Hell by a Filipino or Eden by an alien?

It was a mestizo turned president who trumpeted the call: "Better a government run like hell by Filipinos than one run like paradise by Americans!" Indeed, yes, if one just happened to be the dominant Filipino personality of his times. If one is guaranteed his running rights, perhaps even the clear prerogative to force his will on the rest of his overly trusting people, indeed why not?

On a marginally less cynical note, one could say that Quezon did not live long enough to experience the kind of hell Filipino politicians are capable of stoking. Had he not died of TB in 1944, had he lived another fifty or sixty years, the Spanish mestizo actually might have retracted his fiery statement. Parenthetically, it is doubtful that Quezon ever believed that American officials were capable of edenic governance. Imperial politics historically had persecuted humanist concerns; Quezon – consummate politician that he was – surely must have known this punishing truth and understood its terrible implications for democratic governance. (Frank Golay’s Face of Empire, published by the Ateneo University Press in 1997 – a most unnerving but definitely eye-opening account of US-Philippine relations from 1898 to 1946 – argues precisely this thesis.)

In 2004, at the eve of another national elections, most Filipinos suspect what hell on earth – at least this particular part of earth they happen to live in – means. Most of them already know that there is much deviltry in governance and most believe that politicians are eminently responsible for this hellish situation. Economic tailism, political instability, surging criminality, pervasive corruption, mass poverty, blatant anarchy and widespread demoralization have long plagued the nation. Despite their proverbial patience, Filipinos now seem to be on the verge of throwing out another feckless administration.

Cynical about their institutions, distrustful of their authorities and struggling to survive, most citizens now deride the traditional bromides from those who govern. Millions have already given up on "Filipino" governance that systematically transforms the country into a living hell. Despite much sadness and often also much anger, they have chosen to leave their country for good to settle someplace else. Someplace that cannot be mistaken to be a paradise on earth, but where the human spirit clearly has a decent chance to survive and perhaps even strengthen. These three to four million migrants could no longer bear with hellish governance even if the governors carried National Archives certificates proclaiming them to be Filipino – be they natural-born, naturalized or some other saucier kind.

Sixteen million more Filipinos are also poised to migrate if the chance presented itself. Like those who already left, they are convinced that hell is no place to stay in regardless of the authorities’ authenticated nationality. Forced nevertheless to stay, they will try everything to have those responsible for their infernal lives replaced. Elections may be the preferred modality for changing the nation’s authorities, but whatever will work to effect this change will be tried should elections fail.

Together with others – the great majority of Filipinos who still are not willing to migrate despite increasingly desperate times – this critical mass of hostaged people could provoke developments that would irreversibly change this country’s political regime.

In these critical times, another mestizo has presented himself as a leader of this nation. Extremely popular, those who oppose his candidacy point out that he might not be a natural-born Filipino and is therefore legally barred from seeking the presidency. Predictably, those who stand to benefit from his becoming president have formed a phalanx and forcefully argued that no such disability exists and that he is more Filipino than his detractors.

The Philippine Constitution has been sidestepped, possibly violated, subverted and corrupted so many times in the past twenty years. The republic’s regular statutes have suffered greater depreciation. Making matters worse, not only the authorities but the general public itself has learned to treat the law cavalierly.

In this context, however, the law might be argued for or against this particular mestizo, does anyone really believe that Filipinos are still concerned about whether their presidential candidates are natural-born Filipinos or not?

Unlike Quezon, the virtuoso politician who would stridently prefer hellish governance by Filipinos to an ideal regime by alien entities, Filipinos now would probably have only one imperative: Help us get the hell out of this here hell!

Whoever you might be, natural-born Filipino or otherwise, HELP!