Election 2016: Philippine Politics, Reality, and Desire

Amid the grand political promises of candidates for this upcoming general election, it is timely to see what is behind these. In the polemic over federalism, poverty alleviation, vigilante killing, ill-gotten wealth, and even citizenship issues, it is worthy to go back to desire—even in politics—as the motivating factor for engaging reality. We Filipinos desire to be happy; we desire the truth, what is good for life, and what is beautiful. This desire is truly unshakable. Even in the midst of poverty, corruption, lack of opportunity for personal nourishment (housing, employment, food, water), bitter trials, natural disasters, and limited horizon to judge the events of life, we are still desirous. Observant watchers and foreigners even pointed out that Filipinos are resilient: despite all the hardships and limitations, we still have young faces that smile.

In the context of the election time, with this nation’s reality and circumstances side by side our life that longs for betterment, we feel more the urgency to take seriously as a resource our humanity's desire that confusedly conceives a good wherein it may rest. Having the gift of an encounter that educates and challenges us to live reality intensely in all of its factors, we highlight sincerity to this desire be taken with importance during this crucial time for all Filipinos, which is valid for anyone—believers or nonbelievers—regardless of tradition and religious background. Offering this will enable us to ask further the depth of our desire, “What do we hold most dear in life? What can truly satisfy this yearning for fulfillment and happiness?”

For this reason, we propose three interesting statements that will serve as instrument and aid in judging the voting process of Filipinos, respectful of religious diversity and yet confident of our openness to a culture of encounter for the common good. They are also meant to serve as a contribution among many in the discernment process for voters.

First, Joseph Ratzinger stated, “Man needs politics – social and political planning and action. But where this becomes total, where politics presents itself as the salvation of man, it becomes the total enslavement of man” and “The state is not the whole of human existence and does not encompass all human hope. Man and what he hopes for extend beyond the framework of the state and beyond the sphere of political action.…This unburdens the politician and at the same time opens up for him the path of reasonable politics.”

Second, Pope Francis, in his meeting with the civil authorities in the Philippines, encouraged, “Today the Philippines, together with many other countries in Asia, faces the challenge of building on solid foundations of a modern society – a society respectful of authentic human values, protective of our God-given human dignity and rights, and ready to confront new and complex political and ethical questions. As many voices in your nation have pointed out, it is now, more than ever, necessary that political leaders be outstanding for honesty, integrity and commitment to the common good.…Reforming the social structures which perpetuate poverty and the exclusion of the poor first requires a conversion of mind and heart.”

Third, Luigi Giussani directs our attention to the prime place of desire in politics: “This flattening-out of desire gives origin to bewilderment in the young and to cynicism in the adult.…A culture of responsibility must keep alive man’s original position from which spring his desires and values, the relationship with the infinite that makes the person a true and active subject of history. A culture of responsibility can start only from the religious sense. This point of departure brings men to join together. It cannot fail to bring men to join together.”

With these statements, along with the freshness and wisdom they contain, we highlight the concern for a reasonable politics and leaders who seek solidarity, subsidiarity, and the common good in society, respectful of differences and unafraid of the present; who are attentive to the society in which we live and sympathetic to the ones in the “existential peripheries” of life, whether in an urban or rural place; and who, with a listening heart, is provoked by the challenge of education in any setting and ensures freedom and responsibility to educate.

We hold these things as criteria that affirm what we hold most dear: Christ, who never censures human desires, always respects freedom, and at the same time saves them from distortion and ideology. 

After the election, we don't expect the Philippines to be either a paradise or hell based on voting outcome; however, we are certain and hopeful that the nation will be a place where reality provokes us to walk together in coexistence and openness, especially the many who are left behind and excluded.