BACKWARDS

IN THE PAST, I wrote occasionally, but went into hibernation for a year, because I had turned to searching for some other form of greater contribution to make the Philippines a better place to live in. Unfortunately, I was unable to produce anything except to just hang on to that question. Although I must say, I still see that a united political action by a group of well-meaning citizens with a clear set of ideology, but with an agreedupon understanding of sanctions for deviation, is still the most potent force. However, it is extremely difficult to organize such a group, mainly because the barriers to entry into the political arena, under existing practices, are just too great. I am not abandoning the idea, though.

After every presidential election, we all look forward to positive changes. While we always get disappointed about the results produced by the last president, we still look with great optimism for the performance of the new one, especially because of such past frustrations and, additionally, the new one has plenty of time to do good — six years.

Based on my experience, the initial indicators of performance within a reasonable time in any activity define what to expect for the remaining period of the activity. One year and a few months have now elapsed since the change in government. The direction has been set; it is reasonable to expect that it is going the same way for the rest of the term. The greater probability is that this direction will not change much.

From a macro level, what I see is not encouraging. It seems to me that, yes, we are changing, but we are resetting our social, cultural, and political foundations to lower, inferior levels. Six years of what’s happening today will change us, especially the young, but regretfully not for the better.

I have a number of observations. Let me dwell on a couple of them at this time. First, I think we are trivializing a few important things. We have trivialized the value of human life. It has become easy to kill someone, especially by people in authority — starkly without due process. Of course, those involved explain that those who were killed as “lumaban.” After so many of these incidents, however, it should dawn on the authorities that such an explanation is no longer believable. After a few publicized precedent incidents, such an explanation for the reaction of the victim is contrary to the state of nature.

Then there are the so- called vigilante killings. Whatever is the explanation for this regularly occurring life termination operation is, it is still against the law and public order. However, the police authorities do not seem to go after them. I have yet to hear of any of these vigilantes being caught and punished.

All told, the number of persons killed in the current anti- drug drive — as I have been reading in the papers — is more than 6,000 people. It has dawned on me that this total is significantly higher than the number of Americans killed in the US Iraqi campaign that went on for many years. We are still counting ours.

More than this, however, those who were killed belong to the low economic level of society. Why them? One would think that they cannot be the linchpin of this societal disorder. Some powerful people somewhere hold the keystone — like those people involved in the latest large-scale shipments of illegal drugs that passed through Customs. Are these poor, unfortunate people being treated like cannon fodder? Are they seen as low- lying fruits, easily harvestable?

To me, the worst outcome of this scenario is the inevitable consequence of a state of disorder in our society. A climate of impunity is creeping in. It is not far-fetched to see that, eventually, some of us may take the law into our own hands. It is probably happening now in the midst of so many unsolved killings. Then there is the reducing respect for the police; it is being replaced by great fear. What I have been taught is that this is not the way to develop a civilized society. Also, this state of affairs is wittingly or unwittingly changing the purpose of the police function. My learning tells me that society establishes a police force to protect and preserve life and property which is entirely in contrast with the function of the military: when in battle, to destroy life and anything standing or not standing that helps the enemy. Has our police now changed its mission?

The other institution that is getting trivialized is what I thought is a high-order system of imposing justice — impeachment of those having immunity from legal suit while in office.

Nowadays, impeachment is pursued at the drop of a hat and the legislature appears to be gleeful about some of them. I thought that impeachment is a very serious matter and should be taken as the last resort for the reason that some positions in government are so important that the holders need to be allowed to perform their duty unimpeded by normal court actions. On the contrary, impeachment has now become a trivial matter. We might as well abolish the immunity from suit by those who are having it, and treat these persons just like everybody else. The same may be said for those positions which are given fixed permanent tenure in our Constitution. Politicians want to claw them back prematurely anyway. Removing such immunity may be more attuned to the present state of affairs.

My second comment. Noticeably, there has been an increasing lack of civility in the conduct of our own government leaders. Recently, there was a spat between two senators that almost came to blows. We often see this kind of disrespect in our legislature, including behavior towards witnesses at hearings. Of course, almost daily, there have been exchanges between the Executive Branch and its critics and oppositors expressed in disgraceful, distasteful, and inappropriate language. It is easy to say “iyan ang style nila.” I don’t think it is style; it is something else. If this type of conversation continues to worsen, as it appears to be, I am afraid we will become an unruly society and our political arena may develop into a big power play that may lead into more chaos. Moreover, these displays of public behavior may become the model of how the ordinary citizens argue and settle their differences. Rido?

I am truly afraid that if these kinds of things persist and worsen, the next generations of our countrymen will be in a much more difficult position to turn things around. That is, if they survive.

We are resetting our social, cultural, and political foundations to lower, inferior levels.