Democracy and ZTE by Ryan Maboloc
February 27th, 2008 at 6:30 am (General, National Politics, Writable Writes)
I received this forwarded email by Ryan Maboloc, a 32-year old Filipino currently taking up Masters in Applied Socio-Political Ethics in Sweden:
From a descriptive point of view, Mr. Hadji Balahadja’s analysis of Philippine politics (The Call for Social Democracy) is right. There is corruption in government, bad leadership, the same genes are in power, etc. From a prescriptive point of view, I think the solution lies somewhere else. Not in politics. Not even in changing the system of government. Democracy is only instrumental to people’s freedom; it is not freedom in itself. Democracy, at best, in the way it is practiced in the Philippines, in our dear country, secures only, through mass protests, the negative rights of people, i.e. freedom from an oppressive government, freedom from corruption, freedom from violence, etc. But, at the end of the day, when JDV wakes up in the morning, when GMA reads “There’s the Rub” in the Inquirer, still, they’ll be sitting in their verandas, their coffees served in imported porcelain, and mind you, they won’t even touch their salamis. Now, the same is true to some wanna-be-heroes, i.e., businessmen, priests, professionals, the so-called civil society. But the real issue is, if you know where and what, is the fact that the common tao will wake up thinkin’ “unsa ug asa ko mangita ug pamahaw para sa akong lima ka anak?”.
Now, tell me, can he look for it in the streets? Can he expect manna when the senate shall have finished investigating the ZTE or condemned the big players. Let’s just say that hypothetically the First Gentleman and the former Comelec Chair are sent to prison, say for 1000 years (I know the penalty for plunder is death, but that will never happen, this is not the French Revolution; no king will ever be hanged, period.) Now, the point is, will it (the hypothetical punishment) give the common tao the answer to his question, “unsa ug asa ko mangita ug pamahaw para sa akong lima ka anak?” It is not even a million dollar question. It is not even a one dollar question. It is only a 38-peso question. He can buy a kilo of rice for P18.00, one can of Atami and two Quick Chows, and that’s it. But, there is no P38.00 in the streets, not even after one reads Recah Trinidad or Quinito Henson. Fact is, Filipinos nowadays waste four hours every day watching telenovelas, and include the one hour for Wowowee, that is five hours in all, which is, almost one third of their day, and implicitly, a third of their lives. Who gets rich? You know whom, but Angel Locsin is like an anesthetic to social ills, at least for the poor, that’s 30% of Filipinos. Small number? No, it’s 24 million hungry souls. But going back to the anesthetic. The thing is, there’s no operation (after watching Darna) to provide the final cure.
Now, there is no solution. At least, not yet. But we can begin looking at the positive freedoms of people. It can be said, for instance, that a poor person’s negative rights may never have been violated. No violence. No coercion. In his plain simple life. But, as long as he or she does nothing to help himself, to actualize his or her capabilities in order to improve his or her well-being, his negative rights are equal to nil. They amount to nothing. Actually, “planting camote” has a point, though we despise the suggestion. Consider, for instance, our wasted backyards. Freedom is not only freedom from coercion, non-interference, etc. Freedom also means the expansion of human life in terms of what a person is “able to do and choose” to make that life worth living. I will not elaborate. But I suggest two books, “Development as Freedom” and “Women and Human Development”. For instance, reading is a positive freedom. In the Philippines, it is a negative one. Our students don’t read when they are not coerced. Thus, even inside our classrooms, we are reinforcing coercion in society. It happens very much in one profession, and you know the hell why this country is in ruins.
CHRISTOPHER RYAN B. MABOLOC is Assistant Professor of Philosophy and currently Chairman of the Philosophy Division of the Ateneo de Davao University. He graduated AB Philosophy, cum laude, from the same institution and obtained his Master of Arts in Philosophy at the Ateneo de Manila University. He is an Erasmus Mundus Scholar in the Masters Programme in Applied Ethics (Major in Socio-Political Ethics) at Linkoping University in Sweden and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway. He is co-author of Being Human: Essays on the Philosophy of the Human Person and Logical Thinking: The Science of Correct Reasoning. He is Vice President of the Philosophical Association of the Visayas and Mindanao.
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Pian said,
February 28, 2008 at 9:15 pm
The main problem is that we have a very illegitimate democratic system. Our voters elect only those people who are popular and not if they are capable. The big dilemma if GMA is ousted, the VP will take over who was elected PURELY because he’s popular with the masses, and not because he’s capable to lead the nation. Our economy has never grown this much, I don’t want to take the chance by entrusting it to someone solely popular with the masses.
To prevent this transfer, no matter how believable Lozada initially is, his credibility is now being questioned. He admitted that a certain level of corruption is acceptable to him. Questions have arisen whether he was kidnapped, because his celphone was not confiscated, he dined in Outback restaurant, and he was able to go to the place he wanted to go all along, that is, La Salle Greenhills. I even read he committed a sin of omission regarding his consultation with the wife of Sen. Joker Arroyo. He didn’t correct the impression in which it appeared the wife invited him to her house to urge him not to testify, when the fact of the matter is (based on what I read) Lozada was the one who contacted the wife around September before Joey de Venecia testified, and he was crying and that he doesn’t want to testify. So the wife invited him to her house, and told him she couldn’t lawyer for him due to conflict of interest since her husband is a Senator, while he was then president of Philforest. She advised him then, since he was so distressed, that he doesn’t have to testify if he didn’t want to. Since this was one of those ordinary free consultations, she didn’t bother to tell Joker about it. So Joker was surprised when his wife was mentioned.
Pian said,
March 4, 2008 at 7:37 pm
Below is a transcript of a supposedly wiretapped conversation between Joey and Jun I got from a website. Judge for yourself if Jun Lozada is indeed deserving to be treated a hero, but of course after ascertaining if this is genuine.
usapang udifuta
________________________________________
TRACK 3…
http://www.patriots4truth.blogspot.com
Joey (allegedly, Joey de Venecia): Hey Jun.
Jun (allegedly, Jun Lozada): Hey Joey.
Joey: Jun, can you hear me?
Jun: Yeah. Go ahead.
Joey: Yeah, where are you to put Chair (Abalos)?
Jun: Ang formula ko doon is kuha ako ng points dun sa 130.
Joey: Uh-huh…
Jun: Di ba? Kasi saan ko pa kukunin di ba? (laughs) Itong mga …
Joey: Kaya lang pare, we need to get some… at least from… something from them, di ba?
Jun: Yeah.. from both sides. P*t@ng!na…
Joey: Pare.. start from the thing.. Because he’s the gatekeeper of the votes. P*ta. I can understand, but not that amount.
Jun: Oh yeah. that’s too big, right. That’s too big.
Joey: Pare, let’s develop a plan to talk to him.
Jun: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So…
Joey: And you know what he told me, between you and I. When we were in Hong Kong… in Shenzen. Don’t quote me ha. Sabi niya kasi, marami akong…… Tinanong ko bakit ba ang laki-laki? Singkwenta.. Sabi niya marami ako kelangan bigyan. Pati yung NEDA. He said the word NEDA ha. P*t@ngina. For your information pare.
Jun: Information? I would understand that… He’d like to look at…
Joey: Maybe, wait, you can quote me and say, sabi ni Joey meron daw… sabi mo sa kanya may NEDA dun. (laughs) Di ba? He told me pare. (laughs)
Jun: Sige, sige…
Joey: P*t@ng!na, baka magwala na naman yung… (laughs)
Jun: For some reason, I have this chemistry with him. Sabi ko Chair… In fact, sabi niya, Jun, ikaw na mag-referee bukas ha. Sabi niya, I want you to be there. Ikaw na mag-referee, ikaw na magsabi kung papaano. Sige po Sir, ako na ang mag-aano sa ano… (laughs)
Joey: Well anyway, so that’s where I’m looking at right now. .. ought to get you.. And then, uh, think of a strategy for Ben (Abalos?), and if you need me to back you up, I’ll be there.
Jun: Hey Joey, regarding this Chinese embassy thing. I think I struck a motherload no? I’ll put them in Roxas Boulevard. P*t@ng!na, di ba?
Joey: In the Reformation? (Reclamation)
Jun: No, p*t@ng!na, that’s not prime. We’ll put them in the CCP complex.
Joey: Yup, got it.
Jun: P*t@ng!na. Yeah, that’s, wala.. I can ??? that ??? agreement. (I can swing that gddam deal pare)
Joey: You mean, owned by the Central Bank?
Jun: Yeah! Can you imagine? P*t@ng!na, same stature as the American embassy, better pa, di ba? The Japanese Embassy is in Roxas Boulevard. The American embassy is there. So p*ta, I just arrived that we put the Chinese embassy right in the midst of it all, di ba? Joey: Yes, yes, of course. That’s ??? to hear. That’s foresight. (That’s perfect)
Jun: … don’t mention my name. I think he knows me well.
Joey: Gaano kalaki, pare?
Jun: P*t@ng!na, as much as 15 hectares. (laughs)
Joey: P*t@ng!na. Tapos siguro kumuha rin tayo dun. Pero we need 10 finances. (10 financers)
Jun: No, no, no, no. P*t@ng!na. I cannot just tell you all the things that I’ve been asked to do. But that one I think, I can ??? for ourselves.
Joey: I’ll talk to the…
Jun: Talk to him right away.