti-people policies regardless of who is in power. The protest actions and criticisms against this administration are relentless because the Arroyo government is fast surpassing all previous administrations in terms of being scandalously self-serving and its impunity in corruption and bribery, disregard for laws and due process, as well as in human rights violations.

The Americans are now realizing that voting Obama to the White House does not necessarily result in change. The economic crisis has not abated. The US is still enmeshed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Even Obama’s centerpiece health reform program is still far from benefiting majority of Americans. In fact, the approval ratings of Obama are already falling.

If the Filipino people want change, we should prepare for a long, hard struggle that would go beyond May 2010.

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