Morality in Philippine Democracy

 

 

MORALITY IN PHILIPPINE DEMOCRACY

“Politics…is one of the highest forms of charity, because it serves the common good.”—Papa Francesco, 2013

“Good politics…respects and promotes fundamental human rights, which are at the same time mutual obligations.”—Papa Francesco, 2019

The moral dimension of politics is poorly addressed in our education system, yet political actions have the capacity to inflict grave and far-reaching moral evil affecting millions and millions. Morality that is taught in our private Roman Catholic schools in particular focuses on the moral actions of the individual and generally neglects to take up the morality of political actions that affect many millions. Politics has far-reaching, dramatic, life-altering effects on masses of people so that political morality demonstrates a structural character. Politics is the enabler and perpetrator of social sin. It is according to this aspect that politics strikes at the very core of our moral life, competing directly with individual allegiance to God’s law.

Our private Roman Catholic education system needs to be reformed so that political ideologies, values, and principles, and how they support, oppose, or intersect with traditional Roman Catholic morality are taken up as essential to the program of study. Included in the coverage should be case studies, and the discussion of grey areas and the contingent character of political actions.

https://oddsandendsgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2019/06/placeholder-2-of-4.html

“There’s no denying that we’ve seen elected into office too many people with reputations for vote buying, thievery, plunder, immorality, and even murder; show business or sports personalities and other public celebrities with no known qualifications for governance; and even returning officials with past records of incompetence and nonperformance. A quote attributed to former Singapore leader Lee Kuan Yew made the rounds in social media years ago, where he supposedly called Filipinos ‘stupid’ for perennially voting bad leaders into office.”

cielito.habito@gmail.com

https://opinion.inquirer.net/147267/educated-by-the-voters#ixzz7Eh49hTvO  

—Cielito F. Habito, “Educated by the voters,” Inquirer.net, December 7, 2021

Democracy is not just elections. The right to vote does not solely define democracy.

Besides guaranteeing the right to vote, democracy exacts accountability after elections, ensures checks and balances in the exercise of power, and safeguards political freedoms and civil rights, among other vital functions. Democracy is also a free press, the rule of law, an independent judiciary, and many other absolutely essential working parts.

https://oddsandendsgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2021/12/not-what-doctor-ordered.html

Basically, Marcos Jr. won on the Ilocos and Mindanao regional votes, assisted by disillusionment with liberal democracy—disillusionment significantly based on the ignorance of the electorate—ignorance of the economic debacle of the Marcos era and of the development gains post-Marcos—in which support for liberal democracy is identified with the Philippine elite. The Marcos Jr. vote is significantly an anti-elite vote, delusively so. There is also a longing for authoritarian rule, born of desperation, in the ignorant belief that a dictatorial regime, even if plundering—all politicians are corrupt, it is erroneously claimed—will result in the economic improvement of the lives of the lower class and poor. A last important factor is the influence of historical landed feudalism, in which the impoverished seek the patronage of the feudal elite and the latter ride on the political support of the poor. It is this social structure and the attendant values and attitudes that animate electoral behavior. It has been described as “cacique democracy.”

https://oddsandendsgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2022/12/why-did-marcos-jr-win.html

The solution to the breakdown of democracy and the slide toward authoritarianism in developing countries like the Philippines has to be long-term and systemic. It involves effectively promoting democratic values and principles in the voting population together with building and strengthening democratic institutions while generating economic benefits personally felt.

The way forward is a self-perpetuating cycle—when a population that is democratized and sufficiently provisioned elects reformist leaders, reformist leaders in turn will advance both democracy and economic development.

https://oddsandendsgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2022/03/moral-politics.html 

There are moral aspects to the struggle between autocracy and democracy in the Philippines, indeed, worldwide. An awareness and understanding of this inescapably mortal conflict involves education in democracy vis-à-vis competing systems. Education entails promoting democracy as a preferential moral regime, however imperfect, in contrast to autocracy, while asking us to investigate hybrid alternatives.