It looks or sounds like a caricature of a scene.
Two things are foremost in the minds of Filipinos under the present dispensation: cheap rice and true justice. The first is a political commodity, the second a political necessity. Both are necessary for the regime’s success , let alone , survival.
President Bongbong Marcos realizes the importance of both to the effectiveness of his government. He has done substantial effort to address the former. His government has lately promised a good news of cheaper rice in January next year. He has been whetting the appetite of the poor with occasional cheap rice along , rhymed usually with the myth that once upon a time it cost P20- per kilo. He wants to keep the myth alive or the vague memory. Marx had suggested erasing the memory to be effective at governing or revising it.
Give rice to someone and he will live for a day, a Chinese proverb says. Better, teach him how to grow rice and he will have rice for life. The present economy hangs on the wisdom of such adage. There is now a long term contract with a friendly ASEAN neighbor that promises that c0mmon staple will be assured, probably even at a friendly price, to a country that used to school the unskilled in rice growing. In the meantime, local rice growers are being serenaded for their heroism in keeping the hope alive and the stomach filled with the precious golden grain. It’s time to satisfy those who fill what is lacking or forgotten.
On the other hand, he still is found wanting in addressing real hope for a broader and more meaningful justice in the land after an atrocious time of a former president that is now potentially at risk for crime against humanity in an international court.
There seems to be a sort of a Faustian deal that stands in the way. A former dictator once toppled down by a peaceful people uprising is now lays rest in a hallowed ground for heroes. The predecessor made that possible. His daughter paired with the dictator’s son and the two cobbled up the two top political positions with a semblance of unity that was thought to last..
In an imperfect world, the improbable unity was easily shattered by its own motivation: power and politics, So now, there is an unpleasant lesson learned not to make the same mistake again. Never again goes now the motto over the death of a political convenience, perhaps charade.
Someone or the other has since fallen out of another’s grace or favor. Intelligence funds are now questioned. The budget is now scrutinized or cut. Like former lovers, the top two officials of the land are not in speaking terms. How do I love thee, wrote the English poet, let me count the ways.
There are palpable signs, that PBBM is encouraging others to pursue justice on a far wider and deeper level that covers basically the root cause of injustice in the land, basically politics. For this reason, suh effort is merely branded as politicking or as one senator puts it, a demolition job. Whatever, Heraclitus once said that we will know justice by seeing injustice.
Lawmakers allied to the present government is investigating alleged human rights violations that ostensibly ends at the doorstep of the former president. An combination of four legislative committees are now on the cusp of inviting the former president to answer allegations of criminal wrongdoing.
A former town mayor in the South tearfully accused the former president of including him in the former’s list of suspected drug lords marked for liquidation. After evading the risk by seeking political asylum in the United states for seven years, the mayor now trust the current president that he will find justice, not necessarily revenge.
The mayor’s sentiment echoes the collective wish of thousands of other Filipinos who reportedly suffered , one way or the other, during the so-called great war on drugs that numbered from 2,000 to 30,000 people. That also includes a former senator and secretary of justice who wants her tormentors punished.
But the president is less than decisive to pursue the case against his predecessor. He has pledged not to allow the International Criminal Court to conducts its probe in the country on account of sovereignty. That was before the much-vaunted unity collapsed and a change of heart began to show.
Now, as the political wedge widens and a deep rancour shapes up with a sharp tone, there is a growing possibility that one day the ICC probe will take place. There is now no stopping the ICC investigators from coming to town and conduct appropriate interviews, sans the government sanction or participation. The Interpol cannot also be prevented from delivering the possible warrants of arrest the ICC will issue against the former president and his minions.
All these possibilities are emerging as the election season begins to shape the political landscape with the President forming multiple political alliances. It’s time to seek to seek a new partnership in a land where politics is bread and butter for practitioners. Old enemies are reinvented as new friends or allies. Let bygones be bygones. The future is a new opportunity to shine or serve as the case maybe.
The season of the Gospel, otherwise known as the longest Christmas season in the world, has descended in the land once again along with another distinct season. One is spiritual, the other secular. One promises blessings, the other simply promises. “Don’t worry about being effective, the famous author Dorothy Day wrote,” just be faithful to the truth.” In another space she wrote “the Gospel takes away our right to discriminate against the undeserving and deserving poor.”
In a sense, not just rice but justice.
