General George Patton famously said “No man ever won a war by dying for his country—it is by making the other bastard die for his.” While this was painfully true in the context of world wars, this should not be the case for the wars that should be waged once a new president is elected in May.
I’m talking about two wars that the present administration has only waged selectively and half-heartedly: the war against corruption, and the war against poverty. To cite another quote, Bertrand Russell sums everything up quite poignantly: ”War does not determine who is right— only who is left.” Unlike wars that were fought with clearly drawn lines on the sand, the wars against corruption and against poverty should not be waged against specific persons—we are up against cultures, mindsets, and ways of living. Instead, we have witnessed personality politics in the guise of honorable crusades.
We have seen this during the pork barrel suits and the delivery of Typhoon “Yolanda” aid. The wars against corruption were waged in the framework of “us versus them.” Government policy on eliminating graft and corruption were railroaded with the hubris of the battle cry “If you are not with us, then you are against us.” For this administration, Lady Justice does not wear a blindfold; instead, she wears the blinders, much like administration cronies who cannot see the faults of those who stand shoulder-to-shoulder with them.
We have seen how this administration makes the mistake of confusing its war against poverty and turning it into the war against the poor. We have seen how this administration throughout the years have marginalized and alienated the farmers and the agricultural sector. From the humiliation that is Hacienda Luisita, to the elimination of hunger by bullets in Kidapawan, this administration has a puzzling definition of poverty that excludes those that are meant to feed the nation and yet cannot feed themselves.
And there is another war that the present administration has failed to rally: the war against criminality. What is disconcerting about this war is that some presidential candidates have unrealistic views on how to end criminality in the country, which would require the perpetuation of the “us versus them” perspective the present administration has espoused. For them, this is a war not against the concept of criminality but against criminals themselves, as notoriously established by both evidence against and myths about him. What they need to understand is that the wars against corruption, criminality, and poverty are part of a vicious cycle that has bored itself into the system of Filipino political life.
The problem of some presidential candidates is that they are no different from the present administration in waging these wars; they tend to be unapologetic, partisan, and blind to their respective faults and shortcomings. Like President Aquino, Grace Poe and Mar Roxas were raised in their pedestals by hanging on flimsy myths based on the transferability of their family’s legacies however dubious they are—except for Rody Duterte. Similar to Aquino, the respective supporters of these candidates have been misled by the idea that choice of president is as competent as their parents. These candidates are choices for maintaining a dismal and inequitable status quo of implementing anti-crime, anti-corruption, and anti-poverty policy that will be continuously bogged down by analysis paralysis, red tape, and do-overs; or worse, summary executions. These are policies on waging the three wars that will determine who would be left, and will always be right.
Vice presidential candidate Senator Gringo Honasan said it best in the Comelec-sanctioned VP debates: Kung walang kurap, walang mahirap. To extend this logic, solving poverty would also solve the problem of crime, and promote peace and order. It is time to remind voters that a sound platform for a president is one that is based in sober reflections on how poverty, corruption, and criminality are intertwined, and can only be solved with experience in implementing poverty alleviation programs—the true weapon for ending the three wars.
