THE METAMORPHOSIS
By
ERNIE D. DELFIN
WILL
2010 FULFILL THE FILIPINOS’ HIGH HOPES
FOR A BETTER LIFE IN THE PHILIPPINES?
The last year has not been so kind
to the Filipino people with all the unusual devastations of life and property
brought by typhoons Ondoy and Peping in
addition to ever increasing
unemployment, amidst a highly distrusted administration of Pres. Gloria M.
Arroyo. As if that is not enough curse upon
the Philippines, the so-called Ampatuan
or Maguindanao Massacre happened that made it the worst human rights violation
against journalists in the entire world, when 30 out of 57 people were brutally murdered allegedly by the Ampatuan clan, a close political ally
of the President that made her win the
last 2004, clouded by the infamous
“Garci” machinations in Mindanao.
It was a blessing in disguise that
the so-called modern heroes of the Philippines, the Overseas Filipino Workers,
(OFWs) sent more dollars to the
country when the tough gets tougher,
owing to the cultural close
family ties of the Filipino people. These foreign remittances continue to save the
Philippines from a looming economic
meltdown.
It’s
also an amazing grace that the Filipinos are very patient religious people, bordering on fatalism that
conditioned them to become quite
resilient to undergo all economic challenges and sufferings. I was
in the Philippines for about
a month last Christmas and indeed and from my
westernized perspectives I reached the
conclusion that for them, all these
serious problems of the country have to
be in the freezer simply because it was
Christmastime! Add to this national landscape - the advent of a national election
where a new president, vice president, 12 senators, provincial governors and mayors were to be
elected come May 10, 2010. The Philippine society simply metamorphoses into a country full
of traditional merriments and
parties wherever you go. The political circus errrrrr
campaigns where millions upon millions of pesos are spent, trickling down to the village voters as
“political investment” by wealthy candidates,
add more gasoline to these unique fiesta-like-atmosphere of many villages, where
the very rich to the very poor of Philippines society happily participate.
Against this background, one can easily feel the excitement of the Filipinos pinning
their hopes for a better life to the results
of the next election. Rightly or
wrongly, millions of Filipinos seemingly
believe that their standard of living will improve with another set of
political leaders ---- totally
oblivious, may be, that the vibrant life of a nation is never dependent upon one set of politicians who are elected but the accumulated productivity of all its citizens. On a macro
economic level, progress happens when
the country’s gross national
product increases, when
exports exceeds our imports and the balance of payments improves. In simplistic terms, when the national revenues exceed our expenditures, when
disposable income of our people increases, then economic progress occurs.
This year when Pres. Gloria M.
Arroyo, the most loathed and unpopular Philippine
president, after Dictator Marcos, is succeeded supposedly by another president on June 30th this year, the Filipino
people becomes irrationally hopeful and blindly optimistic that their
lives will be better. The average
Filipino voter believes that his vote will change the country YET, there is
that lingering suspicion among the more educated and sophisticated population
that there is a great possibility of a “failure of election” of the national
officers due to the futility of the automation of the
election process. This fear is founded
upon many factors such as the complicity
of those in power, to inefficiency of the COMELEC , the questionable Smartmatic machines, lack of
adequate training of teachers in using
these new computers, the influence of a biased
pro GMA military establishment
and even a Supreme Court whose members were all
appointed (by then) by the Dona of
Malacanang who now wants to be a
Congresswoman hoping to become the next Prime Minister if her dreams would ever
come true.
***
The presidential campaigns have
started to heat up, causing expected mud
slinging of all the candidates against
their opponents. With the wonders of the internet and the
instant communication of Twitter and FaceBook,
the Filipino people all over the
world can have instant information of
who is UP or who is DOWN in the surveys.
I believe the contest will eventually be between Senator Manny (MONEY) Villar
and Senator Noynoy (BINATA) Aquino. It appears that the great wealth of
Villar may prove as too much weight to prevent him from rising
in the surveys as more and more people start questioning how he amassed his great wealth from his Tondo beginnings as a fish
vendor. On the other hand, the
lack of spectacular achievements of Noynoy as a congressman and
senator and his non-assertive
personality and the perception of having a personality that can be easily manipulated by those around him (as many took
advantage of the naivete of his mother during her presidency) may be the major challenges that Sen. Aquino must overcome .
Like the Obama campaign in the
USA, however, the #
1 campaign slogan is
“CHANGE” from a perceived corrupt Arroyo administration to another administration that promises to be
the exact opposite. On this criteria
alone, Senator Aquino appears to be
winning the presidential contests as more and more media personalities,
including popular columnists, like the Inquirer’s De Quiros and Montelibano,
PhilSTAR’s Esposo and Malaya’s Banayo,
(and many others that I may not even know)
are drawn to him, and often verbalize their preference to his candidacy, as a battle between “Good vs. Evil” .
The election is less than four
months away, but if the trend continues,
the Philippines would have Noynoy
Aquino as the next president (who like
his mother never intended to become a candidate but became a president by
accident aka “destiny”) comes May 10th 2010, UNLESS there is a “failure of election” due to the massive questionable voting processes in Mindanao, reminiscent of the Maquindanao voting of
12-0 results in favor of one dominant
party.
Will this lingering fear of a“
Failure of Election” become a
self-fulfilling prophecy? Only God
knows, and time will tell us on or
before June 30, 2010!
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