Dear Readers,
In this June issue of the FOP newsletter, now called FOP News Analysis and Features, yours truly is taking on the role of editor, as Aya Fabros begins her Asian Public Intellectuals (API) Fellowship. Aya will be on leave for a year starting July to do research on the political agency—perceptions and practice—of global workers in Malaysia and Japan.
A brief note about our June issue: we say farewell to the legacy of GMA and her government, but not without, as Aya says in her opinion piece, confronting, threshing out and addressing this legacy, lest we again conveniently and collectively forget what the nine-year regime is about—regression. We have to remember in order to make this regime accountable; this is the way to begin looking forward to what’s ahead under the Aquino administration. Amid the euphoria brought about by the victory of a popular president—perceived to be the total opposite of the exiting head of state—and in an automated election that speeded up the vote counting in ways we haven’t imagined before, we believe there is need for a moment to settle, take a deep breath, look at the electoral process and its results more closely and critically (without belittling the voters’ euphoric feelings), and see what we’ve really got in terms of the newly-elected government, including and especially in the legislature and local governments. We’ve seen how Congress can act as deterrent to reforms, much more so to far-reaching change, when those occupying the seats of power in that branch of government represent self-serving political and economic interests. Who will be in this “new” government? What or whose interests will they represent and work for? What can we expect from Noynoy Aquino’s presidency?—are just a few of the questions that our news analysis pieces attempt to address, while our feature articles provide observer’s point of view of the goings-on during election day.
We encourage you to use our articles as reference in your school discussions, organizational publications, blogs, and for our friends in media, to reprint/re-post in your newspapers and internet-based news platforms. Just remember to acknowledge Focus on Global South Philippines.
Clarissa V. Militante
Contents:
OPINION PIECE
Farewell to the Legacy of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo
By Aya Fabros
The parade is all set. The floats are primed, each one signifying feats
of an outgoing president intent on basting up some last-minute legacy.
The spectacle is ready to swagger before mob and madness. Remember me
well, says the spectacle to the crowd, bidding farewell to a thinning
public methodically marshaled onto the sidelines. Pompous pageantry, an
allusion to significance and substance, marks the final moments of a
regime that defined the last nine years of our life as a nation.
READ MORE
NEWS ANALYSIS
View from the Left: The Meaning of the Noynoy Aquino Presidency
By Reihana Mohideen
On June 9 Senator Benigno Aquino III of the Liberal Party (or Noynoy
Aquino), the son of former President Cory Aquino, was proclaimed
President by the Philippine Congress. Paradoxically, with the
restoration of the Aquinos to the presidency, the elections have also
resulted in the restoration of the Marcoses to national politics with
the former dictator’s son Bongbong Marcos winning as senator, Imelda
Marcos winning a seat in Congress and her daughter Imee Marcos taking
the governorship in their political bailiwick, the province of Ilocos
Norte.
READ MORE
Family Matters: Delving into the 2010 Winning Political Clans
By Carmina Flores-Obanil
If Jesus truly invented dynasties as pointed out by Ramon Durano Sr.,
of the formidable Durano clan in Cebu and former member of the Lower
House representing Danao City, then Jesus must be very happy with the
way the May 2010 elections turned out. If the results were any
indicator, the Filipinos would not be seeing the decline of political
clans or dynasties in the Philippines anytime soon. In fact, the last
elections saw the victory or the re-election of political families in
both national and local positions in their respective bailiwicks.
READ MORE
GMA's Cabinet Members; Eurogenerals: 2010 Election's Big Losers
By Clarissa V. Militante
President Arroyo has often been described as master of the art of
patronage politics; that she sustained her hold on power for nine years
due to her ability to cultivate, use and exploit local politics as her
power base, thus the army of local officials, including congressional
representatives, loyal to her. But her cabinet members and former
military men known to be loyal to her seemed to have missed out on this
very important lesson.
READ MORE
Party-list Winners: Whose Interests are Represented?
By Mary Ann Manahan
Five years after it was set-up to address the gaps of representational
democracy in the country, has the party-list system broken the monopoly
of big traditional politics and decreased the tendency for personality
politics?
READ MORE
FEATURE STORIES
Been There, Done That--Observations on the 2010 Philippine Elections
By Fang Chih-Yung*
Even before the polling day, doubts about the first nation-wide
automated elections were strong and people’s confidence in a clean and
peaceful election was low. The malfunction of several Precinct Count
Optical Scan (PCOS) machines during the mock election held by
Commission on Elections (Comelec) just a few days before polling day
didn’t ease worries about a possible failure of elections. But even
under these circumstances, there was a general sense by the public that
the voter turnout would be high, since after nine years of rule by a
government tainted with corruption, scandals, rent-seeking, plunder,
cheatings, and overall lack of legitimacy, the Filipino people were
crying for change. And change they hoped to have on the May 10
elections.
READ MORE
Between National Automaton and Sub-national Authoritarianisms: Diatribes of an Election Observer
By Jerik Cruz*
As the dust of the first nationwide automated elections in Southeast
Asia settles, several questions continue to brew above the heads of the
Filipino public. One of them is: have the 2010 elections been peaceful
and democratic? If one toes the line of most, it may seem as if the
events of May 10 have somehow been less deadly and less insidious than
other polls before it.
READ MORE
Re-posting: How the Left Fared*
By Miriam Coronel-Ferrer
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