Social Democracy for the Philippines Today

Social democracy for the Philippines today
24 September 2008


We need a change of system,
not just a change of leaders.
It is time for social democracy.


These past four years has seen an unending series of scandals involving all branches of government and politicians of both the administration and the opposition. At the same time, many politicians have revealed their opportunism evident in their collaboration with armed extremists and their war-inducing vilification of government efforts to arrive at a satisfactory peace agreement with predominantly Muslim insurgent groups. These are actually the latest and relatively severe symptoms of the decay of a liberal democracy dominated by traditional politicians. They manifest the ripening of the evils of liberal democracy in a pre-existing situation of grave social inequality.

Liberal democracy, while theoretically promoting formal equality under the law, does not promote equal social power, so that the already powerful gain all the more power, because they have the economic and intellectual means and social connections to use the law to their own advantage.

Liberal democracy in the Philippines amounts to “elite politics:” the participation of and advantage to the economically wealthy and socially prominent families and individuals or their media allies.

In this dysfunctional liberal democratic dispensation, we now see laid bare before our eyes the ascendancy of arrogant and manipulative media at the service of vested interests.

We are outraged at how prone traditional politicians are to ally with anti-democratic elements of the Marxist-Leninist extreme Left and the fascist extreme Right, for their own selfish agenda, and how eager they are to ride on the ignorance of the public to acquire an undeserved popularity by misrepresenting and maligning government efforts to arrive at a reasonable peace agreement with predominantly Muslim insurgent groups. All this at the cost of the lives and the bodily integrity of our soldiers, police officers, and patriotic public officials and ordinary citizens, and severe suffering for hundreds of thousands of evacuees and other displaced persons.

We grieve at the breakdown of our basic securities as a nation—defense, internal security, food, water, energy, environment.

We gaze with alarm at the decline in livelihood, education, health, security, peace and order, the increase of poverty in absolute terms, the sense of hopelessness of many of our people, after two People Power uprisings rendered useless by the nefarious ways of traditional politicians acting within the framework of liberal democracy.

It is indeed time for change.

It is time for social democracy.

It is time for social democracy—a society in which formal equality under the law is made life-giving by the promotion of real equality in social power, so that all citizens can participate on equal terms in the burdens, benefits and governance of societal life.

It is time for social democracy—a society with sufficient participation in if not control of governance by the majority of our nation, composed of the working masses of farmers, fisherfolk, industrial labor, small businesspersons and professionals, and ministers of the faith communities.

Social democracy strives for a society ably defended and nurtured by the pillars of democracy—democratic political and civic organizations and social movements, the Christian Churches, the Muslim community, the military, the police, academe, business, and responsible media.

Social democracy promotes a society whose leaders and citizens effectively safeguard and promote, with their lives, their honor, and their intellectual endowments and material possessions, our basic securities as a nation—defense, internal security, food, water, energy, environment.

Social democrats, by their theory and practice, help provide a model for a society that clearly and militantly combats anti-democratic elements by a spirit and with measures that are committed to human rights and international humanitarian law.

Social democrats build a society that is able to give its youth the means to achieve a happy and prosperous future.

Social democrats methodically construct a society that cares equally for all.

In the Philippines, what specific principles and programs do social democrats advocate in order to make social democracy a reality in our country?

Philippine social democrats advocate specific models for the liberating transformation of the main systems of society—the economy, politics, and culture:
§ a socially equitable and sustainable market economy
§ socially equitable by appropriate government intervention to protect and improve the income, safety, health, and welfare of the citizens, especially the working people
§ sustainable by safeguards for the integrity and health of the natural environment
§ a participative and formative democracy
§ through substantial participation of the citizens in social discussion and governance
§ through systematic formation of the citizenry in the values, knowledge and skills for effectively engaging in civil life and public affairs
§ an authentically humanist culture
§ interfaith in basis
§ formally expressed in civil ethics
§ favourable to moral renewal through work for the common good and the promotion of virtues—personal, domestic and civic—especially patriotism, honesty, and diligence

Philippine social democrats call on all fellow citizens to join in specific tasks for nation-building. Some of the more important of these tasks can be grouped as follows:
(1) renewing and strengthening the state
(2) effecting fundamental reforms in the political system and the structure of government
(3) promoting our basic securities as a nation—defense, internal security, food, water, energy, environment
(4) alleviating and eventually eliminating poverty

Renewing and strengthening the state entails the following:
§ struggling against corruption in the executive branch, the legislature, the judiciary, and the constitutional commissions, through external legal and administrative deterrents and internal reform initiatives
§ rooting out inefficiency by facilitating the early retirement of inefficient government staff and the recruitment of efficient ones through adequate monetary and other compensation
§ remedying the lack of revenues by progressive taxation and by conscientious collection of taxes

The urgent political reforms include
§ electoral reform: drastic cleaning up and restructuring of the Commission on Elections, appropriate automation of the electoral process
§ governmental reform: shift to unicameral parliamentary system
§ reform of the bureaucracy: professionalization of the bureaucracy through attrition of the incompetent and inefficient and promotion and recruitment of the skilled and efficient

Promoting our basic securities as a nation entails
§ building up the defense and internal security capability of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), in large part through the vigorous promotion of a domestic defense industry
§ bringing up to standards the capacity of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and related public safety institutions to protect and promote law enforcement and public safety and order
§ resolutely carrying out the Enhanced National Internal Security Plan (ENISP), with its five offensives and three programs
§ identifying, wisely using, and renewing or conserving our strategic plant, animal, soil, aquatic, mineral, and energy reserves

Alleviating and eventually eliminating poverty involves providing the citizenry with providing dignified and well-remunerated livelihood, improving their health, and giving them access to quality education.

The following are necessary to provide the citizenry with dignified and well-remunerated livelihood:
§ appropriate agrarian reform and rural development through industrialization
§ balanced economic development: agriculture, manufacturing, services;
§ rural and urban industrialization
§ encourage and assist in the establishment and operation of worker-owned enterprises in multiplier industries and programs, such as the following
§ housing, especially for the urban and rural poor and the lower middle class
§ infrastructure and equipment for transportation, especially rail transport
§ agro-industry, especially coconut-based multiproduct industrial facilities
§ massive effort to set up adequate infrastructure
§ technical help for production, postproduction, marketing, research

Improving the health of the citizenry entails the improving health programs and facilities directed to the following priorities:
§ sanitation and public health: safe water, nutrition, vaccination, health education
§ adequate network of facilities for health care, especially primary and secondary facilities
§ values-based responsible parenthood
§ adequate shelter

Giving the citizenry access to quality education involves the following:
§ appropriate programs, textbooks, and teaching aids, especially for literacy, numeracy, science, and civics
§ rapidly overcoming the deficit in school buildings, classrooms and laboratories
§ massive program in teacher training, especially in English, mathematics, science, and civics

These urgent objectives can best be realized with a government based on the principles and practices of social democracy.

It is time for social democracy.

It is time for social democracy in the Philippines.

Itatag ang lipunang pantay ang paglingap sa lahat !

Itatag ang sanlipunang demokrasya !