The Erroneous Nature of the Philippine Democracy

"Whatever will we do without democracy that we claim to exist in our only partly free society?"

In our country, it is no doubt that compared to the system observed with different countries in terms of their government, the Philippines’ allowance regarding the implementation of laws and the election of competitive politicians and leaders is still very persistent. In fact, based on the history and statistics of democratic pursuits in countries located in Southeast Asia, our country was the flag-bearer of democracy, promoting freedom of expression and nonviolence amidst the conflicts and situations our country faces. Democracy has always been a desire for the citizens of our country even as we reminisce back to centuries of Philippine history, but have we realized the distorted image that it has come to take shape? If our democracy is so ideal, preaching freedom and sovereignty of the people, the system that governs it must be ideal as well. If the performance of our political status fails to translate our expectations for democracy into reality after multiple attempts, it would definitely be more plausible to scrap these ideas and initiate a new form of government, a catalyst of change, one that suppresses the people’s voices more intensely than it does now. Clearly, this has always been the course of action our leaders seem to perpetuate, with the belief of it bearing beneficial results, as well.

The image of the Philippine democracy can be illustrated in one of the most remarkable events that is still being commemorated today, and that is the People’s Power Revolution, a campaign that inspired the restoration of democracy and peaceful, nonviolent amends with the government in the hopes of putting a stop to the corruption, violence and fraud caused within the Philippine government during the second Marcos regime. This was proof of the lengths we’ve gone in our past against the cruelty we’ve been subjected to. With these events, the “People’s Power” Filipinos claimed was extremely evident and peaceful in nature, all the while transparent and expositional regarding the flaws they saw with the government. However, despite the unending pursuit for a functional democratic country after all these years, the government, supposedly placed to maintain our progression, is not too sufficient for the job. We’ve seen the glory of our past, now we seem to have deteriorated. If there was one reason behind this, if we’ve always aspired to exercise democracy, and our government is solely centered on this, what would it be? Perhaps we’ve built such a lax mindset in promoting the freedom of expression of the people, that administration has yet to be properly handled. With this in mind, our president’s favor for the implementation of laws like the Martial Law or Anti-Terrorism Bill must be the resolution for the troubles we’ve encountered, that our minds have been tainted with a false sense of freedom all these years.

Picture this: if our government is operated with oligarchy, which, in reality, our country is already headed to, we wouldn’t have to conflict ourselves with the idea of the deterioration of our partial freedom, which has already proved to affect us enough. When we look at it, our country is continually experiencing the effects of a faulty democracy, and it is apparent even in the time of the pandemic. Some of the effects, as we have seen in the country, include the deterioration of our adherence to the rule of law, the worsened situation of corruption within our country, the increase of constraints implemented upon press freedom, and many other evidences leading to the state of democracy the country possesses today. This shows how our faulty democracy has disrupted different systems in our country, especially the rule of law. According to Rappler, in 2018, the Philippines experienced a decline with adherence to fundamental rights, order and security, civil justice, and criminal justice. There is the diminished hope for the success of our democracy that will eventually lead to its downfall, which will leave us with no other option but to have a political shift.

The reasons behind the failure of the Philippine democracy that we have worked so hard to achieve throughout history is initially from that way people exercise it, and how their decisions are affected by different factors, such as the use of fame and social status by running politicians, as well as attempts of manipulation of votes in the competition for political power. If democracy is truly inclined towards the people’s inclusion and desire for proper administration, we would not end up with our consequent so-called leaders and representatives who are corrupt and unjust. This is why our democracy lacks credibility and plausibility that other authoritative forms of government would clearly otherwise have.

Our democracy is labeled as flawed and distorted due to the deterioration of our adherence to the rule of law and the poor implementations and decisions of our people. In reality, it has its positive and negative feats, and the foundation of our constitutional system is actually competent, but only if it is exercised in the proper way. It takes the cooperation of the citizens and our leaders, a number of conflicts that we’ll overcome and learn from, and the elimination of deception and betrayals between our leaders and the people. As a solution to the problems we are continuously encountering in our country, we must learn to open our eyes and increase our awareness of the politicians we choose to gain positions to lead us. Whatever will we do without the democracy that we claim to exist in our only partly free society?