The Old Ways And The New

It was inevitable.

It was only a matter of time that El Jefe would clash with the Chief Justice. They represent opposite ideas that are destined to collide with each other. The President said himself that there's no "due process" as far as he's concerned and wants to solve the crime problem the fast and dirty way. The Chief Justice, on the other hand, is a symbol of the usual way we do things. She stands for the "rule of law" and other tiresome phrases like that.

One should take the time to study these current events well. All we can do is observe. There are no laboratories or experiments. There is only history and it's maddeningly circular patterns.

People are tired of the old ways. They're tired because it's painfully obvious that they didn't work. That's why a lot of things that we once thought were unquestionable are now being questioned. This spat with the judiciary is just a symptom of an underlying condition. The judiciary is fast becoming irrelevant and obsolete. A lot of things are becoming irrelevant and obsolete. There is a new wave happening and the Chief Justice just got swept away by it. Oh, I know that Duterte apologized (sort of) to the Chief Justice, but the damage was done.

To put it simply, Filipinos are now in a mood to try reversing course on the traditionally held orthodoxies of Filipino culture. The old rule of law and due process shtick isn't working so now Filipinos want to try Duterte's methods. Our centralized bureaucracy is horribly inefficient so there's a serious move to federalize. The constitution is a cumbersome and increasingly irrelevant document so there's a move to amend (or even revise) it. We have a President who has a disturbingly chummy relationship with the reds at the start although it's rocky at the moment.

Duterte just coming out and saying that we should just go ahead and bury Marcos in the Libingan ng mga Bayani, I think, encapsulates perfectly the zeitgeist of today. People want to do away with the past, and the ways of thinking it spawned, even if it means sacrificing that which we once considered holy. Even if Marcos was a villain, and he was a villain no matter how you slice it, people are willing to commit one last injustice to the victims of his rule if doing so would finally free us from our historical baggage and let us move on with our goddamn lives.

Same thing could be said with the daily killings of suspected drug criminals. The old Philippines would huff and puff about how killing is wrong, about the "culture of violence" and about the "rule of law" and so on. Nowadays, people are asking, "Why not?". It's very unusual since Filipino mentality is timid and reluctant to question stuff that are thought to be important. I don't know the reason. Perhaps it's just the sheer exasperation and desperation of the people. Perhaps our institutions have degraded to such a phenomenal extent that people do not have any faith in it anymore and are slowly putting all their faith on a single man instead. The constant attention Duterte gets and the very aggressive and, dare I say, dictatorial way he deals with problems reminds me of certain people. But perhaps I am getting ahead of myself. Thinking of those comparisons too quickly is not good also.

How long can this movement be maintained? How far are we willing to go? Who knows what the next sacred cow of Philippine politics is going to be sent to the butcher shop. I predict that divorce may be coming in one or a few year from now. Ultimately, it doesn't matter to me though. It's simply amusing to me seeing all this unfold. It's amusing for now at least,  but maybe not so when they start rounding people up, me included.

Just enjoy the ride.