A Students’ View on Philippine Politics

Khen Adrian C. de la Victoria, BSPA 3-1

Young as we are, we always want to know the things that are happening in this world we live in. As we
grow older, lot of changes happened and we even think that it’s a usual thing until it affects our daily
basis one way or another. In my daily experience, I think that everything happens for a reason but I don’t
think that some of it should be part of those experiences and I hate to admit that it happened to me and
also to my fellow citizens and folks in our community. I want change. I want to do what is the right thing
to do. Just like the politics here in the Philippines, is there any room for improvement to our politics?

To all the youths of this beloved country, we all know that politics covers a wide variety of area of the
society like physical, social, economic, moral, ethical and also governmental aspect of the nation.
However, the term “politics” is associated and being defined in a positive or negative way at this moment
in time now. Politics, at this moment, is now being defined by the people as dirty, losing its rightful and
sensible meaning as it should be. It is true that if you are a part of politics, you are being looked upon as a
noble servant of the people IF only you do your responsibility as a servant of the people whom you serve.
Seriously, those simple points made me draw near to the crucial point of being part of the political
spectrum. Let us see more about this so called “politics” in the Philippines.

Here in the Philippines, the term “economic” is shown for we know that the government is present to
manage, regulate, and impose the functions of the country’s national economy. In short, the government
plays an important part to the economy. Its goal is to sustain the Filipinos’ standard of living for it is what
we deserve. But look closely in the Philippines’ class system, many Filipinos live in the first ranks,
followed by more Filipinos in the middle ranks, and the saddest part is that MOST of us Filipinos are
living in the lowest ranks. Imagine a situation where Filipinos are on or under the poverty line, like what
we see on the television where poor families are living in barong-barong or squatters’ area. Personally I
asked myself, why these things are happening? Is everything that are happening to them is always the
governments’ fault? Or of the masses?

The government, as we should know, is composed of government officials ONLY for it is called the
government. But as what we are seeing today, a lot of us Filipinos don’t see that aside from government
crocodiles fighting for power, prestige, and fame, there are always the elite businessmen class whose
agenda is making shortcut in government places doing transactions and papers just to hide their true
motive and true colors to the masses. As what we see in movies or soap operas, they have this what we
call in Filipino term doble kara – one hand is doing some charity works for poor and the vulnerable sector
of the community and the other one is doing the money laundering from the peoples’ pockets. A weird
but perfect example of “dual personality’’ right?

Aside from these realities, we should also include some of the members of our armed forces and law
enforcers whose real responsibilities are being corrected and barked upon by the citizens because the fact
that they should “serve and protect” the people, they are the ones who “defect and molest” the rights of
the people whom they supposed to serve. Our “men in uniforms” back then are now being called “men in
dirt”. Another important agenda that should b-e discussed, our Filipino children whose future of our
country is on their hands. How can they become the hope of our nation if they are struggling going to
school without wearing a pair of shoes in their feet, walking a couple of hours going to school carrying
their damaged bags full of damaged books with incomplete pages? Speaking of Filipino children, after
going to school, they will go home to be with their families and wait for the dark and then enjoy a simple
but a hard meal – “kamote or saging” (sweet potato or banana) just to fill their empty stomachs. Then
after the meal, they sleep inside a slanted nipa hut while observing and preparing to evacuate because of
the approaching heavy rains. Can you imagine these things, young people of the Philippines? The fact
that the ruling classes of this country are enjoying the luxurious life while the situation of most of the
Filipino families are facing the grave torture of extreme poverty!

I must confess to all of you, I struggled to believe and to choose if this thing we call “election”, does it
benefit US the masses? Or the OFFICIALS? WHY? Here’s why.

Can we blame the masses? It’s a big NO! Ordinary Filipinos are granted rights, therefore, we exercise full
democracy given to us by the law of the land. And for me, this is the big misconception of FREEDOM.
We tend to exercise our right to vote for the specific candidate that can change our problems into
comforts for we believe that each one of us have different views and opinions on what we believe in each
of those candidates in the election period. Desperately, the officials that are being elected in the
government positions are the WORST ONES! After the day of proclamation of assuming into office,
some of the elected officials will begin their real plan while revealing their true colors behind reaching the
hearts and minds of the people who supported them during the campaign period– to use the funds of the
people for their own comfort and pleasure than using the funds for the upcoming and future plans of the
government unit. Some of our government officials went to office and then plunge out the money of the
people just to fill their own pockets and continuously do it until the last penny falls out. They even see
their political place as a family business! Want some detailed corruption examples? Here are the other
things how “politics” works. Inevitable natural or man-made calamities/disasters will come out and the
government will automatically in-charge of the relief goods – from accumulating, packing, distributing,
and delivering to the families affected. But the funny thing is that the relief package from the government
is incomplete when it reaches the affected families! Why is that? Simple, the other canned goods, pack of
noodles, sachet of milk or coffee or sugar, and of course one kilo of rice went to the house of a certain
barangay official because those are reserves for his/her other family members! Inside the office, elected
officials will appoint cronies and puppet officials (some of them are friends, family members, etc.)
without any prior knowledge on how government actually works just to keep the momentum of their
scum and icky works inside the government! NASAAN ANG HUSTISYA? NASAAN ANG PANGIL
NG BATAS?

To conclude this observation of mine, I realized that all of these things happening in our country is a big
NO in the eyes of the law and especially in the eyes of the Divine. There are times that I don’t even
know what is right or wrong. I don’t even understand the concept of the law because many people are
afraid not because of the law, but those people who implement and imposes the law. Series of issues like
power struggle, political rivalry, turn-coat in politics, graft and corruption, nepotism, oligarchy – these are
the new faces of what we call “The Law and Politics”. As I journey this short realization, a question
remains: As an ordinary citizen, do we have the strength to raise our voice for change? As for me, I think
the best way to answer this is to leave the people to answer these things and to defend their stand. I hope
that our situation will mark as an eye opener for all of us.
“Walang nakakaangat sa batas, kahit na presidente!” (No one is above the law, even the
president!).

John Arcilla, on his role General Antonio Luna in the film Heneral Luna