Isn’t it disturbing that greed is considered not excessive enough and that there is a level of greediness which the public can allegedly tolerate?

Senior civil servants like Neri are unique moralists who think they are still doing a good deed even if they barely scratch the fundamental evils of the hopelessly bankrupt system. Their life goal is no longer to fight the system from within but to collect their fat paychecks every month while diligently doing grand favors for their powerful patrons.

But if we were scandalized by Neri’s ‘moderate their greed’ dictum, General Angelo Reyes shocked us even more with his epic fail attempt to defend his dishonorable performance in government: “I did not invent corruption. I walked into it. Perhaps my first fault was in having accepted aspects of it as a fact of life.”

Maybe it’s a disgraced warrior’s desperate plea for compassion but it essentially captures the attitude of good individuals who decided to compromise their virtue by benefiting from corruption instead of exposing it.

Neri and Reyes were publicly condemned even by lower life forms in government not because they violated the law but because their reckless behavior exposed the imperfections of the system.

As high ranking subalterns who blindly implemented the brutal directives of the system, Neri and Reyes must be seen not as aberrations but authentic representatives of the decaying political system.

Their refusal to act decisively against clear transgressions of the law and public morality is their original sin but it’s also at the same time the preferred political stance of conservative liberals. Sadly, this impotent political posturing is often glorified in the mainstream discourse which allows politicians like Noynoy Aquino to brag their non-involvement in radical politics without generating any political backlash.

Reminiscing his Ateneo student days, Aquino explained why his friends rejected the League of Filipino Students: “There was already a dictatorship outside the university and yet we are going to join an organization that will dictate to us what we will do.” (Chief Justice Corona also uses the word dictator to describe Aquino today)

The revelation here is not Aquino’s anti-LFS sentiment but his rejection of the radical student movement at a time when the clear political choice was to actively oppose the dictatorship. Unknowingly, Aquino confessed that his actual political engagement during the Marcos years was to be a mere passive student leader. He ignored the chance to be part of a group which later became the most militant anti-Marcos student force in the country. It was Aquino’s opportunity to create history without the protective shadow of his family but he rejected it.

How could someone who claims to be the heir of People Power boast his non-action, his passivity, his non-involvement in the student movement during the Martial Law years?

Aquino’s rejection of LFS is similar to an Ilustrado’s refusal to join a Katipunan cell in 1896 or a Makapili’s non-membership in the Huk during the Second World War.

But Aquino only exposed the real kernel of liberal politics: Non-action is still an acceptable option to resist evil.

The alternative to the disappointing political behavior of Neri, Reyes, and Aquino is to embrace the political morality of revolutionaries and genuine dissidents. A revolutionary will not moderate greed; he will punish the greedy. A revolutionary will not tolerate corruption; he will jail the corrupt. A revolutionary will seize the moment by being part a political collective.

Related articles:

No country for young politicians
Corrupt nation

Ibong Adarna is the original ‘angry bird’ of the Philippines. It’s a classic in Philippine literature although its author is unknown. It’s a required reading material in schools so students are familiar with the story of this mythical bird whose enchanting voice can magically heal wounds and rare illnesses. But Adarna’s charm is deadly since it possesses the power to turn humans into stones. Below is an excerpt of the original text of Ibong Adarna:

Sa Tabor na cabunducan
ang siyang quinalalaguian,
cahoy na hinahapunan
Piedras Platas ang pangalan.
Cun arao ay uala roon
itong encantadang ibon,
sa iba sumasalilong
at nagpapaui nang gutom.
Cun gabing catahimican
ualang malay ang sino man,
ay siyang pag-oui lamang
sa Tabor na cabunducan.

Ay ano’i, nang tahimic na
ang gabí ay lumalim na,
siya nangang pagdating na
niyong ibong encantada.
Dumapo na siyang agad
sa cahoy na Piedras Platás,
balahibo ay nangulág
pinalitán niyang agad.
At capagdaca’i, nagcantá
itong ibong encantada,
ang tinig ay sabihin pa
tantong caliga-ligaya.
Ang príncipe ay hindi na
nacaringig nang pagcantá,
pagtúlog ay sabihin pa
himbing na ualang capara.
Ang sa ibong ugali na
cun matapos na magcantá,
ay siyang pag-táe niya
at matutulog pagdaca.
Sa masamáng capalaran
ang príncipe’i, natai-an,
ay naguing bató ngang tunay
ang catauan niyang mahal.

Matanglawin (Hawkeye) is a character in Rizal’s second novel, El Filibusterismo. He’s a Luzon bandit formerly known as Kabesang Tales, a cabeza de barangay (barangay head) in Sagpang. Matanglawin’s criminal activities are described in chapter 28 of the book

“Matanglawin was the terror of Luzon…It burned a sugar-mill in Batangas and destroyed the crops, on the following day it murdered the Justice of the Peace of Tiani, and on the next took possession of the town of Cavite, carrying off the arms from the town hall. The central provinces, from Tayabas to Pangasinan, suffered from his depredations, and his bloody name extended from Albay in the south to Kagayan in the north. The towns, disarmed through mistrust on the part of a weak government, fell easy prey into his hands—at his approach the fields were abandoned by the farmers, the herds were scattered, while a trail of blood and fire marked his passage. Matanglawin laughed at the severe measures ordered by the government against the tulisanes, since from them only the people in the outlying villages suffered, being captured and maltreated if they resisted the band, and if they made peace with it being flogged and deported by the government, provided they completed the journey and did not meet with a fatal accident on the way. Thanks to these terrible alternatives many of the country folk decided to enlist under his command.”

Tales the farmer became Matanglawin the bandit because of the oppression and injustice he suffered when the friars took possession of his land and received no support from the civil government. Here’s how Tales reacted when he learned about the plan of the friars to rob him of his precious land

“Poor Tales turned pale, he felt a buzzing in his ears, he saw in the red mist that rose before his eyes his wife and daughter, pallid, emaciated, dying, victims of the intermittent fevers—then he saw the thick forest converted into productive fields, he saw the stream of sweat watering its furrows, he saw himself plowing under the hot sun, bruising his feet against the stones and roots, while this friar had been driving about in his carriage with the wretch who was to get the land following like a slave behind his master.”

Aves de Rapiña (Birds of Prey) is the title of a controversial 1908 editorial written by Fidel Reyes in the nationalist newspaper El Renacimiento. Secretary of Interior Dean Conant Worcester sued the paper for libel because of the article. Worcester won the case but it didn’t invalidate the message of the editorial which accurately depicted the true intentions of US colonial rule in the Philippines.

“The eagle, symbolizing liberty and power, is the bird of prey that counts with the most followers. And men, individually as well as collectively, have frequently aped the most rapacious of birds in order to triumph in their acts of plunder as well as in their acts of robbery and theft against their fellowmen.

“Climbing the mountains of Benguet with the supposed objective of classifying and measuring the skulls of the Igorrotes, with the pretext of studying them in order to civilize them, they go there to really search, as they fly in the air with the eyes of a bird of prey, the locations of gold deposits, (the hidden booty in the midst of the sad mountains), with the aim of later grabbing these for themselves. And thanks to the facilities, supposedly legal with which they do, and undo, their acts at their own pleasure, that they always get to grab these treasures for their own benefit.

“Such are the characteristics of the men who are at the same time an eagle that surprises and devours, a vulture who gorges itself with putrid meat, an owl who feigns petulant omniscience, and a vampire that silently sucks the victim’s blood until leaving her with deathlike pallor.”

Mga Ibong Mandaragit is a socio-political novel written by National Artist for Literature Amado V. Hernandez. It was published in 1969, a year before the author’s death. The book is about the continuing neocolonial subjugation of the Philippines after World War II. It exposes the numerous social problems of agrarian Philippines and the decadent rule of the oligarchic class. It’s still a required reading material for third year high school students in many schools. The book is praised not just for its literary merits but also for its brave articulation of the necessity for radical politics to successfully reform Philippine society.

Bayan Ko is a poem by Jose Corazon de Jesus written in 1929. It has become the most popular protest song in the country especially during the Martial Law years. It’s most famous lines reflected the yearning of Filipinos to be free from colonial and neocolonial bondage and other forms of oppression.

Ibon mang may layang lumipad,
kulungin mo at umiiyak!
Bayan pa kayang sakdal dilag,
Ang ‘di magnasang makaalpas?
Pilipinas kong minumutya,
Pugad ng luha ko’t dalita,
Aking adhika,
Makita kang sakdal laya!

The Philippine Eagle (Pithecophaga jefferyi) is the king of Philippine birds. It was officially declared the country’s national bird in 1995. For a long time it was mocked as a monkey-eating eagle but scientists insisted that it’s an inaccurate moniker for our Haring Agila.

Perhaps the real angry bird is the so-called Maya. First, it was never recognized as a national bird though many Filipinos (including me) grew up thinking that it was the original national bird. Second, the little brown bird we call Maya is actually not the real Maya.

But we will soon have thousands of angry migratory birds if the planned reclamation project in Manila Bay near Coastal Road and Freedom Island will push through. Despite its polluted waters, Manila Bay is still the preferred stopover of migratory birds but the Noynoy Aquino government had just issued an order to demolish the bird sanctuary when it approved a reclamation project in a critical habitat area in Manila Bay.

There are two ways to describe the birds inside cockpit arenas. Either the sabong birds have anger management issues or they are born warriors. Pinikpikan could be the horror code for birds which fear torture. #itlognitopacio is the most infamous angry bird in the Philippines today (apologies to the birds of the world).

Special mention should go to Ibon Foundation, one of the very few angry bird think-tanks in the country.

The Philippines is often recognized by global institutions for its strong commitment to human rights. Indeed, compared with other countries in the region, where government critics are given insanely long prison sentences and media reports are heavily censored by the authorities, the freedom loving Philippines may seem like a viable and vibrant democratic state to the casual international observer.

But the existence of Western-style democracy in the country doesn’t mean it’s fully compliant with international human rights norms. There’s a free press in the Philippines, but it’s also one of the most dangerous countries for journalists. Activists and political dissidents are free to organize rallies and assemblies even without securing police permits, but many of them have become victims of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances over the past decade.

Indeed, human rights violations became so intense during the incumbency of Gloria Arroyo that a U.N. Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions visited the Philippines in 2007 to investigate the rise in political killings, torture, and kidnapping in the country. Arroyo’s atrocious human rights record was also one of the major issues in last year’s presidential elections, which saw a landslide victory for the opposition.

And since President Benigno Aquino III was one of the leaders who decried the human rights violations committed by the previous administration, human rights groups had high expectations that the killings of activists and journalists would stop. And the killings did stop, but only for a brief time.

To the surprise of human rights defenders, the new government hasn’t bothered to file appropriate charges against military officials involved in well-documented cases of human rights violations. Activists demanded an end to the climate of impunity that allowed perpetrators of the most heinous crimes against humanity to remain unpunished, but they received no concrete response from the government.

The latest report drafted by Karapatan, a human rights NGO, reveals the poor performance of the Aquino government when it comes to human rights. The numbers are very disappointing: There are 64 victims of extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary killings from July 1, 2010 to October 31, 2011. This translates to one political killing per week in the past 16 months. According to the same report, 6 victims are women and 37 are human rights workers. More than 40 percent of the victims are peasants followed by indigenous peoples and workers. There are 9 cases of enforced disappearances and 52 cases of torture.

The government claims there are no political prisoners in the Philippines but Karapatan was able to count 78 prisoners who had been arrested in the past year because of their political beliefs and activities. Karapatan added that there are 356 political detainees in the country who are facing various trumped-up charges.

The group observed that human rights violations tend to be higher in areas where development and infrastructure projects have been identified by the government like large-scale mining, power plants, and airports. In particular, the recent decision of the government to approve the formation of a Special Civilian Armed Auxiliary to secure mining operations is blamed for the heightened attacks against environment defenders and tribal community leaders.

And since the Philippines is confronted with two insurgencies – the world’s longest communist insurgency and a Muslim separatist movement – the slow pace of peace negotiations between the government and the rebels means more civilians are being harmed or killed in conflict areas. Thousands of villagers have also been forced to evacuate their homes in many parts of Mindanao Island because of military operations and the armed activities of rebels.

Aquino should remember the promises he made during his campaign if he wants to address these human rights issues. First, he should mainstream a pro-human rights agenda in the policymaking process. Second, he should tackle the roots of the armed conflict as his government prepares to fast track the peace talks with both the communist and Muslim rebels.

Edited version of a post I submitted for The Diplomat

Jail Gloria

I agree that Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo deserves ‘special treatment’ because she was former president of the Republic. As a concession to her camp, let’s give Rep. Arroyo the chance to choose her preferred detention facility in Metro Manila. After inquiring from the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, we learned that there are 25 jails in Metro Manila, 19 of which can accommodate female prisoners.

Name of Jail Female Population

1. Caloocan City Jail 108
2. Las Pinas 83
3. Makati 81
4. Malabon 38
5. Manila 773
6. Mandaluyong 98
7. Marikina 46
8. Muntinlupa 84
9. Paranaque 116
10. Pasay 109
11. Pasig 92
12. Taguig 61
13. Valenzuela 40
14. Navotas 30
15. San Juan 31
16. Pateros 9
17. Quezon City Female Dorm 550
18. Rodriguez 21
19. San Mateo 24

It’s clear that we don’t have a shortage of prisons in Metro Manila so let’s stop looking for hospitals or houses suitable for Rep. Arroyo.

I’m certain that our jail wardens will be honored if their prison will be chosen by Rep. Arroyo. They can reserve a special room where Arroyo can meet visiting relatives, friends and lawyers.

If Arroyo’s wish to be placed under La Vista house arrest is granted, it will be very unfair to the 2,394 female prisoners in Metro Manila who are looking forward to be jailmates with the former president.

First posted on Kabataan Partylist

The Department of Social Welfare and Development has been bombarding us with statistical reports on the Conditional Cash Transfer program. It’s either they are obsessively transparent or they are merely trying to convince skeptics that the program’s mega funding is justified. The Liberal diehards can use the data to trumpet the effectiveness of CCT as an innovative poverty reduction measure while the angry opposition birds can cite the excessive amount of taxpayers’ money allocated for a single program.

But there are other ways to interpret the DSWD reports and one of them is to link the numbers to the geopolitical distribution of poverty in the archipelago. They can affirm and even expose the existence of extreme poverty in supposedly first class municipalities. The numbers can be overwhelming and the ‘shock effect’ can distract us for a while but once we relate the numbers-that-appear-insignificant to the national poverty situation, they start to become useful and their political value becomes visible.

One of the success indicators attributed to CCT is the alleged high compliance rate of beneficiaries in fulfilling the conditionalities, like attending schools and health centers. But in presenting this achievement, the DSWD also revealed and validated (with extreme accuracy) the failure of both local and national governments in their mandate to deliver appropriate health and education services to our children

4th Quarter 2010

3-5 years old, not attending school: 56,504
3-5 years old, attending school: 72,489
6-14 years old, not attending school: 93,228
6-14 years old, attending school: 449,457
0-5 years-old, not attending health center: 36,793
0-5 years-old, attending health center: 223,477

In less than four months this year, the DSWD managed to expand the CCT registered households by 700,000. Maybe that’s what P21.1 billion can accomplish. But the DSWD also succeeded in delisting 200,000 households from the program. What was the crime committed by the ex-CCT beneficiaries? In Metro Manila, four of them were accused of fraud while 3,599 inclusion errors were recorded throughout the country. But most of the delisted households were found guilty of the heinous crime of ‘not attending assemblies’ conducted by the agency. Curiously, 61 beneficiaries in Central Luzon were delisted because they are no longer poor anymore. Balato!

Most of the beneficiaries are located in Mindanao and the share of ARMM is the biggest in the country. That the ‘very poor’ reside in Mindanao could also probably mean that most of the moderately poor, slightly poor, and the invisible poor are also to be found on the island. And CCT-defined poverty is not just a problem ‘there’ in Mindanao: look at the Bicol numbers. What’s the government’s official intervention to alleviate their conditions? Or maybe we are too fixated with the CCT viagra pill that we are unable to see the need to develop a holistic policy to deal with poverty and its discontents.

CCT registration

There are provinces which are not included in the CCT program because there are no qualified beneficiaries there (Batanes) but the program is already operational in 75 cities, 950 municipalities, and 79 provinces. Despite the program expansion, there are still politicians who are complaining about the non-inclusion of some of their constituents. By asking DSWD to accept more beneficiaries in their areas, aren’t they admitting their failure to solve poverty in their jurisdictions? Below are some of the CCT provinces and the rising number of CCT households

Tell me the number of CCT households in your town and I’ll tell you what kind of leader you are. Maybe this applies to the Ampatuans who ruled Maguindanao and ARMM for several years.

Meanwhile, superstar cities like Iloilo, Zamboanga, Davao, Quezon City, General Santos, and Makati (ganito kami sa Makati) have high CCT registrations. Maybe their leaders are more concerned about how to impress credit rating analysts and business competitiveness experts that they failed to notice the widening economic inequality in their places.

And speaking of municipalities which recorded high levels of CCT poverty, Rapu-Rapu and Compostela proved that there may be life after mining but it’s a poor one. Lesson for local leaders: Think twice before embracing the seductive offer of mining firms.

Caraga towns Bunawan (Lolong giant crocodile) and Claver (NPA mining raid) have been in the news recently but the poverty rates in these places also deserve a special mention.

Next time we go to a Friday mass in Quiapo, think of the 21 very poor households in the historic area. Can’t we ask the rich devotees to do something about the unlucky 21?

Tourism will bring dollar receipts (and sex tourists according to a US diplomat) but poverty elimination isn’t a guarantee. See listing below. CamSur and Cebu may be the country’s top tourist attractions yet the poverty index in these towns is quite alarming. Sadly, after years of eco-tourism in Puerto Princesa and Palawan, they remain poverty-stricken destinations. On the other, could the non-inclusion of Puerto Galera, Panglao, and Malay (Boracay) mean there are no CCT poor in these popular tourist destinations?

A senatorial candidate once complained that scions of prominent political families are lucky since their family names are also the names of streets, towns, and buildings in the country. They can bank on a name-recall strategy to win in the polls. We are familiar with the famous streets, airports, and landmark buildings named after former presidents and heroes but we seldom acknowledge the lesser known towns which got their names also from dead presidents and heroes. Through the DSWD reports, we are able to list the towns named after former presidents and the existence of CCT poverty in these places. Who are the ‘poorest presidents’? How should their families react to the fact that the towns which are named in honor of them are afflicted with CCT poverty levels?

As of September 2011, the cash grants released by the DSWD for the current year have reached P9.2 billion. Below is the list of regions which received substantial amounts from the agency. Notice the billion peso CCT funds for Bicol?

The DSWD targets the location of the poorest of the poor in the same way the military hunts the lair of its rebel enemies. Precise. Detailed. Ruthlessly efficient. Mission objectives couched in a neutral-sounding, technical language. After locating the poor and giving them a dose of CCT, what’s the state’s next ‘shock therapy’ for them? The poor, because they are poor, are easily subjected to various social experiments even if these are highly discriminatory.

In imperial regimes, maps were technological tools used to impose hegemony in the colonized territories. Maps didn’t merely define the boundaries of the Empire but more significantly, they placed the subdued populations under the cartographic monitoring of rulers. Maps performed military functions in aid of modernity and the fanatical drive to spread the civilizing mission to the barbarian worlds. In short, there is nothing innocent in the quasi-scientific categorization of individuals and groups in an enclosed space.

Like military maps, the hyper-accurate matrix of CCT beneficiaries supports the power imperative of the dominant faction of the ruling class. If the CCT fails (and it’s bound to fail because it’s not designed to disturb the roots of deprivation in the country), will politicians in search of stability be able to resist the compulsion to use the DSWD database to exclude and even exterminate the unwanted (system losses) poorest of the poor from mainstream society?

But the country’s image shouldn’t be reduced to the world of exotic and magic.

Indeed, ‘really existing’ poverty in the country is obscene. If a gated community is built near an urban poor sprawl, the public debate will focus on the actual and imagined excesses of the poor instead of redirecting the righteous indignation of the twittering classes (previously known as chattering classes) to the vulgar display of social inequality. It seems easier to inflame the tsunami rage of the TV-crazed mob by highlighting the criminal activities of the masa than, for example, to build opposition to the irresponsible and elitist decision of the government to lower the indicators of poverty. Solve poverty by redefining it, clever!

But then again, the Philippines should be more than about disasters and Smokey Mountain. It may be famous for its white sand beaches and giant crocodiles but even in these islands of contradictions people live. The islanders, the ‘orphans of the Pacific’, know how to cook adobo and sinigang; but more than their love for merrymaking and baby making, they know how to fight. They produced super maids and super nannies but they also gave us superheroes and super revolutionaries.

The Philippines is guilty of bringing Marcos to this world (and maybe even Hitler if rumors are true) but it’s the same country where Rizal was born. It’s the land of Bonifacio and Jacinto who launched Asia’s first anti-colonial revolution in the late 19th century. Before Sun Yat Sen and Gandhi, there was the anti-Spanish Katipuneros and their bolos. It’s the country which exposed the imperialism of the great US of A when its people resisted the American occupation in the early 1900s. Out of the ruins of the second world war (beautiful old Manila was the second most devastated city in the world next to Warsaw), the Philippine Republic – Asia’s first after the war – was established. Filipinos defied the dictatorship in the 1970s and wowed the world with their peaceful People Power uprising in Edsa in 1986.

Recently, protesting workers and farmers ‘occupied’ Mendiola and proclaimed themselves the ’75 percent’ who are urging the 24 percent (professionals, students, middle forces) to join the struggle against the oppressive rule of the ‘1 percent’. Behold the exploited majority as they affirm their readiness to challenge the supremacy of the political dynasties.

Yes Wikileaks, there is poverty, repression, and old style imperialist meddling in the Philippines; but why dwell on these depressing topics?

The people’s movement in the islands is actually intensifying. The armed revolution has been raging in the archipelago for more than four decades already and it’s officially the world’s longest insurgency. The oppressors, the apathetic, the conformists, and the clueless observers couldn’t understand why the rebellion is thriving in the country despite the dramatic fall of the communist bloc. But the serious students of history, the oppressed, and the dreamers of a new future clearly understand the logic of revolution. They know that tyranny can’t exist without provoking anger and resistance in society.

From the Middle East to the Americas, the people are raising the level of fighting. Arab Spring. Occupy Movements. General Strikes. People’s War. Dictators are ousted in unceremonial ways but more significantly, the people are learning how to fight back. They are reclaiming politics by asserting the power of organized collectives. The one percent has the purchasing power but the people, the grassroots, has the real power to change the world. The poor will not reject charity but solidarity is superior.

The search for the perfect hashtag to capture the essence of revolution should be abandoned since the truth has to be experienced in the real world. It’s through the participation in the daily struggles that life becomes more meaningful. It’s when workers, farmers, and the rest of the exploited are united in the revolution that they are able to create history, even as they viciously confront their differences.

Therefore, the fire of life is burning in the Philippines because its people are waging a revolution. From the cities to the boondocks, the flags of the mass movement are standing proud.

*From Anton Chekhov’s short story In Exile, “Even in Siberia people live.”

Pnoy’s CCT (dis)empowers the poor in many ways: It inevitably creates a false hope among the poorest of the poor that the nominal increase in their monthly incomes is a cure-all to their deprivation; it directly promotes feudal gender stereotypes since it narrowly equates women empowerment with greater participation of mothers in the administrative implementation of the program; it inexcusably widens inequality in society because of the utter failure of the program planners to consider the dynamics of varying cost of living in the regions and rural-urban disparity.

The government has repeatedly claimed that the CCT is an investment in human capital and a necessary intervention to help the children and poor. In reality, however, it’s a wise but insincere political investment for the 2013 and 2016 elections. Pnoy’s political operators are probably aware that cash giving is an effective electoral tactic that can mobilize the support of the desperate poor and other ‘fundamental nobodies’ in society.

But the poor’s visible enthusiasm in supporting the CCT should be seen in the context of their situation which progressive educator Paulo Freire described as an “everlasting present of hopelessness and resignation.” Freire added that the poor who are “tired and anesthetized, (and) in need of everything, (are) easy prey for aid-and-assistance policies that further immerse them in a mind-narrowing daily existence.”

Instead of mocking the poor, we should encourage them to resist oppression including policies that weaken their fighting resolve. Freire emphasized that “one of the main differences between assistance policies and those that assist without “assistencializing” is that the former insist on the suggestion that the great big problem with the oppressed lies in deficiencies of nature; the latter, on the other hand, underscores the importance of the social, the economic, and the political: in sum, power.” The CCT is the latest sophisticated weapon of the ruling party in seducing the poor to ignore power and class struggle.

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The CCT places the poor under constant state surveillance or monitoring. From selection, accreditation, compliance, and up to the last day of the program, the poor must sacrifice their privacy. They must welcome the CCT implementers who are deployed by the state to investigate and confirm if the poor are really poor and if they are complying with the program conditionalities. It normalizes the intrusion of the state into the private lives of citizens; and maybe the intended effect is to force the latter to submission and reject radical politics. The desire is to influence the behavior of the vulnerable poor and dominate their thinking. Through the CCT seminars (non-attendance could mean expulsion from the program), the reactionary state hopes to prevent the poor from imagining that it’s still possible to attain complete liberation from poverty through revolutionary action.

For the first time in Philippine history, the state is now able to identify the precise location of the poorest of the poor. Its enhanced targeting system which can detect the presence of potential CCT beneficiaries (or victims) in every village in the country mirrors the efficiency and capability of the precision smart bombs of the U.S. military. The CCT it seems is a social welfare program which functions like a militarized operation.

The CCT inventory in the hands of a welfare state will improve the delivery of basic social services; but it becomes a deadly political and even military hit list in the hands of a state ruled by oligarchs and puppets. Beware of Third World governments that use deceptive and World Bank-designed programs like the CCT because their real intent is to liquidate the fighting poor.

What if we reverse the framework of the CCT registration system? Instead of aggressively registering the poor, we identify the richest families in every town. Today, we know that Concepcion in Tarlac has 663 poor families but maybe through a reverse CCT we will be able to identify the number and location of the richest landlords there. After we register the richest families in Makati, maybe we can persuade them to help the CCT-determined 2,204 poor families residing in the same city. But this remains a wishful thinking for now since only a revolutionary government can have the political will and motivation to devise and implement a program that seeks to disturb the quiet and anonymous lives of the mega rich.

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The CCT accomplishment report contains a reference to the number of families which were delisted from the program. As of last month, about 155,944 households have been removed from the list of CCT beneficiaries. The agency recorded 203 fraudulent acts, 3,643 inclusion errors, 436 duplicates, and 150,000 families which failed to attend the CCT seminars and assemblies. Curiously, 61 families were removed from the program because they were ‘no longer poor.’ There were also individuals who opted out of the program.

The unusual high number of delisted households highlights the inherently politicized character of the CCT selection process. More than the unwelcome meddling of porky politicians, the flaw in the registration process could lead to the possible exclusion of the legitimate poor from being enrolled in the program. What will happen to the CCT drop-outs? After being expelled from the CCT, are they still eligible to participate in other social welfare programs? What about the poor who suddenly became non-poor? Their situation is quite strange: they are still poor, but they don’t deserve to be included in the CCT because they are not very poor.

Because of the arbitrariness of the selection process, the CCT could trigger a vicious competition in the grassroots. As local governments vie for a bigger share of grants, the higher allocation of some towns or provinces could be questioned. The poor will outdo each other in trying to prove that they are poorer than others. Animosity could erupt between the delisted and the CCT enrollees.

By publishing the number of delisted beneficiaries, the agency seeks to prove its commitment to transparency and the rejection of partisan political influence. But the numbers also refer to the structural defect of the program. The number of inclusion errors is insignificant but its existence reflects the anti-poor bias of the CCT.

Who are the people who had been initially included but now excluded from the CCT? Not the privileged few or members of the affluent society but the poor, the moderately poor, the former poor. Duplicate registration is the least of the sins committed by the poor but it seems that it’s enough to deprive them of the chance to benefit and take part in poverty reduction schemes.

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Former Prime Minister Cesar Virata once said that 90 percent of the wealth of the country is in the hands of 10 percent of the population. If Robin Hood were alive today, he would have robbed the 10 percent rich and distribute the loot to the 90 percent poor. Definitely, Pnoy’s CCT doesn’t subscribe to the Robin Hood principle.

The cash transfer won’t reverse and disrupt the unequal distribution of wealth and power in the country. In spite of the CCT, the rich will continue to accumulate more money at the expense of the poor. The sad fact is that the CCT is merely a tool to hide the continuing greedy appropriation of society’s wealth by a few individuals, families, and corporations.

The government is ready and willing to expand the CCT since it seeks to distract the attention of the poor from revolutionary politics. The government, in truth, is afraid of its own people. Here lies the difference between a reactionary state and the revolutionary struggle of the people. The state prefers docile victims who can be rescued through the CCT while the revolution seeks to transform the victims into active and fighting subjects of History.

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“Imbes na maglingkod-bayan, para bang sila ang naging hari ng bayan. Kung makaasta ang kanilang mga padrino’t alipores, akala mo’y kung sinong maharlika kung humawi ng kalsada; walang pakialam sa mga napipilitang tumabi at napag-iiwanan. Ang mga dapat naglilingkod ang siya pang nang-aapi. Ang panlalamang matapos mangakong maglingkod—iyan po ang utak wang-wang.

“Habang nananatili sa puwesto ang mga utak wang-wang na opisyal, naiiwan namang nakalubog sa kumunoy ng kawalang-pagasa ang taumbayan.”

Pnoy’s definition of utak wang-wang sharply reflects the unequal relations of power in Philippine society. We are one with him in the crusade to end the reign of this brutal kind of mindset. But unlike him, we aren’t convinced that utak wang-wang represents all evils in society. There are other demons to slay like, for instance, utak haciendero.

This evil is responsible for the continuing feudal bondage of millions of small farmers in the countryside. It’s similar to utak wang-wang but it could be worse since the despotic landlord doesn’t realize nor comprehend how his refusal to distribute his vast landholdings to poor tenants is already a legal, moral, and political crime. In fact, he doesn’t even accept the charge that he’s exploiting other people since he clings to the arrogant belief that his family is actually doing the farmers a favor by allowing them to work in the family-owned estate.

Those with utak haciendero are insensitive to the poverty experienced by others, including the loyal peasants who work for them. What matters to them is their rising share from the profits of the hacienda and not the grim statistics about the suffering of their tenants.

Pnoy is guilty of utak haciendero when he chose to highlight the positive grades given by credit rating agencies than speak about the deplorable conditions of workers in the country. There was no substantial reference to the plight of workers even in the Sona technical report because Pnoy preferred the abstract and essentially meaningless numbers of credit rating agencies – which by the way should be distrusted because of their obvious culpability in the 2008 global financial crisis. The decision to hide the workers in the Sona should provoke us to resist this criminal non-counting of the workers. Philosopher Alain Badiou warned that

“To count workers for nothing means that we count nothing but capital. What is counted is the level of the stock market, the Euro, financial investment, competition and so on; the figure of the worker, on the other hand, counts for nothing.”

Noy as Nationalist

The most applauded statement of Pnoy referred to his strong assertion of the country’s sovereignty in the West Philippine Sea (I prefer Southeast Asia Sea). He said: “Ang sa Pilipinas ay sa Pilipinas; kapag tumapak ka sa Recto Bank, para ka na ring tumapak sa Recto Avenue.”

Suddenly, Pnoy has become a staunch defender of our territorial integrity. It was made more symbolic when he cited Recto Avenue which was named after Senator Claro M. Recto, a nationalist intellectual and statesman. But to be faithful to Recto’s legacy means that Pnoy should also make a stand against visiting United States troops, warships, and meddling American diplomats and lobbyists.

He should also draft a masterplan on how to develop the Spratlys. Otherwise, it would be absurd for the Philippines to aggressively claim the Spratlys but allow foreigners to explore and exploit the energy and mineral resources there. Pnoy’s emotional but sensible appeal that rice should be planted here and consumed here by Filipinos should be more vigorously applied to other aspects of the economy.

(Maybe he didn’t mean it but Pnoy indirectly reaffirmed his pro-American bias when his Sona presentation included a photo of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.)

Negativism and Utak alimango

Pnoy’s rant against excessive negativism in the country is unreasonable but hardly surprising. After all, ruling parties and politicians are always suspicious against critics and the opposition. They can’t tolerate dissenting opinion. Even the freedom-loving President Cory once accused the media of ‘bad news syndrome’ while President Gloria called her enemies ‘self-indulgent political theatrics that send the wrong message to the world.’ Like Pnoy, Gloria wanted reports that deal only with the government’s positive agenda:

“We must invest, not just investigate. It is time for action, not political wrangling. The people deserve that we focus on a positive agenda, not get wrapped up in a political jockeying.”

But negativism is needed in a democracy since it alerts the people to probe the actions or inactions of leaders. Pnoy should not forget that if not for the negativism of his parents, Marcos would have survived longer in Malacanang. Pnoy was in fact among the negativists in the previous administration. Pnoy’s rejection of Utak Alimango is logical since he’s now in power and he certainly doesn’t want disruptions in the status quo but he shouldn’t quickly dismiss all complaints against his administration. His attitude towards those who disagree with his enchanted view of the world is a perfect display of Utak Kapit Tuko which is anathema in a democracy.

Politics is personal

Pnoy’s decision to be ‘personal’ against corrupt public servants probably stems from his superficial analysis of corruption in the bureaucracy. His war against what he names as the culture of corruption is doomed to fail since it doesn’t address the roots of the problem. Corruption is tied to the rotten political-economic system (read: semi-feudal and semi-colonial) which can’t be easily corrected through behavior modification. To solve corruption requires the radical and even violent dismantling of the oppressive political order dominated by oligarchs, bureaucrat capitalists, and Pnoy’s haciendero friends. It’s quite disturbing that Pnoy’s sense of history is limited to the Arroyo years. He can’t untangle the old and stubborn knots, so to speak, if he focuses too much on Arroyo. Despite her recidivism, Arroyo is merely a symptom of the bankrupt social order.

Pnoy’s advice to the public to perform little acts of kindness everyday is very inspiring but it isn’t a function of politics. It may enhance our spirituality but not necessarily the political empowerment of the grassroots. Politics, after all, is not about charity. It isn’t even about being friendly to our neighbors. Politics, more than anything else, should involve the creative invention of new possibilities and the struggle for new political truths. Politics requires the total destruction of the oppressive old to allow the birthing of a completely new order.

But if the president chooses to act like a preacher rather than practice emancipatory politics, then our task as serious students of politics will necessarily involve two things: First, expose Pnoy as an insincere political reformist who only wants to spread Santa Claus messages in the world; and second, carry out the radical political project until the politically impossible has become a reality.

The State of the Nation Address might be packed with lies, inconsistencies, and exaggerations but it remains an essential document to learn how the president views the situation in the country. More than the government’s accomplishment report, we should read what the president refuses to mention in his speech. Sometimes the least cited topics are the most troubling issues in society. It’s interesting how a problem that was supposedly resolved already is mentioned again by the president in his speech. It’s during these moments when the Sona offers a glimpse of the truth.

Reading the Sona of past presidents is heartbreaking since it reminds us of our failure to realize our big dreams as a nation.

Manuel Roxas, June 21, 1946

“Our future is grim, brightened only by the patriotic determination of the Filipino people, to succeed, at whatever cost.”

“We must agree to take steps to amend our Constitution to provide certain rights for American citizens which are now at variance with the Constitution.”

“I have no fear whatsoever that the granting to American citizens of rights equal to those of Filipinos in the development of our natural resources will bring about an imperialistic exploitation of our country.”

“We are a prostrate nation. The apparent well-being of some of our citizens today leads them to puff up with dignity, like the bullfrog of Aesop’s Fable.”

Manuel Roxas, January 27, 1947

“We have reestablished complete peace and order throughout the Philippines, except in a few limited areas in Central Luzon.”

“We are in the process of strengthening our Bureau of Aeronautics to regulate and stimulate the further expansion of the aviation industry.”

“With the aid of the United States, we are preparing to reconstruct our harbors and portworks. With the aid of the United States, we are in the process of reorganizing and reestablishing our weather observation systems…With the aid of the United States, we are beginning large-scale programs of public building construction and repair…”

“We have had during the past 8 months, very few strikes. The biggest strike was that of some government laborers in Manila.”

Manuel Roxas, January 26, 1948

“In the past year we have advanced from a state of emergency into the plenitude of constitutional normalcy.”

“The fact that Baguio is gaining favor as the seat of international conferences is indicative of the worldwide interest in Philippine affairs.”

“The United States Government has already returned to us the airport at Nichols Field. It is our hope to make Manila the hub of air transportation in the Far East.”

Elpidio Quirino, January 24, 1949

“I am glad to report to you that the sporadic depredations of these outlaws in isolated areas of the country are but the last paroxysms of a dying movement.”

“For the first time in the history of civil administration in this country there was no such thing as a school crisis this school year.”

“Although the United States continues to be the only country that maintains an embassy here, 8 other countries now have legations…”

Elpidio Quirino, January 23, 1950

“Circumstances beyond my control make me forego the pleasure of appearing in person to deliver this message following a beautiful tradition established many years ago and adhered to most punctiliously by my predecessors in office.”

“We have these past years since liberation seemingly enjoyed a life of plenty and even a luxury, not so much as a result of our productive energies as because of the temporary flow of money into our economy.”

Elpidio Quirino, January 22, 1951

“We cannot justifiably look always to the United States to meet out budgetary requirements. This government cannot be delivered to the Treasury of the United States.”

“Arms without valor, however powerful, are useless weapons. Valor can be aroused only by a righteous cause…The world is not merely on the verge of fire; it is on fire. And yet people can be immobilized by fiddling and temporizing while the nation’s life and future are at stake.”

Elpidio Quirino, January 28, 1952

“There are now more surrenderees than captives or Huk casualties; many of them are now settled in government farms with their families…”

“This past year we passed the minimum wage law.”

“The victims of the 1951 public disasters will take years to rehabilitate themselves. The coconut industry in the Visayas has been practically totally damaged.”

“Our BCG laboratory is rated the best and the largest in the region. We are producing vaccines for Formosa and Indo-China, besides filling our own requirements.”

“In the ratio of school enrollment to total population, we rank next to the United States, the highest of any country in the world.”

“But the rapid growth of the private school system poses the problem of effective supervision for the maintenance of scholarship standards at high level.”

“Ninety percent of the war-damaged water supply systems have been restored to operation.”

“We should begin to explore the problems, possibilities and potentials of a railway system in Mindanao, and provide for the extension of the existing system to Northern Luzon, especially in the Cagayan Valley.”

Elpidio Quirino, January 26, 1953

“And our watchword has since been land for the landless, home for the homeless.”

“Our program of slum clearance is being implemented with the construction of low-cost houses for squatter and low-income families, one in Pandacan, Manila, and another in Bago-Bantay, Quezon City.”

“The Senate did not act on the Japanese peace treaty during its last session. Technically, therefore, we are still at war with that country.”

Behind Pnoy are gruesome, backbiting factions which are constantly striving for dominance in the Malacanang snake-pit. The Balay and Samar groups are the two infamous factions but they also have to deal with the mafia in the Taliban Liberal Party composed of self-righteous traditional politicians, unremoulded arrogant members of (un)civil society, racketeering social democrats and phony progressives. But the Times Street inner circle dominated by the Kamag-anak Inc., Classmates Inc., and the three sisters seems to be more influential than the other power factions.

Pnoy’s mandate remains effective as long as there are sizeable adherents of the legal fiction of democracy and sovereign will of the people. In other words, Pnoy’s rule is legitimized by propagating the idea that representative democracy is the only acceptable and feasible system of determining the country’s political leadership.

But we are aware of the inherent flaws of this system. Georges Sorel wrote that “Government by the mass of the citizens has never yet been anything but a fiction: yet this fiction was the last word of democratic science. No attempt has ever been made to justify this singular paradox by which the vote of a chaotic majority is supposed to produce what Rousseau calls the ‘general will’ which is infallible.”

Proudhon was even more critical of universal suffrage: “How could universal suffrage reveal the thought, the real thought, of the people, when the people is divided by inequality of fortunes into classes subordinate one to the other and voting either through servility or through hate; when this same people, held in restraint by authority, is incapable notwithstanding its sovereignty of expressing its ideas on anything; and when the exercise of its rights is limited to choosing, every three or four years, its chiefs and its impostors?”

A tiny clique of powerful and rich individuals is able to legalize its oppressive rule by manipulating the ballots. Then it hides the imperfections of the system to make the people believe in a sham democracy. It finally proclaims itself as the undisputed leader and representative of the sovereign people.

But the tiny clique is aware of the unstable and weak basis of its power which is why it’s always ruthless against the restive classes, dissident groups, and political forces which represent the ordinary masses.

It must be emphasized that the victorious tiny clique does not enjoy a complete hegemony since there are always contending forces which threaten or undermine its dominance. Concretely, Pnoy is the president of the Republic but his absolute reign does not reach the whole archipelago. For example, there may be 7,107 islands that compose the Philippines but many of the islands are already privately owned. In Marinduque, three small islands there are owned by a politician. Turtle Island in Tawi-Tawi was already sold to the governor. Obviously, Pnoy is not the effective ruler of these private islands and other remote territories which are still part of the Philippine state.

Like his predecessors, Pnoy is merely a figurehead who extends his clout through media magic and brutal display of violence by the armed forces.

So if the successful tiny clique currently headed by Pnoy does not have a monopoly of power, who or what are the other power blocs in the country?

Topping the list is Uncle Sam. The Philippine state which evolved in the past century is a subservient state of US imperialism which makes the latter the major, if not the strongest and also the most vicious power holder in the country. The Philippines is actually a remote satellite of the US empire while Pnoy is America’s ‘son of a bitch’ in this part of the world.

It’s an open secret that Filipino politicians who covet the presidency must first seek the support of the US if they want to prevail at the polls. No important foreign policy decision is made without consulting the US masters. Promoting American geopolitical objectives is equated with pursuing the national interest. US intervention in our domestic affairs is so widespread, extensive, and sophisticated – think of Balikatan, Meiring, Subic-Clark, Agile, USAID, Peace Corps, CIA, World Bank, and dancing ambassadors.

Business tycoons wield considerable power too. They use their wealth and prestige to corrupt the bureaucracy. They buy politicians, bribe local officials, hire soldiers, and steal money from the poor to advance their business interests. Protecting their profit margin is considered a government mandate since it is said to be good for the economy even if it leads to the destruction of the environment, violation of labor rights, and displacement of villages. Laws can be either enacted or revoked to accommodate the needs of Big Business.

They are even exempted from the obligation to respect and abide to Philippine laws and traditions; and they receive generous tax discounts (think of export processing enclaves, outsourcing hubs, agribusiness plantations). They subscribe to the mantra that everything and everyone has a price tag; and this greedy, unchristian accumulation of material wealth is praised in the ‘porno-financial’ reports of the media. They are fondly referred to as CEO philanthropists, visionaries, and global leaders but the truth is, many of them are just big time crooks, tax evaders, cronies, and dummies. Of course there is only one Big Boss in the Philippines.

Meanwhile, there are various ‘dark lords’ and other shady characters which are lording it over in the islands – they are the landlords, warlords, jueteng lords, gambling lords, drug lords, and ‘praise the lords.’ All of these underworld creatures have political clout in their respective territories. They enforce their own laws in their feudal kingdoms. They only recognize the authority of the central government when they seek some favors from it.

Pnoy’s family is the super landlord of Luzon but the other smaller islands are also infested with equally notorious landlords. Land ownership is the source of their brutal power in the countryside which explains their stubborn resistance to land reform programs.

The biggest landlord in a town is often the reigning warlord. The warlord has a private army which, in some places, is bigger and better equipped than the local military force. The warlord belongs to a clan which fields candidates in elections. The Ampatuans are the most hated warlords today but the clans which opposed their despotic rule are also warlords.

It’s only the state which has the legal right to build its own army but the existence of private armies created and maintained by local politicians across the country is a direct affront to the supposed absolute authority of Imperial Manila.

The private army of a politician in power is usually augmented by deploying the local police and military under his personal command. This expanded army guarantees the continued reign of the politician patron by terrorizing the local opposition and disobedient residents.

Goons-for-hire also proliferate to protect the operations of drug and gun smugglers, human traffickers, and pirates. They belong to the network of international criminal syndicates which exploit the weak governance in the Philippines to expand their underground modus operandi.

The country’s long coastline (second longest in the world) is ideal for these criminal activities. It is in the coastal areas where Philippine sovereignty is often violated by visiting nuclear warships, foreign fishing vessels, toxic waste delivery ships, pirate boats, and kidnap-for-ransom groups.

Criminal gangs use their dirty money to silence the media, distract the police and buy political support. Drug lords and jueteng lords, for instance, are among the biggest financiers during elections. No less than former President Joseph Estrada was ousted from power after he was accused of receiving jueteng protection money.

But the most serious challenge to the leadership of the puppet president of the Republic comes from rebel groups and revolutionary movements. Naïve political commenters and other apologists of the status quo often criticize rebel groups as nuisance elements but they fail to recognize the success of these groups in establishing a separate government within the territory of the Philippine state.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front has several camps which operate as mini government centers delivering frontline services to its constituents. Estrada’s total war campaign in 2000 was able to destroy Camp Abubakar but it proved that the MILF was already exercising jurisdiction in many parts of the Moro land.

Red power also exists in many areas in the countryside, as reported by the Communist Party. The Reds further claimed that they have already achieved belligerency status by waging a protracted people’s war for several decades. The military, of course, disproved the claim but was forced to admit that Red Fighters are indeed present in many provinces of the country. It is safe to assume, however, that the communist insurgency was able to thrive for more than four decades because of its ability to control, dominate or influence several towns and municipalities in the Philippine countryside.

It is impossible for Pnoy to dominate the whole archipelago. Foreign powers are always meddling, power factions are ‘draining the executive power’, warlords remain untouchables, criminal gangs are getting bolder, and rebels continue to present an alternative political order.

Pnoy may be an owner of a second hand Porsche, the VIP occupant of Malacanang, the owner of a house in Times Street, a minority shareholder in Hacienda Luisita, and he may even flaunt his title as president of the Republic and most illustrious bachelor of high society; but it doesn’t mean he has a monopoly of political power in the archipelago. His presidency is undermined from the very start because of the semi-feudal and semi-colonial character of the Philippine state; and it is further diminished by his weak leadership and lack of vision. An emperor sits on the throne, but the emperor is naked.

After being reelected, Marcos ruled the country as a dictator for the next 17 years until he was ousted by a people’s revolt. He was replaced by Cory Aquino whose chief contribution to politics was her decision to restore the pre-Marcos political power structure.

The revived system provided a semblance of political stability but it lasted for only 15 years when the political crisis during the forgettable Estrada administration became so acute that another extralegal procedure was required to prevent the system from disintegrating. Gloria Arroyo inherited the presidency but quickly mutated into a Marcos-like hate figure when she used iron fist measures to defend her unpopular regime.

Marcos, the supreme politician of the post-war era, was succeeded by “politicking non-politicians” or anti-trapo figures. Cory was the brave housewife of a dissident politician, Ramos was the cunning general who protected Cory, and Erap was a charming actor and self-styled hero of the masses.

But Arroyo, who holds a PhD in economics, turned out to be the real trapo (and not Joe De Venecia, who is considered the quintessential traditional politician) in Philippine modern history. She was first and last a wily politician, and only an incidental economist. Her greatest feat was her surprising electoral victory in 2004. It was the year when the trapos had their revenge against the anti-trapos represented by the much loved Fernando Poe Jr.

There are two heroic figures which emerged in the past 40 years: Cory and her son Noynoy. The mother and son were able to symbolize the ‘good’ who battled the ‘evil’ of politics. Cory challenged THE dictator while Noynoy is nasty to the ‘tin pot’ dictator. Cory was the icon of the People Power movement which delivered the fatal blow to the strongman while Noynoy used the memory of Cory and the residual appeal of People Power to christen himself as the leading voice of the opposition against the Arroyo regime.

But despite the rise of moral leaders, the system has utterly failed to improve the living conditions in the country. The poor are still poor (minus one kidney) while the rich have become, well, filthier. Furthermore, the defeat of the Evil One in 1986 didn’t prevent the formation of another ‘evil’ figure in 2001.

The obvious conclusion which we can draw from this initial review of the disappointing Philippine experiment with parliamentary democracy is to proclaim the impotency of electoral politics. But this is not simply a leftist judgment. Even mainstream leaders have underscored the need for substantial reforms in the system. They themselves have recognized the inadequacy of replacing leaders through a manipulated system of elections.

Ofcourse the moralist conservatives prefer that change should begin with individuals.

But what if reforms are not sufficient to make the system work? What if the system is really bankrupt and rotten to the core? That Marcos-Arroyo evil figures, far from being aberrations in the system, actually embody the authentic essence of the system?

The verdict is out: Political reforms conceptualized and implemented within the inherently limited parameters of parliamentary democracy will always produce conservative political figures a la Marcos-Arroyo and Cory-Noynoy. It is not a coincidence that the pragmatic Gloria, who is not ignorant of democratic politics, had chosen to replicate the political tactics used by Marcos. Even Noynoy, who is surrounded by former progressives, is disturbingly trying to repeat the political decisions of his mother.

The system has no original options to offer anymore. The system’s ‘refresh button’ only enhances the image of the discredited ‘old. ’

Hourglass politics

The political cycle is quite similar to the movement of the sand inside a sand timer or hourglass. The trickling down of the sand from the upper glass bulb to the bottom glass bulb constitutes the only and real mode of action/change inside the hourglass. Once the upper glass bulb is empty, the instrument is inverted to restart the process of measuring time.

Everyday politics is synonymous to the movement of the sand; while the system (liberal democracy at the moment) is like the hourglass instrument. As the political capital of the system runs out or when its democratic façade is finally exposed, the system is ‘overturned’ by heroic figures and even by extraordinary circumstances. The danger lies in the thinking that the banality of everyday politics (trickling down of the sand) stands for the small but constant flow of changes in the political sphere. The greater danger is to equate the inverted hourglass as the beginning of a new political order. “Shaking’ the system does not ruin it. Reversing the ‘flow of the sand’ by ‘inverting’ the system does not invalidate the process since it is assumed that the old elements that compose the sand, and the hourglass structure are still necessary.

What is to be done? Do not merely invert the instrument. Smash the hourglass.

But most of the time we prefer to live in the old and familiar hourglass. We rejoice when the hourglass is inverted since we think it marks the birth of a new system. We praise the expansion of democratic space (whatever that means) in society. Are we then condemned to live this way forever? Always moving like the sand, always in flux, but unable to see and imagine a new life outside the hourglass?

Fortunately, there is a genuine alternative. The left, the left, provides the blueprint in order to smash the system and create a radical beginning. How did the left perform in the past 40 years?

(To be continued)

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Conjugal dictatorships
Edsa 1986, 2001
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