Why The American Elections Matters to Me (and Why It Should for Every Filipino)
Imagine this: your country, a bastion of democracy formerly led by a traditional establishment bureaucrat, out of frustration elects a populist, unconventional president who has won through feeding mass panic, vilifying vulnerable parts of society, preying on deeply rooted social prejudice, and developing a cult of personality. Throughout his administration, this said leader has dismantled democratic institutions, has strengthened ties with foreign dictatorships, has prioritized the armed forces despite social unrest, has protected (and is protected by) big business, and has refused to denounce allies that has been repeatedly shown to be corrupt and incompetent. Their most defining legacy, however, will be a bloody campaign that has led to the deaths of tens of thousands of their own constituents and supporters, and yet despite all of these still gets the approval of an overwhelming part, if not a majority, of the populace.
Throughout the last four years, the United States and the Philippines has been through very dark paths. In many respects, these paths are quite distinct from each other. The United States has been deeply hostile with China while we have been cozying up to it, we were told to be scared of drug cartels coming from the Americas, while Americans were told to be scared of immigrants including those coming from the Philippines, and we have been fighting jihadists and Islamic State insurgents while American troops have been pulling away from them.
But as I have shown earlier, the core tenets of these movements have been strikingly parallel and similar: an authoritarian government that has presented itself as the savior of the masses has eroded democracy and legitimized the worst parts of our society, all for personal gain.
This is why this year’s US election is known to be a battle for the soul of a nation, and its repercussions might sound the loudest here in the Philippines.
Renewing Alliances
After the Second World War, the United States has always known two footholds in Asia: the Japan-SoKor axis and the Philippines. Throughout the late twentieth century, the United States has been the Philippine’s staunch ally and protector, establishing the Clark Air Base and Subic Bay Naval Base to preserve its military influence in the region, and propping up regimes in the democratic guises to stifle any communist movements. Until today, the United States continues to be the Philippines’ number one trading partner, receiving 16.3% of the country’s exports.
Under the Duterte administration, however, the country began to head towards a divergent path. During his campaign run, Duterte has always been critical of American conduct of the country, which is a real concern for many Filipinos. Neocolonialism and US-influence on national interests have always been prevalent on Philippine politics, and Duterte’s rhetoric seemed to be the best remedy towards that: it’s time we look towards the largest American rivals, China and Russia, and try to balance our interests between them.
The US-Philippine divide was not helped by the election of Donald Trump, who never had foreign relations and diplomacy as his strong suit. This has allowed the Philippine government to slowly inch its way towards dishonoring its human rights obligations without much repercussions. Our closer ties with China has also led to us ignoring the historic decision of the International Tribunal and allowed continued Chinese encroachment on our shores.
Under a Democrat administration, things will be different. Joe Biden has promised to shore up traditional United States alliances that Trump has ignored, and that includes the Philippines. With the massive resource potential and geographical importance of the Spratly Islands and with Chinese-American tensions at its highest in years, the United States could rebuild ties with the country and push the government to enforce its tribunal ruling. This, however, might push us even closer to a military engagement, and with peace being such a fragile thing, only time will tell what the fate of the Spratly Islands may be.
A Harder Foot Down
Despite maintaining a veneer of innocence and denying all allegations, it’s no secret to Filipinos: the government has, at the very least, empowered a very bloody war on drugs that has led to the deaths of hundreds and thousands of Filipinos. Several investigations by various nonpartisan organizations has discovered that many of these deaths have been state sanctioned, and stories of police quotas for drug arrests and killings are not uncommon. For the first half of the Duterte administration, the police has enjoyed relative impunity while suspected drug addicts were gunned down without due process.
The United States, however, never had a proper response, if any, to all these killings and other human rights violations that happened throughout the past four years. Aside from a few statements from Democratic senators, the American administration has been virtually silent on the subject, and for an obvious reason: the Trump administrations’ main foreign policy is to sell more guns to other countries.
Despite his various claims of diversifying our local alliances, the United States continues to be the Philippines’ main military ally and source of military equipment. Just last April, the United States has pushed the sale of $1.5 billion worth of equipment, which included six Apache attack helicopters. In Trump’s business-oriented mindset, as long as the Philippines continues to pay to rapidly modernize its military, the United States and its massive industrial complex will keep its qualms to itself and continue to be its willing ally.
A Democratic administration, however, would seem to be more critical of its deals with other foreign nations. With some US senators already critical with this administration and with the surge of progressive movement in America, the continued sale of firearms to a democratic country that doesn’t protect human rights will not go unnoticed. Our heavy reliance on US military donations and sales may provide some leverage to allow international organizations to conduct further investigations in the country, but with local officials already twisting US concerns to further the anti-American rhetoric, such a move might just backfire.
What It Represents
Now on a more personal note and why I really wanted to write this. What has happened on the United States has happened to this country. In four years, we have both seen how our governments have beaten and detained protesters, meddled with our Supreme Courts, continued to protect allies who has been suspected of corruption, and unquestioningly supported the police despite heavy evidence of misconduct. We have both seen our traditionally democratic countries succumb to dictatorial interests, both locally and internationally, and we have both seen business moguls prioritize their interests over us. We have both suffered heavily for our official’s irreverence to science, and we both continue to experience a massive COVID-19 outbreak despite neighboring countries and traditional allies containing theirs.
And now, one of us has the chance to change that.
In a time of democracies backsliding worldwide and totalitarian government gaining ever more power, America has the chance to show the world that democracy, rational thought, and the belief that each and every individual have the right to live free will always triumph over hate, tyranny and misinformation. That diplomacy will triumph over violence. That our compassion for the things that we share will triumph over our fear of those that we don’t. That even in our darkest hours, there will always be hope that we will see the light of day.
As a Filipino, I am fearful for our country. I am afraid of the suppression of free speech, where children and my children’s children can be subpoenaed and killed with public indifference for speaking what they believe in. I am afraid that farmers will continue to suffer for the interests of big business. I am afraid that corruption will never cease in this country because everyone will look only for themselves. I am scared that scientific truth will be rendered invalid by partisanship.
I am scared because despite all this, in our self absorbed lives, we continue to deny that something is wrong, and we will continue to live our lives exploited in the hopes that we will get to exploit others someday. As a Filipino, I am afraid that we will succumb to our most self-centered motivations and desires, and not care about the most vulnerable members of society.
Now, America has the chance to prove to us that we can have overcome our vilest instincts and rise to become better, and to prove to us that we as a species can band together and overcome the most evil aspects of our humanity. In the darkest of our nights, I hope that America shall choose to see the light of day, for to me that means that someday, we shall see it too.
