THE LEGAL FRONT

Atty. Arturo D. Brion, Ll.B, Ll.M.

(Part II)

In my Article “Reflections on Democracy” (Legal Front, Dec. 13, 2021), I broadly recalled how we started embracing democracy, from its beginnings, to where we are today - at the verge of another democratic electoral exercise.  This history and our gathered national experiences are essential parts of the doughnut of our history, a national source of nutritious strength if we would only mind, protect, and strengthen them and be guided by their lessons.

We established the first democracy in Asia from the clutches of a colonial power in 1898, albeit a short-lived one; it was thwarted by the Americans, whom we accepted as friends, but who had their own colonial dreams. Nevertheless, we have this notable past to look back to and use as a jump-off point to bring us to the democratic progress we aspire for.

Our first election, as a feature of the government we wanted, was of course the limited election of 1898 for the First Philippine Republic.  Thereafter, we were overpowered by the Americans in their bloody war of conquest. But on the plus side, the Americans brought us their concepts of democracy and elections under the Philippine Bill of 1902, the American law that served as their blueprint in governing us as a colony.

The first election they brought, approximately 115 years ago, was followed by other popular elections, until we successively achieved Commonwealth status in November 1935 and internationally-recognized independent status as a Republic, on July 4, 1946.

Since then, elections – both national and local - have been regular features of our national affairs.

Our first election as an independent Republic came in 1949.  The presidential candidates were President Elpidio Quirino, Jose P. Laurel (Nacionalista Party), and Jose Avelino (Liberal Party).  This first electoral experience as a Republic was not a shining moment for us: it was confirmed to be corrupt, violent and fraudulent, but our intended democracy held. The next election in 1953, won by President Ramon Magsaysay, was an improvement despite the backdrop of a communist Hukbalahap rebellion.

We did not take our 1949 lessons to heart as we thereafter simply used palliatives that only addressed existing problems in slow increments; we thus continued to suffer from various shades of the 1949 criticisms.

Despite this start, we still gained valuable, though slow, democratic experience. And herein lies the substantial doughnut part that we should treasure: we successfully found democratic bearings on our own, although we were slow in the uptake and in recognizing the lessons we should have learned.

Things appeared to be destined for change when President Ferdinand Marcos came in 1965. He had his own plans on how to leapfrog the nation into progress; dreamers like me, shared his dream. But our dreams began to shatter after 1969 when we began to discern that, together with his sweetener –constitutional improvement and change - would be the onerous cost of keeping him in power under democratically shady terms.

One of these terms was the martial law regime that subsisted beyond its natural life until it was effectively displaced by the 1987 EDSA events, leading to the presidency of President Cory Aquino. In a revolutionary move, President Aquino introduced the 1987 Constitution that we still have today.

Since then, we have had our 1992 elections where Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago, in a field of several candidates, decried that she had been cheated. The succeeding 1998 election was relatively free from charges of irregularities, but this result was not fully replicated in the 2004 elections that brought us the “Hello Garci” scandal involving a taped and questionable telephone conversation between Malacanan and Commissioner Garcia llano of Comelec.

Following these experiences, we began our experiments with computerized voting, in a limited way in the 2007 mid-term election, and in a general way in the 2010 national elections. Smarmatic, a service provider, this time hugged the headlines and left us with a tainted election with unresolved questions: Comelec Chairman Andy Bautista, instead of fully explaining, simply fled to the US and is still there, unpursued and perhaps still merrily laughing at the chaos he left behind.

Another indelible taint of the 2010 elections was the massacre in Mindanao of members of the family of gubernatorial candidate Toto Magundadatu, by members of the dominant Ampatuan family. Fifty-eight people, including 34 journalists, died in this horrific experience.

We bounced back in 2016: allegations of irregularities were considerably less than those made in the past. President Duterte won without any major complaints from the other contenders, subject to one sour point - the vice-presidential race where the early lead of Senator Bongbong Marcos was overtaken by Vice President Robredo, leading to an unsuccessful protest based on alleged computer and other counting irregularities.

As we enter the 2022 election period, all these past allegations of irregularities should be alive in our memory, with the thought of avoiding and thwarting them to every extent possible. These are the holes in our doughnut that we should seek to fill up, not simply wish away. Our prized historical doughnut should be the untainted presence of democracy and its main feature - free choice by our people in determining our directions and governance.

This objective is not an easy feat to achieve, as this would call for collective efforts from all sides – from the candidates, the government and the people.  Without one component, we shall again be left in a dreamy wish for another chance to strengthen our democracy.

Meanwhile, history could pass us by.  Unless we act soon, our current problems – among them, the WPS - could literally eat us up.  The Chinese – with dreams of reliving their old glory - apparently aims to seize our territory, piece by piece or wholesale, depending on the resistance we shall demonstrate, and relegate our independent country into a mere entry in Chinese geography maps.

Whether we would allow this to happen would depend, among others, on our wise choice of leaders in 2022. Part III of these discussions will follow next week.

art.brion.spc @gmail.com