The “taumbayan” that Senator Risa Hontiveros, former Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, and others refer to are the people according to the narrative, agenda, and vision of the elite in Philippine society. It is a concept that is isolated from and exclusive to those who only admire the political agenda of liberals, as espoused by the story of EDSA People Power. It does not recognize, nor include, the truth and aspirations of the people of Mindanao. Makes one wonder, who do you think is the real problem in Philippine society?
The moral decency that the supporters of the Edsa narrative labels and brands as populist those who are against their vision of society, which says nothing about the rule of the elite, and right now, accepts or turns a blind eye to the historicity of the past Marcos dictatorship simply because they do not like Duterte. One of the narratives that the elites in Philippine society is pushing is the accusation that Duterte is a populist president.
Yet, it may be the case that democracy, according to Wataru Kusaka, cannot live without populism, for ultimately, democracy can only sustain its ambitions and principles by considering all types of publics, not just the intelligentsia, nor those who parade themselves as the purveyors of moral decency, a definition of morality that only the self-righteous exalts with pride but empty when it comes to the meaning and substance of the injustices against those whose voices have been excluded and ignored.
Francis Jeus Ibanez, a philosophy professor from Bohol, writes: A wave of calls for the impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte has swept through political conversations, media reports, and social platforms. With each trending hashtag and televised interview, the public is increasingly being presented with a deceptive choice: either impeach Sara Duterte or accept the death of justice in the Philippines. But this binary framing is not only misleading—it is intellectually dishonest, democratically immature, and constitutionally dangerous.”
Philippine democracy is a contested case. I maintain the elitism is the real enemy and culprit. The “masses as Messiah,” in the words of Karl Gaspar, resonates strongly in the struggle for truth and justice. Prior to EDSA I, Philippine society is about the clash between state institutions and mass movements. Today, it is a battle between the Tagalog and the Bisaya, Manila versus Mindanao.
When the Supreme Court denied the prayer for relief to prevent the transfer of President Duterte to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, nobody from Mindanao said the court was wrong. Not a single former justice challenged the court’s position. But when the Senate archived the articles of impeachment based on a Supreme Court ruling, the intelligentsia in Philippine society cries foul. The decision, as the court maintained, did not even exonerate the Vice President. The Lower House was simply told to give the VP due process, ergo, that they have to follow the right procedure.
The problem of people who unduly position themselves on a moral high chair is that they have not improved the old narrative of reform or change. PNOY has tried it before but he failed. The issue is not really the radical ways of President Rodrigo Duterte, but the latent and continued influence of the elite in our lives. Academics label the effort to reach out to the poor as populist but that is so because they don’t like the maverick style and radical ways of the former President. It only took him weeks, what others would take years, for Lucio Tan to pay up PAL’s debts in using NAIA Terminal 2.
That is what pragmatic politics is about. You must serve the people! But the real threat to our democracy after Edsa I remains ever present. While the first People Power brought back a certain degree of political freedom to the Filipino people, an elite ruling class that perpetuates itself into power, is the biggest barrier to the political maturity of our people. They remain beholden to those who are in power while forgetting that they actually are the rightful owners of the throne. Ibanez says, “let us not confuse accountability with spectacle, or justice with vengeance.”
