People Failure

We could have done more. But we simply did not do enough.

Today, more than ever, this rings true: "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." (Edmund Burke)

Sure. Many people did many things, first to fight the dictator, and then, to oust him. Many people have made it their lives’ crusades to make sure Marcos is remembered as the plundering, murderous dictator that he was; and his family, the beneficiaries. But as is our curse as a people, what we have in initiative, we lack in follow through.

We are a people who are clueless about sustaining our efforts at something worthwhile and seeing them through to fruition. It is as if we dread closure of any kind. We have the fire to start a war, but no stamina to end it.

We fight and remove colonizers, but we fuck up governing ourselves when they’re gone. We waste so much time fighting among ourselves, putting each other down, stepping on those already on the floor, just to prop ourselves up, to make our all-important voices heard, to ensure our position, our party wins.

We fight and remove a dictator and his family, but we fuck up exacting accountability for all the heinous acts done against our people. We waste so much time fighting for the spoils, “championing democracy”, without understanding that democracy calls for choosing people who would govern us — conduct our affairs, come up with policies, make important, life-changing decisions that would affect not only ourselves, but the generations to come. We think fighting and removing a dictator ends upon his departure. Because we are brought up to think that victors win as the credits roll. We are taught to think that the fighting ends as soon as the curtains fall, when we all pick up our things, go out into the sun, and continue our lives where we left off.

We were never taught that fighting an evil must be sustained. We were never taught that winning this kind of war calls for more than fanfare and fireworks. We were never brought up to know that the only way to prevent what happened today was through repetition. Habit. You make a habit out of recognizing, acknowledging, and commemorating the evil a certain person was capable of, and you pass that habit on to generations. You repeat that Ferdinand Marcos was a dictator who ordered the killings of thousands who opposed him, and who plundered the nation’s coffers until they were bone-dry, and you keep repeating that until it makes you sick. Until it makes you want to throw up. Because that is exactly what any thought of Marcos should elicit from you — vomiting. Gagging and puking out all the contents of your stomach until your throat is raw. Because that is what Marcos should solely represent — waste; bodily excretions; filth; vile scum.

We had thirty years to make sure today did not happen. We had thirty years to make sure that our people would not so much as breathe in the direction of the Marcoses. We had more than enough time to make it a crime to even speak their names. We had thirty years to make it so unpopular for any presidential candidate that speaking for the Marcoses could automatically cost him his bid. We could have made the Marcos name synonymous to blasphemy of the worst kind. But we focused on the superficial. Showing up in EDSA, in 1986 and every year thereafter. Commemorating our own heroism. Speaking of our own contributions. Giving each other flowers and hugs and good feelings. When we could have worked to include and cement Marcos and Martial Law in our grade school, high school and college curriculums. When we could have spared a few million pesos to build a complete and lasting Marcos and Martial Law Never Again Museum, or even convert the CCP into one, as a slap across the face of the monster. We could have had regular and mandatory Martial Law tours of Crame, or of the other places where dissidents were detained, tortured, and killed. We could have demanded more of our representatives to run after the Marcoses and file all kinds of cases against them, because surely there was no lack of witnesses.

Instead, we chose to put our representatives on pedestals, like movie stars idolized only from afar. We chose to look at democracy as a prayer said in hush tones, not as an obligation to fulfill and a responsibility to each other. We glamorized the fight against the Marcoses and thought that the fight ended when they left. Many of us did not know that at that point, the fight had just begun. 

To make matters worse, we also have a penchant for mistaking each other for enemies. We think this is a fight against the person on the other side of the fence, on the other side of the monitor. No. The enemy is the one laughing himself to the bank at the end of the day. The enemy is the one who could not care less what happens to you or me, as long as his coffers are safe, thank you very much. It is easy to blame the Aquinos. Two Aquinos, for that matter. Two Aquinos in the highest office of the land, and Marcos still had the last laugh. An Aquino in the legislature for twelve years, and still no law prohibiting any form of bestowing honor in any manner on Marcos or his ilk. Aquinos in power for twenty-four out of the thirty years, and no conviction for any of the Marcoses. If anyone had any cause to take down the Marcoses, it is the Aquinos. But no. It was easy to get intoxicated in the power that came after Ninoy’s death. To put it bluntly, Ninoy did more against Marcos dead than his wife and his son ever did while alive. 

Whatever happened in those thirty years when we could have exacted payment for every crime Marcos committed against the Filipino people? The people in power who came after Marcos made sure they stayed in power. Check. These same people made sure their own coffers were always freshly refilled. Check. These same people used all manner of influence and power play to perpetuate their landholdings and other sources of wealth. Check. And the rest of us? We were so busy living, making ends meet, getting by day-to-day to put food on the table. We did not demand enough of our representatives. We did not hold them to account for not fulfilling their duties to the people. It had become a vicious cycle we were all mired in. Among all of us, there is only one sector who has been consistently repetitive in their calls against the Marcoses that they make many of us sick: the Left. But like I said, that is precisely what could have saved us from today’s outcome: repetition. Habit.

Now, instead of attacking personalities and putting other personalities on pedestals, let’s try ideas. Instead of labeling each other and putting each other in neat little boxes, let’s try opening up. Instead of blaming just one group, let us blame all of us. Let us share the blame, and hence, the responsibility to make things right. No one individual has always been right. Or wrong. We can try getting it right TOGETHER. We do not need to make enemies out of each other — we have enough to begin with: Mr. Poverty; Mrs. Corruption; Mr. and Mrs. Guns, Goons and Gold; that gay couple Injustice and Inequality (just to be PC); Selfishness; Insecurity; Arrogance; Greed. We can go on until daylight. As a people, we have enough on our plate to start with. Let us attack these things together, shall we? And let us be consistent. Repetitive. Habitual. Until it makes us sick.

It is easy to blame one group. One family. But the blame is on all of us. While we were so busy trumpeting our so-called achievement as people power, many of us were unaware that thirty years of inaction as a people would eventually lead to what happened today: people failure. Today was not merely a failure of a certain group of individuals. Today, we failed as a people. We have not done enough to make sure that today did not happen. We did not make sure that we locked up Marcos the monster and threw away the key. Today, he triumphs. Let his laughter all the way from hell haunt us to the end of our days so that today does not happen ever again.