I don't know if a bottom up approach would work though. Especially, since the courts have become so corrupted. Seems to me a strong effective leader, someone elected and trusted by the people could go along way toward cleaning house. Especially if he built a well trained and trusted FBI.
But where do you find your candidate, and where do you find the resources to mount a national campaign? Idealists and incorruptible potential leaders end up going underground, one way or another - either to the communists in the hills, or into a box. I'm not exaggerating: the average Philippine election has a death toll of 50-100, many of them inconvenient candidates in local races. When the elites have a lock on local politics, it is very difficult for any progressive candidate to build a national base.
The same problem exists with the idea of an FBI. Where do you get the people? The elites are well aware of the importance of the law enforcement apparatus, and have control of it at every level.
It is actually not impossible: there are some amazingly tough, strong, capable people out there fighting the good fight, many of them veterans of the fight against Marcos. But the progressive movements are riddled with infighting, too many of them are carrying too much socialist ideological baggage, and they are a long way from mounting an effective campaign. The logical start, to me, would be in Manila, where there is at least the beginning of an independent, educated, middle class, information is easier to disseminate, and it's harder to get away with the kind of gratuitous violence that prevails in the provinces.
But it's not up to me.
Do you know whether this sort of corruption was as common before Marcus came to power? I don't know my history of the Philippines very well, but I seem to remember reading they were once one of the wealthiest nations in the region. And it makes me wonder whether Marcus created the environment in which the present situation flourished.
I could write a book to answer that question, and might, someday, once the kids are educated and I can write for some purpose other than making money.
In short: the notion that the Philippines was clicking over just fine until Marcos came along is a grand fiction, the legitimacy of which derives solely from repetition. At the end of WWII the country was given independence by the US, but was saddled with one of the most unequal economic treaties ever created (details available by request). The economy went into a total tailspin; after a serious insurrection in Central Luzon in the early '50s a US Senate mission recommended scrapping the treaty, which was done, giving Philippine exports better access to US markets. There were some good years, at least by the numbers, in the late '50s and '60s, due mostly to high prices for sugar, copper, coconut oil and other exports, but the elites pissed the money away - while the Japanese, Taiwanese, and Koreans were investing in basic industry, the Filipino barons were blowing their wads in casinos around the world (again, more complicated than that, but close enough). Naturally, those habits caught up with them.
Corruption has been endemic since the Spanish days; the writings of American colonial officials bear ample testament to this. The governments before that of Marcos were hugely corrupt. The theft reached new peaks under Marcos largely because the sudden availability of foreign loans created a gigantic new pork barrel. The reasons for that sudden availability make a fascinating story, but are perhaps a little too OT for this venue. Suffice it to say that a system developed wherein a Filipino company could borrow dollars from an international bank, as long as the government guaranteed the loan, meaning that if the company defaulted, the government would pay. The IMF was supposed to make sure that governments were not abusing the guarantees, but the IMF was quietly told to go easy on certain strategically important governments. So the cronies got guarantees, borrowed money, kicked back a percentage to Ferdy and Meldy, defaulted, passed the tab on to the taxpayers, opened a new company, and did it all over again. Neat trick, if you were in the circle.
Absolute power can be lots of fun.
I'd better stop now, it's a subject that gets me going. |
