CHECK out Philippine Daily Inquirer editor John Nery’s latest post in Current, the joint blog he maintains with Inquirer columnist Manuel Quezon III.
Here’s an excerpt:
Sometimes we can read too much into the “meaning” of a particular vote.
I found Raul Pangalangan’s last column, on the meaning of the Honasan-Trillanes vote, a provocative read. I especially thought this particular passage was right on the money.
By manipulating the various arms of government to harass its enemies and protect its own, the Arroyo government has weakened the rule of law. It has conditioned the people to look to end-results � stop corruption, improve education, expand health care, make housing more accessible � and be indifferent to the means, constitutional or not. It has lowered the bar, so to speak, that the law has placed to guard against extra-constitutional power grabs.
This weakening of the rule of law � “culture of impunity,” anyone? � must be counted as one of the main legacies of the Arroyo administration.
May 24th, 2007 at 3:31 am
I share the same sentiment with kawa. It is very unfortunate that for some, it is so easy to point an accusing finger than help find a solution. To complain and not do anything to better the situation. Clearly, there has been a deterioration of values somewhere. The same is true with the level of their education and the environment that they’re in. It does reflect the voting population and their preference, however ill informed.
May 24th, 2007 at 12:06 am
i beg to disagree. i find the comment quiet empty and irresponsible. in the history of the philippines, the recent one is surely not charaterized by the weakening of the rule of law. in fact, very far from it.
the social problems we face today are mostly caused by political imaturity and lack of patriotism among the populace and surely not the making of one woman.
i would say that the picture we see around us, is a picture of democracy at its worse, i.e., freedom at the hands of not-so-intelligent majority. for us people in the academe, we would know that the over-rated system called democracy only works best in an intelligent population, sadly we are not.
so before we put the blame on someone who in this case didn’t do anything other than gave her life to doing service to people who are mostly ungrateful, why dont we try to ask ourselves, are we trying to be part of the solution or are we the problem itself?