Philippine Politics as a Peoples' Quest for Authentic Political Subjecthood

Ruiz Lester J. , “Philippine Politics and the ‘February 1986 Rebellion': Democratic Transformation or Anti-Democratic Reform?” Lecture delivered at the 1986 IMPACT Annual Spring Briefing, Rochester, New York, 17 April 1986.

Agoncillo Teodoro A. Guerrero Milagros C. , A History of the Filipino People, 5th edn (Quezon City, Philippines: R.P. Garcia Publishing Co., 1977), p.642; see also Amado Guerrero, Philippine Society and Revolution (Oakland: International Association of Filipino Patriots, 1979); Renato Constantino, The Philippines: A Past Revisited (Quezon City: Tala Publishing Service, 1975).

See Pomeroy William , American Neo-Colonialism: Its Emergence in the Philippines and Asia (New York: International Publishers, 1970); Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman, The Washington Connection and Third World Fascism, vol 1 (Boston: South End Press, 1979), pp. 1–104, 230–241; Jose Maria Sison, The Struggle for National Democracy (Quezon City: Progressive Publications, 1967), pp. 56ff.; Miguel Bernad, Christianization of the Philippines: Problems and Prospects (Manila: The Filipiniana Book Guild, 1972); Renato Constantino, The Nationalist Alternative (Manila: Foundation for Nationalist Studies, 1979), pp. 1–22, 23–64; Alejandro Lichauco, “The Lichauco Paper: Imperialism in the Philippines,” Monthly Review, July-August 1973, pp. 14–52 passim; Bello Walden Rivera Severina (editors), The Logistics of Repression and Other Essays: The Role of U.S. Assistance in Consolidating the Martial Law Regime in the Philippines (Washington, DC: Friends of the Filipino People, 1977).

The notion of “parliament of the streets” was commonly understood as referring to the massive student-led demonstrations of the mid-60s and the early-70s which involved industrial and agricultural workers, tenants and small farmers, fishingfolk, slum-dwellers, professionals, employees and students, and, small and medium business-people.

This notion must be broadened to include “popular movements” such as the 1967 revolt of the Lapiang Malaya against the Marcos government which many “modern” Filipinos dismissed as “fanaticist,” “nativist,” or “millenarianist.” Their disclosive possibilities challenge the dominant interpretations of Philippine society heretofore interpreted through middle-class values. See Ileto Reynaldo C. , Pasyon and Revolution: Popular Movements in the Philippines, 1840–1910 (Quezon City, Metro Manila: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1979), pp. 3–15.

For additional documentation of these “popular movements” see Sturtevant David , Agrarian Unrest in the Philippines (Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Center for International Studies, 1969); see also the bibliography in Ileto's Pasyon and Revolution, pp. 332–340. See further Southeast Asia Resource Center, “Tribal People and the Marcos Regime: Cultural Genocide in the Philippines,” Southeast Asia Chronicle, 67, October 1979, pp. 1–32.

Macapagal Diosdado , Democracy in the Philippines (Ontario, Canada: Ruben J. Cusipag, 1976), pp. 28–29; Raul Manglapus, Philippines: The Silenced Democracy (New York: Orbis Books, 1976), pp. 13–20; see also Rolando del Carmen, “Constitutionality and Judicial Politics,” in: Rosenberg David (editor), Marcos and Martial Law in the Philippines (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1979), pp. 85–112.

Proclamation No. 1081 “Proclaiming A State Of Martial Law In The Philippines,” in: Marcos Ferdinand E. , The Democratic Revolution in the Philippines, 2nd edn (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall International, Inc., 1979), pp. 335–351.

Abdurasad Asani, official spokesperson of the MNLF, in a speech delivered at the Fifth Oil Workers World Anti-Monopolist Conference, Tripoli, Libya, 26–30 March 1980; see also Vokey Richard , “Islands Under the Gun,” Far Eastern Economic Review, 8 May 1981, pp. 36–42; Cesar Adib Majul, Muslims in the Philippines, 3rd edn (Manila: Saint Mary's Publishing House, 1973); Southeast Asia Resource Center, “400 Year War—Moro Struggle in the Philippines,” Southeast Asia Chronicle, 82 February 1982, pp. 1–28.

Tasker Rodney , “Philippines: The Drift to the Left,” Far Eastern Economic Review, 21 August 1981, pp.17–22; see also Southeast Asia Resource Center, “The Philippines in the 80's—From Normalization to Polarization,” Southeast Asia Chronicle, 82, April 1982, pp.1–28.

Bello Walden Kinley David Elinson Elaine , Development Debacle: The World Bank in the Philippines (San Francisco: Institute for Food and Development Policy/Philippine Solidarity Network, 1982), pp. 1–66, 165–182; “The Philippines: American Corporations, Martial Law, and Development,” International Documentation on the Contemporary Church, 57, November 1973, pp. 8–83; Guy Sacerdoti, “Cracks in the Coconut Shell,” Far Eastern Economic Review, 8, January 1981, pp. 42–48.

Report of an Amnesty International Mission to the Republic of the Philippines, 11–28 November 1981, (London: Amnesty International Publications, 1982); The Philippines: A Country in Crisis (New York: The Lawyers Committee for International Human Rights, 1983); “Preliminary Report on a Fact-Finding Mission to the Republic of the Philippines, 28 November–17 December 1983,” sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, American College of Physicians, American Committee for Human Rights, American Nurses’ Association, American Public Health Association, Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, January 1984. (Mimeographed).

For full documentation of the Permanent Peoples' Tribunal Session on the Filipino People and the Bangsa Moro People, see Permanent Peoples' Tribunal, Philippines: Repression and Resistance (London: Zed Press, 1983).

William Ascher, Central Projects Division, World Bank cited in: Bello Walden , “Secret World Bank Document on Marcos: An Alliance Coming Apart?'’ Counterspy, 5, February-April 1981, pp. 30–38; see also “The World Bank Philippine Poverty Report,” Confidential first-draft version obtained by the Congress Task Force and Counterspy Magazine, Southeast Asia Resource Center, Berkeley, California. My interpretation of the Ascher Memorandum is drawn largely from Walden Bello's “The World Bank in the Philippines: A Decade of Failures,” Southeast Asia Chronicle, 81, December 1981, pp. 3–9.

Stauffer Robert , “The Political Economy of Refeudalization,” in: Marcos and Martial Law in the Philippines, pp. 180–218.

Rocamora Joel , “Is Marcos a Lameduck Dictator?” Southeast Asia Chronicle, 92, December 1983, pp. 2–11.

Broad Robin Cavanagh John , “Disintegration of an Economic Model,” Southeast Asia Chronicle, 92, December 1983, pp. 14–17.

U.S. National Security Directive, cited in: Richard A. Falk, “Breaking the Deadlock: Redefining the U.S. National Security Interests in the Philippines,” speech delivered at the Philippines: Crisis and Opportunity Conference, Washington DC, 22 September 1985; see also Bello Walden , “The Pentagon and the Philippine Crisis,” Southeast Asia Chronicle, 95, pp. 20–24.

The intensification of the Philippine crisis, particularly since 1983, is well known. See for example, Resource Center for Philippine Concerns, Solidaridad II, 9, April-September 1983, pp. 2–49; Sacerdoti Guy Bowring Philip , “Marx, Mao and Marcos,” Far Eastern Economic Review, 21 November 1985, pp. 52–62; Guy Sacerdoti and Jose Galang, “The Seeds of Change,” For Eastern Economic Review, 31 October 1985, pp. 103–110; Steve Lohr, “Inside the Philippine Insurgency,” The New York Times Magazine, 3 November 1985, pp. 40–60; Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, Salvaging the Philippines: Violations of Human Rights Under Marcos (New York: Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, 1985).

Rocamora , “Is Marcos a Lameduck Dictator?” (Note 14), p. 10.

Halpern Manfred , “Choosing Between Ways of Life and Death and Between Forms of Democracy: An Archetypal Analysis,” Princeton, New Jersey, Spring 1985. (Mimeographed.) For Halpern, “democracy” does not refer to the “rule of the people,” but to the “power of the people,” i.e., “the persistent re-opening of the process of participation by the people as they discover new grounds and new capacity to reshape their life together and as they join in nourishing what they hold to be good.”.

In this context, Washington's obsession of urging countries where the democratic process is in question to hold elections (including the 1986 Presidential “Snap” Elections in the Philippines), is illustrative of its preference, particularly in the Philippines, for a policy of “liberalization,” as part of its overall commitment to an interventionist, anti-communist counterinsurgency program in its foreign policy. In short, democracy, is reduced to the electoral process. See for example, Bello Walden Herman Edward S. , “U.S.-Sponsored Elections in El Salvador and the Philippines,” World Policy Journal, 1/4, Summer 1984, pp. 851–869. Also, Bello Walden , “Edging Toward the Quagmire: The U.S. and the Philippine Crisis,” World Policy Journal, Winter 1985–1986, pp. 29–58.

Ruiz Lester Edwin J. , “Towards a Transformative Politics: A Quest for Authentic Political Subjecthood” (Ph.D. dissertation, Princeton Theological Seminary, 1985).

New York Times, 28 February 1986.

Unger Roberto M. , Knowledge and Politics (New York: Free Press, 1975), pp. 1–145; C. B. Macpherson, Democratic Theory: Essays in Retrieval (London: Oxford University Press, 1973); C. B. Macpherson, The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism (London: Oxford University Press, 1962); William McNeill, The Rise of the West: A History of the Human Community (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1963).

Cariño Feliciano , “Illusions and Reality: Some Questions and Reflections on the Aquino Ascendancy and People's Power,” Manila, Philippines, Spring 1986. (Mimeographed.) United Church of Christ in the Philippines, “A Statement of Protest Against U.S. Interventionist Policy Towards the Philippines,” Oikos: Mission Update, 1/8–10, February-April 1986, pp. 20–22.

See Ruiz Lester Edwin J. , “Power, Justice, and the Concept of Human Development,” paper presented at the 23rd Annual Convention of the International Studies Association, Cincinnati, Ohio, 26 March 1982; see also Lester Edwin J. Ruiz and Charles Amjad-Ali, “Terrorism: A Logocentric Moral Issue or an Expression of the Plurality of Human Dwelling?” Chitty's Law Journal (Forthcoming).

Salonga Jovito R. , “Reflections on the Constitution, Human Rights, and the Rule of Law: After Martial Law,” Speech delivered at the Symposium of the Greater Manila Region of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, held at the Philamlife Auditorium, U.N. Avenue, Manila, Philippines, 10 February 1981. Included in this broad “liberal democratic opposition” is a “leftwing” nationalist faction headed by prominent politicians like Jose Diokno who advocate an unequivocal anti-Marcos, anti-Washington position.

Salonga Jovito R. , “The Democratic Opposition and its Vision of the Society Our People Want,” Speech delivered before the Manila Rotary Club held at the Manila Hilton, Manila, Philippines, 9 October 1980, p. 7. (Mimeographed.).

Ruiz Lester Edwin J. , “Towards a Transformative Politics,” (Note 20).

Ruiz Lester Edwin J. , ‘“Constitutional Authoritarianism as State Terrorism: The Case of the Philippines,” in: Stohl Michael Lopez George (editors), Development, Dependence and State Repression (Greenwood Press, forthcoming 1986).

National Democratic Front, “Ten-Point Program of the National Democratic Front in the Philippines,” (Oakland: Union of Democratic Filipinos and the International Association of Filipino Patriots, 1978), p. 1.

“Ten-Point Program,” ibid., pp. 12–14; Rocamora Joel , “The Structural Imperative of Authoritarian Rule,” Southeast Asia Chronicle, 65, November–December 1978, pp. 7–19.

Rocamora , “Is Marcos a Lameduck Dictator?” (Note 14), p. 10.

Bello Walden , “Reflections on a New Era in the Philippines: ‘Third Force’ Myths and Realities,” Christianity and Crisis, April 7, 1986, pp. 111–113; Institute of Religion and Culture, “A Major Battle Won: But the Struggle Must Continue,” Kalinangan, 6/1, March 1986, pp. 30–31.

This is clear from the nature of the “liberal democratic” opposition's challenge to the Marcos martial law government, namely, the emphasis on constitutional legitimacy which presupposes what Max Weber called “legal rationality.” Cf. Roberto Unger's notion of “legal mentality” in Knowledge and Politics, pp. 69–71.

Jenkins Iredell , Social Order and the Limits of Law: A Theoretical Essay (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980), pp. 153–191. I have addressed the significance of the “eclipse of relationality” in other essays. See, for example, Ruiz, “Towards A Transformative Politics,” (Note 20).

My interpretation of the relationship between tradition and authority is largely founded in the work of Gadamer Hans Georg , Truth and Method, trans. Barden Garrett Cumming John (New York: The Seabury Press, 1975), pp. 235–374; however, it will be argued further that the notion of tradition can be rendered more fully “political” and, therefore, more fully historical, by transposing it into the question of “authentic political subjecthood.”.

See, for example, Halpern Manfred , “Beginning in Incoherence,” in: “A New Theory of Transformation for Explaining and Overcoming the Great Breaking in All Human Relationships,” Princeton, New Jersey, Spring 1984, (Mimeographed.) pp. 1–52.

Cariño Feliciano , “Church, State and People: The Philippines in the '80s,” in: Church, State and People: The Philippines in the '80s, Report and Papers of a National Theological Dialogue, Manila, Philippines, November 10–13, 1980, ed. Cariño Feliciano (Singapore: Christian Conference of Asia, 1981), p. 67.

Lambino S.J. Antonio , “Theology in the Philippine Context: Two Views of People,” Tugon, 2, March 1981, pp. 31–38.

See for instance, “Theology in Action,” Manila, 1–12 September 1972, proceedings reported in: Theology in Action: A Workshop Report, eds. Shik Oh Jae England John (Tokyo: East Asia Christian Conference, 1980); Cf. “Human Rights in the Philippines: A Christian Responsibility and Asian Solidarity,” Manila and Tokyo, September 1979, proceedings reported in: Human Rights in the Philippines—A Christian Responsibility and Asian Solidarity: Report of a Regional Conference on Human Rights in the Philippines (Hongkong: Resource Centre for Philippine Concerns, 1980); “People Against Domination: A Consultation Report on People's Movements and Structures of Domination in Asia,” Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 24–28 February 1981.

Constantino Renato , “The Mis-Education of the Filipino,” Weekly Graphic, 8 June 1966. See for instance Horacio de la Costa, The Background of Nationalism (Manila: Solidaridad Publishing House, 1965); Leopoldo Yabes, Rizal and National Greatness and Other Essays on Nationalism, Liberalism, and Democracy (Manila: Rangel Publishing, 1966); Mauro N. Zialcita, “The Filipino Identity,” Solidarity, 4, September 1969, pp. 31–43.

See also Bulatao Jaime , “Split-Level Christianity,” in: Split-Level Christianity, Christian Renewal of Filipino Values, Jaime Bulatao and Vitaliano Gorospe (Manila: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1966), pp. 1–18; Miguel Bernad, “Philippine Culture and the Filipino Identity,” Philippine Studies, October 1971, pp. 573–592.

de la Costa Horacio , ‘“The Filipino National Tradition,” in: Bonoan Raul J. (editor), Challenges for the Filipino (Quezon City: Ateneo Publications, 1971), pp. 42–60.

Ileto Reynaldo , Pasyon and Revolution, (Note 4), pp. 1–10; Renato Constantino, Neocolonial Identity and Counter-Consciousness: Essays on Cultural Decolonization (London: Merlin Press, 1979).

Arevalo C.G. , “Notes for a Theology of Development,” Philippine Studies, 19, January 1971, pp. 65–91.

Gorospe Vitaliano R. , The New Christian Morality and the Filipino (Manila: Jesuit Educational Association, 1973).

Abesamis Carlos H. , ‘“Faith and Life Reflections from the Grassroots in the Philippines,” in: Fabella Virginia (editor), Asia's Struggle for Full Humanity (New York: Orbis Books, 1980), p. 134.

There is a long and dynamic history of this debate within the communist-Marxist opposition. From the early formation of the communist parties with their millenarian-populist dimensions to a highly sophisticated and “rationalist” Marxism within the party leadership in more recent times, the debate is evidence of the continuing quest to develop an authentic Filipino Marxism. A major point of contention has been the positive or negative evaluation of the millenarian-populist dimension particularly as it is practiced by the rank-and-file. The tendency to evaluate negatively this dimension suggests the “rationalist” and “economist” bent of contemporary Philippine Marxist thinking. See for instance, Marxism in the Philippines: Marx Centennial Lectures (Quezon City: Third World Studies Center, University of the Philippines, 1984). Moreover, the emergence of “Specific Characteristics of our People's War” is a hopeful sign that the significance of the specifically Filipino character of the struggle, including its archipelagic context, and therefore of its populist/pluralist dimension, is finally being recognized. See Guerrero Amado , “Specific Characteristics of Our People's War,” in: Philippine Society and Revolution, 3rd edn (Oadland, California: International Association of Filipino Patriots, 1979), pp. 179–216.

See for instance, Arevalo C.G. , ‘“The Task of the Church: Liberation and Development,” in: Gorospe Vitaliano Deats Richard (editors), The Filipino in the Seventies (Manila: New Day Publishers, 1973), pp. 233–283, esp. pp. 262–265; cf. Gustavo Gutierrez, A Theology of Liberation: History, Politics, Salvation, trans. Sr. Caridad Inda and John Eagleson (New York: Orbis Books, 1973), pp. 32–42; Immanuel Walierstein, The Capitalist World-Economy: Essays by Immanuel Walierstein (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1979), pp. 152–164.

I am indebted to Professor Manfred Halpern of Princeton University for this definition of “politics.”.

Moving Heaven and Earth: An Account of Filipinos Struggling to Change their Lives and Society (Manila: CCPD/WCC-Philippine Writing Group, 1982); Southeast Asia Resource Center, “The United Front in the Philippines”; Southeast Asia Resource Center, “Cultures of Resistance,” Southeast Asia Chronicle, 70–71, March-April 1980, pp. 1–36.

Claver Francisco , “From my Father's House: A Letter to the President,” in: The Stones Will Cry Out: Grassroots Pastorals (New York: Orbis, 1978), pp. 135–145.

This “transformative politics” which is both a “theory and practice,” is not limited to the Philippine situation. See, for example, Sharon Welch's notion of “communities of resistance and solidarity,” Cornel West's “Afro-American revolutionary Christianity,” Leonardo Boffs “Church as Sacrament of the Holy Spirit,” Manfred Halpern's “counter-tradition of transformation,” and Kim Yong Bok's “Minjung theology,” Welch Sharon , Communities of Resistance and Solidarity: A Feminist Theology of Liberation (New York: Orbis Books, 1985), pp. 15–92; Cornel West, Prophesy Deliverance! An Afro-American Revolutionary Christianity (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1982), pp. 15–26, 131–148; Boff Leonardo , Church: Charism and Power: Liberation Theology and the Institutional Church, trans. John Dierksmeier (New York: Crossroads, 1985), pp. 125–164; Manfred Halpern, Transformation: Its Theory and Practice in Personal, Political, Historical, and Sacred Being (three volume work-in-progress, Princeton University), but cited in this essay; Bok Kim Yong (editor), Minjung Theology: People as the Subjects of History (Singapore: Christian Conference of Asia, 1981), pp. 77–118, 185–196.

By “face” I mean, paraphrasing Unger, a way of thinking about social life, a mode of consciousness that is bound together with both a doctrine and an experience of social life; See Unger , Knowledge and Politics, pp. 72–76. Cf. Enrique Dussel, The Philosophy of Liberation (New York: Orbis Books, 1985) passim.