I got invited to join the Pandesal Forum at Kamuning Bakery where two speakers were presented: Prof. Ramon Casiple, a political scientist and analyst and Dr. Anthony Bravo, who represents the Kooperatiba ng mga Magsasaka in Congress and is the president of the Coalition of Partylists of the Philippines.
To Prof. Casiple, the existence of a strong political party system would solve our political problems while Dr. Bravo believes that the Opposition in our political scene is not cohesive. Nor is the partylist system really counted upon as a serious matter (a viable tool towards bringing about legislative solutions to the people's problems) to be considered and regarded upon during elections. "In fact 11 million did not vote for any partylist in the last elections." In other words, there is lack of education among the people on the significance of the partylist system. Shouldn't the COMELEC seriously work on this?
Prof. Casiple also mentioned that social media is not a strong influence in our society; rather the mainstream media is the one being sought for opinions by the people. Voters are swayed by names and political parties. However, To Dr. Bravo, social media must be assessed in terms of the quality of the message and the messenger.
This forum made me rethink so many issues in our politics. First of all, Prof. Casiple mentioned that voters are personalistic.They prefer candidates na "nakamayan at nakita nila."
In other words, the clash of ideas during elections is not based on issues nor programs being offered by the candidates but their personalities. Implication: if the candidate is not carinioso, lovable or a heart throb, then he or she will earn only a few votes compared to those who are often seen inthe limelight - the movie actors, the entertainment figures, etc.
To Prof. Casiple also, the Midterm Elections is not solely going to be about the candidates that are offering their names but rather a vindication of the election of President Duterte: do people really want him or not as president, especially that he has endorsed three people for the senatorial seats?
The analysis of Prof. Casiple is done from the view of the politician working within the Establishment. Unfortunately, there could be other ways of viewing our politics. As an educator and a member of the movement of non-government organizations, I posit the following:
1. First of all, we must look at politics, holistically -- from the point of view of organized groups involved in influencing elections, whether directly or indirectly, as well as individuals who may or may not participate in the process.
In other words, we view politics as everyone's concern, from the rural to the urban areas, from all sexes' viewpoints, from all ages' viewpoints, i.e., those of voting age. We do not discriminate whether a person has a solid background in politics, or law, or any other engagement that could influence the political scene in our country.
Hence, with this position, I believe that we should also give everyone a chance to serve in government, not only those who are close to the political powers-that-be, nor who are attached to organizations that have the solid material wealth to launch a candidacy or present a whole slate of set of candidates for official positions.
In other words, we recognize the capacity of everyone to participate in politics. No discrimination please. The COMELEC must provide fora for the recognition of individuals who do not have that party machinery to launch their candidacies. A bill is now being presented in Congress to address the problems of funds of political parties but not of individual candidates which is rather unfair. Why push individuals to join a party when they do not desire this? We must recognize the independent character of everyone to participate politically.
2. Secondly, the Midterm Election has to be viewed for itself -- as a time to assess which candidates can fill in the vacancies in the government, whether national or local positions. That should be axiomatic, the primary standard qualifications of the individuals who could be trusted to hold the power and lead the people to a society of equality, justice and peace.
3. Thirdly, I believe that the president ( all presidents for that matter, not just the incumbent) has to be detached from the election process, except as a voter himself or herself during the election day. The president has to show to the people, recognition of their right to choose which candidates to vote for. All he or she has to do is to put up standards for judging the candidates -- what are the qualities to be upheld when assessing the qualifications of a candidate?
I think that we would be doing away with personalistic practices if we teach the people the idea that the election process is their responsibility and therefore, the process of deciding whom to vote for is also theirs.
To my mind also, and which I had mentioned to Dr. Bravo, a legislation is needed to ban the president, (all presidents he said) from campaigning for any candidate. This is because, invariably, the resources of the government will be touched upon by doing this. Moreover, every moment of a president's life should be significantly spent for people's concerns, and not for bolstering some special people's ambition to belong to the political elite
4. Also, I mentioned to Dr. Bravo my experience with the UP Coop, now defunct, due to mismanagement. I told him that I reported the matter to the Cooperative Development Authority -many months before it expired but the CDA did not lift a finger at all and had told me they did not have the authority to investigate, according to the law that created the agency.
Dr. Bravo said that Congress has already amended the CDA law and it has passed a second reading. I mentioned that a need exists to have a special task force that will immediately investigate a report of any anomaly in order to avert that untoward incident of the board running away with the funds and leaving the coop members helpless without any final reporting on the coop demise. And he agreed.
5. Social media is a strong political force that is now being used for political campaigning. In fact, Pres. Duterte's victory at the polls was greatly helped by his team that fully made use of it during the election period in 2016. His female friend helped him a lot in her online accounts in order to make him known nationwide.
Besides, social media is read worldwide, not just in the Philippines. I know for a fact that my blog is read all over the world, from the United States to Europe and the Middle East because I have met many OFWs in the past to whom I had shared my addresses. Some of my opinions I believe had been considered by officials in some countries like the Greek economic problem, and the lack of credibility of the presidency of Trump. The Greeks were treated more kindly by the economic managers in Europe, and now the Trump presidency is under scrutiny by Robert Mueller whose report is now being decided upon whether to revealed publicly or not. Moreover, the political issues of the day are readily commented on in social media which is very difficult to do within mainstream media as it has a long list of editors that will assess and re-assess everything that comes out in print or broadcast.
In the open forum, Mr. Wilson Lee Flores, the writer and owner of the Cafe, called on Mr. Linggoy Alcuaz, a political writer to share his views. Linggoy gave a rundown of the elections in the past revealing the topsy-turvy development of our politics -- parties uniting and breaking up almost every election time, thereby showing how difficult it really is to maintain a pure interest only in serving the people.
The dynamics of changing parties, of dwindling resources during campaigning which could push the winners of elections to get back their "investments" and the imperative need to be known nationwide, in the case of national positions, or to be known locally, for the local positions, cannot really be ignored.
Now the question: are we politically mature already in engaging in elections? The series of killings certainly show that we are not yet at that level of believing and acting on the idea that everyone has a right to present himself or herself as a candidate for a position.
Discussion should be continuing from hereon for us to be habituated to the idea that politics under a democratic rule requires discussions, debates, argumentations, and real clashing of ideas without let-up and sans violence.
Luckily we have the Kamuning Bakery Cafe that provides the space for such events. By the way ,breakfast before and lunch after the forum were served. Pan de sal was generously distributed to everyone and brewed coffee, my weakness was freely served. Upon departing, the media attendees were gifted some more with a bagful of baked goods.
According to Mr. Flores, "It is sad that politics and elections in the Philippines seem dominated by personality politics instead of issues; we focus on transactional or patronage politics instead of platforms, issues, or genuine political parties with ideologies. The Pandesal Forum of Kamuning Bakery Café is our humble contribution to efforts to elevate public debate and discourse in the Philippines."
Kamuning Bakery Café is at 43 Judge Jimenez Street corner K-1st
Street, Kamuning, Quezon City (929-2216); open daily from 7 a.m. to 12 a.m.
Visit Kamuning Bakery Café's official
Facebook page.
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