Personal Destruction in Philippine Politics

By: Joe Mauricio

 

The upcoming presidential elections of 2016 in the Philippines brings out the worst of Phiilippine politicians. A year before the election time, Filipino politicians play a game called “personal destruction,” a liberal tactic of demonizing the opposition.

The term was made popular by President Bill Clinton during his impeachment trial in the 1990’s, but is considered to have begun with the 1987 nomination by President Ronald Reagan of Judge Robert Bork to fill the vacancy on the United States Supreme Court. Bork was one of the most respected jurists in the nation. The Democrats who controlled the Senate did not like the conservative Bork (though he was the most qualified), and they used smear tactics digging into Bork’s past. And Bork became inert politically.

In the Philippines, this is not an academic legal dispute where the accusers warp the democratic process. Both the accused and the accusers use the fame of personal destruction whenever they get the chance to suppress authentic competition in any political elections for their own advantage. And the power of modern technology makes it easier than ever to effectively frustrate the preferences of the Philippine public. The party in power may change. What doesn’t change is that the public gets shafted. A lot of these politicians regard their officers as something belonging to them, not the voters.

Can our Pinoy politicians stop devoting their energies to personal destruction of each other? They lose and the country loses more when these scandals are let loose and there is no finite or closure.

The Filipinos need to restore the credibility of their constitutional institutions, as a mattero urgency.

Senators Peter Trillanes and Alan Cayetano aren’t he first to do this nor will they be the last, but they certainly are good indicators of how awful Philippine politics has become.

It is a patronage system which has little at all to do with duty, service, or honor, and a lot to do with grabbing power and exercising it for the benefit of the politicians and their cronies.

The money, time and effort to that typically go with keeping up with this sort of thing is rather interesting in and of itself. Another indication of the pettiness of politicians and their desire for retribution justice.

For Vice President Jojo Binay and family, the spreadsheet was a necessity of modern politicial warfare, an improvement on what old-school politicians called the “favor file.” It meant that when questions rolled in, the Binays would have at their fingertips all the information needed to make a quick decision– including extenuating, mitigating, and amplifying factors so that friends could be rewarded and enemies punished. Watch out, Trillanes, Cayetano and Pimentel!

The smear campaign launched by Senators Trillanes, Cayetano and Pimentel against VP Jejomar Binay, loses the country’s credibility as an emergicing economic leader in Asia today. The pettiness and political ambitions take precedence over the love of country.

In reality, the Philippines is ahead of the U.S. in personal destruction in politics, lately, in Pinoy’s term of office, that of Supreme Court Justice Corona, who was removed from office, former President Gloria Arroyo, persecuted and witch-hunted, Senators Revilla, Enrile and Estrada, jailed and accused of malversation of PDAP funds, and other members of the opposition who are ridiculed and destroyed before due process takes place.

Imagaine all these former powerful government officials facing the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee televised worldwide for everyone to see and watch. How about the repeated televised pursuit of Binay properties, hidden wealth, and accused cronies for the people to watch worldwide on TV? The question is, who’s paying for these investigation of the oppositions? The Philippine politicians’ cridibility and accountability must be sought and repaired not on the televised Congress of the Philippines, but in the Philippines’ constitutional guarantees.

Is toxic discourse (personal destruction) a way of life in the Philippine’s political system under Noy Aquino’s regime?