Philippine Democracy Online

By Jamil Matalam, MA Ateneo de Davao University                            The peace talks concerning the insurgency problem in Mindanao always had the character of a negotiation. It is a matter of offer on the one side, a counter-offer on the other, and then impasse and then armed encounters. This has always been its character and will always be because the parties to the negotiations have their own non-negotiable matters to bring into the negotiations, those that cannot be compromised. No doubt it is doomed to failure, if the goal is peace; for peace, and the current events surrounding the issue tells us so, is not a matter of negotiations. Peace is about the truth and is real; it is not a matter of compromise or simply a result of agreement. Peace is not a matter of give and take but the truth.

By Christopher Ryan Maboloc Ateneo de Davao University                                Why is the political party system in the Philippines weak? Why is it that the most Filipinos do not find these political parties instrumental to their well-being? What is the relation between political reform and human development? Why have we not created, for decades now, a mature democracy?

By Jamil Matalam Ateneo de Davao University                                      Today, 30 June 2011, the President of the Philippines signed the bill synchronizing the ARMM elections with that of the National Elections, i.e. postponing the August 2011 ARMM elections. From the reading of the President’s speech in signing the bill it would give us the impression that the primary intention for the bill is to pave way for reforms in the ARMM. I think reforming the ARMM is good and is a must. I take issue, however, with how the President, by passing, mentions how the undemocratic practice is happening in the region. He says:

By Atty. Jamil Matalam Ateneo de Davao University The ideal of a civil society—a society of rational exchanges of thoughts about social welfare and a government under the rule of law— is thought by many to have much of its origins in the Western civilization. It presupposes two intrinsically related things: “free citizens”, those that are not in bondage of slavery; and a democratic regime. They have to be citizens because the idea of a right is involved, i.e., as a member of the society they have loyalty and have concern about the life of the community and society. They have to be free because they do not represent the interests of their “masters” but the welfare of all, a sense of neutrality and retreat.

Dr. Romulo Bautista DEVSTRAT Consultant                                  The questions I raise are how to liberate the individuals from the pressures of an organizational university and how to provide some measure of participatory democracy within such organization. These questions are basic for humanistic ethics that claim to be responsive to human needs. This essay seeks the ground of the ‘rejection of the value of academic freedom’ in those universities. It proceeds from the premise that the university is an organization, and as such, it has “organization personality”, in other word, an “organiza-lity” (a synergy of “organization” and “personality”).

Dr. Romulo Bautista DEVSTRAT Consultant                                      Humankind’s essential nature entails its relation to God, the infinite. Its existential condition is a consequence of its alienation from God. This is why it is not of any help to lose oneself in a crowd or collectivity of whatever nature. Being in a crowd unmakes one’s nature as an individual by diluting the self; it renders the individual irresponsible.

Mr. Joefer Maninang University of Mindanao                                             Rorty’s pragmatic stance on human rights, on the other hand, conceives the human being as “a centreless web of historically conditioned beliefs and desires” and from this conception we follow Rorty’s assumption of the existence of the human rights culture. Historically conditioned by the Holocaust, the human rights culture expresses the common ‘beliefs and desires’ of some of us which is basically the respect for human rights. But beside this culture are other cultures that have their own beliefs and desires that do not respect human rights. People who belong in these cultures are the human rights violators. For Rorty, violators have to be integrated in the human rights culture and the efficient way to do it is through sentimentalism.