The Gonzalez modus operandi is expected to become more intense during the election campaign as part of government’s black propaganda against the progressive party-list groups. This will be so in order to blunt the high-level campaign that will be waged by these groups as they articulate people’s issues, the need for comprehensive social and economic reform, people’s governance, the protection of the country’s sovereignty and self-determination, and so on.
BM has topped the party-list elections twice in a row, in 2001 and 2004. The new politics that it and other allied party-list groups represent demolishes the elitist practice that converts the electoral process into a battle of personalities, money and fraud.
Because this innovative approach has apparently gained popularity, it is loathed by the likes of Gonzalez precisely because it can lead to the disenfranchisement of the powers-that be by raising the political consciousness of the people.
Bereft of visions and programs that address the people’s democratic interests, they subvert the elections through manipulation, disinformation and the spreading of more myths.
This is their way of opposing any genuine reform that sees an elective position primarily as a public service rather than as a means of perpetuating political dynasties. They simply do not understand that the people are smarter than they are made to appear they are able to sort out the grain from the chaff thrown upon them by the likes of Gonzalez.
_______________
1Only 27 elective officials (two governors, 25 mayors, one vice governor and one vice mayor) who were charged with violation of RA 3019, malversation, estafa, bribery and theft in 1979-May 2006 or a period of 27 years were found guilty by the Sandiganbayan. (“Is the Philippine judicial system effective in fighting corruption?”, A preliminary report of CenPEG and TI-Philippines, Dec. 8, 2006.
CenPEG is a public policy center set up shortly before the May 2004 elections to help promote people empowerment in governance and democratic representation of the marginalized poor in an elitist and patronage-driven electoral and political system. It conducts research/policy study, education and trainings on governance and people empowerment. To pursue its programs in research and education-training, CenPEG taps a wide pool of political analysts, public policy experts and academic scholars for their expertise and experience in public governance as well as in grassroots empowerment.
[tags]davao today, philippines, politics, philippine politics, 2007 elections, raul gonzalez, iloilo, cenpeg, gloria macapagal-arroyo[/tags]
2007 Elections
