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Liza

Fried in our own lard

M. L. Tan

The hawks are having a field day with their interpretation of the latest Pulse Asia survey. Let’s get tough, they say, and point to the improvement in Erap’s net approval rating – from 21 percent in March to 27 percent in July – as proof. Erap himself is quoted, on one television news report, as saying that the ratings showed support for his all out war policy.

There is no doubt the Mindanao war contributed to the boost in Erap’s ratings. Even last March, as his performance rating continued a year-long downward spiral, Erap’s Pulse Asia ratings were already quite high in Mindanao. The survey was conducted as government troops began to intensify military operations against Muslim rebels.

The latest Pulse Asia survey shows the improvement in ratings is now nationwide. In Metro Manila, Erap’s net approval rating had plumetted to negative 6 in March, meaning more people disapproved of him than approved. In the July survey, his ratings had soared to 27 percent.

Does all this mean Filipinos are all war freaks? I doubt it, but at the same time, I’d say that peace advocates need to work harder toward understanding why military (and police) solutions always seems so appealng to Filipinos. You can’t just blame this on Erap action films. Let’s face it – it’s always easier to wage war than peace. Politically, you get many more pogi points firing those cannons than sitting at a negotiating table. Even more dramatic are footages of Camp Abubakar being shelled and of the victory celebration, with no less than Erap presiding and feasting on lechon. It couldn’t have been more macho, and more spiteful to the Muslims.

It’s not surprising, too, that Dirty Harry Alfredo Lim had the highest approval rating among Cabinet officials, 71 percent to be exact. It helps not only to be seen, but to be seen as tough like the way Lim projects himself on his weekly television show, ending with mug shots of wanted criminals and Lim sternly warning in Filipino, "The law will get you yet." Compare his rating to hostage negotiator Roberto Aventajado, who plays such a crucial and difficult role in Mindanao, but had a net approval rating of only 28 percent. Negotiating for hostages, or, the gods forbid, for peace, isn’t too good for the ratings.

There’s more of course to all this than machismo. Pulse Asia president Felipe Miranda hits the nail on the head when he observed, during the presentation of their survey findings, that Filipinos have been living in "suspended animation" for so long, so people place a premium on any kind of action, whether it’s effective or not.

I’d go a step further and say Filipinos approve of Erap because they want peace, and they want it so desperately they’re willing to buy the politicians’ Great Lie – straight out of Orwellian doublespeak – that one needs war to attain peace. In Mindanao, that translates into support for Christian and Muslim vigilante groups, or the widespread approval, in Mindanao at least, for the deployment of more Cafgus.

It’s not just Mindanao. In the jungle called Metro Manila, rampant criminality leads to a perceived state of siege and massive support for the "Scarlet Letter" campaign of spray-painting suspected drug pushers’ homes, the death penalty, salvagings, and the "right" to bear arms.

Hawkish politicians say that if you live "out there", you’d welcome the Cafgus too. I have lived out there and I’ve seen what it’s like but I will qualify that when people choose the Cafgus and military solutions it’s because they’re not being given any other options. Occasionally, as we are seeing now, politicians will dangle "development" programs but we know these projects tend to favor big business, and does little to alleviate poverty. Poverty festers and drives people to listen to whoever comes along with promises of redemption. They can be missionaries or Lotto vendors. All too often though, these are armed political groups and fanatical religious cults.

The cycles of despair are endless. The bolo-wielding Catholic God’s Spirit cult in Bukidnon was still another product of this despair, yet it has been used to justify the need for Cafgus. When they overdid things by mowing down 16 cultists, the military quickly backtracked and explained, "Oops, that’s because they were not trained properly." and went on to propose a longer training course. Never mind that the Cafgus in Bukidnon were deployed under the supervision of the police and the military.

Like lechon, we are being fried in our own lard, and that lard is despair.

It’s always easier to fund Cafgus than to invest in the future through schools and health centers. It’s easier, as well, to shell villages (especially now that the United States has promised more military hardware) than to build bridges, and I mean both the physical kind as well as the bridges of dialogue and understanding.

I have no doubt Erap can continue to boost his ratings with more reel-to-life action. He can even finish his term this way, but all that would do would be to keep the rebellions simmering in endless guerrilla warfare. That should keep the next president busy, who can then boost his or her ratings by blaming Erap.