Manglapus' wayward boys

DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
9/20/2006



I stepped into college activism in the late 60’s when the world was exploding in global debate about the Vietnam War, the Cold War, and in the Philippines about the need for social change and justice. The “trapo” term had not yet been invented then but traditional politics was already the bane, Manglapus and the Christian Social Movement seemed to been an alternative. I was sucked into its orbit along with other who seemed idealistic, including the likes of Camilo Sabio and Bobby Brillante, two now associated with the worse of today’s trapos – Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

I find it hard to imagine how Camilo Sabio can twist the age-old and fundamental principle of accountability in a republican government into one of a defense of Gloria’s executive unaccountability and refusing to face inquiries about the conduct of his office. When did public officials acquire the right to refuse to face pubic scrutiny and deny the public the right to information over public affairs and activities as conducted by its public officials? What has happened to the Camilo Sabio who seemed so humble and principled throughout the decades that we thought of him as a fellow traveler in the “movement”.

As the controversy over his refusal to acknowledge his duty to face public inquiry about his office rages I was surprised to find out from other press reports about skeletons in his closet. It seems that some of his own relations, in laws in particular, have presented petitions to have his disbarred as a lawyer for questionable actions pertaining to family properties. Behind those benign smiling eyes and soft vocal tones it seems lies a murkier creature we never knew. These new discoveries aobut “Mil” Sabio indeed hurts my sanguine view of the CSM and other activist colleagues that I once considered “family”.

With Bobby Brillante I am less surprised. He got appointed to the Makati city government in the wave of other Edsa I carpetbaggers under the Cory Aquino “revolutionary” government’s mass ouster of elected government officials. Since then he has become obsessed with returning to power as Makati mayor. The dubious impression I have of him began with his peddling, right after Edsa I, of some of items here from his stint in the U.S. (seemingly from his collaboration as a “steak commando) such as luxury cars. “Is this going to be a responsible public official?” I wondered then.

What has happened to these people who were identified with Manglapus’ new political alternative then? They have become the very symbols of the corrupt image of political appointees and trapos they once agitated against. This is the rot in the system that has so infected the basket of what could have been good bananas and now rotting bananas, thanks to Gloria their rot has surfaced and we will no longer be fooled. But they are not the worse of the lot, there’s the epitome of the bad banana which once posed as the good banana, now sitting at the right hand of Gloria – Norberto Gonzales.

I conclude that Manglapus’ Christian Social Movement (CSM) provided a very weak basis for the training and development of its followers. Likewise, the Catholic church’s efforts at political action because the CSM was its lay political extension which was also supported by other efforts like the late Fr. Jose C. Blanco and Jesuit Archie (so-called because he was always envisioned by classmates and friends to be a future archbishop) Integan’s student organizing which ironically has produced ogres like Bert Gonzles as they aged in politics.

The weakness in the training of the CSM and its extensions, including the Young Christian Socialists of the Philippines (YCSP), I would trace to the bourgeois culture of the movement. The good “elite” life as observed in the lifestyle of the Manglapus, the traditional Catholic hierarchy and the social class they catered to seeped into the dreams and aspirations of its followers and supporters, especially its YCSP youth. I have written this reaction to this part of my past and the disillusionment to bury, once and for all, the myths engendered by Manglapus’ so-called alternative politics.

Manglapus’ and the Christian ideals expressed in the use of the term “social” in its ideological posture had never been real. “Sosyal” may be closer to the reality of this movement, and its followers eventually show their true colors in their easy susceptibility to the temptations of personal power and glory, of elitistism and social chauvinism. They have turned out not to be “social” creatures and leaders but personalistic and corrupted for power and its trappings. Goodbye to the idea that Manglapus inspired values change in Filipinos: Sabio, Brillante and Bert Gonzales are the best evidence of his failure.

We who are still searching for the true “social” Filipinos and leaders truly dedicated to social equality and democracy must continue our search and evolution. These genuinely “social” Filipinos and leaders will live for all and not just for the self - and root its vision in real social-democractic political economy. It is not difficult to understand or visualize, just look at the European social welfare states and particularly French society where popular welfare supercedes corporate profits. Cradle to grave care is afforded the people, and public officials must be ever ready to account before the people.

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