Education

Commentary : Moving forward

Edilberto de Jesus
Inquirer News Service

"THE TRUTH that I discovered from my beginnings as a neophyte politician in 1992, rising to become a veteran politician through the years, is this: over the years, our political system has degenerated to such an extent that it is very difficult to live within the system with hands totally untainted. That is the truth."

This declaration, made during her address to the nation in the wake of the controversy over the "Hello Garci" tapes, was arguably the truest statement in the speech. And the saddest, because most people have apparently accepted as truth that the contest for political office requires getting one's hands dirty. Hence, their reluctance to cast the first stone at the President, especially when many of the rabble-rousers calling for the stoning offered even more worthy targets.

But the statement also undermines the claim that talking to a Comelec official was simply a "lapse in judgment." A veteran politician would accept such acts as part of the price exacted by our political process. The lapse was in overlooking the precautions to avoid getting caught. Unfortunately, the biblical injunction against casting the first stone, which she alluded to in her speech, is not an edifying line of defense for an incumbent President.

However, whatever the reservations about the President, there is clearly a strong public consensus against any recourse to unconstitutional measures. Those who have called for her resignation appeal to her better nature to spare the country the pain of a protracted period of political uncertainty and the consequent risk of stunting its growth.

She has declined, as is her right, to take this course. The issue is clear: Can she continue to discharge effectively her responsibility to run the government and to drive needed reform measures? To the extent that she can do this to the satisfaction of the public, she maintains a measure of control over her political destiny.

The appeal, released by officials of the Department of Education to the media on July 15, to keep the department insulated from the current political controversies provides the President with a platform for implementing urgently needed reforms in the education sector, which she has said would be a priority during her second term.

The DepEd witnessed last September a seamless transition between one administration and the next, ensuring that the momentum for reform continued without disruption. If the President is interested in maintaining this momentum, she might surprise the public by appointing Undersecretary Juan Miguel Luz as the next education secretary. Luz has served the DepEd for almost three years and has been a key figure in developing the DepEd Roadmap, originating some of its most innovative components, such as the hugely successful Brigada Escuela Program.

Second, the President can present as a priority measure a bill liberating the teachers from the mandatory obligation to staff the electoral process. This inequitable and onerous burden exposes the teachers to political harassment and the DepEd to political pressures on the appointment, deployment and promotion of staff. It has also been on the list of urgent priority reforms in education for well over a decade. Surely, if the President can mobilize her allies in the legislature to defeat any impeachment move, she should be able to persuade them to pass a measure that its own Educational Commission had recommended in 1992.

Third, the President can respond to the call from various sectors to reform the electoral system, beginning with the overhaul of the Commission on Elections. She created the problems with her appointments, and she must take the responsibility of addressing those problems. Christian Monsod and Haydee Yorac proved that it was possible to clean up the Comelec and keep it clean. Is it within the President's power to convince her appointees to step down so that the process of renewal can be accelerated? Or probably not. They may find no reason to resign, since she herself would not.

Reforming the Comelec, including the automation of the electoral process, is clearly the most challenging task. But it should not be as difficult as persuading the Senate to cooperate in its own extermination by supporting the move to a parliamentary system. More important, it goes deeper toward the roots of the "degeneration" of the political system that she bemoaned in her statement. Our problem is less the form of government than the electoral system and the practices that it has spawned and that we have tolerated.

The world recognizes our claim to be a democracy, because we enjoy the right to vote for our leaders in regularly scheduled elections. But guns, goons and, increasingly, gold (which can buy guns and goons, as well as government officials, both civil and military) have figured regularly in all of our elections. A few years back, some newly elected legislators confessed to shock and embarrassment when they found out that the post-election conversation in the congressional lounge focused on the relative retail price for votes in their respective constituencies.

No one can hope to win an election now without building up a war chest to fund a campaign. It can take only one election to turn the youngest and most idealistic politician into an instant trapo, beholden to those who made his victory possible. Once elected, the trapos can use the perks of office and the position of rule-maker to free themselves from their earlier patrons and to lay the foundation for building political dynasties.

Most of the contending parties in the current political controversy ought to agree on reforming the Comelec and the completion of the automation project as priority steps. Even the snap elections demanded by some groups make sense only on the assumption of a Comelec that can be trusted to supervise an efficient electoral process.

Whether we have a presidential or a parliamentary system, as long as the electoral process and the determinants of electoral success remain the same, we will be entrusting power to the tainted hands of the same breed of trapos. The parliamentary system may be even worse, since, normally, only those who have gone through the electoral muck and won can qualify for executive positions.

The appointment of a credible leader for the DepEd, the release of the teachers from their bondage as election servants, the automation of the electoral process and the overhaul of the Comelec are necessary-although not sufficient-steps to reform the political system. Their attainment would send a clear signal of the President's commitment to a genuine reform agenda and her capacity to keep the country moving forward.

Edilberto C. de Jesus is a former education secretary.