Evanescence of Shame

PH Politics &
The Evanescence Of Shame

Gideon Lasco / inquirerdotnet
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 12:22
October 06, 2016
They, of all the people, know the true nature of scandal. Many of them have
faced it; many have emerged unscathed. Some have gone into hiding, only to
come back famous. Some have been accused, and even convicted, of the
most vicious crimes, only to return to the highest echelons of power. The
people, fickle as the Paris mob during the French Revolution, have spurned
them, only to eventually welcome them with open arms.
The tenacity with which our politicians have survived and thrived speaks not
merely of their character but also of ourselves as a nation. Ours is the power
of the vote, but why is it that Election Days never become days of reckoning
for our politicians, the days when we call them to account for alleged
misdeeds and past (mis)conduct? If our political scandals are as riveting and
entertaining as thriller movies, how come we never demand that we watch
the ending?
Consider the case of Juan Ponce Enrile. One of Ferdinand Marcos top
henchmen, he by his own admission participated in a fake ambush that
served as one of the pretexts for the declaration of martial law. For many
years he was minister of defense, and it was only when support for the
dictatorship was eroding that he finally disavowed his being among the
privileged Rolex 12 and went on to become an Edsa hero. By the time
Cory Aquino was inaugurated president, many Filipinos had forgivenand
forgottenhis role in the atrocities that necessitated the Edsa Revolution in
the first place.
But it was just the first act in Enriles long political life. Barely a year after the
restoration of democracy, he began to figure in a series of coup attempts
against Cory Aquino that hobbled the nations attempts to crawl back from
political and economic instability. Years later, he would be among the
senators who blocked the release of the second envelope during President
Joseph Estradas impeachment trial, and by May 2001, he had become so
unpopular that he couldnt even win a Senate seat.
But three years later he was back in the Senate, and he would even go to
become a Senate presidentan admired elder wearing the robes of a
presiding officer in Chief Justice Renato Coronas own impeachment trial.
Today, amid fresh allegations of corruption, his political life continues to
unfold, his advanced age his surest defense against further incarceration.
Like his role in martial law, his involvement in the many coup attempts and
scandals would likely remain an unsolved mystery.
Of course, we have the example of the Marcoses themselves. When

Bongbong ran for the Senate in 1995, he decisively lost, placing 16th in a
field led by Gloria Macapagal Arroyothen the darling of the public. Neither
could fifth-placer Imelda win as president in 1992. Indeed, when the
memories of martial law were still fresh, the Marcoses couldnt win in the
national elections. But by 2010, Bongbong had become a victor, winning an
impressive 13 million votes to land him in the Senate, like his father before
him. In his bid for the vice presidency, he would gain an even greater
following, and today he is viewed as a leading contender in the next
presidential election.
Their alleged misdeeds have been forgotten, and like the proverbial
masamang damo, our politicians themselves have survived, often as
bedfellows of the people who persecuted them, sometimes as the
persecutors of their bedfellows past. Longevity, as it turns out, is better than
righteousness.
***
Today we are rightfully interested in Sen. Leila de Lima and Edgar Matobato,
but we seem to have forgotten Janet Lim Napoles and Joc-Joc Bolante. The
Ampatuan massacre, one of the most atrocious crimes to ever have
happened in our country, is now a distant memory. We debate over who are
destabilizing the country at the moment, but we have forgotten those who
destabilized us in the past; we have even rewarded some of our most
notorious putschists with Senate seats. When we see Joseph Estrada, we no
longer see President Erap alias Jose Velarde, plunder convict, but the jolly
mayor who contemplates how best to solve Manilas traffic woes. When we
see GMA, we no longer greet her with Hello, Garci! but address her as
Madame Deputy Speaker.
Some of them may well be innocent of some, if not all, of the things of which
they were accused; we must not underestimate the efficacy of black
propaganda. But we will never know because investigations are never
concluded; they merely fade away into oblivion. Probably because they were
never true, to begin with. Or probably because they were trueand hence
there was an effort to hide them. We will never know.
We will never know, because we are no longer interested to know. We will
never know because we have forgotten why we wantedand neededto
know. And because an eternity has passed between then and now, it is too
late to know what truly happened. Like the fragments of a dinosaur bone that
can never definitively settle the question of whether the prehistoric animal
had feathers, what remains of the truth of the past, if at all it is excavated, is
subject to interpretation and debate, a matter of opinion, contingent on
todays prevailing knowledge.
And this explains, at least in part, why our politicians can get away with
anything and everything. They know the electorate too well. In a nation
without memory, they understandand take full advantage ofsome of the
principles that govern our political processes: the evanescence of shame, the
frailty of truth, and the virtue of power.

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PH Politics &

The Evanescence Of Shame

Of course, we have the example of the Marcoses themselves. When

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