The lunatics took over the asylum long ago

I haven’t written about Philippine politics for a while because I’ve reached one of my regular destinations – a point at which I say that, however hard I stretch my imagination, I would never dare come up with the outrageous scenarios that my morning Inquirer throws at me. So Miriam Santiagio a.k.a. Brenda a.k.a. “brain dead” has been proposed as the next Chief Justice? And Major General Jovito “Butcher” Palparan will be an employee of the, ahem, Justice Department?

If this is a dream, how come I never wake up?

These wonderful proposals remind me of a revealing conversation I had when I first arrived in the Philippines almost 10 years ago. I’d lived in South-east Asia for a while so I remembered the numerous coups against the Aquino government.

“So whatever happened to that Gringo guy who ran all those coups in the late 1980s?”

“Honasan? Oh, he’s now a Senator.”

In its way, that short answer is a perfect key to post-Marcos Philippines.

Comments

[Carla]

And Imelda has launched her own clothing and accessories line. She has run for president already, what else is left for her to do? Wake me up when she decides to become a Goth.

[James]

Commiserations

[torn and berg]

I think there are certain Filipino cultural traits that allow these things (including e.g. that ERAP will never be convicted)to happen:
- Loathing of confrontation;
- The (Christian?) virtue of forgiveness;
- Expectation of reciprocity;

None of these traits are by no means unique to the Philippines, but I wonder if the combination might be?

[torn]

Good points T&B and, as I think you were implying, these traits are by no means wholly negative. Take the recovery from the second world war, which my own country took far, far too long to get over. I am always struck by lack of any residual bitterness towards the Japanese in the Philipines, especially when compared with China of course. Some might say that that demonstrates yet again the short memory of Filipinos, but there are times when collective memory can be an enormous handicap. I prefer to think of Filipinos as having a generous relationship with the past. After all, what good is being embittered? Unless you intend one day to pay it back (which perhaps the Chinese are going to do.)

However, all these traits that you mention are related to (in my mind) one of the greatest problems in Philippines: the lack of justice, not only that, the lack of any expectation of justice.

[theamateurmisanthrope]

it's a long shot, but are you Martin Anderson?