Cautionary tale

Several analysts are using the Philippines as a cautionary tale about popular revolutions for democracy.

It’s not a flattering assessment. The analysts point out that while we gave the world people power, we have faltered when compared with the progress of several other countries that also threw out authoritarian rulers in the years after EDSA 1. Within the region, they cite South Korea and Thailand, and now Indonesia is seen to be performing better than us.

The 1986 people power revolt has in fact lived up to its principal promise, which is to end a dictatorship and restore freedom. Since then, every attempt to reimpose some kind of military rule or install a junta or give the president anything that hints of absolute power has been repelled.

In this sense, and considering the circumstances in those days when enemies of the regime were simply pushed out of aircraft to disappear forever, EDSA 1 was truly a miracle.

But people are lucky to see one miracle in their lifetime. There isn’t likely to be another one in our effort to build a strong, modern, functioning democratic state. This takes commitment and backbreaking work, a lot of pawis power.

So far what we have is a pseudo-democracy. Wealth and power simply changed hands after 1986, although those who were wealthy before EDSA 1 remain wealthy today. The same tiny fraction of the population continues to control power and wealth. Millions of impoverished Filipinos, who don’t pay taxes and have no personal financial stake in good governance, are dependent on government dole-outs and political patronage.

Family fortunes and politics are incestuously intertwined. A favorite song of the typical politician to his constituent is, “I love you just the way you are” – meaning a constituency that remains poor, dependent on patronage, and lacking the necessary education to make an informed choice during elections.

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The failure to build on the gains of not just one but two peaceful people power revolts is evident in the dramatic reversal of fortunes of the Marcoses after patriarch Ferdinand, as we liked to say back then, lost the mandate of heaven.

Ferdinand Marcos’ only son and namesake is a senator who has not ruled out a run for the presidency.

Ferdinand’s widow Imelda is a congresswoman for the second time, representing her husband’s bailiwick of Ilocos Norte this time instead of her home province of Leyte. Eldest daughter Imee is governor of the province.

Their closest crony who accompanied them in their flight into exile returned to Manila long ago and has seen his business thrive.

An unabashed Marcos loyalist, replaced as mayor by an officer-in-charge when Corazon Aquino assumed power, won the presidency by a landslide in 1998. Joseph Estrada also came closest to Cory Aquino’s only son in last year’s presidential race, nearly winning back the post he lost through the second people power revolt in 2001.

That second successful revolt gave rise to EDSA III (disowned by the original EDSA forces) and gave us Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the country’s first First Gentleman, Nani Perez’s $2-million case, the fertilizer scam, the NBN-ZTE scandal, “Hello, Garci” and Lintang Bedol, Merceditas Gutierrez, and a co-opted Supreme Court whose legacy to the nation is perpetual litigation. GMA gave us people power fatigue, and it ironically helped keep her in power for nine years.

All our democratic institutions remain weak, including mass media.

Human rights violations, though no longer systematic, continue, with the worst atrocity – the massacre of 57 people in Maguindanao – perpetrated by one of the many dynastic political clans in the country.

The movement started during the Marcos regime – the departure of Filipinos for jobs overseas – has become a massive, unending exodus of skilled workers and professionals, fueled by the lack of decent employment opportunities in their own land. This has led to a serious brain drain and crises in education and public health care.

From being second only to Japan at the top of the totem pole in Asia half a century ago, we are now near the bottom in terms of GDP and per capita income.

If success is to be gauged by the bottom line, poverty alleviation, the World Bank reported the other day that benefits of the country’s economic growth have failed to trickle down to the one-third of the population still living below the poverty line.

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Sen. Bongbong Marcos tried to rub salt on the wound by saying that if his father had not been ousted, the country by now would be like prosperous Singapore.

The flaw in that argument, of course, is that Ferdinand Marcos’ contemporary, Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew, and Mrs. Lee did not have kleptomania, “edifice complex” and the many other afflictions of the Marcoses that brought the Philippines to the brink of ruin by the time they fled into exile.

Singaporeans will also be the first to tell you that their city-state, being tiny, is so much easier to govern. They will tell you that because of the circumstances that gave birth to Singapore, they have a strong sense of nationhood. 

They also have the Confucian discipline that is lacking in this country.

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For all the unfulfilled promise of EDSA 1, the landslide win last year of the only son of Benigno and Corazon Aquino indicates a yearning for a return of the spirit that made that seemingly impossible revolution a success.

You know the luster of EDSA 1 is back when politicians are scrambling to remind anyone who cares to listen, for the umpteenth time, that they were there and the revolt might not have succeeded without them.

The unnamed millions who thronged the highway and actually stopped tanks might be feeling short-changed, especially since several of the EDSA heroes turned into heels long ago, derailing efforts to make the hard-won democracy work.

A number of these heels are using the memory of EDSA 1 to gloss over what they have become after 25 years, and their betrayal of the spirit of people power.

EDSA 1, it’s often been said, is an unfinished revolution. To borrow a much-quoted line from Winston Churchill, democracy is not perfect, but think of all the alternatives. We should stop being a cautionary tale to the world and make democracy work.