Just and enduring unity
I agree with the call of the new administration for unity. It is a fitting exhortation at a time when our nation is bleeding from deadly polarization and conflict, exacerbated by a worsening economic crisis.
No matter how brilliant and able the MarcosDuterte tandem and their officials may be, they cannot move on effectively and peacefully with a politically divided and economically indebted nation behind them.
Such realities will shackle and pull down the new leadership in months or a year at the most .
For unity to be meaningful and enduring, it must be based on justice. Which means the new administration must unify its foes and friends, allies and opposition, different political blocs, winners and losers, and give wider room for all to take part in addressing the comprehensive rebuilding and healing of the nat i on.
Essential part of that is the full public disclosure of the whole election system and process, from establishing the integrity and credibility of Comelec members, preparing the policies and rules, awarding of contract bids to F2 Logistics, purchase, inspection and deployment of VCMS, IT system and operation of the Comelec transparency server, to actual voting, transmission, counting and post counting wrap up works.
Another important aspect of unity is that the new administration, opposition and various public interest groups, must together immediately begin to resolve the steady structural economic decline which began since Edsa and caused so much landlessness, joblessness, food insecurity, homelessness and general pover t y.
Equally important is the immediate stoppage of the policy of state-sponsored red tagging, which has triggered massive extra judicial killings of the administration's critics and democratic opposition.
With the cooperation of all, the new administration must also take more decisive and bolder steps to break up the decades old rule of elite dynasties and cronies in the government.
Not the least, the new administration must demonstrate its sincerity and determination to resume peace talks with the CPP-NPA-NDF whose decades of armed confrontation with the state has caused so much suffering, lives lost and continued deterioration of peace condition in the country.
This is the unity concept that, if wholeheartedly accepted and sincerely addressed by the new administration, will guarantee a meaningful and enduring peace in our country.
Other calls for unity which do not address the fundamental issues of our people and country will remain empty, deceptive and therefore conjure public distrust, worse, provoke resistance and conflicts.
The same unity concept and call could be used and engaged by the winning local bets, be they pro-BBM-Sara or otherwise.
Everybody is reeling and bleeding from division and conflict; worse, some are still engulfed by hatred, revenge, and gloat for power. They do not serve at all, in any way, our quest for justice and enduring peace.
Such only fuel and slide us backward to barbarism and destruction of our modern civilization.
On the contrary, it is love, humility, humanism, citizenship and nationhood, and patriotism that must pave the way for the real and meaningful change and development process we all seek to reign.