"The Philippine Hidden Story"

What is primarily the talk of the town is the impeachment of Chief Justice Renato Corona. But there is a hidden talk, one that is gossiped by the people more than that of a town and this talk is always overshadowed by national issues embodied by the elites. These elites are basically the powerful minority that controls the power and decision-making in the policies of the government. This is all because the monopoly they occupy in the framework of the government that is supposed to be vacated for the masses. And who represent the pool of the repressed, vulnerable, and poor? None, so they really are the powerless majority.

The majority stays behind the elites. These people are shaped by the norms created through the powers of the elite that champion their trust. This is the meat of the talk that remains hidden after the said EDSA revolution. Following this process is the stage that institutionalizes the value of conformity to those who are in power. This is where my concessions arrive to Christian Monsod’s article on Christmas Day. It is put in emphasis that the priorities of the poor, the powerless majority are mishandled and most often neglected.

Being distracted from the core issues that our country must really face- from poverty, inequality, social services, etc., it is quite startling to comprehend that the current agenda set in the country is diverged from it.  We are more than interested to Kris Aquino's talks, live concerts of Korean's Super Junior, overestimating Adele's soothing voice, too much focus on impeachment of whoever seats the office, and so many more.  But there is nothing to get confused especially in the government scandals. It has already been noted that these people who are the stakeholders on these issues are just primarily the same faces who are choosing the options on the table on how the country come and go. So it is on their lives, on their issues that we are oriented to focus into.

I just therefore dismiss the idea of EDSA Revolution. Was it really a revolution? Or was it just an authentic revolution that just aimed to get the attention of the masses being blinded by the prime movers of that movement? Well, I think, it was the latter. It’s simply the restoration of the elites. Yes, our textbooks are right to show that the power of the poor are visible in the picture on that historical uprising in EDSA where they fought along with the promises branded on their foreheads. But it was not sustained. The masses are not the champions in that long way struggle. Had we truly won, concerns of the people who are on the mass absolute poverty must have been addressed. To refer Monsod’s article, “the government family income and expenditures survey (2009) showed that the incidence of poverty went down from 35.15 percent in 1988 to 26.49 percent in 2009, but the number of the poor increased from 21.3 million to 23.9 million.”. In this, poor are trapped to less than 1$ a day despite the skyrocketing prices in the market.

With the social reforms continuously unachieved despite the hopes of the majority, there has been a telltale issue on the challenges on whether or not the social reforms are really the interest of the powerful elites. The passage of distributing the land to the farmers in Hacienda Luisita was almost half a century struggle as started way back on 1960s. Just before 2011 ended, this battlecry of our sugar farmers were heard. The Supreme Court en banc 14-0 decided to finally give back the land to the farmers who are now probably the grandsons and granddaughters of those who were  squeezed by the might of the Cojuangcos’ in their call of land distribution. But this garnered a heavy emotion towards the ever prominent Kris Cojuangco Aquino, our President’s sister. We heard too much from her and I’ve read too much of her grief in her twitter account about the final decision of the court regarding the distribution of their vast land already spilled by those heroic farmers’ blood.

Finally, I agree to Monsod’s alternative in distinguishing to why Philippines is on its deep nightmare. Basically, the plans do not strike at the roots of the problem but only at the branches. Well, how one can know the where the root is if one don’t have the ability to listen the masses. This is why there is something very wrong about using power and wealth. This is an answer that primarily comes back again on my initial views- the pool of minority elites vested on selfish interests, planning for the country though their monopolistic opinions, championing the trust of the masses through institutionalizing the value of conformity from the majority powerless poor, and thus neglecting their concerns and diverging the central hidden issues to their issues based on their lives and interests.

Well, still, have a Happy New Year for the Philippines- with optimism. :)

(This is primarily a reaction to an opinion of Christian Monsod's article in Philippine Daily Inquirer, December 25, 2011 labeled as the 'Talk of the Town')