The article
of Carmen Pedrosa entitled “Bongbong and the Marcos legacy of impunity” in Philippine
Star this morning is a real eye-opener.
She says
that the real test of how seriously Filipinos want to reform our country will
come when Bongbong Marcos runs for president in 2016. She avers that currently
the Marcoses are making a comeback stealthily and shrewdly, seriously
threatening our common stand for reforms against corrupt politics that has been
the bane of our continuous poverty and the backwardness of our nation.
The
Binay-Roxas intramurals is but a smokescreen to the real battle between two
possible third forces -— the return of the Marcoses or the triumph of Bayanko aimed
at upholding the people’s sovereignty.
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There is no
mistaking that Bongbong has the logistics and funding of the Marcos hidden
wealth.
Why does this
impunity persist and continues unabated depriving us of better lives and a
well-run country. There are many but the
most crucial is this: up to today, the Marcoses and other identified corruptors
who came after them remain unpunished and the hidden billions from graft and
corruption are largely unrecovered. The question is why? Because those in a
position to dig up this mess would prefer the status quo in the hope of surreptitiously
finding a way to get their hands on these treasures themselves. Greed is still
at the forefront and the sooner we get over it the better our chances for a
great nation commensurate to our potential.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Members of
the emerging third force, Bayanko, a movement for moral ascendancy in
governance and politics, calls on all Filipinos to get into the bandwagon of
true reform as the only way forward. It is a collective authority with
members working in different sectors. There is a core group of progressive
bishops and the laity. The group has been meeting for a while putting together ideas how the Philippines
can achieve good governance by amending our constitution.
How are
these alternatives possible? Let us consider the following numbers:
1. One percent
of Filipinos are too or moderately rich to want to change the status quo.
2. Sixty
percent of Filipinos are too poor, too disappointed, too cynical to care about
any system that promises to change their life. A day’s food on the table would be enough to
sway their votes.
3. Ten percent
or 10 million Filipinos are abroad, happy to be away to worry about our homeland.
4. That leaves
about 29 percent, or 29 million Filipinos, who desire a genuine change. But most
of them are in the middle class, who are also too lazy to even vote in barangay
elections to change the political status quo beyond talking, complaining and
watching events from their TV screens.
Presumably
the Marcos comeback plan is premised on buying votes of those in segment #2.
The unwieldy
third force option can only take root in segments #3 and #4 – a potential of
39% following at most. I have a dim view
of this alternative knowing how such a segmented grouping just want to talk
simultaneously accomplishing nothing.
I suspect
that those reading this blog also belong to the 39% and are patriotic enough to
finally wake up to take action. Getting others to wake up initiating a
groundswell should be enough to make a difference.
