Blueprint for a New Philippines - Part Twelve
By Cesar Lumba
As one of those who called on President Arroyo to step down after the Garci Tapes revelations, conventional wisdom would suggest that I would be unable to do a Houdini, calling now for the President to continue with the work that she obviously has set out to do. These, however, are not normal times, and conventional wisdom does not apply.
As late as two days ago, I was opposing Gloria's Proclamation 1017. Now I have become a reluctant cheerleader.
Am I an opportunist? Of course. Filipinos must be opportunists. We don't get too many chances in this world, and we must take advantage of them when they come.
This is what Mrs. Arroyo has to do to cement her legacy: Having moved in against the coup plotters, she must identify them and hail them to court. The trials must be transparent and fair.
Those in the Philippines whose only function in life is to destabilize the government, and then claim that because the government has been destabilized the President must step down, must be forced to mend their ways. Everyone in the Philippines knows who these people are, so it should not be a surprise to anyone if the President moves in on them.
The trick is to make sure that those who are engaged in legitimate dissent are not silenced. This is the area where President Arroyo's educational background and Catholic upbringing will have to be harnessed and put to good use. It's a balancing act she must learn, and learn quickly.
She must back away from trying to intimidate the press. The press can be a strong ally, and it is even stronger as an enemy. Let the press scream rebellion all they want. If the rabble-rousers have been silenced, the screaming press won't do her harm.
(I may have been one of the rabble-rousers in the past, and ordinarily I would resent being silenced. But I would gladly surrender some of my speech freedom if it will result in a new, more responsive, more modern Philippines.)
Mrs. Arroyo must take this opportunity to disband the armed goons (kidnappers, smugglers, jueteng lords, etc.) and rid the countryside of corrupt policemen who oppress the people instead of protecting them.
She must issue a "Zero Tolerance" executive order, signalling to all government employees, especially those in the BIR and Customs, that from this day forward, corruption in government will no longer be tolerated. She must install an Ombudsman and provide staffers who will do the cleanup work. And she must insist on a deadline. I would recommend January 1, 2009.
The Ombudsman and staff will have roughly three years to clean up government operations, ridding the government of corrupt employees and replacing them with employees who have gone through a rigorous training in ethical conduct.
She must continue her work toward charter change, not only to change the system of government from presidential to parliamentary, but also to expand the Bill of Rights, as I have outlined in my Blueprint - Part Ten.
She must inspire the leaders of the PNP and the military to join her in her drive to remake Philippine society. And, having consolidated her powers and made her government secure, she can terminate her declared state of emergency just as suddenly as she has promulgated it. I don't know how long this would take, but what's two to three years compared to the rest of our lives?
China, after all, is a repressive state, and yet the whole world is rushing to invest there because there is peace and order, and the government can be relied upon to deliver on its promises.
The opposition must realize now that Gloria is not going to step down. Yet nation building is too important to keep the country paralyzed. Let us now all join forces and really, truly work for the betterment of the Filipino people.
To the Filipinos who still insist that Gloria must step down because she is not a legitimate ruler: We here in the U.S. have a president who was not elected by the American people when he first assumed office in 2000. More than sixty percent of the people disagree with nearly everything he does and think that he lies to them constantly, and wouldn't mind seeing him impeached. But people know that it's not going to happen because Congress and the courts are controlled by the President's allies.
So we suck it up, and we wait for 2008, when we can finally be rid of the guy.
In the Philippines, though, we cannot simply sit idly by, waiting for Gloria to step down in 2010. We must all do our part, and regardless of how we feel towards Gloria, we must be willing to work with her if she is genuinely working for the improvement of every Filipino's lot in life.
Frankly, I didn't think she had it in her. She has surprised me, and has won me over. It's a slippery slope, and she may yet end up in the belly of the beast. But at least no historian who will look back at her presidency can claim that hers was inconsequential.
(to be continued)
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