Whether one dies of a natural disaster or a man-made disaster, the distinction is not that important to me. I regard each type as just as heartbreaking as the other. In our case, they are so tightly bound up with each other like two sides of the same coin.
Many think that the former is more sufferable because year in and year out the Philippines is buffeted by the vagaries of weather. Since it is a natural occurrence and beyond our control, many tolerate it as a fact of life that we simply can't get a break from. The latter on the other hand, is a different matter. Since it is knowingly man-made and pretty much within our control, it is something less sufferable and unacceptable as a social reality.
And yet, one wonders how natural is "natural" when its outcome reeks with the willful neglect of our leaders to mitigate its impact. What about when our leaders misuse the development allocations for their constituencies in kickbacks and commissions? What about when they callously ignore the danger of scrubby public work, literally, which may put people's lives in peril?
Indeed, demarcating the boundary between the two is problematic because I believe the disasters we face are as much political as they are natural.
How can it not be political when the government allows the indiscriminate depletion of our natural resources by an unmanageable population growth?
To date, the country has about 100 million people with a GDP per capita of $2,123/year where the average number of children born to a woman is close to four and where a sizeable 36 percent of the population is under age 15 (2010 World Population Data Sheet).
How can it not be political when the risk of dying in a natural disaster increases especially in low- and middle-income areas where environmental and infrastructural investments of the government are low?
How can it not be political when the government is having difficulty implementing disaster reduction measures, such as land use planning, flood risk management, safe building codes, or slope stabilization?
The list goes on and on.
Still, I believe that there is always a political solution to the multitude of natural-and man-made disasters we confront as a political community.
By political solution, I use it mainly not in terms of the Machiavellian politics that reject the ideal and ethical for what is real and tactical. With the use of any conceivable methods, Machiavelli dismembers ethics and politics where administrative craft and coax are justified in pursuit of maintaining political power and control.
Rather, I use the concept in terms of Aristotelian politics where ethics and politics are linked to bring about a virtuous citizenry. As he aptly put it: "The end of politics is the best of ends; and the main concern of politics is to engender a certain character in the citizens and to make them good and disposed of to perform noble actions" (Nicomachean Ethics).
It is in the footsteps of Aristotle's political idealism that I am inclined to support PNoy's version of leadership. It is his vision of fostering the daang matuwid for our citizenry that attracts me to his cause. It may be that his is an overwhelming task to accomplish for such a short period of time. Nonetheless, I appreciate his personal as well as institutional efforts to create a virtuous society for us all.
As it is, I already have had enough of Filipino leaders who are instinctively Machiavellian. Worse, corrupt and corruptible leaders in all branches of the government who not only deny the relevance of an ethical life, but also, ruthlessly pretend a semblance of an ethical life in order to set themselves up on the pedestal of power and privilege.
In the end, one question hauntingly stands out among the many: How was it possible for us to knowingly or unknowingly eviscerate our people while toying with the game of executive, legislative, and judicial expediency and control?
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The author is a professor of Sociology and director of the Urban Studies Program at California State University, East Bay and an urban and regional planning consultant. Email:efren.padilla@csueastbay.edu
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