Trapped

Overwhelmed and clobbered, our entire nation, not only the government, is saddled with the same issues that have confronted us for decades. Corruption, inefficiencies, fragmented society, political backwardness and poverty. And we are trapped in a consumerist and import-dependent economy with a stagnant manufacturing sector.

Our economic structure cannot create enough inclusive wealth that would benefit the majority of our people. Fortunately, blessed with the hard-earned remittances of our more than 2.5 million overseas Filipino workers who periodically infuse at least $18 billion to $20 billion annually, our economy is constantly saved by the bell. We survive, but definitely not thrive, by adopting a national expenditure program funded by heavy deficits which, having no immediate alternative, depends on loans that now total to more than P17 trillion. Not everyone knows how many zeroes there are in this staggering amount.

Meanwhile, the nation is outraged by the massive financial losses incurred in the ghost and sub-standard infrastructure projects of the Department of Public Works and Highways. The said financial losses is only one side of this tragedy. Much worse are the hardships and danger that our communities face during the regular inundations that heavy rains bring, especially during an average of 26 typhoons yearly. The floods and landslides that now happen everywhere continue to stoke the flame that is definitely in everyone’s chest. Somehow, as many pundits express, the social unrest and collective frustration of Filipinos want to explode while we are all humiliated as a nation.

The maze is challenging and the light at the end of the tunnel is not that bright. Assessments, insights, predictions, solutions and many other forms and levels of pontifications are thrown in the mainstream and alternative media. Gossips, intrigues, accusations and many other versions of judgments are in constant stream in the digital world, with hardly any distinction now between well-founded news or baseless vlogs and posts.

Either getting confused or being educated is now an ordinary occurrence at the crossroads of legitimate and fake news. But the communities seem to enjoy the charade without fully understanding that the vicious cycle spins us downwards and the chance of being able to recover soon depends on many extremely difficult moving parts. The playing field has many participants who are not exactly sharing the same interest and, in fact, are essentially hostile and confrontational. Our politics today, let’s admit, is not at its peak. Naysayers are all trying to see what would happen during the protests on Nov. 30 and beyond. Chat groups today have many new-born analysts and would-be consultants. But to be truly fair, each expression of sentiment and view, except for the trolls’, must be considered as a valid contribution to the growing discourse on what is happening to our country and what can be the possible solutions to our dilemma.

We must adhere to the painful lessons of our history. Not learning from our fatal mistakes in the past is almost a curse that causes the same self-inflicted hardships. The terrible problems that we perennially complain about simply haunt and penalize us. Political leaders that are oblivious to the genuine meaning of being public servants enjoy the misplaced mandate given by an electorate who cannot distinguish between the temporary reprieve provided by buyers of their votes and the supposed life-long redemption that real patriotic leaders could deliver.

We must, I hope soon, revisit our organic law, and validate the effectiveness of how we select the captains of our ship who would steer both the strategic and daily directions of the entire country, both politically and economically. We insist on a presidential form of government where we reward the victors a fixed three- or six-year term during our popularity contests that are bereft of clear platforms and programs that would bind any of them and hold them accountable. It would have been more productive and matured if our people are made to decide between a foreign policy that favors the West, or China, or neutrality, if this still possible. Or we are obliged to choose between a strong protectionist or liberal open economic policies. Also, on the table are choices between allowing foreign investors land ownership, full corporate control or our current restrictive constitutional prohibitions.

We vote based on personality traits, charisma or lack of it, winnability, favors or votes for cash schemes. Then we complain later on once our choices don’t deliver or suddenly have transformed to the leviathan of Hobbes whose appetite for entitlements and greed is insatiable.

Remember doing the same thing twice and expecting a different result is foolish. We hope to enthrone leaders that would consistently give premium to the general welfare of our people. But we stubbornly use and retain an electoral system within exactly the same political infrastructure then expect a different grand ideal result over and over again for so many years. Not only twice did we make ourselves fall in our own folly.

We are now in the middle of a historic glitch in the usual political journey of a people that are deprived openly of the supposed benefits of an independence won in 1898. But the elusive chance to finally free ourselves from the burden of our flawed democracy is still trapped in our collective confusion and our illusion that our electoral process is the ultimate panacea that would solve everything.