Dear Philippines: The Lady in Pink Wants What We All Want — Good Governance
On Monday, May 9, 2022, the most critical election in the Philippines’ will take place. In my recent memory, there hasn’t been an election so divisive and polarizing as 2022’s national election. It pains me to see how many of us have become so cynical, that even with evidence right by our fingertips, some of us choose to overlook that and still willingly swear fealty to a candidate.
It’s so divisive that even Ariana Grande reposting her Filipino supporters singing ‘Breakfree’ at the Leni-Kiko Pasig Rally, became a point of contention. Despite the Vice President being a really popular candidate, bypassing ‘traditional’ election mechanics by the sheer number of volunteers and attendees to her sorties, surveys show that Bongbong Marcos is still in the lead.
A lot of us would be first-time voters this year. After a botched pandemic response, it’s even a wonder how surveys give incumbent president Rodrigo Duterte such a high satisfaction rating. But then again, surveys have become unreliable in a country so entrenched in corruption.
It now seems that Duterte’s presidency was only a transitional period to revive the Marcos’ corrupt political dynasty, and it all started with the dictator’s burial at the country’s Heroes’ Cemetery.
Some people’s reverence for the Marcos family is truly stupefying. We Filipinos have a flair for the dramatic and a tendency to root for the underdog. We Filipinos love a good drama. I remember rushing home from school because I would miss my favorite noontime soap opera, and then again in the evenings when I would rather stay home on weeknights, not because I had classes the next day, but because of my TV programs. Despite the long commercial breaks that stretch out what could’ve been a 22–30 minute program into 45 minutes, I watched every day.
I’m not alone in this. No matter where we are, as long as there’s a TV and our show is on, Filipinos will watch that program. This is why mall shows are such a big thing in the Philippines. People will flock just to get a glimpse of their favorite actors singing or dancing on stage while promoting a new series or movie.
Too often, many of us care more about television personas than reality. Because the reality is troubling and full of suffering and pain. We seek the glorious escape of it with the stories that we watch onscreen; where good triumphs over evil, always, despite a lot of trials. Yet somehow, we fail to connect these lessons in reality.
After six long years, the incumbent president Rodrigo Roa Duterte will finally be replaced. The frontrunners for the post are the incumbent Vice President Leni Robredo and former senator BongBong Marcos. The latter’s family was thrown out of Malacanang by the EDSA People Power Revolution in 1986, effectively ending their three decades of control and corruption. Unfortunately, it was short-lived. They were recalled from exile, and their atrocities have been whitewashed to make them seem like martyrs.
The Marcoses are the prime example of wanton corruption and shamelessness. Do it with enough confidence, and you’ll get away with almost everything. They have done this and have succeeded in taking root again. First in local positions, and then in national posts like the Senate. Despite their matriarch Imelda Marcos, getting convicted for 7 counts of graft, she was never rightfully punished. Her only punishment was the prohibition of her ever assuming office ever again. Why wasn’t she jailed if she was convicted? “She’s old”, we should have mercy. Yet, poor old people screwed over by an unjust system, languished in jail for three years for stealing a sandwich, and this is not an isolated case.
Tell me if the punishment fits the crime when the rich and powerful couldn’t be punished for doing far worse.
There are many choices for the top post. Some of them, even hosted a press conference at the Manila Peninsula (very expensive) urging the Vice President to withdraw from the race. Their call for unity then became null, because all of them would still run for the position, and the VP’s withdrawal would only benefit Marcos Jr. As this happened on Easter Sunday, this demand prompted netizens to ask about their ‘missing eggs’.
The presidency is not a pissing contest, despite President Duterte making such mockery of everything that we hold dear, many of us have seemingly embraced this raw and visceral barbarism. Although, without Duterte making a mess of things and incurring trillions of pesos in foreign debt, those of us that consider ourselves ‘apolitical’ because of our comforts and privileges, would likely remain complacent because the years had been kind to us. This complacency is one of the reasons why political dynasties like the Marcoses were able to return to power.
This election seems the easiest in the terms of choices. Yet, it seems the hardest to win. We have candidates like Leni Robredo and Kiko Pangilinan, popular candidates that also epitomize the best traits we should be looking for to lead the country. Clean track record, no history of corruption, competent, and show up in times of need. I cannot say the same for Ferdinand Bongbong Marcos Jr., son of the ousted dictator who spent the last six years appealing for a recount and lost thrice in all the pilot provinces he chose. I cannot say that he has a clean track record when Brittany Kaiser, Cambridge Analytica’s whistleblower said that Bongbong approached Cambridge Analytica to rebrand his family’s image. Despite him saying that he has ‘no troll farms’, he has benefitted largely from disinformation campaigns, and in fact, identified trolls have been supporting him.
It’s a sad thing that even in the face of hard evidence, even the most educated people become irrational, almost fanatical in their defense of Marcos. I wonder if it’s pride. It’s alright to admit we made a mistake. Most of us have been misled by those feel-good stories that circulate on social media about how great of a person Duterte is. I admit that I was misled by that, too. Some of us were even gaslit by troll farms with IP addresses in China.
We all long for a better life; we all choose what we think would be the best for us and our families. But promises of returning the Tallano gold and the ill-gotten wealth wouldn’t make our standards of living better. The Marcoses had over 35 years to make things right, but they were unapologetic then and now. Our collective misery is partly because of our actions. The Marcos era wasn’t the ‘golden age’, and neither was Duterte’s. Kleptocrats like the Marcos political dynasty rely on people’s complacency. To make us so poor we won’t have the time to pursue anything else apart from work. Even Bongbong Marcos’ wife’s clan openly endorsed his opponent Leni Robredo. They ‘stand up and speak up for those who are voiceless against tyranny, kleptocracy, rotten political dynasties, impunity, corruption, plunder, extra-judicial killings, and selfish political interests’.
How awful does one have one to be, for their own relatives-in-law to be openly against them?
Political dynasties don’t want an educated, critical-thinking electorate.
Now that smartphones have become more accessible and social media is the pastime, their machinery relies on micro-influencers to whitewash their atrocities from history. All of this is at the public’s expense.
I hope that by Monday, our nation won’t vote for thieves. The trajectory of the next six years, and dare I say, lifetime, hinges on it.
