Philippines: Losers - and one
hero By Marco Garrido
MANILA
- Filipinos have a saying that there are no losers in
Philippine elections; only winners and those whom the
winners have cheated. This can be another way of saying
that the losers in Philippine elections are invariably
sore losers (and the winners inevitable cheaters). Sure
enough, a week after election day the whining hasn't
stopped - and a winner hasn't even been declared yet.
The official tally - done manually - can take up to a
month. It is the unofficial tallies that have stirred
the grousing.
One exit poll showed incumbent
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo with 40 percent of the
votes cast nationwide; it showed her chief rival, movie
star Fernando Poe Jr, with 32 percent - that translates
into a lead of more than 3 million votes for Arroyo.
Another quick count currently being tallied likewise
gives Arroyo the lead, at this point by about a million
votes and counting.
In keeping with tradition,
the unofficial losers are crying foul. The Poe camp has
accused the incumbent administration of perpetrating
systematic electoral fraud and has offered a reward for
proof of such fraud. It has sneered at candidate Raul
Roco's early concession to Arroyo and dismissed his
campaign as having been in cahoots with the
administration all along. Worst of all, it has intimated
that, should the official tally still show Poe the
loser, it will unleash the forces of destabilization at
its disposal. The Poe campaign may be at its most potent
yet in the throes of defeat.
Mexican
standoff Last week featured another contested
bout: The Pacquiao-Marquez boxing match. The
Philippines' Manny Pacquiao battled Mexican world
featherweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez to a
controversial draw despite having knocked him down
thrice in the first round. After his initial thrashing,
however, Marquez regained his poise and retreated into a
defensive posture that not only blocked most of
Pacquiao's subsequent assaults but allowed him openings
to counterpunch with precision.
To his credit,
despite a swollen foot and fist, Pacquiao remained
indefatigable throughout the 12-round bout. But it was
cunning he needed more than energy. Rounds 2 through 12
showed Pacquiao being consistently rebuffed by Marquez.
It was as if he kept punching a wall - one that punched
back.
The judges' ruling balanced Pacquiao's
ferocity with Marquez' skill - in all, a fair decision;
in truth, Pacquiao was lucky he didn't lose altogether.
But Pacquiao figured Marquez was the lucky one. "I
should have won the fight," he said. "I'm disappointed."
Now the Pacquiao team is appealing the decision, an
effort bolstered by one judge's admission of having
mis-scored a round 10-7 instead of 10-6 for Pacquiao.
It's that single point that sticks in the throat.
General earns his stars The country
had yet another of its native sons spotlighted last
week, this time for a test of neither popularity nor
skill but character. US Major-General Antonio Taguba,
head of the inquiry into abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison
in Iraq, presented his findings before the US Senate
Armed Services Committee to Filipino cheers. One local
newspaper ran an editorial titled "Taguba for president!
(we wish)".
The two-star general emigrated to
the United States from the Philippines at age 11. He
managed to accumulate three master's degrees and become
the second-highest-ranking Filipino-American in the US
Army.
His father, Tomas Taguba, served with the
US Army as well, as a Philippine scout in World War II -
he was captured by the Japanese but managed to escape
the Bataan death march and join the underground movement
- and as a motor-pool sergeant for 17 years afterward.
After his retirement, he even returned to the service
for another 17 years as an arms specialist. The younger
Taguba noted that, despite his father's service, he left
the army "without so much as a retirement ceremony to
thank him for those 20 years of hard work and faithful
service" - a fate unfortunately common to the many
Filipinos conscripted during World War II. The army
finally recognized Tomas Taguba's service in 1999.
For all his achievements, it was Antonio
Taguba's appearance before the US Senate Armed Services
Committee that made him a figure of national celebrity.
It was his appearance foremost: the spectacle of a
brown-skinned man with a Filipino name, with a faintly
detectable Filipino lilt to his English, clad in the
ribbons of the world's most powerful army and
addressing, without the faintest note of subservience,
what seemed a panel of the world's most powerful white
people.
The cognitive dissonance of the
spectacle kept Filipinos enrapt, rapidly sending text
messages to one another over their mobile phones that
read, "Is this guy Filipino?" But it was Taguba's
testimony that made their collective heart leap. "Bottom
line," Taguba told the Senate, he instructed his team to
"follow our conscience and do what is morally right". He
then proceeded unflinchingly to detail instance after
instance of the degradation inflicted by US military
police (MPs) against Iraqi detainees at the Abu Ghraib
prison: instances of rape, sodomy, forced masturbation,
wanton beatings and sordid other humiliations.
The more Filipinos learned about him, the more
they recognized themselves in him. He wasn't just a guy
who looked Filipino but, really, had become American
through and through. The values Taguba displayed at the
Senate hearing were as much Filipino values as American.
Taguba readily recognizes the role of Filipino culture
in shaping his character. "It's part of our culture to
respect elders, give thanks to the Lord, be forgiving
and be supportive of your family. I've learned those
early in life."
And, unlike many transplanted
Filipinos, he recognizes his Filipino identity as
something to be proud of and preserved, as something
that actually enhanced his identity as an American: "We
have shown we can contribute to [American] society, at
the same time preserve our Filipino-American heritage
and culture."
Exposing the Abu Ghraib abuses
with a clear moral light, Taguba seemed himself the
model of martial conduct, just as he was, in the
hearing, the angel of indictment.
Compare this
with the Abu Ghraib MPs whose moral compass seems to
have gone askew. On piling detainees, naked and hooded,
one on top of the other, Private First Class Lynndie
England said, "We thought it looked so funny, so
pictures were taken." Or compare with Oklahoma Senator
James Inhofe's moral equivalence; he remarked that he
was "more outraged by the outrage" over the abuses than
by the abuses themselves.
Contrast Taguba's
readiness to shoulder responsibility by unequivocally
identifying the abuse as wrong with the enormous egoism
behind Pacquiao's point-grubbing and Poe's utter
inability to stomach defeat. Yes, Taguba's was not
exactly a personal loss, but it involved a loss of face
for an institution that Taguba and his family had
intimately identified with, that, one could say, had
midwifed their becoming American - in this sense, it was
a highly personal loss. And Taguba had summoned Filipino
values to guide him through it, values that set the tone
- a clear moral tone - for justice and healing.
In contrast, Pacquiao and Poe have turned their
faces from defeat; the Poe camp especially throws a
tantrum - letting accusations and threats fly - whenever
it is confronted with evidence of defeat. Neither can
salvage enough grace from their mother culture to
discern the honor in dealing with loss responsibly, with
humility.
It is clear who the real Filipino hero
is.
(Copyright 2004 Asia Times Online Co, Ltd.
All rights reserved. Please contact content@atimes.com for
information on our sales and syndication policies.)
