The Philippines has an excellent Constitution. Written by the best and brightest in the land in 1986. The rules are clear and humanitarian. The ideas are inspirational. The framework is solid.
But the Duterte government is tearing it down. Tearing down the independence of the three branches of government, the human rights protections, the sense of fairness and compassion that gives every Filipino real justice, and the very freedoms precious to democracy: free speech, free press, right to equality and dignity.
The idea of truth and transparency is lost to propaganda and State trolls.
One man rises above the institutions of the Constitution to dominate the State’s decisions. To cancel out a treaty that helps keep Filipinos secure and free. To attack target media outlets and intimidate the rest. To divide the nation between good Filipinos who support that man, and bad ones who criticize him.
Not a people equal and respected.
The death of the Philippines can be found it the inability of its citizens, businesses, academic institutions, cities, and government agencies to recognize the struggles of OTHERS and stick up for them. It’s the tribal Philippines where every group or organization places itself above the nation in terms of priority. Above God even. Think about it. 85% of the citizens of the Philippines are satisfied with a President who has orchestrated the killing of thousands outside of due process, with cases filed but not investigated. A nation of Christians who “shalt not kill”.
The Philippines is dying because its people are not capable of seeing the big picture or grasping the simplest Christian concepts of compassion and fairness.
The Philippines is dying because, throughout its short democratic history, governments have themselves been balkanized, becoming politically nasty, self-dealing, and therefore corrupt and incompetent institutions. National governance is like city governance. Bitter, brutal, and small-minded.
You CAN have a feudalistic empire, subordinate to China, where . . . as in the days of Rizal . . . the powerful and obedient are rich and everyone else is just there to be used.
Time pounds on. Things happen. Filipino languages, culture, and peoples melt away.
They will be absorbed in a system of vertical values, not horizontal or equal values, where brown skin is bad and servitude is the highest aspiration of 100 million souls.
That’s what a dying nation looks like.
That’s the Philippines, today.
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But the Duterte government is tearing it down. Tearing down the independence of the three branches of government, the human rights protections, the sense of fairness and compassion that gives every Filipino real justice, and the very freedoms precious to democracy: free speech, free press, right to equality and dignity.
The idea of truth and transparency is lost to propaganda and State trolls.
One man rises above the institutions of the Constitution to dominate the State’s decisions. To cancel out a treaty that helps keep Filipinos secure and free. To attack target media outlets and intimidate the rest. To divide the nation between good Filipinos who support that man, and bad ones who criticize him.
Not a people equal and respected.
The death of the Philippines can be found it the inability of its citizens, businesses, academic institutions, cities, and government agencies to recognize the struggles of OTHERS and stick up for them. It’s the tribal Philippines where every group or organization places itself above the nation in terms of priority. Above God even. Think about it. 85% of the citizens of the Philippines are satisfied with a President who has orchestrated the killing of thousands outside of due process, with cases filed but not investigated. A nation of Christians who “shalt not kill”.
The Philippines is dying because its people are not capable of seeing the big picture or grasping the simplest Christian concepts of compassion and fairness.
The Philippines is dying because, throughout its short democratic history, governments have themselves been balkanized, becoming politically nasty, self-dealing, and therefore corrupt and incompetent institutions. National governance is like city governance. Bitter, brutal, and small-minded.
- You can’t have a nation with senators like Bong Go and ‘Bato’ Dela Rosa who are more loyal to the President than the people they were elected to represent.
- You can’t have a nation with a police force that kills and deals drugs, where their oaths are abandoned and their wallets drive their official deeds.
- You can’t have a nation with a propaganda department that distorts the facts and demonizes decent people.
- You can’t have a nation where journalists must back the official line or risk imprisonment or death.
- You can’t have a nation with a justice system that abandons the Constitution to oust an unpopular Chief Justice, or jails political opponents on the bribed testimony of convicts.
- You can’t have a nation when the government has so little respect for citizens that it bombs their cities to rubble and then walks away, leaving them in tents and shäçks.
- You can’t have a nation when its armed forces, and Commander in Chief, will not defend the country’s rightful territory, but instead, obey the nation occupying that territory.
You CAN have a feudalistic empire, subordinate to China, where . . . as in the days of Rizal . . . the powerful and obedient are rich and everyone else is just there to be used.
Time pounds on. Things happen. Filipino languages, culture, and peoples melt away.
They will be absorbed in a system of vertical values, not horizontal or equal values, where brown skin is bad and servitude is the highest aspiration of 100 million souls.
That’s what a dying nation looks like.
That’s the Philippines, today.
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