Aftershocks of the de Lima arrest
The biggest news in the country last week was the arrest of Senator de Lima. Sixty-five percent of the news last Friday was about the arrest and it continued on Saturday and maybe in the days to come. This event is pregnant with consequences that may affect the lives of many people and even the country. While it is difficult to predict all the effects and consequences, the motives and the immediate effects are already visible and the dynamics and culture of Filipinos will make certain long-term effects more probable.
The objective of silencing a critic and criticisms and controlling the situation was partly achieved. Partly because the arrest generated so much political and social noise that the silence and control was very temporary. De Lima would not be silenced and many other critics and criticisms against the government arose. It is either the government did not put on their thinking cap and did not anticipate the unintended consequences, or they have another step to do to suppress dissent. But then Pres. DU30 again announced last Saturday that he will not declare martial law, and given the current environment, it would be very difficult to declare and implement martial law.
Strategically, the move to arrest de Lima is like entering a minefield. Moving in any direction would be risky and the blast would affect all within the vicinity. The government, the opposition, the private sector, the leftists, the rightists, and all the people would be affected. The arrest opened up a broad propaganda platform that would be uncontrollable by the government. The national and international media, the main and social media will weigh in on the issue and who knows where it will go. The news was in CNN, Bloomberg, Asia News and all major networks and local channels. It was in all major newspapers in the world, and all over social media. The world is dominated by liberal/democratic governments and the information and communication technologies will ventilate, clarify, focus and make transparent the issues. Fake news and alternative facts that are in social media will be neutralized as social media and the main media merge and converge. All the main media are already in Facebook, Twitter, and other websites. Within months there will already be filtering software that will limit fake news.
The one good thing that may come out of the arrest of de Lima, would be the impact on the general public. The issue will make people re-evaluate and re-rethink the national issues about the government, government policies and actions. In doing so, all of us will have to take a position and decide on a plan of action. The government will then have to take these into consideration or risk losing the support of the people.
Up to this time, there are government initiatives that are good for the people and country especially in the economic side. But there are also things that are clearly bad like the EJK, the Marcos burial, the immigration corruption, the unnecessary foul rhetoric, foreign policy mistakes, and the selective justice of which the de Lima arrest would be one example. Half of the DU30 cabinet secretaries are underperforming and intentionally or unintentionally undermining the government. It could be that this government does not have an integrated concept of governance even with their 11-point agenda, or the agenda is not anchored on, or have no moral, social and political base. Or the president is not getting the right advice or he disregards the advisers. "Power" carries with it the seeds of its own destruction and the way power is used determines if and/or when the seeds will bloom.
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