The Art of Changemaking

Beginning today, I shall be removing my campaign cap and shall begin reclaiming my own voice in the blogosphere. This is me blogging as Citizen Nines.

The day after the 2010 Philippine national elections leaves me with a terrible hangover. I am elated and on a high over the presumptive victory of my candidate, LP presidentiable Noynoy Aquino, but I also feel a strong, bitter aftertaste knowing that this election has actually put us two steps back and further away from the change that we seek.

In the 2007 elections, we said NO to trapos and we said YES to change. Eight out of the top 12 spenders for the senatorial elections lost. Many celebrities—who had very little credentials for the posts they were seeking—also lost despite their immense popularity. Political mavericks such as Among Ed Panlilio and Grace Padaca won as governors of Pampanga and Isabela, respectively, toppling powerful dynasties and demonstrating the true meaning of People Power in the provinces. Senator Kiko Pangilinan made a strong finish as an independent candidate, coming in at No. 5 despite a campaign that had more message than money. Even renegade senator Antonio Trillanes’s victory can be claimed as a victory of the anti-trapo forces, because his win sent a strong and clear message that people were sick and tired of the status quo.

That was then.

Three years later, we have a Noy victory—and that’s just about it. It’s difficult to feel entirely jubilant when one knows that, for the next three years, we shall have live performances from Representative Gloria, Representative Imelda, and Representative Pacman in the Lower House. We shall witness the non-performance in the Senate of your favorite showbiz Juans, Tito Sotto and Lito Lapid. We shall see the Marcoses sashaying all the way around the Philippines, empowered by their triple wins in the Congress, in the Senate, and in the provincial capitol. We shall see more telenovelas in the halls of the Senate, as Manny Villar and Loren Legarda stage a comeback and team up with their allies to make the presidency a living inferno for “the next Aquino”—who, by the way, now finds himself with very few allies in the Upper and Lower Chambers.

Imagine that: Noynoy Aquino wins by a landslide, but his path to leadership will be a difficult, narrow, and lonely one. There will be wolves, snakes, and all sorts of predators all around. There will be treacherous folk dressed as well-meaning friends “who only want to help.” There will be broken promises—but not because Noynoy Aquino doesn’t know how to honor his commitments.

It’s because we’ve never really learned to honor ours.

At the beginning of this campaign, people rallied around calls for “change” and “good governance.” People said that they valued “integrity”, “character”, and “competence.” Today, however, we’re seeing that many of us are still quick to fall for the old “ocho-ocho” song-and-dance campaign tactics and for the charms of celebrities who can make us all swoon, sigh, and jump off a cliff with the wave of their hand. Many of us are still a slave to the pesoses that make their way through the barangays shortly before election day , promising a few days of nourishment (or tong-its) for three, six more years of anguish and despair.

Of course, let us not forget that many of us still don’t know the difference between celebrities and public servants, interchanging one for the other and then later wondering why, instead of real public service, what we get are loud variety shows and a lot of acting.

So, NO, I’m not waving my pompoms in the air just yet. I’m not going to throw yellow confetti and sing sentimental songs of victory. My President, Noynoy Aquino, may have secured a victory in the May 10 polls, but all the other results show that, for the next  few years, we Filipinos will once again be the biggest losers of them all.