Callback for candidates
BY BERNARD KARGANILLA
Callback for candidates
BERNARD KARGANILLA
‘The analyses and remedies of Jose Rizal and Andres Bonifacio are validated once more.’
ONE thing that is sure to mar this year’s Yuletide is the politicking of election aspirants. All that clowning on top of the global financial and economic crisis, climate change and terrorism. Well, Merry Christmas to you, too.
These contenders for power as well as the incumbents have a full plate of problems to solve and concerns to address.
Take, for instance, the domestic economic doldrums. There is a continuing loss of critical-mission jobs, with 20,000 OFWs leaving our country daily. These citizens would rather not join the ranks of the 10 million under- and unemployed and the three million "economically inactive" Filipinos. Metro Manila residents earning the minimum wage have to stretch their 382 pesos daily because the living wage is 950 pesos. Job-holders who are mostly in services will probably buy Christmas gifts that are cheap because these toxic commodities are smuggled from China. The family of six struggling to meet basic needs of shelter, clothing, food, education and healthcare should benefit from better financial management, a high-wage/labor-first regime and a rights-based, ecologically-correct development strategy. ["Quo Vadis, Domestic Economy? A Pre-Bonifacio Day Forum on the Philippine Labor and Domestic Industry Situation," November 27, 2009, Rizal Hall, Sponsored by the Freedom from Debt Coalition and the Economic History of Asia and Social Sciences 120 classes of UP Manila]
The analyses and remedies of Jose Rizal and Andres Bonifacio are validated once more. Indolence is indeed an evil foisted on Filipinos by political and economic factors and the solution is individual and collective self-determination.
The twin templates of heroism are available to applicants for elective and appointive posts in government. Rizal’s essays, particularly "The Philippines A Century Hence," and the Kartilya ng Katipunan, which is our national code of ethics, are the kernel of a coherent program of governance.
Rizal in his time identified seven potential invaders, of which two did war on the Philippines. The imperialist United States dismantled the Malolos Republic, while fascist Japan occupied our Islands during World War II. Today, the 1987 Constitution mandates: "The State shall pursue an independent foreign policy. In its relations with other states, the paramount consideration shall be national sovereignty, territorial integrity, national interest, and the right to self-determination." [Article II, Section 7]
In pursuit of this policy, the Philippine Senate voted in September 1991 to deny the American demand of continued military basing in the Archipelago, and the Legislative Oversight Committee on the Visiting Forces Agreement of the Philippine Senate heard on August 27, 2009 the testimony of Philippine Navy Lt. (s.g.) Mary Nancy P. Gadian regarding the "arrogant, high-handed and imperious conduct, behavior and attitude of many US military officers and enlisted personnel as well as their civilian employees towards us Filipinos."
Rizal correctly predicted that the Filipinos of his future would "secure their independence after heroic and stubborn conflicts." Such conflicts include the militarization of US-Philippine relations, clean-up of the toxic wastes left behind in the former US military bases by the American forces, covert operations of foreign espionage agencies in our territory and the global war on terror.
Rizal asserted "and statistics prove that it is impossible to exterminate the Filipino people." How will the electoral candidates sustain this assertion? Can they overturn the sad fact that the Philippines is now the world’s largest rice importer? Can they contribute to the strengthening of the Southeast Asian Zone of Peace, Freedom and Neutrality?
Can these presidential wannabes eradicate the scourge of warlordism? Can they protect Filipino consumers from unfair trade practices and hazardous products like melamine-tainted baby’s milk and the Chinese drywall? Can they match the selflessness and courage of Andres Bonifacio, the first president of the sovereign Filipinos?
What do they think of Bonifacio’s sentiment, c. August 28, 1896: "It is absolutely necessary for us to stop at the earliest possible time the nameless oppressions being perpetrated on the sons of the country who are now suffering the brutal punishment and tortures in jails."
Prof. Roland Simbulan, former Faculty Regent of UP, believes that "Bonifacio is cool" and that "the spirit of Andres Bonifacio lives in the future that we shall build as a great nation; its greatness is in its people committed to national renewal and social reform." ["Forging A Nationalist Foreign Policy," QC: IBON Center, 2009]
President Bonifacio called to his people that they may rise to greatness. Candidates in the new attention economy canvass approval ratings. Can they transform laws like the Agricultural Tariffication Act, Seed Industry Development Act, Bank Liberalization Act, New Mining Code and the Traditional and Alternative Medicine Act of 1997 into remedies for the escalating global economic crisis?
Finally, are these fellows running for election in favor of the inclusion of the Bonifacio Monument on the World Monuments Fund Watch?