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People power fatigue

A social volcano is impending to erupt. It could be anytime from the first two weeks of this month.

Individuals from various sectors of our society claim, however, that there is a sense of people power fatigue among the citizenry. They cite that despite the the People Power I and People Power II experiences where the people exercised their sovereign power to remove unfit leaders from Malacañang, the ouster of these unfit leaders failed to improve their lives. Instead, they were further pushed into the quagmire of poverty.

Their worst situation is under the present administration of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, a beneficiary of People Power II. She forgot that she was installed by the people and she owes them, including the promise to improve their lives through policies for the peoples’ welfare. But the policies she adopted further aggravated the peoples’ hardship. The oil deregulation law institutionalized oil price increases. The expanded VAT will jack up the prices of basic services. The biggest slice of the national budget pie is allotted to serve foreign debts. Most of all, the dirtiest and most expensive 2004 elections trampled on the people’s right of suffrage.

The absence of the improvement of the people’s lives is what is causing the fatigue factor. Even with a change of administration, they claim, the successor will be the same. The situation is a cycle - people power after the other – yet there is no substantial change anyway, they furthered.

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The sentiments of these people are valid. However, it must be pointed out that we had gains from the two people power experiences. It is true that the Filipino people unseated two unfit presidents. It is true that they had exercised their sovereign will as a people and proved to the world that a united citizenry can remove a dictator backed by the armed forces and its foreign masters. This is a concrete expression of people power which is democracy in practice.

The two experiences however, lacked the ingredients where the people’s welfare and interests were adopted and implemented by the new administration. Instead, the people’s interests were left to the fate of the national leadership, who came from the landed and capitalist classes. And in every deliberation and adoption of programs or policies, these classes can in fact stretch or manipulate a righteous law to institutionalize and ensure their interests instead. The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law under the Cory Aquino administration is an example, where loopholes were inserted to exempt vast tracks of land from agrarian reform, like in Hacienda Luisita.

The above is among the weaknesses of the past people power. If we want substantial and fundamental change, let us not be satisfied with ousting an unfit leader. Let us ensure that substantial issues and agenda are implemented by a system with representations from the exploited classes.

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To rectify the said mistakes from the past people power events, a transition council being pushed by multi-sectoral groups assures the participation of different interest groups to craft an agenda representing the various interests. This council shall facilitate and assure people’s participation and agenda. The representation should come from the broad spectrum of our society: from the opposition to the moderate, to the militants, and other groups that call for social change. The agenda or program can be adopted as the basis of unity for this broad coalition.

This transition assures the participation of the broader sectors of our society and the masses, and it should not only be focused on the politicians. It will not be based on personalities, but on more substantial issues or concerns that have to be concerned. People power is not only a cycle. We should have this in mind, while we support the call for the ouster of GMA. Again, sovereignty resides in the people. Let us not end with removing an unfit president. Let us ensure that substantial issues are addressed by the next administration. #

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