“Wasn’t Erap ousted by the elite precisely because he was supposed to be a plunderer, an ineffective president who spent his days and night pleasing himself, never mind the affairs of state that a president of the republic should be attending to?.. Why then should we think that putting former president Gloria Arroyo behind bars (when she gets better) will make the Philippines begin to tread the matuwid na daan?”
Most expert observers see that the reason our country is so disorderly, the reason Filipinos in general do not respect the rule of law, is that no wrongdoer gets punished.
That is also why a culture of impunity prevails in our society. Everybody who belongs to the middle class and the elite knows that he or she can escape punishment whatever he does.
The only ones who do not esape punishment—who are even punished for in fact doing good things—are the poor and ignorant.
The state is unable to enforce the rule of law. Or the law enforcers are so corrupt that they would rather not enforce the law and receive bribes for looking the other way.
So a sign that at last doing something wrong is causing someone big to suffer punishment should make everybody take notice and resolve to behave better.
Well, somebody big—the president of the Philippines named Joseph Estrada, a popular movie icon, beloved of the masses—was deposed, then tried and jailed (with some comforts, yes).
But our society did not improve. In fact, if her critics are to be believed, our society became worse after Erap Estrada was kicked out of Malacañang and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo became president.
Wasn’t Erap ousted by the elite precisely because he was supposed to be a plunderer, an ineffective president who spent his days and night pleasing himself, never mind the affairs of state that a president of the republic should be attending to?
Then why did the elite continue being just as corrupt as Erap’s cronies were supposed to be?
The simple answer is that until now our society is not much different from the one that existed in the villages—the barangay—of our ancestors. Our culure is still that of the datu and the alipin.
This culture is incompatible to democracy. That is why that poor 50 percent segment of the population sell their votes and are willing to be mobilized as flying voters by the datu. But it’s not just in Mindanao where there are datus. In every modern building in Makati and Taguig, in the chaos of Cubao, datu rule and the rest are their alipin.
Why then should we think that putting former president Gloria Arroyo behind bars (when she gets better) will make the Philippines begin to tread the matuwid na daan?
Culture of impunity
It’s the inability of the state of enforce the laws fosters the culture of impunity.
The culture of impunity makes the Philippines the country with the most number of extrajudicial executions and disappeared. That makes elections a farce. That makes basic education and college schooling in most higher education buildings the equivalent of second-year high school.
President Aquino’s spokesmen are right. This move against Mrs. Arroyo—and the many other moves made before to investigate and then build cases against her and her partners—must be made.
Because that is what he promised to do during the campaign and what he and the 79 percent of survey respondents who trust him (and think he is performing well) believe must be done to make ours better society.
But he must do many other things.
And these other things have to do with making ours a more disciplined society.
He has to make moves to make people believe—as the late Ferdinand Marcos, Senate President Enrile et al. did in 1973—that “Sa ika-uunlad ng bayan, disiplina ang kailangan!” (Our nation’s progress calls for discipline.)
He also has to restore patriotism in the guts of the Filipinos. Patriotism—okay some writers would rather use the term “nationalism”—as Rizal wished his fellow Filipinos would have in their souls has been ignored by successions of presidents and educators. Instead what we have from many a nationalist book is anti-foreign and anti-American anger.
Most of all, he has to restore the virtues in the school system.
Otherwise such events as the arrest of former president Arroyo will not produce the behavioral motivation results that similar events caused in South Korea, Taiwan, the early years of Singapore and in the first years of countries that are now the First World.
Basic needs of the masses must be met
Meanwhile, the President must also—as we have been saying in this space over and over again—pay attention to creating more jobs, encouraging businesses to start and flourish.
For the fight against poverty must be waged. And this not done by wasting time and effort on pushing the Reproductive Health Bill. But by releasing more funds for infrastructure, for example. (Manila Times)
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