IN THE FEW DAYS before the downfall of the Estrada administration last week, both the members of the “SanibLakas family” who were there at EDSA and the members who decided not to go to EDSA, for their own respective and respected reasons, were one in spirit, praying and working in their own respective chosen ways, for the good of our country and for all Filipinos to be more enlightened.  This may have reflected the bigger picture of a nation willing to sacrifice comfort and safety for freedom, but quite unsure as to what would really be a forward move in the long and slow march for social change.

          Before that week was over, the nation turned a new leaf with the oath-taking of a new President, after yet another historical confluence of developments that had built up an unprecedented synergy of widely varied forces and entities. Actually, it had developed from the increasing citizen interest in public affairs, due the impeachment trial being covered live and in full by the broadcast media everyday for weeks.

The spark for “EDSA-2” was lit by an overwhelming assertion of the value of Truth which had just been assaulted. But such assertion after the infamous Senate vote had to be shifted to the “Parliament of the Streets,” with citizen support growing into more than a million physically present at EDSA and thousands more nationwide. This drew in the decisive military support factor, which had also been decisive in “EDSA-1.” Then, the people came to defend with their prayers, nervous smiles and warm bodies a handful of military defectors from a hated dictatorship.  This time, the people rallied en masse to uphold the ideal of Truth

Seek the Truth and it shall set us free. And there are very important truths that still need to be sought and acted upon.  The matter of the former President’s guilt or innocence on the charges is now less important than the Truth on which side was the real majority of Filipinos on and why.  We use here the word “majority” in its literal sense as we feel we need to, and not in the way the pro-Estrada and the anti-Estrada spokespersons and partisans would tend to distort the word.  There was a “critical mass” of people who gathered at EDSA, but one million out of more than 30 million Filipino adults can hardly stand for the majority.

The pro-Erap side, as such (and not, for example, as a “prayer congregation”), could not muster even a quarter of this number, especially because many of the former President’s supporters could not leave their daily mandatory “sangkahig-santuka” routines for sheer survival. Even if we were to add the “active anti” and “active pro” figures together and even multiply the sum by ten to add a generously presumed number of active partisans who never showed up at the rallies, the resulting figure does not reach a literal majority. 

The question remains—what did the silent majority think and feel about the whole thing? Did they have any logical reason to pin their hopes and aspirations on the fortunes of Estrada administration all the way to the end?   What do they feel about the newly-installed Arroyo government?  Why can we sense a mood of regret and resignation, even fear, among many of the ordinary folks?  Can we be Truthful in assuming that this feeling is simply traceable to plain ignorance on their part?  Or is it possible that they have actually had a street-wise judgment coming out of observing Philippine politics all these years and decades?

“What’s the use of asking these questions?” we might be asked with impatience, “didn’t enough people move to effect the ouster of Erap and usher in a new President?”  Yes, we’d answer, enough people won that battle for a new administration to come to power at the Palace.  Has it made the majority ready to support any genuine leadership for social upliftment when one finally comes their way.  Why can’t the poor be persuaded to hate jueteng as much as do those who’d take money only from PAGCOR?  How would they take the propo­sal to prosecute Estrada without prosecuting the other errant politicians before him? Did not Estrada’s success­ful projection as “champion of the masses,” and the frequently-insensitive anti-Estrada dis­course combine in worsening the psychological gap between the rich and the poor atop the economic one?  Quoting from the Bible, the new President recognized in her inaugural speech that a divided kingdom cannot stand.  SanibLakas Foundation believes that our nationhood is weak with this social fragmentation. We have no real national synergy.

The majority of the people may be thinking they have nothing more to gain or lose either way whoever sits in Malacañang. And that perception may have had a solid basis in their very own lives! Anybody and any entity concerned working for social change has to address in earnest the sensibilities and day-to-day lives of the ordinary Filipinos.  And addressing this concern in earnest has to start with the earnest quest for Truth.

Theories and superficial surveys aside, “scientific” assumptions and presumptions aside, what do the ordinary farmers, gasoline boys, firemen, public school teachers and students, waiters, drivers, market vendors and street cleaners really think and feel? And why so???  Our answer: we don’t really know. An earnest quest for Truth can only start with that kind of admission. Humility is not always comfortable, but it can be honest and fair.  We dare challenge those who have both reason and resources to apply their minds and budgets to such an earnest effort of social investigation.  Only thus can we make appropriate plans for effect­ive mass education, effective people’s empowerment and effective poverty alleviation.

          Now is the time to start the healing process.  Let us continue praying for the good of our country and for all Filipinos to be more enlightened. Let us pray that the opportunists not be allowed to reward themselves for their roles in bringing down the Estrada administration. The victorious partisans of the anti-Erap movement must now look back to rethink some of the approach­es they used in delivering their messages across. The approaches were effective for drawing in a million-strong crowd at EDSA but may have imprudently insulted and alien­ated the silent majority.  The slower march of social history may yield for their displayed levels of self-righteousness and elitist condescension the kind of “victory” an unstatesmanlike senator was triumphantly dancing about after the 11-10 vote -- a cheap one.

SANIBLAKAS Foundation celebrates with the Filipino nation the historic achievement of a peaceful transition away from an acute political and economic crisis.  We celebrate too the fact that this time around, civil society organizations were taking the lead, after uniting solidly for the effort despite the many earlier and remaining differences among the people’s and non-government organizations.  And we are offering our humble services and programs in synergism-promotion and synergy-building as our contribution to the entire effort of healing for the upliftment of the consciousness and lives of the ordinary Filipinos.

Makati City, Philippines January 22, 2001

For the SanibLakas Board of Trustees,
(Sgd.) Ed Aurelio C. Reyes
Founder and President
SanibLakas ng Taongbayan Foundation
6173-C Gabaldon st., Makati,
1210 Philippines