The FPJ Bomb in a Populist Lamp

[tsikot]

any comments anyone?

The FPJ Bomb in a Populist Lamp

By Joel Rocamora
February 9, 2004

Rizal’s Simoun would be happy. Whether or
not FPJ wins the presidency in May, he is a
harbinger of disaster. FPJ is Simoun’s bomb
hidden in a populist lamp. If he is disqualified
by the Supreme Court, his supporters will attempt
to bring down the government. If he loses in May
and there is even the slightest doubt about his
defeat, destabilization attempts will intensify.
If he wins, destabilization will follow in the
wake of an economic collapse and an orgy of
revenge by displaced Marcos and Erap forces.

Disaster can be averted only if enough of
the forces for political and economic reform, -
if those who mobilized for EDSA 1 and EDSA 2
understand what is happening and mobilize to
prevent an FPJ victory. FPJ has to be ‘defeated’
before the May elections. This can be done only
if the political meaning of the FPJ candidacy is
exposed. FPJ can be ‘defeated’ before May 2004
only if we can break the debilitating hesitations
which have effectively tied our hands behind our
backs.

FPJ and the Populist Temptation

Why have we hesitated to denounce the FPJ
candidacy? One reason is that we perceive FPJ as
a decent person and we do not want to attack him
personally. Of course, it does not make sense to
attack him personally. That would be unfair. And
it would only endear him even more to his movie
fans. But ‘Da King’ has now become ‘Da
Candidate’. It is what FPJ represents as a
candidate that has to be exposed. To do that we
have to begin with ‘Da King’, with the cinematic
myth which is FPJ’s main vehicle to the
presidency.

FPJ will win if people believe he will
win. More than anything else that is the campaign
line of the KNP. Sumama na kayo dahil seguradong
panalo ang kandidato namin. Get on the bandwagon.
Our candidate is a sure winner. This is based on
nothing more than the assumption that FPJ’s movie
popularity is automatically translatable to
votes. But there is no evidence that this is true
because FPJ has never run for anything. The only
way to test this before the May election is to
compare him to other movie personalities, most
importantly his bosom buddy Erap.

Because of the way Pilipino movies are
made, the more popular actors get to shape their
roles according to how they see themselves. Reel
colonizes real. Joseph Estrada becomes Erap, FPJ
‘Da King’. Erap is the upper class man/boy who
enjoys the company of kanto boys who love to
drink, gamble, fool around with women. When Erap
and his barkada see that oppression is too much,
they say “Tama na, sobra na” and they fight.
Erap fights together with his lower class
friends. He becomes not just their leader. He is
their intermediary, a bridge across the class
divide.

People equate FPJ and Erap. If Erap won
elections because of his movie popularity, FPJ
will also win. But FPJ’s movie persona is
actually radically different from that of Erap.
Erap is quintessentially ‘human’; flawed but
willing to admit, even boast about his flaws. So
it is easy for his fans to identify with him. The
FPJ of his movies is radically different. The
Aguila, the Panday is ‘supra-human’. He is a
demigod, an archetype. He appears from out of
nowhere, returns just as suddenly to god knows
where . When he fights, he fights alone. People
watch, but from hastily closed windows. I cannot
imagine Erap agreeing to becoming a ‘savior’. FPJ
was reportedly persuaded to run for president by
politicians because they convinced him that he is
the only one who can ‘save’ the country.

FPJ’s movie popularity apparently can be
converted to votes if the surveys are to be
believed. The question is whether the demigod FPJ
image can stand the rough and tumble of campaign
politics. It appears that FPJ understands this
problem. That’s why he has so far chosen not to
say very much. Demigods do not have platforms.
They come from heaven with tablets of stone. The
platform issue can probably be papered over by
his advisers once they are identified. Besides
people do not pay attention to platforms in
elections for the simple reason that voters know
platforms are almost never followed .

What could be damaging are issues which
show the santo has feet of clay. FPJ movies have
no ***. The non-issue of FPJ’s out-of-wedlock
son, and reportedly two other daughters might be
more damaging than his not knowing how the peso
loses its value. Indian gods had lots of it, but
can demigods in our Christian tradition have ***?
Whether FPJ likes it or not, his personal life
and habits will be trotted out for all to see.
There is no such thing as a private, shy
presidential candidate. Erap was not vulnerable
to this kind of attack because he would just
laugh them off. If FPJ gets obviously impatient,
this will work against him.

FPJ and His Handlers

The FPJ camp would have us believe he is
his own man. They are even circulating stories
about his having chewed out Tito Sotto for making
public statements without clearing it with him.
This is the KNP’s response to FPJ’s gaping
vulnerability: the company he keeps. The KNP’s
Senate slate says it all. It is made up of
recycled Marcos cronies from Enrile, to Maceda,
to Tatad. An attempt to distance FPJ from Erap
backfired when FPJ ended up getting Jinggoy
Estrada on his Senate slate after all. Even Jamby
Madrigal and Boots Anson Roa have Marcos and Erap
in their past.

Let’s say it like it is. An FPJ
presidency would restore the people behind both
Marcos and Estrada. Remember? These are the two
presidents we kicked out in EDSA 1 and EDSA 2. In
all of our history, these two presidents are the
most corrupt. Marcos still holds the record for
human rights violations. There is a chance that
after 18 years there will be a judicial
accounting for Marcos era crimes. Erap will
likely be convicted of gross corruption. All this
will be reversed if FPJ becomes president. What
little we have achieved in our fight against
human rights violations and corruption will be
wiped out in an FPJ presidency.

We hesitate to use FPJ’s lack of
education and experience against him. We feel
that doing so would somehow betray our rural and
urban poor because they too do not have the
education and experience. But they are not the
ones running for president. They are not the ones
who will have to preside over cabinet meetings to
discuss monetary policy. It is obvious that FPJ
does not understand even the basics of economic
and other policies he will have to deal with as
president. What will happen then is that the
Marcos and Erap cronies who have decades of
experience manipulating the government for their
own ends will run rings around FPJ. An FPJ
administration will be an Enrile-Maceda
administration.

There is yet another aspect to a possible
FPJ victory that we should worry about. When it
was already clear that Erap would win in 1998,
business was willing to factor him into their
business plans. This time it is already clear
that an FPJ victory will result in a severe
economic downturn. Media, the academe, and church
groups will subject a new FPJ administration to
immediate criticism. This will create conditions
that will tempt groups who are just waiting for
an excuse to seize power through extra
constitutional means. How will a president who
thinks of himself as a ‘savior’ react? ‘Saviors’
make poor democrats. They are easily tempted by
authoritarian solutions.

Crisis and Reform

There are groups on the Left who are
negotiating coalitions, varieties of
accommodation with the KNP. They use waiting for
FPJ to tell them what his platform is as a cover
for discreet negotiations. Other more well
meaning individuals are helping to craft such a
platform. But they all know that it is a rare
politician who pays attention to platforms. The
experience in the Erap administration does not
exactly encourage thinking that progressives will
be able to overcome the well honed skills of the
Enriles and Macedas to secure reform.

We are indeed deep in crisis. Our
electoral system and form of government has lost
its capacity to elect our leaders, to mobilize
the requirements of governance and political
reform in the coming years. I challenge those who
support FPJ to explain how FPJ will lead us
towards solutions to these severe problems.
Whoever the real FPJ is, it is clear that he is
being used by Marcos and Erap cronies to get back
into power. Electing yet another movie actor,
especially one without even the experience of his
friend Erap, is not a solution. A President FPJ
will push our crumbling political system over the
brink.

Whoever we support for president, I
believe that we should work together to prevent
the looming disaster of an FPJ presidency. We
have worked to make Marcos and Erap accountable
for human rights violations and for corruption.
We need to continue this work by preventing an
FPJ presidency. We have worked for economic and
political reform. We can only have these reforms
in a future without a President FPJ. Decisions on
who to support can be a matter of personal and
organizational decisions. But preventing an FPJ
presidency is work we have to do for our country,
and for our people.

[TJMaxx]

Notice how cheap looking FPJ's campaign posters are?
I have this impression na mukhang walang pera masyado
si FPJ para sa campaign...
Galing ng strategy to keep FPJ in suspense about the decision
regarding his citizenship. The more the issue drags on, the longer
campaign financiers would adopt a wait-and-see attitude before
they give any money to FPJ.
But from the looks of it, mukhang disqualified nga talaga si FPJ.
Kaya mukhang natuyuan ng pera this early on ang kampo ni FPJ.
I see the hand of the CIA on this.
Buti nga sa iyo, FPJ. Ang engot-engot mo kasi eh...

[RedHorse]

right on the money TJMAXX..

sinamahan pa ng statement ni Loren sa isang newspaper, which she later denied -- campaign funds are in short supply against what was expected

[woulfe27]

ang problema konti lang sa masa nakabasa ng el filibusterismo ni rizal, tsk tsk. dapat talaga me kasamang IQ test yung voters registration

[garyq]

Malungkot talaga nangyayari sa bansa natin pero na-a-alala ko yung isang taong nagsabi " We only get the leaders we deserve." Maybe, just maybe, if we all change for the better as a people we will also get the leaders that we truly deserve. My 2cents.

[empy]

i wholeheartedly agree with the Marcos/Erap, edsa 1/2 comments.

why the f--- do we keep having these people powers, only to elect the same type of person later on?! it's the same people behind fpj as there were behind erap and marcos.

[FrankDrebin]

Masakit mang tanggapin eh mukhang mananalo si FPJ. Marami kasing bobo sa Pinas.

Sana may gumawa ng paraan.

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”
-Edmund Burke

[O!lman]

Hindi lang Marcos /Erap ang nasa likod ng ni FPJ....Pati yung mga dati nating mga anti-Marcos na rin gaya ni PImentel, Binay, serge Osmena at dancing queen Oreta. Wala na yung sinasabi nilang prinsipyo.... pera-pera na talaga ang politics sa atin.........

ANGAT PINOY na naman tayo nito........................ Tanga Pinoy pala!