Today is precious space in time that we borrowed from our children.

TODAY IS NOT A LEGACY FROM OUR FOREBEARS,
IT IS A PRECIOUS SPACE IN TIME THAT WE BORROWED

FROM OUR CHILDREN.

In an article that came out last February 23, 2008 in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, “People Power IV? No Thank You!, Ms. Solita Monsood wrote :

When the search for truth is confused with political advocacy, the process is reduced to a quest for power." Novelist Michael Crichton used this quote in one of his books, borrowing it from author Alston Chase.

And after comparing People Power I, II AND III with each other, she holds that People Power III was simply a travesty and that in People Power II :

……… it wasn't we the people who removed a sitting President, it was the military "withdrawing support" from him, which did the trick.

Concluding, Ms. Monsood holds that People Power IV :

……….. will not be People Power, but a Quest for Power by some people who would otherwise not attain it in the constitutionally approved manner: through elections.

In justification for her position, Ms. Monsood writes that:

The most important argument against a People Power IV is that It can happen only with another military intervention because Ms Arroyo is not likely to go meekly, and it will result not in more freedom and a stronger democracy but in less freedom and a weaker democracy. Did we fight and win against Charter change with its prospect of parliamentary authoritarianism only to end up No, thank you with military authoritarianism?

The problem with the above position of Ms. Monsood is that in the epic story of the Filipino people in their journey towards freedom, she looks at the unveiling history as something static and beyond transformation by present circumstances.

This error decends also from the wrong assumption that the present AFP is part of the people. That might be true in paper but not in practice as we have witnessed from events, time and time again. Obviously, the AFP is an integral part of this government and is being used as an instrument to continue its control over the people for its own end and not for the greater good of the country. As an integral part of an oppressive regime, the AFP could not liberate us from this situation because it is an essential part of the problem that created that situation in the first place. To be a liberating agent for the people under this regime, AFP must not only renounce its role for and under this administration, it must also reject the present administration and reclaim its true nature as defender of the rights of the people. But it would not because its existence depends on the inordinate largess it receives from this administration. Neither could it change with the help of this regime because helping the AFP to become the defender of the people once again is simply against the natural grain of a tyranical regime. As AFP could not change by itself or even with the help of the regime, its only recourse for redemption is from the people and with the people. Here lies the challenge to the Filipino people and here lies also the rationale why we, the people, must seize the day and continue our fight against the inequities of this administration until we get rid of it.

Any erroneous position that dampens the spirit of People Power , reinforces equally the present administration’s intent to perpetuate itself and avoid facing its accountability when it created the very conditions that imperatively call the people to exercise their sovereign authority as the true source of power under our system. The current administration, expectedly unrepentant and despite its avowals to the contrary, has no intention to set us free from the political, social and economic misery it created for us. Human history shows that despotism never delivers freedom to their victims in a silver platter unless it is on the tip of a sharp blade. On the contrary, it is the victims themselves, who, by the power borne by their own degradation and suffering, wrest liberty from the clutches of the tyrant and set themselves free!

Indeed, it is true, that only the Filipino people themselves , who could set themselves free from the debilitating position this regime has created for them. All that we, the Filipino people, have to do is to have that courage to be free and not to be afraid to take the risks needed to be freemen. To do what is right is better anytime, whenever a wrong stands before us. To wait until the AFP has cast its lot with the people or to wait until 2010 for the election, when GMA steps down, before the people exercise their God given right as the real power in the realm is to admit that we have not transformed ourselves from our previous mistakes and lapses. This is no different from parlaying our tomorrow for the enticing power of hope or the vagaries of fortune WHAT THE FILIPINO PEOPLE COULD RIGHTLY DO TODAY.

And speaking of possibilities in our search for truth , it is best to remind ourselves that ” TODAY IS NOT OUR LEGACY FROM OUR FOREBEARS, IT IS A PRECIOUS SPACE IN TIME THAT WE BORROWED FROM OUR CHILDREN. "

Photo courtesy:
Arkibong Bayan



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