Php 70.00 Vol. 47 No. 07 • July 2013 - IMPACT Magazine Online!

FROM THE
BLOGS
Political
representation
The fact of honest to goodness political representation
only makes real sense in a truly democratic
country that adopts the following principles: First,
the governing sovereignty in fact categorically and officially
resides in the people. Second, the people themselves
in effect delegate their sovereignty to some individuals
from their common interests and public concerns. Third,
the people’s delegated representatives then honestly and
continuously work for the common good and public welfare
of the people they precisely represent.
It is good to note that all the above observation on
political representation find their basis on the truth that just
as “polis” means city, “polites” in turn means citizen. Free
translation: As it is the people—“polites”—who make up
the country—“polis”—so it is that the people themselves
who chose their representatives—“politicians”—to govern
them and their country. Politics and politicians may nonchalantly
shrug off the objective truth that they are for the
people—and certainly not the other way around. Such is
also the basic premise why public offices held by politicians
upon the delegation of the people are categorically and
concretely intended for public service in favor of the latter.
It is for the above composite reason that among the
fatal deformities of the democratic system advocating and
promoting political representation, is the phenomenon of
political corruption—when there is then some kind of a
disgusting transit from political to but self-representation,
when service to people becomes service to oneself, families,
and friends included. In the last analysis, it is this signal
liability of corruption that undermines the nature and finality
of democracy, that makes politics “dirty,” that makes
most politicians the objects of disgust and resentment, the
target of bad jokes.
Some of the more deplored and deplorable effects
of political corruption are the following: It undermines
the significance, worth, and validity of democracy. It
cheapens politics in the same way that it makes a mockery
of politicians. But above all its deleterious effects
is that it betrays and tramples upon the principles of
social justice—specially in terms of people paying their
taxes to the government while government officials pay
themselves extremely, while forgetting to give back to
the people what they deserve by mandate of distributive
justice—such as giving them public service and working
for their common good.
It is corruption in their government manned and ran
by their own representative public officials—politicians
in particular—that causes social discontent if not social
upheaval. A basically corrupt government notwithstanding
all its allegations and pronouncements to the contrary, can
be rightfully considered as a social curse, with the people
bearing all the evil and sorrows thereof.
www.ovc.blogspot.com
‘Save the nation
movement’
It is timely in emergence. It is nationalist in spirit. It is an
imperative advocacy for the common good and public
welfare of the people of the Philippines. It is not really
hard to notice and understand its emergence, its persistent
existence, and now progressively stronger in influence
upon thinking people. There is something wrong—many
things wrong—about the socio-economic standing of the
country notwithstanding all contrary declamations of the
administration plus repeated heavenly surveys at the expense
of the Filipinos themselves.
The continued high cost of prime commodities. The
stagnant salary scale of local workers—if work there is.
The inescapable direct and/or indirect taxes of Filipinos
from birth to death. The rising cost of living and education.
The privatization of public utilities—public roads
and hospitals included. The utter lack or ever rising costs
of water and electricity. The regular increasing price of
power—gas and gasoline in particular. Sad but true: even
burial has become quite expensive.
Results: Continuous destructive and even deadly rebellions
from the left and from the south. Repeated incursions
in Philippine territorial waters as a regular occurrence.
Criminality and thievery taking place as a matter of course.
While hating the birth of people, people are precisely the
export industry of the Philippine Government—with or
without Filipino women being sold to the highest foreign
bidders for purposes of entrance to, stay in or exit from
their countries. Until something quite novel and promising
is done for the honest-to-goodness socio-economic development
of the Philippines—the country has nowhere to go;
the people have no future to look forward to. The “Save
the Nation Movement” presents and submits the following
three signal interlocking proposals that may be challenging
to accomplish but not only logical but also imperative in
content and intent:
One: The science driven double or even threefold food
production with the complimentary accompaniments of sufficient
irrigation, fertilizer manufacture, storage buildings,
farm to market roads and the like, export arrangements
included—but with the Filipino as its first beneficiaries.
Two: The use of inexhaustible, cheap, and available
power in place of the usual oil fuel that has limited and
dwindling source, that is becoming more and more expensive
plus its pollution costs. Nuclear power is worth looking into
for use in the Philippines as in other places in Asia itself.
Three: The postponement of the payment of external
debts that grew in huge and insurmountable amount simply
by the devalued exchange rate of the poor Philippine
peso—courtesy of the IMF. Such continuous manipulations
of exchange rates at the expense of poor countries
are unconscionable. The postponement will help finance
the first two proposals.
www.ovc.blogspot.com
26 IMPACT • July 2013