Nora’s honor, CARPER, frats, and the DAP

MANILA, Philippines - We live in the most interesting times. In trying to understand the .goings-on in our national affairs, the question precedes us: Where do we begin? In the week that was, the news had no room for the usual fillers or re-runs that it was safe to say that there was something in the air. What it was exactly could only be that nagging feeling that told us that everything was connected; intertwined in what is now our country’s tired history.

Perhaps, the easiest to recount, but no less difficult to digest, is Nora Aunor’s removal from the National Commission for Culture and the Arts’ (NCCA) recommendations for National Artist. The President used his discretion, a privilege granted to him by the law, and crossed the actress’ name off the list for the reason that “her inclusion sends out the wrong message about the way the government deals with drugs.” While it was completely legal, many are questioning the President’s move, saying that the artist’s personal life is not part of the criteria for proclaiming National Artists. Hate the sin, not the sinner; artists, whether celebrated or not, aren’t bastions of good moral character anyway. So why did the President factor in personal affairs in when it’s the artist’s contribution to a “National Art” we’re talking about?

Because he can. Because the selection process is, above all, a political process. The dictator, Ferdinand Marcos, created the awards in the same year that he declared Martial Law so that the State and all its worldliness can encroach on art’s free-wheeling spirit. Why shouldn’t Noynoy factor in the political implications of choosing a recovered drug user — albeit that said artist is an actress of impeccable skill and stature — when Noynoy is no more and no less a statesman as the dictator?

Not to defend the President in any way, but the selection process for the National Artist award is, unfortunately, a flawed and political process. We see the award as if it were indulgences that get one to Heaven’s gates when in truth, the award is only as good as the loyalties of the State that grants it (although, the millions of taxpayers’ money that goes into the awardee’s purse, monthly and annually, might just be a different kind of heaven). It does not come from the nation it claims to represent, but from the several few who control it, as seen in Nora Aunor’s case. Let’s call a spade a spade and let bygones be bygones — artists deserve a greater award than the one this government gives and not gives. Why should artists risk tooth and limb for a loot bag from the government when on other, less holy days, the government would rather have them starving, imprisoned, or dead?

Plight of farmers

The plight of the artist is no different from the plight of our farmers. Both share an uphill battle with the reins of elitist politics. 25 years since the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) was put into play in President Cory Aquino’s administration, many of our farmers remain landless, laboring night and day for profits they will never feel, working for landlords who barely show compassion but always care to show pity.

Agrarian reform is a problem that can be traced to as early as the Spanish Occupation, and it continues to hound us today. Many of us in the city can hardly understand the magnitude of the situation when we associate development and economy with skyscrapers in Makati or commercial centers in Taguig. We fail to see that our economy’s base is in agriculture, a neglected sector that still operates on the same system with which Padre Salvi and Co. ran the affairs of San Diego (though fictional, this is not an exaggeration). When the farmers are seen as mere tenants and not owners of the land they plant on, they are made slaves to their landlord who dictates how much their crops sell and how much they get from it. It is a vicious cycle that traps the farmer in debt and legitimized slavery.

CARP failed in that it was only able to distribute land to three out of every 10 farmers. Worse, the distributed lands were of unprofitable sizes. Major tracts of land like Hacienda Luisita remain undistributed with no one benefiting from it, except those who have held the land titles for the longest time. This is something CARP’s provisions never had the intentions of changing.

It was no surprise that an estimate of 3,000 farmers marched from the provinces to converge in Mendiola on Monday. As artists of their own design, these farmers saw the need to ask for more from a government ran by landlords. CARP was to them as the National Artist Award is for artists: a made-up award that really works more for maintaining the status quo.

The President’s DAP

The connection between fraternities that patronize hazing and the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) is more obvious than it seems. As the Supreme Court votes unanimously, striking certain provisions of the DAP unconstitutional, the DAP’s legality is no longer a question. In a nutshell, the DAP is unconstitutional because 1) it relegates trillions of taxpayers’ money to the hands of a singular man — the President and no one else; 2) the budget for the DAP is not included in the yearly budget decided by Congress; and, therefore 3) all DAP transactions may remain secret and unliquidated. Impervious to the Constitution, it now appears that the DAP was created to become a more powerful means to influence opinion than the PDAF itself.

The DAP — much like the divine right fraternities who patronize hazing bestow upon themselves — is born out of a crooked sense of entitlement that says that they, being the top officials of the land, can do as they please. Some might say that the President and Butch Abad are of moral character fit for National Artists but the DAP has, in fact, allowed them to bribe senators with amounts no less than P50 million each for Corona’s impeachment.

Like the National Artist award, the DAP is ultimately a political move. And like CARPER, it is disguised in a mask of legitimate change.  Why and how have we allowed too much power to rest in the hands of one man?

The week’s news, we now understand, was held together by a common thread: We may be rolling with the punches, but hope is not lost. In our fight for justice, we lose nothing in holding people accountable. Artists, farmers, brothers, sisters, and countrymen: it’s time we realized that we owe our oppressors nothing.

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