The Pirma and Epira

DIE HARD III / Herman Tiu Laurel / October 30, 2013 / Daily Tribune

I couldn't help it. Reminded of the countless past signature campaigns by the Pirma and Eprima and their "anti-pork signature campaign, this echoed in my mind: "Here we go again."

To be clear, Pirma and Epirma are not one and the same, the former is purist and revolves around former Chief Justice (CJ) Reynato Puno and the latter is the project of that "fraud" I wrote about in my previous column boasting of his solicitations from big business honchos for his own campaign. Also, there is no unity in either "Pirma" and "Epirma" ranks, both being divided by the question of holding the B.S. Aquino administration to account for its own gargantuan "pork" or not.

The core groups of both "Pirma" and "Epirma" are reportedly against naming the administration in the campaign and want only to focus on the "pork barrel 'system'"

and/or on those who have plunder cases filed against them, which in a political and propaganda sense would wittingly or unwittingly be useful in the Liberal Party administration's partisan propaganda and political agenda. More militant groups have split. The theory of both signature campaigns is that the removal of the "pork barrel system" will end or, at least, drastically eliminate corruption in government through cleansing of the legislature and make the "separation of powers" and the "checks-and-balance" work.

Their theory fails to take into account the fact that the real corruption is not just in the "pork barrel system" but in today's "monopoly-finance capitalist" system. The Web defines it, as I use it: "…the subordination of processes of production to the accumulation of money profits in a financial system. ..." Which is why unemployment, high prices and poverty/hunger, and oligarchy capture of government prevails here, in the US Europe and the World.
In the celebrated "The Great Financial Crisis (Causes and Consequences)" Fred Magdoff and John Bellamy Foster writes:

"At the center of the story is … monopoly-finance capital, that has generated a giant casino economy and promotes enormously exorbitant, exploitative and corrupt practices as well as violence abroad — all geared to finding and protecting profitable ways to invest the corporate capital surplus. Meanwhile, the real, pressing needs of most people in the society go unaddressed. The…way out of trap, … is the promotion of the security of the working class, and democratizing ownership of productive property —
Satan is not the politicians; it's the global finance-capitalists mafia. The politicians are but acolytes. The global mafia has local enforcers in the BSP, the Department of Finance and the local "bankster" capo-di-tutti-capos.

Their crowning achievement here is: the privatization of public utilities that is now milked for profits and not operated for the promotion of production of cheaper goods and services for democratic betterment. While the "Pirma" figurehead, former CJ Puno may have a clear understanding of that "democratic betterment" as in his term as Supreme Court (SC) chief justice, But there are numerous negative factors, such as being the "ponente" (writer of the verdict) of the "constructive resignation" that deposed a live, healthy, elected president of the Philippine republic — a decision few among legal luminaries can justify in the post-Gloria Arroyo era.

For the most dedicated Filipino legal scholars such as lawyer Alan Paguia, this "constructive resignation" is the height of constitutional transgression for a SC justice. Paguia also disdains Puno's known socializing with US Embassy officials such as former ambassador Kristy Kenney, playing regular tennis while with the SC. Puno also accepted a directorship in San Miguel Corp.

Former CJ Puno was sponsored by Jimmie Regalario of the KME (Kilusang Makabansang Ekonomiya) as the alternative leader in the post Gloria Arroyo scene in case the 1997 Manila Peninsula "people power" attempt succeeded. Elements of the Catholic Church supported that. But what's this fetish with the "superman," that we have to look for one "savior," as if historic events, shifts and changes are ever due to one, single person. All great changes, revolutions, are products of collective passion and efforts based on "the idea." That "idea" is what all post-Marcos changes lacked. The "transition" talk should first raise the idea of what should come after a change and during the "transition."

I propose that: the transition leadership be a State Council and chairmanship rotational (like Malaysia's sultans), major stakeholders are represented — the Catholic Church to militant Left, Philippine Chamber of Commerce to farmers' groups, the Armed Forces of the Philippines, etc. to secure their concerns. There must be a consensus for: cutting the price of power and re-nationalizing it.

The social morale will rise, the economy will revive, the oligarchy's power shall be tamed, "captive government" and politics can be sovereign again.

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