Philippine elections: Garbage in and garbage out

William Esposo, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Asia News Network, Manila

We get the government we deserve. But are the Filipino masses to blame for all our messed-up bad governance? Should we blame them for having no other recourse but to seek solace and escape from what is dished out to them in the silver screen? Should we fault them for failing to separate film fantasy from real life? Is it the fault of the masses that they worship the men and women who take on roles of heroes and heroines on film, as the closest thing they can get to economic and social emancipation?

There is nothing wrong with having fans but when film superstars jump out of the silver screen to extend their fantasy roles to sway unwitting idol-worshiping mass supporters for their political ambitions, then we should all be concerned. This is no different from the case of a perverted father abusing his lovely little girl who idolizes him.

And when opportunists, political wannabes, both failed and aspiring, rally behind the superstar turned political icon, you complete the ingredients for showbiztocracy -- the most recent of all evils to beset Philippine society.

Of course, I do not deny that feudalism and its offshoot, oligarchy, are still the country's biggest block to economic justice and freedom -- two basic elements that are the building blocks of a true democracy. Popular elections would have been a way of weeding out the bad elements and a free media would have been a great mechanism to help fulfill the natural purging process that elections would have realized. But alas, election campaigns here are nothing but a superficial circus of flamboyant characters and hangers on and media cannot even discuss real issues nor can it encourage the expression of sensible and meaningful perspectives.

But what can we expect, really? Since only the economic elite can lend financial backing to any political aspirant, it goes without saying that everything will have strings attached. And everything will always go back to enrich the financier. And it goes without saying that all this rigmarole will only serve the status quo, worsen further the chasm between the haves and the have-nots, empower imbeciles to run our country and perpetuate a showbiztocracy so wacky it will drive even Ripley mad.

In the beginning, the oligarchs placed their lackeys as governors and mayors and their kinfolk -- usually their sons and daughters -- in the more prestigious and glamorous halls of Congress. But the old familiar names no longer generate magic and people now associate them with deteriorating poverty, corruption and decadence -- hence the shift to showbiz personalities. When the inherent ineptness of this breed of people from the silver screen starts to translate to even worse poverty and social misery, it wouldn't surprise me if the puppeteers will next turn to political talents from the red light districts.

Media -- who should be lending sanity and right perspectives -- are even sometimes part of the problem for the following reasons:

* Lack of vision and sense of mission made worse by an almost rabid appetite for sensational stories. The English language broadsheets are even reinventing journalism practice by outdoing the street tabloids in low-level reporting. A mere visit of Fernando Poe Jr. to a forum on globalization in UP is given maximum play-up when Poe left even before the forum started. Apparently his 'presence' was intended to get the photo-op of attending a forum whose topic title he cannot perhaps even pronounce and of course media swooped right in at the chance to boost circulation and ratings.

* The reality is that media is also a victim of the patronage game -- as many media moguls and key players are but extensions of the oligarchy. They too are smitten with the lust for a piece of that power pie. Under the circumstance, the biggest casualty are truth and public trust. Under the circumstance, the media outfit, whether broadcast or print, becomes a mouthpiece for public relations spins for vested interests. Tell me who the owners of a media outfit are and I will tell you who they promote.

Media therefore becomes an extension of exploitation.

With garbage in, we of course get garbage out. Our political players and media corrupt an already poorly informed, poorly educated masses with all the wrong reasons for choosing their elected officials. So where do we get off now blaming the very ones we've corrupted with the wrong values and information.

I recently saw former Rep. Mike Romero in ABS-CBN's Dong Puno show and he tried to justify Poe's qualification to be president on the basis of Poe's movie outfit's success. Now Mike Romero, just like me, is a kidney transplant recipient. In fact we have the same doctor and chance upon each other during our monthly visits. But Mike is either peddling rubbish for that remark or it was not a kidney he needed after all.

Because an intellectually honest person who is intelligent to begin with would not have uttered that. (I may have understood and tolerated that remark if it was a Tito Sotto, Robert Barbers, Ramon Revilla or a Robert Jaworski who said it). But this is precisely the kind of discourse that renders our selection process so flawed. The more mature democracies will provide a clash of ideas on how to improve the people's lives. Here the exchanges between election combatants are not about platforms and real issues but between lies and half truths, illusions and obfuscations that both sides employ in their desire to control power.

Worse, media provide these counter productive discourses banner treatment.

We wonder if media is aware at all that their lifeline is linked to advertising and advertising is the very first casualty when an economy takes a tailspin. On the very first year after the Asian currency crisis of 1997, easily 35 percent of brands that advertised on television vanished and the 65 percent of brands that maintained television advertising reduced their spending by easily 25 percent. If I have my numbers right, total ad spend in 2002 may not yet have reached what it was in 1996.

This media revenue drop is easily topped by what political instability can induce. In fact, the other Southeast Asian countries like Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia have already rebounded in their lost ad revenues and are now on the upswing. Philippine media are undergoing worse revenue droughts -- no longer because of the Asian currency crisis -- but due to the political situation that Joseph Estrada created and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo aggravated.

Yet, we blame the Filipino masses.