PH not a democracy, ruled by ‘pocket empires’

I beg to differ with Godofredo Peteza’s views on politicians as “a basic foundation of democratic institutions” (“Pols needed, but political dynasties ruin democracy,” Letters, 10/15/14). Peteza seems to have forgotten a basic principle: It is the people who form the base, bedrock and foundation of any political system or government. The simplest yet most profound definition of a democracy is that it is “a government of the people, by the people, for the people.” There can be no government and no politician in the absence of the people. The people are both the subject (in the context of them being a basic matter of thought or discussion) and object (the end toward which thought or action is directed) of governance.

Politicians are supposed to be the “public servants,” not the vultures that are at present lording it over us in this cesspool we call Philippine government.

Peteza said that “without the politicians, government tends to become autocratic.” But aren’t we, in fact, already in thrall of an autocracy of political dynasties and pocket empires? The network, the spider’s web, of political families by which the Filipino people are kept in a stranglehold is autocracy in action and practice.

Peteza, seemingly writing from the planet Mars, had this bit of a fantasy: “In a democratic government like we have today, the citizens regardless of status are guaranteed by the Constitution equal treatment before the law.” He can tell that to the American Marines currently “visiting” the honkytonks of Olongapo! Everybody knows for a fact that citizens of this country do not enjoy equal rights and equal treatment before the law.

Corrupt politicians and avaricious businessmen conspire and help each other steal public funds with impunity, totally unafraid of prosecution and punishment. The rich carry on as if they are more equal than the rest of the populace, most of whom enter the gates of heaven with their tongues sticking out, having died from sheer overwork and hunger.

Here in the Philippines, the rich and the powerful have all the fun, as even their pet pigs wallow in air-conditioned luxury, while the hoi polloi huff and puff in the sweltering heat of abject poverty and destitution. We hear stories about the filthy rich taking milk baths in bathtubs that also double as repositories of dirty money. Most of the so-called “public servants” eat cake rendered extra rich and moist by graft and corruption, while the poor they are supposed to serve eat stinking, rotten food taken straight out of the garbage bins.

The worth and integrity of any government or political system is determined by how well the leadership governs its people. You can call this government a democracy all you want, but for as long as the people are hungry and poor, unhappy and miserable, what you have is nothing but a rundown rickety train inching ever so slowly down a crooked railroad on a long day’s journey into nightmare. Politicians, especially the corrupt, oppressive and autocratic kind that we have more than enough of in the Philippines, blight and poison us all! Political dynasties must be outlawed and all these evil pocket empires dismantled.

—ANTONIO CALIPJO GO,

academic supervisor,

Marian School of Quezon City,

199 Sauyo Road,

Novaliches, Quezon City

[email protected]