Make freedom work

Revolutions and other political upheavals are supposed to result in dramatic changes. For the better, it is hoped, although this is not always the case.

In our country after the 1986 people power revolt, the change from dictatorship to democracy was dramatic, but structural reforms remain a work in progress three decades later.

Anniversaries present opportunities for assessing how much has changed. Today we commemorate the 32nd anniversary of the assassination of Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. His murder catapulted his widow to Malacañang, and her death in turn catapulted their only son to the presidency. Their youngest daughter remains a popular movie star and top product endorser. Our premier airport where Ninoy Aquino was shot dead was renamed after him, although it has been a disgrace to his name for a long time.

But even in the second Aquino presidency, we still don’t know who ordered Ninoy Aquino killed along with his purported assassin Rolando Galman. All the soldiers convicted of the double murder have been freed or have died. One of them with a story about the possible mastermind was mysteriously killed in a car accident.

The Aquinos may never hear any of the ex-convicts talking about a cover-up, and whether Ninoy was finished off in a government van by the soldiers as they took an unusually long route to a hospital.

This failure to identify the brains and hold the person accountable for Ninoy Aquino’s murder surely contributed to the prevailing impunity in political violence. Today all over the country, political rivalries are still often settled by murder.

The same impunity characterizes corruption. As I’ve written in previous articles, our government has confiscated billions in ill-gotten wealth but has failed to punish anyone who might have done the stealing. We have a crime – world-class plunder – without a criminal.

And as in any crime where there’s no punishment, failure to bring any plunderer to justice breeds impunity and guarantees the persistence of the problem.

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Martial law is over but human rights violations attributed to state forces also continue. Not too long ago, we had reports of cops using a “Wheel of Torture” on detained suspects. In 2013 on the Feast of the Three Kings, 13 men were gunned down by a police team in what looked like a turkey shoot in Atimonan, Quezon to neutralize one suspected jueteng baron.

The Marcoses and their friends are fully rehabilitated. The Nationalist People’s Coalition of businessman Eduardo Cojuangco Jr., who was on the plane with Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos as they were flown by the Americans out of Malacañang and into exile, is being courted by presidential contenders for support in 2016.

Frontrunner Sen. Grace Poe seems bent on teaming up with Sen. Francis Escudero, son of Marcos’ former agriculture minister Salvador Escudero III. Senator Chiz is said to enjoy the financial backing of taipan Lucio Tan.

Among Senator Grace’s biggest supporters is her late father’s bosom buddy, Joseph Estrada, who is mayor of Manila despite being convicted of large-scale corruption and is himself eyeing another run for the presidency. Erap did not spend a day in prison and has never apologized or expressed remorse, as stipulated in his pardon, for the plunder conviction.

Meanwhile, one of the lawyers who was active in the struggle against the dictatorship is now seeking the presidency in 2016, but Vice President Jejomar Binay is fending off accusations of corruption.

Among the other potential contenders for the presidency in 2016 are Marcos’ only son and namesake as well as two men whose reputations are built on a particular brand of swift justice: Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and former senator Panfilo Lacson.

Duterte has registered respectable numbers in recent surveys. Lacson is struggling, although this may be because his interest in the presidency seems to be half-hearted. Neither man is a front-runner, but their political fortunes in post-people power Philippines indicate a surviving constituency for strongmen types.

The allure of swift justice, even at the expense of civil liberties, is due to the weakness of the justice system and the rule of law. I think the attraction is not necessarily for strongman rule but for strong government.

About 30 percent of my salary goes to the state, on top of the 10-12 percent value-added tax on all goods and services, with more layers of consumption tax buried in the fine print of utility bills. This means I work about four months a year to help maintain the perks and lifestyles of public officials including Marcos’ widow and son who are both members of Congress, plus all their relatives occupying government positions.

We’ve often been told that democracy is a messy system but still the best. Today the nation remembers that people were tortured, raped and executed in the struggle to end dictatorial rule, with Ninoy Aquino the most prominent victim. His death helped put an end to an oppressive regime.

But this special day also reminds us of how little the nation has changed in many ways, and how freedoms have been abused and turned into an anything-goes attitude that is ruinous to nation-building. There is frustration that in the decades since martial law was imposed, the country was slowly overtaken by its neighbors in almost all human development indicators. The 1986 EDSA revolution, which will always be remembered for ending a dark period in the nation’s history, failed to reverse the slide.

Ninoy Aquino’s assassination put the nation firmly on the road back to democracy. It’s not enough, however, to celebrate freedom. We have to make it work.