Being Filipino
February 20th, 2004
The law is clear enough. Although it doesn’t say that a candidate has to have a college degree as the Gucci’d and pedigreed set wishes, among the few qualifications it specifies is that a candidate for president must be a natural-born Filipino.
The First Division of the Commission on Elections has ruled that those who questioned Fernando Poe Jr.’s citizenship had failed to prove he isn’t Filipino, but the question is far from resolved. The complainants have appealed the ruling. The likelihood is that the issue will go all the way to the Supreme Court.
The longer the question lingers, the more bruising its resolution can be, not only to the Arroyo administration, which has been accused of masterminding the attempt to disqualify Poe. It can be equally damaging to whatever remains of the credibility of the electoral system.
The suspicion that the administration orchestrated the attack on Poe seems well founded. The other candidates are falling by the wayside. Poe now seems to be the only obstacle to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s election to a second term. Every survey that has so far been taken of voter preference indeed shows Poe in the lead, while President Arroyo’s support slips.
In their analyses, some Filipino commentators like Amando Doronila do question the survey results (though for some reason they still can’t fully explain). The most reputable of our survey groups nevertheless have a track record that can’t be denied, thus the credibility of their findings.
No evidence has so far backed the suspicion that Malacanang masterminded or is masterminding the foolish attempt to disqualify the immensely popular Poe. But even if indeed the administration is as innocent as a lamb, there’s no escaping the spreading belief that it’s guilty nevertheless. Thus the signs of panic from the Palace, among them its pathetic plea for everyone to get down to the issues—an appeal it should first address to itself.
But it’s not only the administration and Mrs. Arroyo’s campaign that will reap the consequences. The longer the Poe citizenship question remains unresolved, the more will the rampaging cynicism over the electoral process as essentially skewed in favor of the incumbent grow—and with it, the possibility, should there be a final ruling against Poe, of such widespread destabilization the elections can’t take place.
Thanks to the Fornier brothers, the National Archives’ Ricardo Manapat, and whoever’s behind them, no government institution can now afford to find against Poe without risking mass fury. The haste with which the normally complacent Comelec decided in his favor was indicative of how volatile the situation could be. A delay as well as an adverse decision was sure to be interpreted as part of a high-level conspiracy to cheat Poe of victory this May. Whatever appeals will follow, whether at the Comelec level or before the Supreme Court, will be similarly burdened.
As important both legally and politically as the question of Poe’s citizenship is, however, what is of greater issue is where, in the debate over the issues that affect the lives of Filipinos, his commitments lie, and where, assuming he’s elected, his policies would lead the country.
We can assign a secondary place to the issue of Poe’s citizenship for two reasons. The first is that despite whatever legal complexities there are which may say he’s not a Filipino, the fact is that he’s been acting like one for all of his 64 years. The second is that for all the authenticated Filipino citizenships of Filipino politicians, few have translated their being Filipino into appropriate policies and programs. (Mrs. Arroyo’s policies, for example, make her more American than Filipino, and firmly committed to the interests of the elite rather than the poor.)
Precisely because of his popularity, and how badly the campaign to disqualify him has boomeranged, it may well be that the Supreme Court will decide in Poe’s favor. There may be sound legal bases for such a decision. But there may not be. The Court after all legitimized Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s presidency on bases other than the law in 2001, and mainly on the strength, it now seems, of its fears of anarchy and of power shifting to the Left.
When the Court does decide in his favor—and I think it will—, the Filipino electorate could still be wondering on May 10 what Fernando Poe Jr. stands for, even as his popularity takes him to the country’s highest post.
Except for promises of transparency and restoring faith in the government (which every other candidate including Mrs. Arroyo has promised or is promising), and the vaguest expressions of preferences that seem not to have been thought out enough to qualify as policy options, Fernando Poe Jr. has not said much of anything despite demands that he go beyond motherhood statements.
He did say something about being leery of globalization, for example. But the cynical can be forgiven for believing that he had merely said what he thought his listeners—the anti-globalization Katipunan ng Mga Magbubukid ng Pilipinas—wanted to hear.
Primarily what should at issue is whether he’s indeed pro-poor, as his handlers have never tired of saying, and what’s more, pro-Filipino. His being both—and he can demonstrate this by laying out a program that will not only finally address the demands of the poor for land, for development, and for jobs, but also the critical issues of sovereignty and independence—will legitimize his candidacy more than a hundred Comelec and Supreme Court decisions can.
The twin issues of economic development and national sovereignty have been at the heart of the Philippine crisis of under- and mis-development for decades. There is thus merit in the demand that Poe and the other candidates clearly state their views, platforms and programs on such issues as globalization, the country’s re-engagement with the United States, land reform, women’s issues, plus a host of other issues that bear on what development path the country should take and what its foreign policy should be.
The major advocates of these issues have been the militant labor, peasant, youth and women’s groups, all of which have organized party-list groups for the May elections, as this column noted last January 20 (“Now, for the good news”). The universal complaint among them is that despite repeated invitations, Poe has not responded at all, even as he has made appearances before business and other elite groups.
“We want to know his stand on globalization, wage hikes, price increases and other issues affecting all 80 million Filipinos,” the current chair of the Kilusang Mayo Uno, Elmer Labog, said Sunday. “(Poe) should exert some serious effort to know the people’s problems.”
Former KMU chair Crispin Beltran echoed Labog’s complaint.
“He has time to meet and dialogue with business groups and to assure them he will do his best to serve the business community. He has not done the same for the poor and marginalized sectors.”
And yet, Poe’s popularity is based on the support of the vast majority of Filipino poor. As the issue of his citizenship is resolved, and his candidacy surges forward, that majority could do worse than to look beyond its emotional attachment to a Poe presidency into the realm of whether he can be truly Filipino by addressing the historic demands of the poor and marginalized for a just and independent society.
(Today/abs-cbnNEWS.com, January 24, 2004)