A CLEANSING PROCESS

By Jose Alejandrino

John F Kennedy said that when peaceful change becomes impossible it makes a violent revolution inevitable.

Historically, he is right. Study the French and Russian revolutions and the American and Spanish civil wars. In the case of the French, the 'sans-culottes' who stormed the Bastille and guillotined the French King and Queen and members of the aristocracy. Same in the Russian revolution where the Czar and his family were executed and aristocrats fled abroad ending up as London taxi drivers. In the case of the American, the desire of Southern planters to retain their way of life which depended on slaves for labor as opposed to the Northeners who believed slavery was evil. In the case of the Spanish, the conservatives as opposed to the progressives. These are just a few examples.

In the Philippines, we had the 1898 Philippine Revolution and the 1986 Edsa Revolt. The 1898 was betrayed by oligarchs, the 1986 hijacked by them. Thirty years after Edsa, we have what I call the Duterte Revolution. Duterte was the only candidate who ran on a platform of change and was elected because of it. But as I wrote after the elections were over, at some point the LP, druglords and their protectors, corrupt officials, conservative bishops, big vested interests will join forces to topple Duterte whom they see as a threat to them. What I call the reactionary forces. This has now happened. They are joined by leftist and extremist elements who have their own political agenda. One big happy family on Sept. 21, 2017 which they are hoping to be a big hurrah. Let's see.

As I said before, we are in a revolutionary situation, like it or not. There is deep anger in the social media. All it needs is a trigger to ignite the revolution. It will come.

As an American friend observed, maybe that is what is needed in the Philippines to pound sense into heads that are warring tribes than a nation. It is a process to clean the body politic of its rot. Blood, my friend added, has to spill. You need sacrificial lambs.

There are two ways to have a revolution. There is the peaceful way by clipping the financial power of oligarchs through a system of taxation, as the British Labor government did, and by changing the rotten political system that kept oligarchs in power. How? By limiting political dynasties and allowing the marginalized sectors a greater participation in national decision-making through a system of meritocracy. The other way to change is by a violent revolution when the people chopped off heads, like in the French and Russian revolutions.

Since the 1890s, Filipinos have been clamoring for change. The ilustrados in Madrid petitioned the Spanish government for reforms. That was 120 years ago. Nothing happened. When the Americans took over, they imposed their system of government. You take it or leave it, Franklin Delano Roosevelt told Manuel Quezon. The 1935 Constitution was the by-product. We Filipinos improved on the worst features of the American system such as vote-buying and vote manipulation. That is why Emilio Aguinaldo and Quezon fought. Corruption entered the system through GOCCs like PNB. That is why American Governor-general Leonard Wood and Quezon fought. Wood wanted to sell off government corporations which Quezon opposed.

The American system was intended to be a showcase of democracy. But it turned out to be a sham, a mere facade to perpetuate the power of the oligarchy. The few used the system to enrich themselves. Money, not meritocracy, was the deciding factor in elections. Personalities, not platforms of government, counted for more. To amuse the public, politicians did song and dance numbers. The Senate became the launching pad of presidential ambitions. The presidency became a game of musical chairs between oligarchs. Today we are seeing the same circus in the Senate with so many brainless clowns grandstanding before TV cameras, all with a mind of being the future president and wasting taxpayers money to boot. The Senate wants to control the process of constitutional change to a few cosmetic changes in the Cory Constitution to effectively maintain the status quo. Once again, they are fooling the people.

It doesn't help that the Catholic Church supports the status quo. Like in the days of the Spanish Friars, it still controls our major educational institutions. It is exempted from taxation by the Cory Constitution, despite it being one of the richest corporations in the country, and continues to dabble in politics despite the constitutional prohibition and the separation of Church and State. Not surprisingly it opposes change.

All the above factors were responsible for our underdevelopment and immense poverty in the country where 92 percent of the population can hardly subsist on their earnings, forcing 4-5 million to go abroad to earn better wages. With higher earnings abroad, they can be said to form part of our middle class, of which only two percent remain here. Yet a strong democracy requires a strong middle class. Our middle class at home is diminishing. A hundred families own three-fourth of the wealth of the nation. How many poor countries have more billionaires in Forbes magazine than the Philippines? Henry Sy with 18 billion dollars net worth!

The harsh reality is the gap between rich and poor continues to widen in our country. Poverty forced the poor to turn to drugs, the rank-and-file in government to resort to corruption. Poverty and underdevelopment fueled insurgency and separatist movements. Ever stop to ask yourself why we have the longest lasting insurgency in the world? Like the Taliban in Afghanistan and the FARC in Colombia, insurgents and terrorists here are involved in the drug trade to finance their movement.

"Where is the country headed?" I ask myself. The Cory Constitution constricts the president's power to effect a total cleanup of our broken institutions. That is why I keep pressing people to give him extraordinary powers. The nationalist provisions on the economy limit the entry of foreign competition that only benefit local players who provide inefficient and costly services. The Cory Constitution was drawn up by vested interests to protect their interests. Will the next Constitution be any better? Only if politicians and vested interests are shut out of the process.

And if Duterte fails? Then God, as I wrote before, will take over and do the final cleansing process. It will be very painful when it comes, as Jesus said, "there will be a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth." When? I expect it to begin after Duterte's term is over.