What we’ve learned from the just concluded elections here is that we are still a politically immature people.
Over the past couple of decades many observers here have been saying that we Filipinos have matured enough to be able to discern what’s good for the country as far as electing the right people is concerned.
Commentators, publications, clergy and even politicians have been commending the people for their growing maturity as the body politic. They often cite the historic and tumultuous uprisings, popularly known as People Power, that first, toppled the then-dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986 and second, a similar people-generated agitation that ousted then-President Joseph Estrada in 2001.
Those two major events have become defining moments in Philippine political history. Marcos had been a dictator for two decades when finally the people had had enough of his repression and abuse of power. In 1986 the Filipinos banded together in a show of daring to get rid of Marcos, who fled to exile in Hawaii.
(When he died in Hawaii in 1989, his corpse was allowed back in the Philippines in 1993 and today it’s still in a mausoleum in Marcos’ home province of Ilocos Norte.)
The second event, the ousting of Estrada for abuse of power and derelict governance, took place in 2001. He was later convicted of plunder. Ironically, he’s currently the mayor of Manila (and just reelected) after he was pardoned of his crime of plunder by his predecessor, President Gloria Arroyo.
Those two events defined the Filipinos as a people that is resilient in the face of oppression but who will stand up when the abuse becomes unbearable. Such resilience is compared to that of the carabao, the Philippine buffalo, a beast of burden that is docile but becomes uncontrollable when maltreated.
The two People Power events are also called EDSA-I and EDSA-II because they took place on Metro Manila’s main highway called EDSA (acronym for Epifanio delos Santos Avenue).
After those two events the Filipinos hailed themselves as a people who will not forever allow repression to reign in their land. It also symbolized for them a coming-out age when the Filipinos finally defined for themselves the meaning of freedom.
For many Filipinos the two EDSAs also validated their coming of age as a maturing, if not yet fully mature, people politically.
But the May 9 elections have set that self-definition backward. Why do I say that?
None of the five candidates who ran for president personified the ideal candidate who would lead the nation to progress and equality in the first quarter of this century.
One candidate, outgoing Vice President Jejomar Binay, has been accused of amassing illegal wealth through manipulated building contracts and other shenanigans when he was mayor of Makati City in Metro Manila.
Another candidate, now President-elect Rodrigo Duterte, is a provincial mayor known for Dirty Harry-type extrajudicial action against suspected criminals, meaning suspects are killed without trial. This candidate is also a coarse and vulgar individual unworthy of the highest office of the land.
A third candidate, Sen. Gracd Poe, is a super-ambitious newbie who once renounced her Filipino citizenship and became an American citizen and then returned to the Philippines wanting to be the country’s president.
A fourth candidate, Miriam Santiago, is a woman senator seriously ill with cancer who may not live long enough to complete the six-year term of the presidency.
The fifth candidate, Mar Roxas, is the cleanest (in terms of personal or political baggage) but somehow couldn’t connect with the common people because of his wealthy pedigree.
With the lackluster quality of the presidential candidates, the question pops up: out of 100 million Filipinos, were they all that we could come up with?
It’s the norm around the world that the best people don’t go into politics because of the profession’s squalid reputation. Many good people shun politics because it’s not an ennobling occupation.
It’s in this environment that the people are left with undesirable choices. That the Filipino people have allowed a suspected big-time thief, a repulsive local politician, an inexperienced but ambitious ex-American, and two others to get to the final reckoning doesn’t speak highly of the Filipinos as a politically mature people.
Political discernment among us Filipinos is still lacking and it showed in the May 9 elections. Despite our boast of being more discerning, the quality of our candidates left much to be desired.
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