Surviving the next two weeks

Filipinos are gifted survivalists. They weather all climes, endure all regimes and survive all challenges. As a matter of fact, in many remarkable cases they not only make do, they actually prosper. Tropical natives, they acclimatize and fatten in temperate countries; they may even thrive in the frigid environments of Hokkaido, Alaska and some Scandinavian countries. Archipelagic beings, they can forgo marine surroundings and indefinitely live in barren deserts where the only thing liquid might be oil and the immense capital it represents. Peaceful and fiesta-loving, they nevertheless go where even brave men dare go no more – Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel and Timor Este – places where peace and festiveness are threatened by suicide bombings, deadly sniping, terrorist hostaging and other equally formidable encounters.

In the next two weeks, all the survival skills genetically programmed and historically induced among hardy – and sadly, perhaps now already hardened – Filipinos will be put to a test. The levels of violence one might expect in the nation’s political discourse will rise to unprecedented heights. Expect political candidates to be particularly free with their innuendos, slanders and vilification – all standard armoury items to be hurled at each other.

In the crossfire, many innocent victims will suffer. Decent citizens, respectable groups, even venerable institutions can expect to be targets of demolition work. Their hard-earned reputations will be tarnished, their integrity assailed and their most dedicated members will suffer malicious attacks by the most merciless politicians – those most desperate to win, whatever the cost. False witnesses will be raised from nowhere and trumped-up evidence will be produced from thin air.

Already the violence has started. Even candidates presumably with a direct line to God appear unable to resist the temptation of foisting false testimony on a confounded public. There are some indications that the most imaginative mong them may not march avenging archangels, but they will raise punitive text brigades against those who report their candidacies to be suffering from electoral marginalization.

These politicians’ cornucopia of lies, fabrication and cheap illusions will be up to the challenge of multiple productivity in the two weeks to come. From everywhere, the exhausted citizenry will be bombarded with numerous projectiles bearing messages of imminent economic recovery, soon-to-stabilize public finance, effective and caring governance, turnaround peace, heartwarming harmony, social justice and, in brief, the dawning of a millennial new society.

"Banaag at sikat," one might be tempted to say. However, this brave new world should not be confused with Lope K. Santos’ vision of a rising socialist order at the turn of the 20th century; it is really more of a concoction by politicians desperately seeking the support of their unwary kababayans. As a perceptive wit observes, this seasonally-induced fairy tale starts not with the familiar "Once upon a time …" but with the conditional "Once I get elected …."

Much violence threatens the nation as civil discourse is increasingly abandoned and desperate politicians physically resolve what reason takes too long persuading. In the next two weeks, santong paspasan will be preferred by many who can not wait for santong dasalan to take effect. Already the cold body count is reaching historic highs even as over 5000 miles still separate Manila from Najaf and Falluja.

At the national level, fearful scenarios prey on the minds of a much troubled public. Talks abound not only among the common people but among the better-educated, the well-off and the glitterati of a No-EL (No Elections), an EDSA Quatro, a conjoined police-military coup and – should the elections somehow elect a president, any president – an extremely short-lived political administration that may not last for over a year.

Filipinos will have to survive the incredible malice and the unnerving terrors predatory politicians are capable of inflicting – and will certainly inflict — on this nation in the next two weeks.

Beyond the next two weeks, the chances not only for national survival but for doing well will steadily improve. This is a high probability event regardless of whoever the next president might be and whatever developments might later come to pass.

A clear mind, a firm resolve, a willingness to summarily deal with those who work maliciously to corrupt struggling, still to be democratic, republics – these are the sine qua nons for those who would survive the next two weeks.