“It’s hard to campaign on the track of 30+ years of failure.”
This is from a Facebook post by someone I know from Davao City. Let’s call him Arthur because he doesn’t actually know I’m talking about him today.
We both frequented debate tournaments in college, although I don’t remember ever being in the same match with him. I did compete against a girl who is now his wife, also from Davao City. I think I won that round, I’m not sure. It was 2008.
As you might expect, Arthur was a strong supporter of Digong in 2016, and he is now a strong supporter of Sara in 2022. Arthur is, however, a strong critic of Bongbong Marcos. So I guess you can chock him up as being a “Sara All” kind of voter — having no particular bet for President, for as long as Sara makes it as vice president.
And, symptomatic of many (if not all) Duterte supporters, Arthur must be feeling greatly disillusioned by post-EDSA Philippine governance.
After the fall of the Marcos dictatorship, the Filipino people were promised a path to prosperity and development through such well-established democratic ideals as liberty, freedom, and accountability. This goal is no more succinctly expressed than in the Preamble of the 1987 Constitution:
We, the sovereign Filipino people, imploring the aid of Almighty God, in order to build a just and humane society and establish a Government that shall embody our ideals and aspirations, promote the common good, conserve and develop our patrimony, and secure to ourselves and our posterity the blessings of independence and democracy under the rule of law and a regime of truth, justice, freedom, love, equality, and peace, do ordain and promulgate this Constitution.
So you know, development via democracy.
And yet, in the past 35 years since the promulgation of the 1987 Constitution, and 36 years since the EDSA Revolution, where are we at?
I fear, only a little better, I must confess. Corruption remains rampant and openly so. Incompetence is the standard of government, and unashamedly so.
Hence, understandably, people like Arthur see the past three decades of mediocrity in government as a grave betrayal of the people’s sacrifices and hopes as exemplified in the EDSA Revolution.
Now, I can sympathize with Arthur’s critiques of “post-EDSA” Philippine governance. Indeed, his observations are quite sound. His diagnosis as to the cause, however, is where I think he actually does not go far enough.
The aspirations of the EDSA Revolution were codified in the 1987 Constitution, which was then ratified and approved by the Filipino people at large through a national plebiscite.
It contains many lofty and high-minded principles and procedures, with unapologetically proactive policies towards vulnerable sectors, and tons of safeguards against tyranny and authoritarianism.
It was hoped that with a politically- and civilly-free and empowered citizenry, Filipinos would be free to chart their own destiny, and naturally make choices that go towards national growth and development.
The 1987 Constitution believed in, and bet on, the individual Filipino. It lavished its rights and freedoms on each and every citizen, preserving their sacred opportunity to exercise internal self-determination, and participate directly in the composition of its leaders.
Yet, how have these rights and freedoms been used by the electorate since then? We have voted crooks and incompetents into power because they are more popular, more entertaining, and have better name recall.
The promises of EDSA remain “unfulfilled”, not because the rights and freedoms contained therein were mere empty aspirations, but because we have exercised these rights and freedoms irresponsibly. Ouch, I know. But I’d defy anyone to prove otherwise.
So, if you are wondering why our constitutional principles, policies, rights and freedoms “have not worked” after so long, you need only look into a mirror.
However, that same mirror will also show you who continues to bear the real power in this country to steer it towards the right direction.
Every democracy deserves the leaders it chooses. We deserve much better than the last 36 years.
Therefore, let us choose much better, as it was originally intended and envisioned by EDSA.
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Author’s email: [email protected]
