Breaking the cycle of ‘trapo’ politics

Aside from character, the number one ingredient for leadership is you show up in the most difficult times,” declared Leni Robredo in one of her finest moments in the 2022 elections. “If you do not show up in the most difficult times, you are not [a true] leader,” she emphasized in a mixture of English and Tagalog.

It goes without saying that the ancien régime—or, rather, the “counterrevolutionary” forces—won that year’s elections. After all, beating the formidable “UniTeam” tandem of the country’s two most powerful dynasties was a tall order, especially for an 11th-hour campaign strewn out of political desperation. Not to mention, the voters had turned too skeptical about the message of reform after decades of failed reformist politics, which failed to positively transform the lives of tens of millions of Filipinos against the backdrop of the Edsa People Power Revolution.

In fairness, Robredo achieved something remarkable: For the first time in recent memory, millions of Filipinos, mostly from the middle classes, marched in favor of political change. All in pink. Drenched in hope. Chanting for positive transformation. Full of defiant aspiration. Raging against the system. It was beautiful while it lasted.

Inevitably, there was tremendous disillusionment after the elections. Some began to suffer symptoms of PTSD. Many others just switched off from politics. Some leaned on denialism and, rather foolishly, began to blame everything on disinformation—as if all our voters were hapless folks, or that propaganda was invented in the past decade.

The upshot was political wilderness for the genuine opposition. Hopes shattered. Dreams buried under the ashes of despair. According to an illuminating survey by OCTA Research earlier this year, more than four out of 10 Filipinos are either non-partisan or totally alienated from electoral politics.

Then, with a tweak of vengeance, reality began to kick in. The incumbent ended up spectacularly incapable of delivering on his basic promises, most notably halving the price of staple goods like rice. Meanwhile, the daughter of the former president, who was catapulted to the second highest office with zero experience in national governance, began to show signs of vulnerability.

Time and again, she showed how she was totally out of depth, both in office and in front of cameras. Then came her incredible decision to leave the country for ostensibly a nonessential visit on the very day when one of the strongest storms hit Manila.

Predictably, the incumbent went on the offensive against hapless officials, who couldn’t provide him with any credible information on the true situation. Earlier in the week, he had boasted about thousands of new flood control projects, which were supposed to prevent precisely what happened later in the week! As for the followers of the Vice President, they instead attacked Robredo, whose Angat Buhay volunteers had been rescuing affected folks and providing relief to the victims of Supertyphoon “Carina.” For them, the embarrassing contrast between the absentee Vice President and the proactive former vice president was too much to bear.

Our folks are resilient precisely because they can’t rely on a government infested by traditional politics. They are resilient precisely because they have been abandoned, time and again, by the ruling oligarchy. I am all for the bayanihan spirit of community as well as the individual heroism of countless folks, including celebrities, who were there on the ground to help the victims. But what we need is nothing less than systemic transformation. And that won’t come unless we transform our righteous anger into a concrete political movement ahead and during upcoming elections against the tsunami of “trapos,” trolls, and enablers.

In the meantime, we need to support the progressive and proactive leaders already in the government—most notably Senators Risa Hontiveros and Sherwin Gatchalian—who could once again take up the cudgels to investigate how, this time, not only corruption and incompetence failed both our flood control projects but also basic urban planning and disaster preparation across much of the country’s capital and economic hub.

Otherwise—as a Reddit image aptly put it—we will just go through another vicious cycle of outrage, followed by vacuous calls for change, then succumb to political amnesia, and just end up voting a kakistocracy into power ahead of the next typhoon. Enough is enough: We need to break the cycle of incompetence and unaccountability.

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