A manifesto seeking a Pinoy Perestroika?

As we said in our last column, when we get our copy of that manifesto that has been quietly circulating around, we will discuss the details of this document. Apparently, it is dated April 29, 2012 and is entitled “Unite to Defend Democracy and Build the Nation!” Unfortunately, this document is five-pages long; it certainly can’t fit this column. So allow me to give a background of its message, some of which I will quote directly.

Basically, it starts with a dissertation of the socio-historical background of the Philippines… that despite being given independence 66 years ago, the societal inequities still remain with us, which has resulted in conflict and armed rebellion. “Time and again, the people put their hopes for a secure and abundant life on new leaders whom they thought would lead the country to peace and progress.”

Then it gives us a glimpse of the EDSA Revolt when it said, “On a few occasions the people, by massive street mobilizations followed by withdrawal of support by the military from the incumbent leaders, even deposed leaders considered to be corrupt or disrespectful of human rights, and changed them with new leaders who would govern the country in a decisively better way.

“The hopes of our people have been shattered. Even well-meaning leaders failed to lead the nation to societal progress and harmony. Their failure was in part because they did not effectively promote the systemic changes that concretely manifest the justice and development that are in turn preconditions for authentic and enduring societal peace.” I can’t say that I don’t agree with what is written here. But wait! It gets interesting, when it discusses the May 2010 elections.

The document clearly indicts the Commission on Elections saying, “The May 2010 elections and its aftermath has caused deep disappointment among more and more of the people. The elections turned out to be seriously flawed. A cunningly designed way of manipulating the automated election system to favor parties and candidates willing and able to pay huge sums of money and political favors for a sham victory or margin was stealthily carried out. The electoral body — the Commission on Elections — and its contracted agents severely compromised the objective credibility of the elections by discarding basic security features decreed by law and meant to secure the integrity of the automated election system. The discarding of the security features enabled the manipulation of the elections.”

This is what we’ve been harping on in the last two years, but it is only now that it is getting some attention… all the more that the Comelec under Chairman Sixto Brilliantes recently signed a contract to purchase those highly-questionable Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines which the Supreme Court blocked with a TRO, which we hope can be permanent.

The document also chastises the Aquino regime when it said, “Contrary to the people’s hopes, the regime that emerged from the 2010 elections, behind the façade of an ostentatious pursuit of reforms, has turned out to be hypocritical. It is given to favoritism, arbitrariness in its purported fight against criminality, corruption, and incompetence.

“It often shows itself to be indolent, capricious and petty. It spends disproportionately large amounts of time and energy harassing and maligning its perceived enemies and cultivating a spuriously good public image. Meantime it neglects to focus on the people’s basic concerns.” In a nutshell, this is how one can describe the Aquino administration today, which we already know.

There’s actually more, but we are running out of space. It discusses for instance the grave threat to our authentic democracy when the Aquino regime appointed known leftists into his government. It talks about the wanton disregard of the separation of powers and checks and balances of the government. It suggests a 10-point roadmap for the transformation of the country. But we will discuss this later in the next columns to come.

This manifesto is different from the hundreds of manifestos that we’ve read in the past in the sense that it has not been published in our local or national dailies, but given to circle of friends and sent to social networking sites. But I heard that this has already been signed in secret. The document also falls short in the sense that it does not ask or demand the resignation of Pres. Aquino or its officials.

In my book, this manifesto came quite coincidentally when the United Nationalists Alliance (UNA) came up with its Senatorial candidates. What believe that the people behind this document is seeking is a Filipino type of Perestroika, when was promoted by former USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev, the last head of State of the Soviet Union who ushered a policy of restructuring and reforming the economic and political system of the USSR. There’s more on this in our next column. Hmmm, a Pinoy Perestroika?

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