Evil lingers still: Choose to do good

(We yield this space to the statement of church-based movement One Faith One Nation One Voice due to its timeliness. —  Ed.)

ONCE MORE, we remember and commemorate the EDSA 1 People Power Uprising. The People Power Uprising symbolizes a moment of decisive action to emerge from the tyranny of martial law. We must not only remember, but also draw important lessons from it, for as it is said, they who do not learn from history are bound to repeat it.

The last six years have been marked by rising authoritarianism and widespread and systematic killings and other human rights violations.  A so-called “war on drugs” has not only soaked the streets with the blood of the poor, but it has also over-filled detention centers.  A “war on dissent” has led to red-tagging, vilification campaigns, harassment, arbitrary detention, and extra-judicial killings.  

We are now once more at a moment to decide.  As we are moving towards the 2022 Election, a specter of historic evil haunts us. The son of the late dictator is leading in the surveys. A media rebranding has distanced him from the dark days of the Marcos martial law. Along with this, there are still some among us who root for tyrannical, authoritarian, “strong-man” rule.

The Philippine electorate must decide if we will return to the evil of tyranny or choose to turn away from it and do good.  

Let us not forget the thousands killed, tortured, and detained under the Marcos martial law. Even more, we would do well to remember that the Marcoses have at least P125 billion in “ill-gotten wealth” and P203 billion in unpaid estate taxes, that should be justly forfeited or paid to the Philippine treasury. A return of the Marcoses would be a travesty of democracy.

The Marcoses have stolen from and deprived due payments to public coffers.  They have robbed our people of significant opportunities. The threat of revived dictatorship, tyrannical rule, and unfettered crony capitalism looms, as evil lingers and tempts us still.

The social ills that the poor and toiling majority endure must be addressed. Alleviating poverty, increasing access to social and basic services, and creating space for good economic enterprises and pro-people development should be non-negotiable in the platform of any candidates expecting our votes. There must be clear space for the good in us to be encouraged to flourish. And we must flourish toward a common good.

Choose to do good. Defend life and human dignity. 

Never again to dictatorship!