THE FORGETFULNESS OF THE PHILIPPINE PEOPLE
FRUSTRATED
NETIZEN WRITES TO 16 MILLION DUTERTE VOTERS
Federico
D. Pascual Jr.
The
Philippine Star, April
10, 2018 - 12:00am
We
share below an open letter of netizen Gege Cruz pouring out in social media her
disgust with the 16 million voters who handed the presidency to Davao City
Mayor Rodrigo Duterte in 2016. (This version is 500 words shorter than Cruz’s
original rant that we edited to fit space.)
You’ll
never hear the end of it from me for your Duterte vote. And the more
intelligent, the more educated, the more well-bred, the more “Christian” you
are, the more I blame you. Shame on you!
…One
reason I got from friends – because he’s the only one who can achieve radical
change that this country badly needs. Bullcrap! There was never ever any
empirical proof of that. You just believed the macho stories. You bought into
the myth they built with manipulated polls and paid trolls.
It
was a vote of desperation. And you chose to be desperate at a time when our
country was at its best economic standing in a long time. When we were emerging
as a new tiger. Desperation makes you stupid, you know.
Because
you were angry about traffic, frustrated with the MRT, outraged by laglag bala.
You voted for the one who only said he would solve those problems, without
presenting any viable solution, just imaginary numbers and ridiculous
deadlines. Naniwala naman kayo!
You
just felt like voting for him. Basta. And look at where that vote has brought
us. Loans piling up. Peso slipping. Jobs and investments dwindling. Grants
disappearing. Our islands being grabbed from us. Corruption growing. Nepotism,
cronyism, incompetence, the death of meritocracy. Wala nang bigas! May crime at
drugs pa rin! At may traffic pa rin!
Eto
pa – “Hindi siya trapo!” Tingnan mo ngayon – trapo na siya, at isa pa siyang
malaking doormat – Welcome, China! Our Islands, Yours Na. Tinapon ang ating
victory sa Hague. At binenta ng libre ang bansa natin. With loan interests on our
side. Hindi pa natin tapos bayaran ang
mga utang ni Marcos, eto na naman!
The worst part for me is that just when we are about to turn the economic
development corner and have nearly
paid off the Marcos debt after 30 years, the Philippine electorate places another massively corrupt politician into
office.
MARCOS
YEARS MARKED ‘GOLDEN AGE’ OF PH ECONOMY? LOOK AT THE DATA
Kevin
Mandrilla
Rappler.com,
March 5, 2016
The notion of a ‘golden age’ of the
Philippine economy under the Marcos regime, especially during its latter years,
is a big, fat lie
…for
the newer generations with virtually no means of recalling the brutal martial
law era and the economic hardships that it brought, perhaps one of the best
ways of reliving the Marcos economy is by revisiting the data and opening
yourselves to the story these data show.
…We
lost two decades of development
[Refer
to above chart]
What
the graph shows: A continuous increase in GDP per capita (or income per person)
is usually understood as an overall improvement in economic welfare. [The
chart] shows that Philippine GDP per capita declined after 1982 and did not
reach the same level until 2003, or 21 years later.
What
it means: This severe retrogression of Filipinos’ income per person – called
“lost decades of development” – testifies to a truly dark era in our economic
history. It took the country an entire generation to recover from the bad
outcomes of the Marcos regime’s economic policies and management. Even with
this data alone, it is difficult to understand why many people cling to the
idea that the Marcos regime, taken as a whole, brought about the Philippine
economy’s “golden age.”
“A
Nation That Forgets,” February 25, 2018:
“Plunder
Financed by Debt,” June 22, 2020:
“Forgetfulness is the incomprehension of those who misconstrue the past.”
Image is posted according to principles of fair use, for the purposes of information and education. The blog post is about the image.
ReplyDeleteSource of image is “Marcos years marked ‘golden age’ of PH economy? Look at the data,” Rappler.com (March 5, 2016) by Kevin Mandrilla.
Image link:
https://rappler.com/voices/imho/marcos-economy-golden-age-philippines
Gonzalinho
DON’T BLAME FILIPINOS FOR INCREASINGLY POWERFUL DUTERTE, BLAME THEIR POLITICAL SYSTEM By Bianca Ysabelle Franco
ReplyDeleteThe Globe Post, June 4, 2019
It is sensible for Filipinos to believe in their president who champions their rights and desires. The approval for Duterte is due to his ability to project the people’s aspirations, not because they have been deceived to do so. More importantly, Duterte legitimizes the people’s frustrations against a political establishment that has long disparaged them.
It is not the people who are to blame for an increasingly powerful Duterte, but the political system that has failed them time and again. This time, this political system created a man who ruined democracy for the people who elected him.
See: https://theglobepost.com/2019/06/04/philippines-duterte-popularity/
The great irony is that the system, democracy, albeit weak, has not failed the masses. It has brought about major economic advancement for the country, although the benefits have been felt mainly by the elite. This inequity has to be addressed by enlightened social spending. Tragically, the electorate is largely ignorant of our economic rehabilitation—slow, painful—since the catastrophic Marcos dictatorship—and wants to recapitulate historical folly under another maniacal dictator. The expression for this thickness is, “shoot oneself in the foot.”
Gonzalinho
Philippine presidential election is coming up in 2022. Democracy forces must mobilize now against anti-democracy forces, building trust among the electorate, especially among the lower socioeconomic classes, by implementing active and effective mechanisms for listening and dialogue. Once in power, democracy forces must foster democratic values and attitudes among the populace by institutionalizing formal education courses.
ReplyDeleteGonzalinho
House Bill 7137 declaring Sept 11 as Marcos holiday is a gross disrespect to all victims of the dictator’s atrocities, including the rape survivors under his regime. This legislature (save for the 9 who voted against) will go down in history as traitors to the Filipino people.
ReplyDelete@jeanenriquez
Philippine Daily Inquirer (September 4, 2020)
AN INSULT TO ILOCANOS
By: Solita Callas-Monsod - @inquirerdotnet
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:06 AM September 05, 2020
Our Congress is passing a bill declaring Sept. 11 as President Ferdinand Edralin Marcos Day in Ilocos Norte. And with no debate whatsoever. Words fail me. Do the Germans/Austrians celebrate an Adolf Hitler Day anywhere in Germany, or in Braunau am Inn in Austria? Do the Italians celebrate a Benito Mussolini in Predappio, Italy?
We not only will be the LAUGHINGSTOCK OF THE WORLD, [all capitals mine] which held us in the highest respect when we overthrew the dictator peacefully and became a role model for all other similar movements to follow, including the fall of the Berlin Wall, but we will also have pissed on the face of Ninoy Aquino and all the victims of martial law, as well as on our faces—the victims of Marcos’ plunder—for which we had to suffer for almost 16 years before we could regain our former per capita income.
…Now, about this “he is a hero to Ilocos Norte and to most Ilocanos all over the world”: What is the basis of that statement of Senator Sotto? It actually is an insult to Ilocanos. Are they not Filipinos first? Did they not see the devastation that Marcos brought on the Philippines? Did they not witness how he tried to keep himself in power even after 20 years?
So, the dictator Marcos did a lot for Ilocos while he was president. Does that more than compensate for what evil he wreaked on the Filipino people? The Ilocanos are not dumb. And I am sure they are Filipinos first.
My father was an Ilocano (born in Abra, raised in Sta. Maria, Ilocos Sur) who thought the world of Ferdinand Marcos. He was a journalist with the Philippines Free Press and wrote articles defending the young Marcos who was accused of killing his father’s opponent (Julio Nalundasan). He was struck by Marcos’ brilliance and his potential, and was his personal friend. He chose then Senate President Marcos to be a principal sponsor at my wedding (he came, and charmed me, too).
But when President Marcos declared martial law, my father brought me every day to the Supreme Court to hear the martial law case against Marcos. And I remember him sighing, and saying, “if I knew then that he would do this to the Filipino people, I would never have defended him.”
That’s the kind of Ilocano I know. A Filipino first. And someone who would evaluate Marcos not just on the basis of a few, or even many, scraps thrown his way. And I am half-Ilocano. And proud of it. But I am a Filipino first. As I said, Senator Sotto insults the Ilocanos.
Read more: https://opinion.inquirer.net/133322/an-insult-to-ilocanos#ixzz6teyuHYuR
When I was 18, I was tortured and imprisoned by Marcos for 4 years because I criticized him for banning student councils. Many Ilocanos were also imprisoned then. We cannot celebrate the birth of a man who imprisoned and tortured Filipinos. This is adding injustice to our pain.
Neri Colmenares,
@ColmenaresPH
Philippine Daily Inquirer (September 7, 2020)
Gonzalinho