Theres The Rub
Divine experiments
By Conrado de Quiros
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 23:22:00 05/20/2008
Filed Under: Elections, Local authorities, Graft & Corruption, Hello Garci
MANILA, Philippines—That was an interesting forum Pagasa held last week, the one that featured Grace Padaca and Fr. Ed Panlilio as guests. Padaca and Panlilio of course are governors of Isabela and Pampanga respectively. Both won despite having no guns, goons and gold, or their equivalents today which are gall, gore and gracelessness, and against opponents possessing an abundance of them. Both in fact won against the traditional overlords of their provinces, Padaca for the second time and Panlilio for the first.
The question is: How did they succeed where others failed? Or more importantly, can their example be replicated elsewhere, particularly at the national level?
It helped of course, as the forum brought out (I wasn't there but I read our item on it last Monday), that both Padaca and Panlilio were well-known personalities before they threw their hat in the ring. Padaca had been a radio broadcaster for 14 years and Panlilio is a priest (currently on leave). That at least minimized the need for them to proclaim their virtues in expensive ads. It helped even more that they were well known to be decent folk. Padaca had been a critic of dynastic politics and its attendant corruption long before she took it upon herself to challenge the Dys in elections. Panlilio was a fierce critic as well of the gambling lords and the other worshippers of false gods in Pampanga.
But I myself figure that is only half the explanation. The other half is that the conditions in Isabela and Pampanga were so benighted they had to turn to Padaca and Panlilio for sheer survival. What burnishes light, or makes it brighter, is darkness. The deeper the darkness, the more brilliant the light. What made Padaca and Panlilio even more heroic than they were was the villainy of their opponents. You fuse blackness with light, desperation with hope, and you have a recipe for an Edsa. Except that this one happened at the polls and not extra-constitutionally.
You see the same thing happening in the United States today. I've said it before and I say it again, however insidious George W. Bush has been, he has served one useful purpose. That is to make it possible for a woman or a black man to become the next president of America. Had Bush not brought the US to the utter pits, the Democrats might now be trotting out another John Kerry rather than a Hillary Clinton or a Barack Obama. Or playing it safe rather than going all out. It's Bush that has had Americans clamoring not just for change but for radical change.
That's classic Good vs. Evil, with all its mythical or symbolic overtones. What has made Padaca and Panlilio's feat hard to replicate (so far) at the national level is the absence of a national figure who embodies Good, the way they've done for Isabela and Pampanga. The Evil is there--take it from GMA's own economic czar who called her so. The closest to someone embodying Good in the 2004 elections was Eddie Villanueva. It wasn't Raul Roco whom I supported. Not that Roco wasn't good--he was a decent man and I still think he was the best choice then--it was that his being good wasn't mythical or symbolic. It had no emotional resonance. Roco spoke to the head and not to the heart. It was Villanueva who spoke to the heart. I said it then, Villanueva's phenomenal climb in the ratings owed to his unleashing a flood of idealistic sentiment with his "I believe" campaign.
This is the part where I'd like to express my profoundest thanks to the Couples for Christ-Foundation for Family and Life who accused me (wrongly) of helping to engineer Tony Meloto's ascent to the presidency in 2010, and so put that idea into my head. It is an inspired idea, and I have to kick myself for not thinking about it before. I don't know if Meloto would ever consider it, but if he does, yes, he's the perfect Hillary or Obama to GMA's Dubya. He's acceptable to Catholics and non-Catholics alike. He represents hope in a climate of despair. He is the embodiment of shining Good in a reign of stark Evil.
But that too brings me to the other factor that has made Padaca and Panlilio's feat hard to replicate in presidential elections. That is the fact that since 2004 at least, a new element has been introduced to presidential elections. That is plain and simply stealing the vote. The 2004 elections mark a watershed in Philippine history. Past elections had also known cheating, but the cheaters had always tried to keep the cheating within bounds of credibility. This is the first time the cheater was not particularly concerned with finesse, even going out to order a Comelec official (that was what the calls to Garci were, an order) to make her win by a million votes over her nearest rival. And when the cheating was exposed, she simply brazened it out, employing force against protesters.
Is a repeat of this epic cheating impossible to prevent or counteract in the next elections?
Not at all. That is where the element of Good plays out again. GMA got away with brazening things out because although she was near-universally perceived to have cheated, she was also perceived at least by many to have cheated someone who "deserved to be cheated." That point was expressly articulated by several letter writers. "She cheated? Good for her; otherwise FPJ would have become president." Or words to that effect. Had Padaca and Panlilio's rivals done the same thing--stolen the vote and brazened it out afterward--they would have met with a flood of outrage because they would have done it to those who most assuredly "did not deserve to be cheated." A protégé of GMA won't be able to do that to a Meloto either (if he decides to run).
But that presumes GMA will leave by 2010. That presumes we'll have presidential elections in 2010. That is the biggest rub of all.
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