Hope springs infernal October 19, 2006

COMING home from the United States a couple of weeks ago, I got to talking on the plane with a flight attendant who said he was lucky his job allowed him to go to San Francisco periodically. His wife lived there now, working as a registered nurse in one of the hospitals and was doing quite well. He and the kids were still in the Philippines, but they too would probably be migrating to the United States soon. His youngest kid, who was finishing high school here, would probably do college in America.

He himself wasn't doing so badly here but what could he do? The long-distance marriage was taking its toll on family. Someone had to give in, and it wasn't likely going to be his wife. It wasn't just that she earned better and had a more secure job, it was that she opened doors to new vistas. She represented the future, especially for the kids. Herepresented only the past. Or a present that was going nowhere.

I know somebody else who was, or is, in the same boat. More than my flight attendant-friend, he was in even better shape here, having become by dint of pluck and hard work a well-known reporter for one of the biggest networks in the country. He married a few years ago, and his wife also managed to land a well-paying job as a nurse in the US West Coast. She left for it last year. The new marriage hanging in the balance, the guy decided after much hand wringing to follow her and plunge into the unknown. The unknown has proven less than rewarding, and he has been known to communicate his frustration and loneliness to friends here during his dark nights of the soul.

Before I left the United States a couple of weeks ago, some of my friends who now lived and worked there asked me to tell them honestly what I thought of Filipinos like them who did so. As far as they knew, they said, one congressman had called them traitors. I replied that completely honestly I was of two minds about it.

On one hand, I could understand the pull that America in particular exerted on Filipinos and the push that sent them there. Both were exceedingly powerful forces, the push alone in recent years becoming even more powerful than the pull. The utter wretchedness of the country and the blanket impoverishment of the soul as much as -- if not more so (we're becoming a nation of cheats and murderers, if we haven't done so already) -- of the body, were truly driving people away.

Quite apart from that, I said, I was impressed by the extent to which Filipinos abroad like my friends had their hearts still set on trying to help improve the land of their birth. At least they were still concerned with its concerns. That was more than could be said for many Filipinos in the Philippines, especially these days. Of course, I said, I wasn't impressed by the attitude of those who figured they should be listened to because they knew better as they were coming from a "superior position." I had met those types, too, and they had always reminded me of Oscar Wilde's brilliant aphorism that a little learning is a dangerous thing. And of course, I added, I didn't know if the Filipinos abroad who were still deeply concerned about the future of the Philippines were the teeming majority or merely the vocal minority.

On the other hand, I said, I was also deeply fazed by the depth and breadth of the exodus of Filipinos abroad. At the very least that was so because even people I never imagined would dream of leaving are not just dreaming so but are doing so, even as we speak. The two cases above are just an infinitesimal fraction of it. I know more, a lot more. With thekillings in particular raging around us, can you blame some of them? Prudence is the better part of valor, escape is the better part of standing your ground.

But more than this, I am fazed by the impact the idea of being able to migrate abroad is having on the country. That is the far greater worry, more than the sheer number, alarming enough as it is, of Filipinos actually migrating abroad.

I can believe the Pulse Asia survey that says a third of the population now wants to leave the country, as compared to 19 percent two or three years ago. I personally think it's more, if it's just a question of wanting to leave quite apart from having the ability to leave. Most Filipinos would think nothing of living abroad, especially in the United States, if only they could, or if the US Embassy would only give them visas. Most others would think nothing of becoming overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), if only they could land contracts abroad, or if they had anything left to sell to be able to apply for it.

But the possibility, or hope, or dream of being able to live and/or work abroad is there, and whether that is an impossible dream or not, it is serving precisely the same function the song, "The Impossible Dream," did for us many years ago on the road to Edsa People Power. It goads us, flails at us, even inspires us, such as clinging to a vague, amorphous or a fleeting dream can do. More than reality, being able to leave for abroad is a possibility; more than a possibility, it is a hope; more than a hope, it is a dream. And possibilities, hopes and dreams lodge deeper in the mind than anything the here and now can offer. Often, they blot out the here and now completely.

Which is the real danger. I half-suspect the so-called indifference of the Filipino today owes to this as much as to the absence of a "good" to posit against the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo government's "evil." The possibility, hope, or dream of being able to live and work abroad was never this bad during Ferdinand Marcos' time. Certainly, it wasn't this all-consuming. Today, people seem willing to tolerate cheating, lying and stealing -- andkilling to boot -- because they can always leave the country. Or at least die trying. Or at least live deluding. Hope springs eternal.

Hope springs infernal.

http://opinion.inq7.net/inquireropinion/columns/view_article.php?article_id=27459

Opposition October 18, 2006

AS I write this, the official goons of Malacañang, also called the Philippine National Police, are swarming all over Makati City Hall trying to pry Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay loose from his office. They are serving the order issued by the Department of Interior and Local Government suspending him for hiring ghost employees, something that is allegedly costing Makati taxpayers millions of pesos. Binay has holed up in hisoffice, and so far the scene reads like a standoff. The police do not seem inclined to storm in and haul him out, and Binay seems determined to stay where he is. How this thing will unravel, we'll know soon enough.

An interior undersecretary who spoke on TV said in unctuous tones that this wasn't a case of harassment, this was a case of principle. It didn't matter that Binay was quite a thorn on Malacañang's side, it was simply that he had done something wrong. This was simply a case of crime and punishment. You commit a crime, you get punished.

Has Binay really been hiring ghost employees? I don't know. I leave that to the courts to determine. But what makes this effort to yank Binay out of his chair breathtakingly odious is the hypocrisy suffusing it. It is not unlike a judge who has managed to own a row of mansions and a congregation of mistresses from extorting money from litigants sentencing a man who has stolen a loaf of pan de sal to life imprisonment. The injustice is that monumental.

Yes, that is the exact equivalent of Malacañang's effort to oust Binay as mayor of Makati, a horrendously corrupt judge sentencing a petty thief to life imprisonment. No, more than imprisonment, to lethal injection. You grant that Binay hired ghost employees -- and that takes some granting, certainly Ronaldo Puno's Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) is the last entity to judge that, since Puno himself has much toanswer for -- that is still petty thievery compared with what the very head of this government has done. This is the kind of injustice that cries out to heaven for lightning and to the gallery for jeering.

At the very least, what's wrong with it is that Binay is an elected official while Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who is the source of this scourge, is not. Binay got the votes, and despite grumbling by his rivals about his use of force and money, they grant that he pretty much won the elections. Arroyo's opponents do not just grumble, they show proof she stole the electoral returns in Tawi-Tawi and other places. That is quite apart from the damning piece of evidence called the "Hello, Garci" tape. Binay is not the first person this government has ousted from office. The fact that this government can even remotely contemplate it, let alone actually do it, is a testament to the ruthlessness it is capable of. There are no limits to where it will go. There is no embarrassment it will not brook.

At the very most, what is Binay's crime compared with Arroyo's? Binay hired ghost employees? Let us grant that that is so. But what is that compared to counting ghost votes? Binay stole millions from the taxpayers, money that could have gone to various services? Let us grant that that is so. But what is that compared to stealing the electoral will, which could have gone to installing a rightful president, one the people can trust to serve them? Binay robbed the residents of Makati of their well-being, thereby betraying public trust? Let us grant that that is so. But what is that compared to robbing this country of its soul, razing down the very foundations of democracy, its chief pillar being a duly elected leader, and murdering this country's future, quite apart from a good portion ofits population?

You commit a crime you get punished? Why hasn't Arroyo been punished? Why is it the easiest thing for the DILG to oust an elected mayor for a presumed malfeasance and the hardest thing in the world for Congress to impeach an unelected president for a patent atrocity?

In fact, the suspension of Binay, as of the other elected officials of Metro Manila, is just part of a bigger atrocity government is wreaking on this country today. The pattern is for government to punish selectively those people it doesn't like who are guilty of committing the very crimes it is guilty of, indeed far more so.

Arroyo spawned the mother of all cheating in this country when she called up Garci demanding to win by a million votes, yet she deigns -- no, dares -- to interfere in the nursing exams to ferret out the cheaters there. Arroyo mounted a coup upon this country by stealing the vote, which is as much a seizure of power as the forcible acquisition of it by troops and tanks, and propped it up with no small help from friends in the militaryand police and Joe de V's House of Representatives, with coercion and guile. Yet she deigns -- no, dares -- accuse Dodong Nemenzo et al. of fomenting, or indeed joining, a revolt against her. And Arroyo has never won a presidential election but remains in Malacañang notwithstanding survey after survey that says the people do not like her or want her. Yet now she deigns -- no, dares -- boot elected officials from their rightfuloffice.

At the very least, what this does for her is to allow her to remove any opposition from the horizon -- especially with elections down the corner. But far more than that, far more subtly but weightily, what this does for her is to deodorize her, to make it appear by the very righteousness or cheekiness or brazenness with which she is doing these things that she could not possibly be guilty of the crimes she means to correct. That she could not possibly be a cheater, that she could not possibly be a coup plotter, that she could not possibly be a usurper. Evil riots, the good are damned and the malefactors are king -- or queen.

We do not protest the monstrosity in Makati with every nerve of our being, as though we are being robbed of breath itself, heaven help us. Nothing else can.

http://opinion.inq7.net/inquireropinion/columns/view_article.php?article_id=27252

No will, no way October 17, 2006

I REMEMBER again something from my tour of Germany in late 2002 to observe the elections there. A political expert had just given us an overview of the dynamics of elections in that country and opened the floor to questions. I wondered why no one was asking a question that seemed, from where I stood, to be the most obvious one. So I rose to ask it: To what extent did cheating happen in German elections?

The speaker reacted to my question in exactly the same way a Japanese political officer would later react to my question if any political figure in Japan had ever switched parties. He found it near-incomprehensible. He paused, trying to digest the concept. After a while he said, “Well, there’s this small village in the former East that raised complaints of cheating during the last elections. I think that was solved by the voters being made to vote all over again.”

In this country, the one question we would find near-incomprehensible, which would make us scratch our heads and answer only after a long pause, is: “To what extent are our elections clean?” One can always point to some brave school teachers who report cheating or who guard election boxes with their lives, but that is all. Indeed, what makes their action stand out is the fact that we expect cheating to happen -- a thing that transforms simple acts of honesty into rare displays of courage.

Other countries have internalized not cheating in elections to a point of instinct, which translates verbally into, “It’s just not done.” We have internalized cheating to a point of instinct, which translates verbally into, “There’s no such thing as clean elections.”

I remember, when I was trying to quit smoking ages ago, reading something that made a tremendous impact on me, which was that not smoking was just as powerful an instinct, if not more so, than smoking. If you could just quit smoking for a while, the instinct of not smoking would take over and stop you from smoking again. I did, and it did.

I figure the same is true of cheating in elections. The fact that cheating does not occur at all or as resolutely in elections in other countries must show that not cheating is just as powerful an instinct, if not more so, than cheating. I wonder when we can stop cheating in elections, for the instinct of not cheating to kick in.

These thoughts were sparked by the sight of people preparing for next year’s elections, which I’ve been seeing more and more frequently of late. It’s good that the party-list groups in particular are doing so themselves (heaven knows Congress can do with some addition of decent people in its ranks). But my question is: What guarantee is there those preparations will not be for naught? Or more pointedly, what guarantee is there that administration candidates won’t cheat the hell out of the voters the way their boss did in 2004?

So far all we’ve done is look at the technical aspects of trying to stop cheating. The Commission on Elections has already announced that the military will no longer be used extensively in elections, as though cheating were more the province of the military than the civilians. Just as well, Dick Gordon’s committee seems bent on finding ways to computerize next year’s elections, something that should have been done the last time, except that Benjamin Abalos messed it up and got rewarded for it.

I have no problems with these initiatives and applaud them. We can do with Hermogenes Esperon and the other generals, who are mentioned in the “Hello, Garci” tape as having participated electoral fraud, never having anything to do with elections again. I wouldn’t even mind if they were forbidden on pain of the firing squad from ever uttering the word “vote” or “election” again. And we most assuredly can do with computerizing canvassing. The longer the counting takes, the bigger the cheating gets.

But we’re looking only at the way and not the will. The concept still remains: Where there’s a will there’s a way. The reverse is not always true: Where there’s a way there’s a will. And there’s the very big rub. As far as will goes, two things stand formidably in the way of clean elections in 2007.

The first is: What’s to deter administration candidates from openly, flagrantly and forcibly stealing the vote? As the 2004 elections show, that is a crime for which there is no punishment. Indeed, as the 2004 elections show, that is a deed for which there is much reward. To this day Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who stands indicted by the “Hello, Garci” tape, serves as president of this country. Indeed, far more than that, today Arroyo, whom the majority of Filipinos believe is not the rightful president of this country, feels free to remove from office officials whom the voters did vote for. But I’ll have more to say about that in days to come.

The second is: What’s to deter cheating in general when the citizens themselves expect cheating to be done and are resigned to accept its bitter fruit? What happens when political analysts forecast the victory of certain candidates on the expectation he or she will cheat, and pass that off as though it were the most natural thing in the world, part of the “dynamic” or “realpolitik” of local elections? What happens when the bishops or archbishops themselves teach the faithful that everyone cheats in elections, let’s just accept the cleverest or most ruthless among them? What happens when the citizens themselves become so cynical that they figure they might as well sell their votes because those votes are not going to be counted anyway, they might as well get money for nothing?

We’re only looking at the ways to stop cheating in elections, we’re not looking at the will to stop cheating in the elections. As far as I know the principle still is:

No will, no way.

* * *

Tonight, the Stop the Killings bar tour stops at Newsdesk, 8 Scout Madrinan St. corner Scout Tobias St. Bagong Dugo, Susan Fernandez and Gougou will be playing there. Show starts at 9:30. Be there, you’ll do better than kill time.

http://opinion.inq7.net/inquireropinion/columns/view_article.php?article_id=27027

It’s still ‘Hello Garci’ October 16, 2006

“HELLO GARCI WILL NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN,” predicts Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz. That is so in the light of the Comelec resolution to limit the role of the military in elections. No more will soldiers take part in counting and canvassing votes, choosing precincts, transporting ballot boxes and carrying election materials and results. Henceforth, they will merely man checkpoints and enforce the gun ban. And only 10 percent of them will be involved where before the entire 125,000-strong Armed Forces of the Philippines was.

Comelec Chair Benjamin Abalos agrees enthusiastically: “Garci is gone, there will be no more Garci.” He adds jokingly, “There will only be ‘Hello Brawnie’,” in reference to Romeo Brawner, a newly appointed Comelec commissioner.

So all’s well that ends well?

Not really. All sucks that ends badly.

I grant that limiting the military’s role in elections can have tremendous salutary effects. Especially given that today’s AFP is controlled by the generals mentioned in the Hello Garci tapes as having cheated for Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, chief of them Hermogenes Esperon. They were all rewarded, and not punished, for that monstrous act of infamy. But limiting the AFP’s role in elections won’t exorcise Garci from the face of this earth, or even come close to it.

Lest we forget, there’s an exchange in the “Hello Garci” tape, where GMA worried about not getting enough votes in some parts of Muslim Mindanao and Garci responded by saying, as you know Ma’am the military isn’t really good at rigging things, “di gaano marunong gumawa,” but that generally speaking the effort to pad her votes was being executed well, “’yung hong pagpatataas sa inyo maayos ho naman.” That is a breathtakingly revealing statement in more ways than one. The least of what it reveals is that the soldiers are not the Einsteins of cheating in elections, people like Garci and his boss, GMA herself, are.

Lest we forget too, it was people like Brig. Gen. Francisco Gudani and Lt. Col. Alexander Balutan who tried earnestly and desperately to stop cheating in their areas of jurisdiction. For his pains, Gudani was told to go on a paid vacation, to relax on a beach or go mountain hiking, which would have been temptation enough for a lesser man, but which he himself took to be the punishment that it was. If I recall right, in the same “Hello Garci” tape, one senatorial candidate referred to him as “tarantado talaga.” This was after Garci told him there was little he could do for him as Gudani was bent on keeping the elections clean. There, too, you find something breathtakingly revealing: In this country, people who are determined to be honest are an affront to high office, they are tarantado talaga.

Both Gudani and Balutan went over and beyond the call of decency and went on to tell the Senate what they knew about the cheating in the last elections. For which pains they were court-martialed for defying GMA’s order forbidding any subordinate—as though Gudani and Balutan could ever be that by any moral standard—from testifying against her without her permission. What can I say? Tarantado talaga. I leave you to determine whom that judgment properly applies to.

Why on earth should limiting the military’s participation in elections stop another “Hello Garci” from happening? The “Hello Garci” tape wasn’t a conversation between military officials or between a candidate and a military official, it was a conversation between two civilians. It was a conversation between GMA and Virgilio Garcillano, between the incumbent-president-cum-presidential-candidate and a Comelec commissioner, at the height of the counting of votes—a conversation that by all the rules of God and man, democracy and decency, should never have taken place. It was as much an “impropriety” as the lawyer of the accused in a court case barging into the judge’s quarters and being assured by the judge in the most obsequious terms that her case is won. What has that got to do with the role of the military in elections?

At bottom, what is the “Hello Garci” tape all about? It is all about cheating. It is all about the highest official of the land conspiring with a Comelec commissioner to screw the voters, and not quite incidentally kidnapping a public school teacher to prevent her from squealing on the cheating. That can’t be prevented from happening again by limiting the participation of the military in elections. That can’t be prevented from happening again by putting the public school teachers solely in charge of elections, which will only succeed in overworking while underpaying them. That can’t even be prevented from happening again even by computerizing the elections, though that should have been done long ago. Except that Abalos, who now jokes about cheating, cheated the taxpayers by awarding the bid to an unqualified bidder.

That can be prevented, as all iniquity can be prevented, by righting wrongs, by punishing the guilty and rewarding the innocent, by showing the world that nobody gets away with murder. People get away with the murder of the soul, they will get away with the murder of the body. People get away with the murder of democracy, they will get away with the murder of people. The only way to stop “Hello Garci” from happening all over again is to jail Hello and Garci. You allow them to reap the fruits of their malefaction, you might as well have a law ordering all honest men in this country to carry a sign that says, “Tarantado talaga ako.” You allow Hello to continue being president of this country and Garci to seek a seat in Congress next year, you might as well prepare yourself for a ring tone that keeps repeating again and again and again like the Eveready battery:

“Hello Garci, Hello Garci, Hello Garci.”

http://opinion.inq7.net/inquireropinion/columns/view_article.php?article_id=26856