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SANLAKAS National Office:
150 K-6th St.
Brgy. East Kamias
Quezon City, Philippines
Tel.: (632) 433-8377
(632)
Fax: (632) 426-2422
E-mail: [email protected]
The Bankruptcy of Elite Democracy
Rep. J.V. Bautista
Granted that the move to impeach Chief Justice Davide is political vendetta, it cannot however be asserted as an assault on democracy. Such a conclusion presumes that there exists a real democracy in the Philippines. But we only have the formalities of democracy without its substance. Where is the sane Filipino who will declare that elections express the will of the people? The masses are free only to choose their oppressors every few years or so. The unfolding drama around the impeachment of Davide is exposing all the pretenses of elite democracy. On the one hand, politicians whose hands are no cleaner than the man they accuse of corruption have manipulated the impeachment process that is supposed to be a democratic instrument of recall. On the other hand, the personalities who cry "Defend democracy" not only fell silent but cheered on when the Supreme Court legitimized the present dispensation's takeover of power. Meanwhile, the compromise being brokered is designed as a face-saving measure not as an honest reform of the disbursement of the JDF or of the impeachment process. The elites are all agitated about an impending constitutional crisis but none give a care about the economic crisis suffered by the people. For the masses, the tumult is all sound and no fury for their urgent demands are not being heard. The complaint of court employees about the proper allocation of JDF funds has been eclipsed by factional infighting of the elite. Thus, I deemed it judicious to withdraw endorsement of the impeachment complaint. While the plea of court employees as the basis of the impeachment remains meritorious, the process has become overwhelmingly political rather than legal. The intricacies of the impeachment process and the constitutional crisis are lost on the masses for they see only the maneuverings of the warring camps of the elite. While the former interests me as a member of the bar, the latter concerns me more as a representative of Sanlakas. Democracy is dead when the affairs of the state are the profession of the few and not the passion of the people. Such is the bankruptcy of so-called democracy in our country. Amidst the economic crisis wrought by neoliberal globalization and the political crisis engendered by elite infighting, all the pillars of society are being stripped naked of their true nature as ramparts of a rotten system. In Rome, Nero performed the fiddle as the city burned. Here, the elites are playing politics as the country is consumed in poverty, injustice and underdevelopment. Now more than ever, the struggle for social change and social justice is a question of national survival. With the legislature and the judiciary careening towards a constitutional stalemate, the masses cannot remain mere spectators. Any of the elite factions will try to recruit the masses as the cannon fodder. Instead they must forge the independent movement for social change. As the elite wage war on each other, the workers, the poor and the farmers must wage the fight for jobs, housing and land in order to advance the movement for social transformation.
October 30, 2003
Sanlakas urges court employees to pursue an independent fight on JDF
October 28, 2003
Arrogant display of elite power at Congress rally
Hypocrisy of elite democracy-BMP
October 27, 2003
WE WILL NOT BE A PARTY TO A GMA-DANDING DEAL - Rep. JV Bautista
IN THE IMPEACHMENT COMPLAINT AGAINST CHIEF JUSTICE DAVIDE - Rep. Rene Magtubo
GMA is paying her debt to Davide and the circus of the elite in Congress - BMP
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