Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
by
1
2016 Ramos Magsaysay Awardee.
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engagements because, among other things, I wanted to spend more time
with my family, especially my grandchildren.
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3. Are we Filipinos politically literate?
Today may be the best time to do our personal and collective soul-
searching because we now live in a world which the English novelist
Charles Dickens aptly described in his 1859 novel A Tale of Two Cities
as the best of times and the worst of times, the age of wisdom and the
age of foolishness.2
2
The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/98/98-h/98-h.htm
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introspection by quoting what author Sarah Chayes recalled from a
local during her assignment in Afghanistan: “The government is your
face. If it’s pretty or ugly, it’s your face.”3
3
Vide Sarah Chayes, Thieves of State: Why Corruption Threatens Global Security (WW Norton & Company
2015).
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and the trappings of power aptly explain why leaders transform
themselves into autocrats (dictators).
What have our leaders done with our electorate? It is true that in
a democracy, it is the people who are the ultimate sovereign. After all,
only the people or the majority of them can elect the leaders into power
to govern us all. By now, we have to realize that there is logic, no
4
New York Times (November 12, 1962).
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matter how perverse it may seem, why our people continue to elect
“wrong” leaders. Patronage politics and corruption cannot exist without
the other. If we are maddeningly mad with corruption, more so, with
patronage politics that feeds on it. I can only imagine that corrupt
leaders would always rave with the unnecessary excesses and spoils of
corruption. Please excuse the tautology.
5
Foreword to the UNCAC publication by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (2004).
6
A 2016 study also concluded that when corruption thrives, human
rights are denied, and correlatively, when denial of human rights
continues, corruption persists.6
6
Rafanan, A.T., “Asset Recovery as an International Human Rights Response to Violations of the Right to
Corruption-Free Governance: Rethinking the Prospects, Potentials, Predicament and Purpose of an
International Anti-Corruption Court” (unpublished) London, 2016.
7
Wright, B. F. (2016). American interpretations of natural law: A study in the history of political thought. New
Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.
7
Having served the executive branch and the judiciary, I am
inclined to conclude that the balance has tilted against the judicial
branch. While the 1987 Philippine Constitution enshrined judicial
activism through, among others, judicial review of actions and
decisions of the two other branches, much still has to be done to
promote the independence of the courts. Here, I am reminded of your
recent statement which characterized “a frail and compromised justice
system.” 8 I can’t help but agree with your generous characterization.
8
Democracy & Disinformation. Joint Statement on the Harassment of Maria Ressa dated 18 February 2019.
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their power to elect is to be part of the gravy train of patronage politics.
The less privileged is not alone for the blame. Arguably, the truth
should be weaponized to the full extent of shaming these candidates
and their enablers to prevent them from running, if wheels of justice
seemed derailed or too slow to catch them!
9
BSR is a global nonprofit organization engaged in consulting and research that works with its network of
more than 250 member companies. It has offices in Asia, Europe, and North America.
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platform for human rights activists, which improves civic participation
and empowers civil society.”
But as we are all aware, the use of Facebook also has many
downsides. No less than Ms. Yanghee Lee, the UN Special Rapporteur
on Human Rights in Myanmar, was reported to have said, "I am afraid
that Facebook has now turned into a beast, and not what it originally
intended.”10
10
Advance Unedited Version Human Rights Council 37th session. Report of the Special Rapporteur on the
Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar, 26 February -23 March 2018.
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lack of demand for truthful and honest discourse. Social media has
become a searing battleground for propagandists, apologists, and more
alarmingly, trolls and bots, who foment discord among a vulnerable
and ill-informed population that acknowledges Google as the sole and
primary source of information for just about everything.
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authority and domination. However, it’s not going to develop like that
on its own. People will have to organize and fight to make that sort of
thing ever happen, in fact fight very strenuously for it.11
11
Noam Chomsky (2003). Understanding Power: The Indespensable Chomsky. Vintage UK. Random House.
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References:
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