EDGEDAVAO VOL. 6 ISSUE 74 •THURSDAY, JUNE 27, 2013
D
VANTAGE POINTS
People’s harsh reaction
RAWBACKS OTHER THAN ECONOMIC SLOWDOWN ALSO HURT GOVERNANCE – Some private economists and financial experts think that the country’s economy is vulnerable to weakness. Given the peso’s devaluation the past weeks, exports are little changed in US dollar, while falling imports demonstrate weak domestic demand. On the other hand, the stock market index slid several notches to 5,800 from the previous high surpassing the 7,000 level. The turnaround is disconcerting and may deliver a blow to the country’s economic growth. The present economic mood isn’t helped by more negative news about how the Aquino administration is running the affairs of government. Political watchers debated continuously whether the PNoy leadership is still on track. Despite bold predictions of economists about a rebound of the economy, new problems reportedly continue to brew, and President Aquino is under pressure. Not surprisingly, recent surveys show his popularity rating has plateaued and might be on the decline. The nasty and bitter side comments of critics and political adversaries are accompanied by a summary of the country’s current state of affairs. Unemployment rate rises at accelerating pace, shortages of some basic commodities have led to rising prices, long queues at stores and vocal public protests. Furthermore, people had for weeks been resigned to the fact that higher fuel prices have hurt tremendously. In fact, detractors continue, the country’s socio-economic condition still looks good – only on the surface. And there are other drawbacks: crime seems to be increasing despite claims by law officials to the contrary; in many
instances, some rogue policemen along with equally scalawag military personnel are behind sensational cases of kidnapping, bank robbery and murder. The illegal drug trade likewise continues unabated and deeply rooted in society. PNoy’s problems don’t end there. The perception was that his leadership miserably failed to offer solutions and look for alternatives to solve the problem of power blackouts, the same problem that dogged the past administration of her late mother Corazon Aquino. Of course, even the punishing to death of some OFWs working in the Middle East for major criminal offenses and of the hundreds more languishing in jail for various infractions of the law renewed perceptions that the Aquino dispensation has not been doing enough to protect the welfare of some 4.5 million Filipinos working overseas. No one, of course, said being the nation’s president would be easy – though PNoy has at times allegedly made it look so. Now the big question is: where is the track leading? Harsh political detractors and faultfinders also warned the present dispensation is irresolute indicating that political, social and economic growths are fast diminishing. President Aquino, however, remains undeterred by the dire predictions and warnings. In the midst of perceived socio-economic imbalances, government economic think-tanks and fund man-
agers, and private economists continued to be optimistic and predict the country’s economic growth rate will not plunge down to its lowest level. They noted that although an economic slowdown is expected but not as bad as being pictured by some quarters, the trade numbers recently have been encouraging, adding further that if there are bright economic spots in the country, then the business sector is in a position to exploit them to its full advantage. Providing a rundown, government economists emphasized that inflation is under control and government deficit has been wiped out even with a lower exchange rate. Exports likewise are relatively reliable despite some glitches and the economy is being opened up, providing a stronger foundation for competition. But other economists are pessimistic still. For one, they lament the rudderless drift government has been in since PNoy assumed power in 2010. While political experts may continuously argue about the country’s current state of affairs, people on the other hand, always have high expectations of the present man at bat. PNoy’s strong supporters and loyal sympathizers say that if he stays on the course he chartered in 2010, his topmost accomplishment would be the uplifting of the social and economic condition of the masses and the Filipino nation. In the eyes of his believers, President Aquino has already shown he can work political mystic. But between now and 2016, PNoy may need to crack the whip if need be and exert a lot more of wizardly – leadership character, managerial and administrative prowess to confront head-on the challenges ahead.
As the grassroots heat up, tend to your barangay!
W
ith barangay elections scheduled on October 28 this year, there’s a stirring at the grassroots now. Parties, politicos, and their operatives are prowling the neighborhoods for candidate material. New groups are being formed, old alignments regrouped, campaigns being planned, while alliances are being forged. As campaign talk heats up, even the youth are awakening, especially those in power, have tasted power (as SK chairman or kagawad), or awaiting their turn as surrogates of entrenched officials and political dynasties. All this is happening in political circles—at the level that now constitutes the “political class” in every community: people already in politics as officeholder, as candidate, as patron, as supporter or contributor, as campaign operative. They know the privileges and entitlements that go with being in politics, how profitable it is, how
WORM’S EYEVIEW
MANNY VALDEHUESA
(1st of two parts) sweet it is, and how much more they want from it. Middle and Upper Class Unconcern This stirring however has not touched the barangay as a whole. If at all, only the bottom half of the community usually perks up at this point—or later as election draws near. That’s when electioneering gains high intensity and momentum as patronage and money begin to flow and trigger frenzied rivalry. But the upper half—the barangay’s middle and upper classes—will remain unconcerned about what the local leaders and candidates are up to. With few exceptions, they aren’t even concerned about how the barangay’s candidates are selected, let alone what their qualifications or motives are.
And that’s how opportunities for mischief and mayhem arise. The educated circles, the leading citizens, aren’t concerned, with no one interested enough to pay attention. This unconcern among the elite is what enables the traditional grassroots leadership (traditional politicians or trapos) to dominate and control politics in the barangay—and by extension, the nation’s. Elite unconcern is a major cause of 1) the rise of political dynasties on all levels; 2) bad governance throughout the bureaucracy; and 3) the spread of corruption from the grassroots up. Contrary to general impression, corruption does not trickle down; it spirals up from the community and spreads vertically and horizontally, infecting the body politic. Barangays are like the tiny cells of a human body. All it takes to weaken the body politic is to let one barangay be infected and neglect it or leave it untreated.
9
A humble pope in an august office COMMENTARY
BY JOHN LLOYD
(1st of two parts)
T
he most potent symbol to date of Pope Francis’ five-month papacy is an empty chair. The chair — a large white throne — was to seat His Holiness in the Vatican this past Saturday. The pope was scheduled to hear a performance of Beethoven’s ninth symphony, a long-planned event. But minutes before the performance Archbishop Rino Fisichella told the audience that “the Holy Father cannot be present because of an urgent piece of work which cannot be postponed.” Later, it was reported that Francis had privately dismissed the event with a brusque, “I’m not a Renaissance Prince who listens to music instead of working.” Regardless of whether the quote is apocryphal, the comment expresses well the man’s style. He has declared an end to the Papal Gentlemen, an office which, reformed under Pope Paul VI (196378), became an institution whose often aristocratic members officiated at public ceremonies, with their main duty being to meet and greet distinguished visitors. Reports quote the pope’s belief that they were “archaic, useless, even damaging.” That last may refer to a sex scandal allegedly involving Angelo Balducci, a “Gentleman” who is claimed to have been soliciting male lovers through connections in the Vatican. This, in turn, may be part of the reason why Francis — again, in private — lamented the presence of a “gay mafia” in high places. He recently prevailed on the French ambassador to Rome, Alain LeRoy, to greatly simplify a dinner for the Italian members of the Legion d’Honneur. Each guest had a papal note by his plate warning that “food wasted is food stolen from the poor.” He has told his bishops not to act like princes; lives in the Vatican hotel, not in the magnificent papal suite; and has repeatedly spoken of living life “as a gift, not as a treasure to be kept to ourselves.” There’s substance as well as style here — substance based on a calculation. In the early years of last century, Europe’s Catholics — living in a relatively wealthy part of the world, even if many were poor — accounted for 65 percent of the world’s 300 million. Today, Europe has 24 percent of the 1.1 billion worldwide Catholics — with Latin America, the Asia Pacific region and especially sub-Saharan Africa showing rapid growth. Poverty is an often tangible part of everyday Catholic life; a fact that Francis believes contradicts the luxury of cardinals’ and archbishops’ palaces and the concentrated magnificence of the Vatican. He has been a harsher critic than his immediate predecessors of the sins of capitalism: Commenting on the collapse of the Bangladeshi sweatshop in May, where some 400 workers died, he said that “not paying fairly, not giving a job because you are only looking at balance sheets, only looking at how to make a profit. That goes against God!” Receiving new ambassadors to the Holy See in May, he warned against “a return to the golden calf” and “the dictatorship of an economy which is faceless and lacking any truly humane goal.”