Mistakes of the legal left (3)

Mariano B. Carrasco

WE can clearly see from the Corona impeachment case, that even the judicial system under the existing social order dominated by the business and landlord elite, has serious limitations, just like elections. When Corona’s court upheld the land reform of Hacienda Luisita and declared PAL’s contractualization of workers as illegal, the President, the legislature, and corporate elite blew their top. Then, they fabricated the stories with the help of the controlled mass media. The impeachment complaint did not pass any committee hearing or debate, and was signed by the majority in a hurriedly-called caucus of congressmen who have not even read the thick complaint and annexes.

Corona was accused in the controlled media as having about 45 real properties in his name. It turned out that the classmate of Noynoy, as head of the Land Registration Authority, made that conclusion after typing the words “Corona” in the internet. It turned out, Corona had only about 4 or 5 real properties. Corona was accused in the mass media of having 46 secret bank accounts in his name, allegedly undisclosed. It turned out he had only about 5 or 6 bank accounts. Then, the Philippine Daily Inquirer printed the story about an old man, already dead, who allegedly executed an affidavit that Corona pointed a gun at him! Dead men tell no tales and cannot be cross-examined. The Inquirer also brandished in the front page the picture of an old and senile nun who accused Corona of having defrauded their family in the property division. But the old nun never testified and did not care about testifying. It turned out that the nun’s family, as per a final court decision, had already sold their property to the wife of Justice Corona who sold it and who deposited the proceeds with the joint account of the chief justice! But the impeachment court, led by some plunderers and stupid actors, convicted him anyway.

If the judicial system can be railroaded as in the Corona case, what more for elections where vote buying is known as essential for victory?

Vote buying is actually an instrument of the oppressive system to ensure that reform-minded and democratic candidates would surely lose, thus the privileged landlord and business elite will retain political and governmental power. Political and governmental power is concentrated in the hands of a few, and clearly that goes against the basic principles of democracy. This happens all the more when members from the same family dominate politics and governmental power. The Constitution of course lamely provides for lip service against political dynasties, though society now tends to frown on them as indicative of political and economic greed.

The elite would even come up with and support some seemingly pro-people candidates who appear as champions of liberal causes, but who are essentially anti-left or antieform. Joker Arroyo is one such fine example. On the surface, electoral watchdogs would campaign against vote-buying, but secretly, they would even tolerate vote buying in their midst. That’s why we haven’t heard of anyone being convicted of vote buying at all, though it is a criminal act in the election law, and it is widespread come election time.

Under the present electoral set-up where money and political advertising plays a crucial role (enriching the mass media giants), the legal left wrongly deludes itself into thinking that social change or a social overhaul would come through participation in elections. True, occasionally, some poor candidates do make it in elections, especially at the barangay level. But we don’t make arguments or conclusions based on exceptional situations.

The legal left is susceptible to being absorbed by the ruling elite come election time. First, they are connected to mass-based organizations, a good launching pad for elections, many of them are jobless, and some are unpoliticized, and they are easily tempted by job offers in government when the candidates they campaigned for win. They then become apologists for and supporters of the ruling elite.

Is joining elections to be totally abandoned or rejected then? Of course not. Elections can be used as an instrument to educate and politicize our people, and in some instances, it can really improve the people’s welfare, though in a limited way since the minority legislators will always be outvoted by the majority. Consider, the party-list groups of the left such as Bayan Muna, Acts, Gabriela and others. They have done so much to organize and protect the basic masses, to increase the wages of teachers and workers, to guard against unjust electric and water rates and unjust oil price hikes, and so on.

Some rightist ideologues have tried their best to discredit the leftist party list groups during election. But they just don’t realize that somehow the party list representatives, being in the minority, lends a democratic semblance to the entire electoral process.

(Mariano B. Carrasco is a lawyer based in Cagayan de Oro.)