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Manny Valdehuesa .

THERE is a serious power failure in our barangays. Instead of People Power animating these grassroots governments, it’s the handful of presumptuous chairmen and kagawads that do. Their constituents—supposedly their bosses—are mere spectators, powerless and readily manipulated.

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As a result, autonomy or self-government remains at best a vague notion at the grassroots. It is the base of Filipinas, our Republic. But it is anchored on people with no consciousness of their sovereign power, no experience in asserting it, and no opportunity to wield it for the common good. It is a precarious foundation for a political system.

On this malleable foundation, the advocates of federalism wish to install a federal system. Their motive is obvious. Mostly traditional politicians (trapos), they are joined by starry-eyed academics and wishful-thinking theoreticians with rosy prognostications that promise a cure-all for our societal shortcomings.

The trapos of course are out to expand and protect their political dominance over our society. Inveterate opportunists and power-greedy politicos that they are, they have never given the democratic spirit a chance to bloom, never so much as empowered their own constituents.

The starry-eyed academics? They overlook the essential requirement of a federal system—which is the people’s capacity for governing themselves. They forget that federalism can only be the final step to autonomy.

To entrust trapos with the common good would be a disaster. Consider how they control politics and public office at any cost. All they want is never-ending rule for themselves and their political dynasties. Nary a statesman among them, they bastardize the people’s sovereignty and make a mockery of democracy by their monopolistic hold on public offices.

It is bad enough that virtually all political jurisdictions today—regions and provinces down to the barangays—are under the control of trapos. To allow them to gerrymander the voting districts or subdivide the country into what could be unruly populations is courting trouble and even secession.

Does anyone doubt that all they want is to monopolize politics and strengthen their control, manipulating the masses with blandishments afforded by their public positions? They will feather their nests while in control of politics and the economy.

Naturally, they will get wealthier and more powerful by the day. It will afford them unbridled power and opportunity to peddle or wield influence, buy votes, and get away with shameless plunder. And they will do these with impunity!

Let’s not play with fire or secession, doing so by yielding control of the political process to the trapos. It will only deepen the resentment of many sectors. Already drunk with power and emboldened by their privileges, the last thing trapos will do is empower their constituents or introduce reforms.

Their abuses have been encouraged by the very Filipino habits of indolence and apathy, about which Rizal wrote an extensive essay titled “The Indolence of the Filipino” over a century ago.

Since then, notably since Commonwealth years, and onwards since 1946 when we achieved full independence, our society and its bureaucracy have gone through the motions of what’s supposed to be a democratic system. But the overwhelming majority still acts clueless about responsible politics, accountability, or the principle of subsidiarity. The meaning of citizen sovereignty seems lost on most of our society.

And so we remain politically immature, and pathetically so. Most of our citizenry mistake popularity for competence. The ambitious covet public office as opportunities for self-enrichment and power-grabbing. We elect leaders notorious for their propensity to commit graft and corruption and plunder. And as constituents, we make them all the more spoiled by tolerating their wrongdoing and sense of entitlement with impunity.

Isn’t it a paradox that with our people’s vaunted attainments in education and the professions, our social values remain primitive? Too many Filipinos view profligacy in dispensing favors (abusing the public treasury, in the process) as a positive virtue in a leader or a desirable trait in a politician. Bereft of statesmanship, the Common Good is neglected.

This socio-political framework is a poor environment for a federal system. Subdividing our republic into artificial “states” will only multiply our weaknesses as a democracy and cause them to metastasize throughout the Philippine archipelago all the more. Oligarchies in all jurisdictions will arise all the more. And corruption with impunity will be well-nigh impossible to minimize, let alone eradicate.

 

(Manny Valdehuesa Jr. is a former Unesco regional director for Asia-Pacific; secretary-general, Southeast Asia Publishers Association; director, Development Academy of Philippines; member, Philippine Mission to the UN; vice chair, Local Government Academy; awardee, PPI-Unicef outstanding columnist. He is chairman/convenor of the Gising Barangay Movement Inc.. E-mail: valdehuesa@gmail.com)

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