The same noises but will it be done?

I will believe we can change the Constitution in this country when it has been done. For the moment, with all due respect to the former justices, we have heard the same noises before.

I am beginning to think that these noises for constitutional reform today is what it has always been — noises. I am beginning to think that support for constitutional reform from the Establishment are meant to mollify advocates (growing in number, by the way) to give them the illusion that change is being seriously considered. There have been too many false alarms in the past with all due respect to the former justices.      

Just before May 10, I talked to some well-meaning individuals who told me that perhaps we should put the issue aside for the time being. Constitutional reform was building up to a crescendo, approved on committee level in the Lower House and waiting for the plenary debate.

My colleague said more and more see the wisdom of it but the timing is wrong. He had talked to the movers and shakers of this country (some of the richest Filipinos) and the presidential candidates and the consensus was after…after the May 10 elections. Sorry, I said, that will not happen if we wait after the elections.

The winners will not allow any change that would deny them the “benefits” of the power they had just bought with huge campaign funds in the first place. It is simple common sense. Yet it is an excuse that never fails to fool Filipinos, even the most educated to wait after an election. It is ominous that the same reasoning is being used “to lessen expenses the election of members of the Constitutional Convention will be held simultaneously with the 2013 national and local elections.” Here we go again.

Well, my colleague will say, you cannot say we are not talking about it again. Isn’t that enough? Isn’t that proof our leaders will restructure our society through constitutional reform?

I am afraid not. I am not the only one seeing through machinations to raise hopes for reform then scuttle them at the last minute after exhaustive, wearing down debates. There are others.

I am not a Marxist but it is beginning to look like Karl Marx had it right — it is the class war that looms large in the picture of how to bring change in society. The Constitution is the basic law governing the structures of government and the contract between government and its citizens. 

The 1987 Constitution favors the rich — the oligarchs — so they hold the key to its reforms. But if they refuse to budge from the status quo, then — as many are already saying — it may take a violent revolution to make it happen.

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It is true that most of the witnesses led by Mayor Alfredo Lim invited to the Hong Kong inquest on the hostage tragedy did not want to go. They were afraid of being detained if they refused to answer questions.

But Senior Police Officer 2 Gregorio Mendoza wants to go yet he is being held back from leaving.

Unlike the others he was anxious to testify in Hong Kong where he felt he would get a better hearing than he would in Manila’s justice system. Instead, I am told that he is being prevented from leaving by authorities. They slapped him with several cases so he could not leave for the inquest.

SPO2 Mendoza was charged with serious illegal detention by the Department of Justice that found “probable” cause that he was an accomplice of his brother. He was also charged with illegal possession of firearms.

By all means file charges and prove it but what others decry is that they are using this to block him from leaving for Hong Kong. He would be too busy fighting his cases.

Indeed it was his face that became the poster for the tragedy of the hostage taking. When I watched the television coverage the cameras zeroed on him as he was forcibly being pushed into a car.

Fiscal Vimar Barcellano accused him (without proof) for convincing his brother not to release the hostages. Such a vicious accusation but he adds “he was not sure.”

“Of course, sensitive of the critical situation obtaining then, the actions of respondent must likewise be properly addressed by the Crisis Management Committee,” read the resolution. Ergo, respondent must be taken in for investigation. “

That is the catch. If he is to be investigated then he is disabled from leaving for the Hong Kong where he will have a far bigger audience than local television. The authorities were incensed when he asked local media help because he thought he would be killed. His brother, the hostage taker saw his frantic attempts to escape the inhumane clutches of arresting officers.

As a witness in the Hong Kong inquest Mendoza will be able to talk about the heart of the tragedy. True there were unfortunate deaths and the hostage drama. But more importantly, it will be shown that in this country, the poor have no rights and are often victimized by the justice system itself. If you disagree with this, Messrs. Authorities, please let him go to Hong Kong.

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While in Kuala Lumpur, I met an old friend with whom I was able to broach the idea that perhaps we should do more work together in returning to our common ethnic roots. Jose Rizal, for instance is called the Pride of the Malay Race. He was told by Ambassador Dato Seri Dr. Ibrahim Saad, an academic, he was surprised to find that the Philippines had 90 percent Malay ethnicity. Yet we know so little of each other as such. I think it would help Malaysian-Philippine relations especially with the ongoing peace talks with MILF if we were to anchor our diplomatic relations on our common origins.

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Instituto Cervantes de Manila, the cultural arm of the Spanish Embassy, will present the book of Filipino mixed media artist Santiago Bose (1949-2002) titled “Baguio Graffiti — Gatos Callejeros (Baguio Graffiti - Stray Cat)” on Tuesday, March 1, 7 p.m. at Instituto Cervantes’ Salon de Actos.

The bilingual book includes two original texts by Bose himself Baguio Graffiti, an essay on Bose’s childhood memories in an American army bay in Baguio; and Stray Cats, a dialogue on contemporary art. Entrance is free.