People Power and Elite Democracy in the Philippines
Today is 24th anniversary (February 25) of the fourth and final day of the so-called “People Power Revolution”. Though, in my opinion, the four-day revolution is no revolution at all but rather an uprising since it never change the Philippine society and it remain as it was before 1972 or during the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos.
About two years ago, I took a Political Science paper about Nationalism and Democracy in Southeast Asia. One of the requirements was to write a research paper about a political event in a country of my choice. Of course, as a Filipino, I choose the Philippines and picked the “People Power Uprising”.
Here is the question I came up with: How did the success of the people’s power uprising help change Philippine society? Did the uprising help return the political power to the traditional elites?…
A Questionable Survey: “The Most Beloved Filipino Leader”
A Questionable Survey: “The Most Beloved Filipino Leader”
By Marcing Pin
Today is the 24th Anniversary of the mutiny that lead to the “People Power Uprising” of February 1986. The uprising against the dictator succeeded because of the combine efforts of both the military and the civil society. Today, many Filipinos would not even care to remember the event that helps restore the freedom they enjoyed today. Is it because of lack of patriotism (love of country) and more of individualism (self-love) amongst present-day Filipinos? Or are we just plain dumb?
Just recently, the Philippine media from the newspapers to television networks reported (and plagiarizing each other) a supposedly nationwide survey about “Who is the most beloved Filipino politician or leader?”. The survey includes the Who’s Who of the past and present Philippines: including two martyrs that inspired revolutions (José Rizal and Ninoy Aquino), a thieving dictator (Ferdinand Marcos), a convicted plunderer (Joseph Estrada), war heroes (Ramon Magsaysay and Fidel Ramos), a housewife (Cory Aquino), the incumbent President (Gloria Arroyo) and Vice President (Noli de Castro), and of course, the current presidentiables. Surprisingly, great leaders (Former President Manuel Quezon) and true heroes (Andres Bonifacio, Cardinal Jaime Sin, Datu Lapu-Lapu, and other Filipinos who gave their lives for the Philippines in the War of Independence and the Second World War) were intentionally left out or forgotten and ignored….
The Word “Pinoy”
The Word “Pinoy”
By Marcing Pin
A few months ago, I encountered a very interesting article in one of the Filipino group page in Facebook. The article talks about the ignorance of the Filipinos about the word “Pinoy”.
For me, the author of the article is quite right. Filipino creativity to create or invent words these days is degrading the Filipino language. Deep Tagalog words are being laugh at by young and sometimes uneducated Filipinos. They prefer the word “libro” to the word “aklat”. Tagalog is no longer the lingua franca but instead “Tag-lish” (Tagalog-English) is the new lingua franca.
The Filipino Voter
The Filipino Voter
By Marcing Pin
This coming May 2010 the country will face its second presidential election of this millennium. The main topics of the day or should we say for the last six months and the coming four months are scandals, intrigues, controversies, and of course, (true and false) allegations and gossips. Politicians competing for everybody’s attentions, for the people’s votes, and of course, for who could trick more voters.
First, let us define the term “vote”.
According to the always-changing Wikipedia: “A vote is an individual’s act of voting, by which he or she expresses support or preference for a certain motion (for example, a proposed resolution), a certain candidate, a selection of candidates, or a political party. With a secret ballot to protect voters’ political privacy, voting generally takes place at a polling station.”
In the Philippines, voting is not compulsory (under 1987 Constitution) but it is the patriotic duty of every Filipino citizen to vote during elections…
